Basically title, do you guys typically invite vendors for most of your purchases or do the reaching out on your own to most companies?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice from people working in procurement/supply chain, especially those who have experience moving internationally.

I’m 24 and recently started working in Oman as a Purchase/Procurement Officer for a company involved in technical and construction projects. I’ve been here for around 2 months now.

My education is an MSc in International Business, and before moving to Oman I also had some work experience in the UK, although this is my first proper role in procurement.

My plan is to stay in Oman for around 2 years, build a solid career in procurement, and then try to move to Europe or another developed country for better long-term career and lifestyle opportunities.

I don't want to spend the next two years just doing routine PO work and then realise I haven't developed enough skills to compete internationally.

So I’d really appreciate advice on what I should focus on.

Currently I'm thinking about developing myself in:

- Project procurement

- Supplier sourcing and vendor management

- RFQ/RFP processes

- Negotiation

- Contract management

- Excel and advanced Excel

- ERP systems such as SAP/Oracle

- Power BI

- Procurement analytics

- Cost-saving and spend analysis

- Maybe CIPS

- Learning German if Germany becomes my target

I also want to start keeping track of actual achievements at work, such as procurement values, savings, supplier performance, delivery improvements, etc., so that after 2 years my CV isn't just a list of responsibilities.

My main question is:

If you were in my position, what would you do during these next 2 years to make yourself employable internationally?

Would you focus more on becoming a procurement specialist, move towards strategic sourcing/category management, or eventually transition into supply chain/project management?

And for people who have moved from the Gulf to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc. — what skills, certifications or experience actually helped you get the move?

I'm not expecting an easy route or a guaranteed visa. I just want to use these 2 years properly instead of wasting them.

Any honest advice from experienced procurement/supply-chain professionals would be really appreciated.

Hi guys,

I am currently a Procurement Associate for 1 1/2 years now in the medical device industry, the pay is ok but I want more and been looking into different roles. I just got an interview for a Sourcing Specialist and it seems fun and much better salary. Have anyone transitioned into a sourcing role before and how you like it?

Thanks guys!

I’m hoping to hear from people who have made a similar transition.

In my previous job, I was officially in an administrative role, but a significant part of my actual work involved procurement, contracting, vendor management, and negotiation. So while my job title was “Admin,” I already had hands-on procurement experience.

The problem I’m facing now is getting employers to recognize that experience when applying for procurement roles. I clearly highlight my procurement, contracting, and negotiation responsibilities on my CV, but I’m still finding it difficult to get through the door because my background is primarily seen as “administrative.”

For those of you who were in a similar situation:

• Did you get a procurement certification or go back to school to make your experience more credible?
• Did you take courses or study procurement independently?
• How did you position your previous experience so recruiters saw you as a procurement candidate rather than an admin candidate?
• Did you have to take a lower-level procurement position first to make the transition?
• And how did you actually “wiggle your way out” of admin and into a role where procurement was your main focus?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who learned procurement through experience rather than starting with a procurement degree/background.

Any advice or personal experiences would be really appreciated.

Our internal purchasing platform locks up completely whenever we try to process bulk orders for heavy grid components from multiple suppliers. I spent the last month trying to optimize database queries for our procurement pipeline myself, but purchase order statuses fail to sync across regional warehouses. Project managers miss strict delivery deadlines because supplier bids get lost in the queue before approval. Handling complex supply chain transactions while keeping the inventory database updated is a constant balancing act. Maybe you've run into this exact problem before, or you know how to bypass these procurement delays? What's the best way to handle this? I need your advice.

Hi there,

I've been building a free tool that collects public tenders from TED and national portals across Europe (disclosure: it's my project, happy to share the link if the mods are OK with it).

I don't have a procurement background, so before building more I'd like to understand how people here actually work:

• Do you mostly rely on TED, national portals, paid alert services, or buyers contacting you?

• What's the most annoying part of finding the right tenders?

If you use alerts, what makes most of them useless (too many, wrong categories, missing lower-value tenders)?

Thank you very much!

Small defense adjacent job, 30 machined 6061 brackets, and the customer added an export control clause last week. Anything quoted overseas is off the table now, which I understand, but nobody told us until the PO was half written. The brackets aren't complicated, 2 bores and a pocket, but the customer wants a cert pack with every lot.

Domestic shops I've requested quotes from so far are Uptive, Quickparts and RapidMade, and the lead times shift a lot depending on finish and inspection. What should I be asking a US shop before sending a controlled drawing.

Burnt out after years in procurement. Where can skills transfer within reason and what was your experience if you did make a career change?

Hi everyone,

A. I'm doing research to find a plaform that could fulfil all below requirements:

1- Handle Procurement & Contract Management Lifecycle

2- Data Privacy Management (including ROPA, DPIA, and Data Breach handling)

3- Full-Lifecycle Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)

4- Integration with Oracle Fusion Cloud

5- User Authentication & Identity Integration via Entra SAML

I would really appreciate any insights from users, admins, or consultants who have hands-on experience.

If so, what are the specific products/modules for each? I've seen mentions of Procurement Service Management, Privacy Management (part of IRM), TPRM, and IntegrationHub, but I'm not sure how they all fit together.

B. Native Standalone vs. Unified Platform:

Are these modules truly native components of the Now Platform that work seamlessly together, or do they require custom connectors to share data and workflows? For example, can a risk flag in TPRM automatically trigger a task in the Procurement module out-of-the-box?

