Procurement Consulting Career Advice at Temple University

For years, the Supply Chain and Procurement worlds have been closely managed by baby boomers.  As young professionals and students are well aware, more and more of these seasoned experts will eventually exit the work force and create many employment opportunities for the next generation of specialists.  These new professionals will assume the same positions but bring with them fresh ideas and strategies to improve businesses.  A renewed outlook on strategies will include the same cost savings pursuits of the past, but will now consider overall growth as well.  Unfortunately, the demand for skilled professionals in Procurement is greater than the supply, resulting in a talent shortage, which makes for favorable conditions for ambitious young talent beginning to enter the workforce. 

Procurement offers an array of career opportunities including consulting. For many emerging professionals, the start of a career in procurement begins with the position as a project analyst. Simply put, an analyst collects and analyzes client data to identify savings and process improvement opportunities, interfaces with suppliers, and implements new operations and strategies to achieve the desired end state for the client. Whether supporting a company’s cost-reduction goals or enhancing supplier relationships to drive market expansion, each initiative allows procurement consultants to develop a wide variety of strong and transferable skills – gaining an enhanced understanding of all the decisions and supporting operations that make a business functional.  At Source One, analysts have access to a wide range of industries, products, services, spend categories, and more.

On Friday March 11^th, Source One Management Services will be discussing potential career opportunities in supply management consulting with students from Temple University’s Economics Society.  The Temple Economics Society focuses on providing students a better understanding of Economics in business and a forum for discussing areas of interests and future career exploration.  Source One’s Leigh Merz, a Telecommunications Cost Reduction and Administrative Expense Strategic Sourcing expert, will share with how the Procurement function supports overarching business goals. 

“Our goal is to teach students about the career paths in procurement consulting, including those at Source One, in hopes of inspiring them to pursue these important and in-demand positions.” said Merz about the coming event.