Top Resume Tips for Supply Chain Professionals

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Guest Blog by Rodney Apple of SCM Talent Group

The Supply Chain Management profession offers very broad and diverse career paths to choose from spanning all major industry segments from manufacturing to retail to wholesale distribution, in addition to numerous types of service providers such as technology firm, systems integrators, thirty party logistics, and more.

To get the best results, your resume should be designed to help supply chain recruiters and potential employers quickly and easily understand your unique skills, relevant experience, past performance, and accomplishments. Let’s dive into some of the best supply chain resume tips we have to offer.

Highlight the Most Significant and Relevant

10 seconds or less is the time it takes most recruiters and employers to scan a resume and determine their interest level. Go into detail on your most recent and applicable work experience and de-emphasize experiences from the beginning or earlier part of your career. If supply chain recruiters or employers don’t see something of interest in the first resume scan, they will likely never go through the rest of your resume and will move on to the next resume instead.

Be Efficient in the Content and Design

Stay on point and condense where possible – your resume should be no more than two pages in length and no less than 10 point type in Helvetica or Arial (you should avoid Times New Roman as it’s considered outdated). Leave as much white space and margin as you can to make it look cleaner and easier to scan and digest. Bold and capitalize all headings (Name, Summary, Experience, Education, etc.) but keep bolding and underlining of normal text to a minimum.

Focus on the Format

A reverse chronological order resume with an explanation of all gaps in employment lends to credibility and is preferred by employers and recruiters. Verify all information and dates are completely accurate and updated to reflect your current or most recent position. For the date format, we recommend using Month/Year for each position you’ve held.

Quantify Achievements

Quantify your accomplishment statements using percentages and/or dollar amounts (e.g., cost savings, increased productivity, etc.). Be sure to tell what “you” personally did and your particular role versus what the entire “team” did.

Showcase Your Supply Chain Skill Set

Instead of an objective statement, consider listing a brief summary of your supply chain skills and expertise. Write either a brief paragraph and/or list five to ten bullet points at the very top of the first page under contact information. You should tailor this summary section based on which types of jobs you’re applying to. Doing this will increase your chances of landing a job interview.

Maintain Transparency with Your Work History

Confirm your work history is clearly described to avoid your resume being rejected due to too many unanswered questions or gaps. If you decide to use a functional resume format versus reverse chronological, be sure to add an outline of your chronological work history with the dates in Month/Year format. If you have employment gaps, list anything you were doing of value during that time, especially if it pertains to updating your work skills, education, certifications, etc.

Keep It Work-Related and Professional

In a supply chain resume, listing personal information such as your list of hobbies, children or marital status, age, race, ethnicity, religion, or personal references are things you need to leave out. Do not include a picture of yourself either. Including personal information could negatively impact your candidacy.

Shine Professional Certifications & Advanced Education

If you have obtained an advanced degree (MBA, MS, etc.) or a professional certification(s) such as an APICS CPIM, CLTD, or CSCP, you must place this information towards the top of your resume where it can easily be seen. This helps your resume to stand out amongst other candidates and is commonly listed as a “preferred qualification” on many supply chain job descriptions.

Your Accomplishments Trump Job Duties

Under the Experience section, avoid listing only your job duties and responsibilities. It’s critical that you also list your accomplishments, and be sure to quantify the results of each accomplishment. Use action verbs (optimized, transformed, integrated, directed, etc.) in bullet point form for more impact and easier scanning.

Outline Size, Scope, and Complexity

Demonstrate your career progression throughout your resume. Supply chain recruiters and employers also want to understand the types of companies you’ve worked for along with the size, scope, and complexity of the supply chain network or operation you’ve managed or supported for each position you’ve held. Fine detail is not necessary, but list the basics to provide context.

Connect Your Web Presence

If you are active on business-related social media networks such as LinkedIn, or if you maintain a supply chain-oriented blog or website, be sure to include the links/URLs at the top of your resume underneath your name and contact information. This is an easy way to supplement your resume with additional content (supply chain articles you’ve published, references on your LinkedIn profile, etc.)

Professional Resume Writing Services

Consider having your resume professionally written. Resume writing and LinkedIn profile optimization services have helped our referrals that work in supply chain develop stronger resumes that generate more job interviews.

To your success!