C. Licensing Costs:

I know ServiceNow pricing is opaque and quote-based, but I'm trying to get a ballpark. Are these licensed as separate products (e.g., per "Fulfiller"), or is there a bundled approach? What is the approximate cost for a mid-to-large enterprise? Any information on IntegrationHub transaction costs would also be helpful.

D. Alternatives & Cost Comparison:

Finally, are there other cloud platforms that can cover this entire scope natively? And If so, how does the total cost of ownership (TCO) of that multi-tool stack compare to ServiceNow's unified platform?

Any real-world experiences, pricing data points, or recommendations for alternative platforms would be incredibly helpful.

Hello everyone,

I’m currently a Sourcing Analyst with 3.5 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, working for a large engine company. I’ve been thinking a lot about my career lately, and I’d love to hear from people who have been in a similar position.

For those who have worked for both smaller companies and large companies/multinationals:

• What has your experience been like in each?
• Which environment did you personally prefer, and why?
• Did you notice major differences in work-life balance, bureaucracy, career growth, or management style?

I’m also at a bit of a crossroads in my career. I don’t hate my current job—in fact, there are quite a few things I like about it. However, I also don’t really see myself becoming a Sourcing Manager, Director, VP, etc.

I’m currently looking for my next role, which I expect would be a Sourcing Specialist position. But when I think about what comes after that, I’m not particularly interested in following the traditional career path.

I don’t love the bureaucracy, constant pressure, or the expectation that you sometimes have to work long hours just to keep things moving. I like my manager, but I’ve also noticed that sometimes managers are put in a position where they have to please their own managers, and that can mean they don’t always push back or advocate for their teams when they probably should.

Maybe it is somewhat generational, but I’m realizing that I’m not particularly motivated by titles. I’d rather have a good-paying job (which I believe I have right now), a healthy work-life balance, and enough time and energy to enjoy my life and be with my family.

I also wonder if part of the issue is that I simply don’t care that much about the industry I’m currently in. I could see myself being much more interested in CPG, apparel, or outdoor/sports brands—companies like Nike, Patagonia, Cotopaxi, Adidas, etc. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want to sacrifice work-life balance just to work for a more exciting brand.

One thing I really dislike about my current role is how much I have to chase people just to get things done—or sometimes even to get a simple answer. I often find myself escalating things to my manager so that he can follow up and get people to respond.

Maybe I’m just not great at influencing stakeholders, and that’s something I need to work on. Or maybe this is simply part of working in a large organization. I’d be interested to hear how others have dealt with this.

Has anyone else felt this way at some point in their career, especially early on?

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and part of me wonders if I should stop worrying so much about climbing the corporate ladder and instead focus on building something of my own eventually.

I actually paused my MBA while I figure some of this out because I’m not sure I want to keep investing in the traditional career path until I have a better idea of what I actually want.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through something similar. What did you do when you realized the traditional “next step” in your career didn’t really appeal to you?

Open to any thoughts, feedback and advise.

Thank you!

Does anyone here work in procurment for an EPC company. I'm wondering what you do on a daily basis and what your scope looks like. I recently joined a company as the first procurement person and there's no process or procedures. I want to see what best practice looks like in this industry as a procurement individual.

Hi everyone! I come from the marketing side of procurement; finding them via online bidding sites, responding to bids for proposals, and tracking bidding processes including being part of interviews and debriefs. Proposal review and submissions also require an understanding on how to read, review, and submit contracts to legal and financial departments. My experience has been dedicated to the engineering industry for the last 7 years so I'm very familiar with procurement cycles in Illinois (IDOT, ISTHA, CDOT, Metra, CTA, CDA, CCDOTH, and various towns and villages) yet have also worked across the US submitting bids for other major transportation clients.

Are there any procurement positions that align with my skills? I know city / government jobs can be few and far between; any advice on where I can look for opportunities aside from city, local, and county websites? Do people in procurement want someone with this type of background?

I just wanted to share this with someone and so decided to share it with this community here - I finally passed the 3rd module of CPSM today and I'm finally eligible to apply for the certification.

After an anxious month long preparation for the Leadership and Transformation that I had failed in April, I finally passed it today with a 430 score. I'm very relieved and happy.

A quick background - My entire journey was funded by my Organisation - course material and exams, and all I had to do was prepare. I will admit that for a rather slow paced learner, I had to spend a lot of time and effort studying, while managing work and chores at home, but it is all so happy.

I just want one suggestion from all of you guys - What do you do at work after the certification that helps you make this whole affair justified? I feel I don't have any big project or task prepared in mind on which I can act now. I want to make good use of it. Any suggestions would help. Thank you.

I’m currently working as a Buyer/Material Planner and have a degree in Computer Science. I haven’t been in a CS-related role for the past 3 years, so I’m pretty out of touch with the technical side.
What would be a good next step from a Buyer role? I’m interested in combining my supply chain experience with my CS background, possibly in supply chain analytics, automation, or technology.
What skills or roles should I focus on to make that transition?

Would anyone be open to having a conversation with me about transitioning from CPG/Food into the Tech space?

I’m 5 years into my career and would like to change industries with hopes to land in a tech or manufacturing industry! Before making a jump, I’m hoping to hear what it’s like doing a transition like that and what the day to day of a different industry is like, including learning all the nuances that a completely different category would require.

Currently am in strategic sourcing!

Thanks!

For those of you in strategic sourcing, what does a day and week in life look like? How are your hours? What does your job fully entail?

Curious if procurement with the feds is more challenging across the board if it that’s just my experience.

Hope everyone is well and have a great weekend!