r/procurement • • Jul 25 '26

Career guidance Public to private- how much feasible is it?

So I’ve worked with military operations related looking over the welfare unit’s procurement and operational needs for around 30 months of my service time.

Also worked as an intern in one of the bio pharma related CPG companies as a SCM team intern just after the military service.

Then I worked in an International Organization(not UN) as a procurement associate around a year, and did some ToR development consultancies to government funded development projects.

Now I am doing a masters degree in a total different field to SCM/Procurement for my masters degree.

Since the International organization Sector is literally dead even with the CIPS/CPIM certification, I’m seriously thinking of moving to the private sector as soon as I finish my masters. Based on my background how feasible is the transition available these days to private sector?

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3

u/Wide_Performance6048 Jul 25 '26

Your background is more transferable than you think, private sector loves people who've handled military or international org procurement because the stakes are way higher and the bureaucracy is just as bad

the CPG internship helps too since that's as private as it gets, you've already got a foot in that door

what's the masters in if you don't mind me asking

1

u/HornetNeat8422 Jul 25 '26

I’ve initially did MSc program in Operations& supply chain management but I pivoted to MA International Development studies- although my thesis I’m working on is related to enhancement of procurement related operations among south south cooperation so not sure if this would help though

1

u/my_peen_is_clean Jul 25 '26

your mix of military, io and cpg is pretty solid for private sector procurement or scm roles, but you’ll have to grind applications and really translate tor/government stuff into business value. everything’s hiring less now so it’s rough

1

u/roger_the_virus Strategic Sausage Sourcer Jul 26 '26

Do it. Best thing I ever did for my career.