A rare gem in career options

[yemmy_ma]

Partying, excitement, lots of happy hours are the adjectives that readily comes to mind thinking of those period when we are in the end of high school or advanced college days just about that very critical period of making a decision that will most probably be the driving compass of our future as far as career is concerned. Have you ever looked back at those times when you were young, and were asked what your dream career would be? I bet most teenagers or aspiring undergraduates alike would without hesitation choose from pool of career lines ranging from Lawyers, doctors, geologists, geographers, accountants, business, nurses, actors and musicians, engineering fields and so on and believe me yours truly I did too.

Be it as it may, these fields are what we all grew up to know and love because, we see them often in our day to day activities e.g. When we go to the hospital, we see doctors and nurses, we see actors and artistes on screen, we hear a lot about lawyers because of increased crime and disputes eating deep in our society. Give it to these people; they have everything to be desired of in their respective endeavours. The reputation, challenges, enjoyment, the money and so on. But we never imagined what the driving force of these day to day activities is. We never thought about how doctors get the equipments they use, how engineers get their raw materials, how we send letters from U.K. to the U.S., how the raw materials we use in production are purchased without hitches, how we love those packages of those Ralph colgne and so on.

Maybe you are thinking now what I am about leaving thoughts of, maybe you are about mentioning these words, maybe its Logistics, maybe its supply chain. Yes, I thought about that but gone a little further in thought. I remember when I was studying Real Estate Management, I actually liked studying it because it went well with me, but I never liked the work environment. I really cannot explain the reason for the dislike, maybe because of my orientation, maybe because of my background, but that is a story for another day. I actually studied that with a bit of training taking 3 years of my time, no regrets though, it wasn't just me. But this is not about me, its about the gem.

Now to you, has it ever occurred to you in thought why many youths have not chosen to become supply chain or Logistics persons? Whatever your thoughts are on this, I think the answer that best fits into this is unawareness. More about personal things again, I remembered when I got admission to study Logistics, I never had the faintest knowledge of what it was. The best I could think of was a slang with friends in the neighbourhood when we try to do something unusual to make money out of it and we say we got Logistics money. Meaning to us that we got money for using our brains, funny. Nobody around me actually knew what Logistics is as a field, my orientation changed on that day, my first day in Logistics class. But a while before my new found understanding of Logistics, In a class of about 30 new students, when we were asked to say what we knew about Logistics, nobody was able to give a precise meaning or even had more knowledge than I had about the subject (all null). But on introduction of Logistics to us by a teacher in our first welcome class, I realized this is what I have always wished for.

Almost getting to my point, what course will ever train you to be the best in 3 or 4 different discipline at a time and becoming the best at it all? Have you ever had a career that gives you confidence of fitting in anywhere in industries? Even in hard time or recession high times? Have you ever loved what you are doing because it gives you a lot of challenges? Have you ever had fun making decisions that can either lift or break your job? have you ever had fun taking risks?

And here it is, Logistics and supply chain is that course that gives you more than 3 at a time. No doubt, it is becoming increasingly popular than a decade ago and even becoming more important in our personal lives and business successes. To all those who are professionals in the field already, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on what supply chain has given to you. Would you have opted for another field?

To the people of supply chain Forums, this might look a little bit different from what you have always seen in the article competition forum, but its just my way of trying to do something different, even though it might seem elementary, I have no iota of doubt that there is something to think about from there. And its not just a write up for the competition, but more of an interactive article as you can see from the last paragraph. But the bottom line is, I tried to examine what has made logistics unpopular amongst youths. I am very sure there are other reasons too; please feel free to share about what you think.

[Starbucks Junkie]

Very thought provoking article, well done..

As for my own journey, I sort of discovered Supply Chain by accident, was working as a Production Supervisor for a Printers, and was asked by my line manager to procure a new range of Inks for the process, this task bought more questions than answers for me, questions that I sought answers too, this enabled me to procure not only cheaper inks but better quality inks also, needless to say after that when anything needed to be sourced guess who got the job...
I found that I had a flair and a liking for it, so much that when I left that role I sought a Buying role, and the rest as they say is history..

SJ

[TopLink]

Well done, very interesting.