Special Report – Securing Your Next Procurement Role.

Sourcing Your Next Procurement Role

Navigating the job market can be a daunting experience, especially when you’re unhappy in your current role, unemployed, or seeking new challenges. The journey from deciding to make a change to securing a new role is fraught with obstacles. From drafting your resume to sourcing opportunities, engaging with recruiters (if fortunate enough), and attending interviews, each step presents unique challenges. Moreover, balancing this process with the demands of daily life—such as managing a household or parenting—only adds to the complexity.

Amidst ongoing global economic volatility, marked by persistent threats of war, inflation, fluctuating interest rates, and continued supply chain disruptions, many procurement professionals find themselves unemployed or at risk as companies restructure in response to cost pressures. As businesses face contracting revenues, they merge P&L statements to capitalize on economies of scale. In lean times, employees are often viewed as liabilities rather than assets in accounting terms, underscoring the importance of strategically positioning oneself in the job market.

Given that each organization faces unique challenges based on factors such as market, scale, maturity, supply chain, and liquidity, it is important to recognize that, despite the financial view of employees as liabilities, individuals can still be valuable assets under the right circumstances. The key lies in identifying when labor transitions from a liability to a vital asset. This understanding is central to a recruiter’s role in aligning knowledge, circumstances, and opportunities to deliver value.

Targeting the Right Role

Securing the right role is a pivotal step in your job search. If you misalign your target position, you may find yourself facing prolonged unemployment or stagnation in your current role. Before engaging with the job market, it is critical to define the type of role you are seeking. Are you looking for a promotion—from category manager to portfolio manager or vendor manager to category manager? Or are you exploring a shift in responsibilities, such as changing your area of spend from marketing to packaging? Perhaps you’re considering a complete career shift, such as moving from procurement to logistics or project management.

Many candidates seek leadership experience or more strategic positions. However, these aspirations may present a challenge if you lack the relevant experience for the role. While it is not to say that these goals are unachievable, it is important to acknowledge that your motivations might not align with the requirements outlined in a potential employer’s position description. The role’s expectations may not align with your current skill set, creating a risk for both you and the hiring organization.

If you are seeking a position where you lack direct experience, internal mobility is often the best route to progression. When considering external opportunities, it may be more effective to pitch yourself directly to the business, bypassing recruitment firms. Recruitment firms tend to focus on candidates who closely match the job description, as they are paid to reconcile the resume with the job brief.

This leads to an important question: If you are capable of handling a role with increased responsibility or a shift in focus, why hasn’t your current employer offered you such an opportunity? If the reasons involve a lack of available positions, inadequate skill sets, or compensation issues, seeking external opportunities makes sense. However, if your colleagues have been promoted or the company has recruited externally, it may indicate that you are not yet seen as ready by those who know you best. A self-assessment is crucial before pursuing roles that may be above your current level.

Understanding Your Skills

Procurement encompasses a broad range of skills, including legal, analytics, financial, sales, marketing, negotiation, process, systems, technology, and stakeholder management. Many businesses develop their own internal labels for these skills, which may not align with industry standards. This can result in resumes that lack consistency, blurring career progression or overcomplicating experience histories. These discrepancies can be further exacerbated when you verbally present your experience or when technology filters or recruiters reject the information.

For example, the role once known as “Vendor Management” has evolved into multiple variations, such as “Contract Management,” “Category Management,” “Supplier Management,” “Business Partner,” and “Commercial Manager.” This proliferation of terms can lead to confusion, both in drafting resumes and in reading job descriptions.

A term I’ve observed recently is “Procurement Enablement,” which appears to be a catch-all label for functions like Framework Development, Policy, Governance, and Systems. While it is an improvement over previous terminology, it still adds complexity when trying to ensure that your experience is communicated clearly.

To avoid such issues, I recommend working with a recruiter who can help you navigate these various labels and ensure that your skills and achievements are communicated effectively. Additionally, detailing your skills, outcomes, and solutions will help clarify your capabilities and reduce the risk of misunderstandings.

Leveraging Your Achievements for Impact

While not all interviews will require you to articulate every achievement, it’s crucial that you have them readily available—especially when preparing your resume. In recent years, interviews have often focused on culture rather than technical skills, driven by the rapid growth and expansion of non-core operations. However, with interest rates expected to stabilize at 6% over the next five years, which will increase capital structuring costs and reduce consumer cash flow, technical expertise will likely gain more prominence in hiring decisions.

When discussing your achievements, it is important to distinguish between what is expected as part of the role and what goes beyond the typical scope. For example, many candidates highlight stakeholder management or cost savings of 10% in a new category, but these may be considered baseline expectations rather than standout accomplishments.

An achievement, in the context of a job search, is not simply personal recognition; it is a result that delivers significant value beyond what is expected in the role. Strong narratives that provide context and highlight the problem, solution, and outcome structure are essential to making a lasting impact.

Summary

To achieve the best results in your job search, alignment is key. Your resume, the recruiter’s pitch, and your interview presentation should all reflect a coherent narrative. When these elements are synchronized, you maximize your chances of success. Often, alignment can outweigh having the perfect skills or experience, as expectations play a crucial role.

Consider the analogy of a McDonald’s meal. While it may not be a fine dining experience, it consistently meets expectations. Similarly, when your resume, recruiter’s pitch, and interview performance align, you provide a clear and consistent message, boosting your chances of success.

It’s essential to ensure that your resume accurately reflects your skills and capabilities in a market-friendly way, with the recruiter’s understanding of procurement and your abilities guiding the process. The key is to ensure you are neither over-sold, under-sold, nor left unnoticed in the competitive market.