Procurement simply defined is purchasing. It involves acquiring goods or services or both of them while ensuring that the quality, quantity, time, place and source are all correct. Procurement thus is making decisions in regard to buying, especially when the supply of goods or services is considerably low.
Procurement jobs involve, among other things, making orders for purchase, requesting the necessary material and keeping a track of all the supplies and purchases made within a given period of time. Basically, procurement jobs revolve around making the necessary orders to a particular supplier and following up to make sure that the orders made are delivered at the right place, at the right time, in the right specifications and from the right supplier.
One outstanding characteristic of procurement jobs is that there is a lot of strictness that must be followed. This strictness is what keeps things going in the procurement industry. The functions of people in the procurement industry usually known as the procurement clerks varies, depending on the size of the organization. Other activities that procurement clerks may engage in may include looking for potential suppliers and interviewing them, both on telephone or face to face.
The working hours of people in the procurement field range between 40 to 45 hours in a week. This is standard time and thus there is no over time in most cases. However procurement jobs involve sitting down for a considerably long period and having to stare at the computer for a long time entering data. This may result in painful eyes and headaches.
Having briefly outlined what the procurement jobs entail, we now shift our focus to the ways in which one can come up with a resume that can guarantee a job in the procurement field. The first bit of a resume always begins with personal details. This will include among other things the official full name of the applicant, place and or address of residence, contacts, date of birth, and marital status among other personal details that may be of interest to a potential employer.
What follows immediately after the objective or the qualifications of the summary is the work experience. Professionals indicate that one is required to begin with the most recent experience and should follow each other in a descending order. A caution by the experts is that one should not leave out any work experience on the grounds that it is not relevant. It may be that what you leave out is actually what the employer is looking for. Include all the relevant experience that you have, taking care however to give correct details. Giving false information in regard to experience could have devastating consequences.
It is important to mention at this point that as much as a resume is meant to market oneself to the employer, it should as much as possible be limited to the qualifications and experience to the applicant. Words like a team player are strongly opposed as one need not justify him or herself, but only needs to lay all facts on the table for the employer to decide.
While writing a résumé for a procurement job or indeed any other job, it is important to ensure that the element of clarity stands out. One of the ways in which this element is achieved is by ensuring that the resume is organized. A resume that lacks organization will most definitely lack clarity and this may lead to disqualification on the part of the applicant. Use of simple but professional language is highly recommended. It is not advisable to use grammatically difficult words as this would be a put off to the employer. Errors in the resume, both grammatical and typographical, cannot be allowed. It is thus of importance to check and countercheck to ensure that the resume does not have any errors. Such errors always depict a lack of seriousness, and this may be injurious to the applicant.
A chronological type of style is most preferred when writing a resume for a procurement job. This is where you write all your details, especially experience, in a chronological order beginning with the most recent. However, if you are new in the procurement field either because you are fresh from school or you are having a change of career, a functional resume would be a better choice.
As mentioned in the beginning, the procurement industry is experiencing stiff competition. One must therefore come up with a striking resume that will impress the employer. The tips discussed above are key in coming up with a good resume for procurement jobs.
