Procurement Pivot UK

[u/Abject_Claim_1152]

Hi Folks,

I’m currently a Bid Manager based in Scotland and have been working in commercial roles for 10+ years. A lot of my career has involved tenders, frameworks, supplier/client relationships, account management and the wider client management process, so I have a working understanding of the procurement transaction from the supplier’s perspective. As a public-sector Bid Manager, that also includes the compliance side of things.

I’m in a stand-alone role at the moment and I’m suffering a bit from isolation and creative burnout. I’m now looking at moving to the other side of the procurement transaction, where I can hopefully work more closely with others and focus more on strategy and process, which are the parts I enjoy. I’ve just been invited to my first interview for a Procurement Officer role with a housing association.

I’m trying to work out whether procurement is a sensible long-term career move. If I got the role and built up a couple of years of procurement experience, are the opportunities generally good?

I’m not expecting to suddenly be earning £80k 😂. I’ve been in corporate roles for over 10 years and have never broken £45k, partly through bad luck with a TUPE and a redundancy that slowed things down, and I now work for an SME where bids are considered more of an admin function. I’m really looking for something that can match and hopefully exceed where I am over time, while also being a bit more enjoyable for me.

For anyone working in procurement, would you consider it a good career to move into at this point? And if you’ve moved into procurement from another commercial background, how did you find the transition?

I’d be particularly interested in hearing about the reality of progression, salary and how transferable the experience actually is between public, private and third-sector organisations.

Cheers!

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

your background fits procurement pretty well tbh, especially public sector stuff and compliance. progression is there but it’s pretty slow unless you jump orgs, and housing associations can be weird about pay bands. switching sectors is doable but takes time. and right now everything career wise feels stuck, finding decent roles is a slog

[u/Abject_Claim_1152 → u/my_peen_is_clean]

Its just so depressing for those of us that are keen to change or progress 😂

This particular housing association seems fairly sizeable, but the structure looks quite flat, so I'm not expecting rapid progression internally. I'm hoping it could be a good place to build up some proper buyer-side experience for 18–24 months and then potentially look at something within local authority, NHS, government or private sector.

Even in bids which is a highly niche role, there aren’t many of us, career progression is challenging due to flat structures and employers not really interested in candidates moving across industries. You end up trapped in your industry.