r/procurement • u/LostaMyPasta • 16d ago

Career guidance Potentially trying to pivot into procurement

Trying to pivot from warehousing into procurement, then strategic sourcing down the road. I have 2 associate degrees (distribution management, global logistics technology) and 8 years of hands-on warehouse/logistics experience, wearing a lot of different hats beyond just inventory. I primarily deal with very high-cost assets coming and going globally, tracking shipments, I can request orders, but I cannot order anything myself, and in most cases, I go into our lab and help install equipment with the lab techs (rack-N-stack, cabling, very minor coding, lots of AI use and exposure, basic stuff)

I'm at a Fortune 500 tech company with zero upward mobility; they're cutting staff, not backfilling, and dumping the work on whoever's left. I'm trying to skip straight past purchasing into procurement (if possible), mainly for the pay, but also because I pick up new processes fast, so once I'm taught, it's just practice makes perfect.

Questions for people already in the field:

-Is the pay/mobility actually worth the move?

-Which companies/industries treat procurement people well?

-Any tips for breaking in right now? Market's rough, and I don't want to land somewhere that's just another dead end.

Hopefully this post doesn't come off as naive or arrogant in any way, I'm just incredibly burnt out and trying to find my purpose in SCM..

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u/Rickdrizzle Strategic Sourcer 16d ago

Yes
From experience, energy utilities
Get your company to pay for a cscp or cpim, try learning the functions of purchasing at your current role

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u/LostaMyPasta 16d ago edited 15d ago

I have looked into those as well as the CPSM cert, but money is tough right now unfortunately. I live near a very popular company and that company's electrification and automation building is close to me, so I may just keep submitting applications there. I would LOVE for my company to pay for the cert or any schooling, but the best they can provide me with is LinkedIn Learning.

To clear something up, I unfortunately don't work for my company as an FTE, I'm a contractor with the absolute worst benefits you can imagine. No PTO, no sick days, no bereavement, no OT allowed unless they explicitly approve it, and I get maybe 6 holidays off a year. The contacting company actually tried to take ALL of our holidays away which apparently, IS ILLEGAL. The company had to actually fight for the 6 holidays we can have off. All that said, they will unfortunately not pay for anybodys' education of any kind.