Your Logistics Career
So, you ended up with a career in logistics? Ever wonder how that happened? I sure do. I still remember my first day on the job and wondering if I would EVER learn all of the industry acronyms. I carried around The Dictionary of International Trade until it fell apart and still didn’t manage to feel like I knew it all. I still don’t know it all. Please don’t tell Abby I said that!
Today’s supply chain and logistics careers are actually intentional and kids are going away to school choosing these programs and careers. Most of us, fell in to it quite by accident.
Currently, there are hundreds of colleges in the US which offer degrees in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. In fact, it is one of the fastest growing careers in the world today.
According to a survey by SCM World’s Future of Supply Chain report 2015, the top universities for supply chain programs are:
Michigan State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Penn State
Harvard Business School (Surprising, right?)
Arizona State
Now that these programs are more readily available and are certainly a growing college curriculum focus, if you are looking for a career in logistics and supply chain a degree in our field is becoming more and more important. People who just “fall in to logistics” are becoming pretty rare.
If you are a hiring manager, please make every effort to implement an internship program where you can give current students an opportunity for hands on, out of the classroom, real life learning. Students are having a hard time finding logistics and supply chain focused internships and are accepting general business internships to meet requirements for graduation. When that happens, it drastically effects whether the students will ever actually come to work in logistics and supply chain. If they do well during their internship, most students are given offers pending graduation.
When it comes time to making a hire, focus on candidates who have an industry focused degree and as a second option there are quite a few industry certifications when added to a general business education which bring value to your organization.
You can read more about industry certifications in my blog post, Industry Certifications and Your Supply Chain Recruiter.