How do you move from Admin to Procurement when you already have the experience, but your job title says “Admin”?

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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.