Rodney Apple

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Rodney Apple serves as the Managing Partner of SCM Talent Group which he founded back in August of 2004 in Atlanta, GA. He has been completely specialized in end-to-end supply chain recruitment since 2001 when he joined The Home Depot (Fortune 13 at the time) to lead the recruitment for their very first supply chain department. Rodney went on to lead all professional and executive supply chain recruitment for The Coca-Cola Company for 6+ years followed by a few other clients that included Kimberly-Clark, Cummins and PwC.

Rodney’s passion for the field of supply chain management is evident through his involvement within the industry and various supply chain associations. He has presented at CSCMP and APICS global conferences, has been serving as the Career Coach for ASCM (formerly APICS) since 2014, and in 2017 became an APICS Magazine Department Author, contributing articles under “Professional Development”. Rodney also authors the Supply Chain Talent Blog where he shares best practices in supply chain recruiting, leadership development, job search strategy, resume optimization, interviewing techniques and related topics. He can be reached at rapple@scmtalent.com.

Rodney Apple, SCM Talent Group

Should I Drop Out of the Workforce and Go Back to School During the Pandemic?

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In our recent past, deciding whether or not to go back to school was a big, life-altering, decision (“Do I Need to Go Back to College to Change Careers?” / “5 Pieces of Good News for Online Students”). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this already difficult decision is even more complex.

It’s no secret that COVID has fundamentally altered every aspect of life, transforming business, labor, and education. There is no reliable way to predict how deep the changes will be and how long they will last.

Thus, it may be tempting to ditch this horrific job market (with a national US unemployment rate of 8.6%, and much higher in places), and go back to school full time to earn another degree. Is that a good idea right now? There’s no easy answer.

Pandemic or not, the first and primary step, is an objective assessment of your personal circumstances and an informed projection of the Return on Investment (ROI) you can realistically expect under the best circumstances. According to U.S. News, “tuition and fees for the 2020–2021 school year was $41,411 at private colleges, $11,171 for state residents at public colleges and $26,809 for out-of-state students at state schools.” When you consider that colleges have been consistent in raising tuition on a regular basis, the above numbers are starting points. 

Ask yourself:

• How much will it cost to earn the degree I want?

• How long will it take?

• What is the average market salary for professionals with the degree I wish to obtain?

• If I do not have the resources, how does a student loan alter my calculations?

• How long will it take to pay back, and what kind of salary will I need to pay it back?

Really run the numbers, then add 10% for good measure. And keep in mind, an MBA, law degree, or other advanced diploma doesn’t come cheap, and can be more expensive per credit than other programs. But with COVID-19, we’re in uncharted territory and even the questions above might not provide a complete picture.

Let’s look at the arguments for returning to school:

• The labor market is crowded and uncertain. By returning to school you are taking yourself out of a hyper competitive and uncertain labor market. In traditional downturns, economists are able to make reasonable projections about the course a recession will take and steps that can be taken to alleviate the crisis. In our current situation, there is no reliable historical data to make predictions with any kind of certainty.

• When you return to the workforce, it may be less competitive in an improved overall economy. Consider the normal time frames required to earn  bachelor and advanced degrees – four years for most bachelor degrees, four years (+ residency) for an M.D., four years to become an RN, three years for a law degree, three years for many Master’s degrees, and two years for an MBA. There are intensive one-year diploma programs and Associate degrees of various types that may take less time, but you get the idea – the economy may or may not be better by the time you earn a degree, but you know for a fact that right now it’s terrible. This might be a good time to take a break.

• When you return to the workforce, certain degrees should put you in a better position. Depending upon your starting point, if you’ve earned an MBA, or a J.D., or a specialized Master’s Degree from a highly ranked program, it could potentially make you a stronger candidate for more types of positions at higher salaries than you historically earned.

• If you are in an industry that’s becoming obsolete there may be no better time to return to school than right now. For example, brick and mortal retail was a rapidly shrinking sector before COVID-19, and now its troubles have accelerated. However, virtual retail is booming. A shiny new degree in Digital Marketing or E-Commerce may an intelligent path forward.

Let’s look at some of the unique challenges of returning to school:

• Schools are operating on the fly, already demonstrating a start/stop pattern and operational uncertainty when outbreaks hit. This could be the standard for a while; if you return to school now, you should expect an uncertain first year, at minimum.

• Many schools and programs are going all virtual. You must determine for yourself how you believe virtual learning affects the quality and value of the education you receive; however, collective in-person learning can have a great amount of value through interactions with peers and professors. In addition, virtual learning requires a different level of personal discipline than showing up to class. Do you have the discipline?

• One of the great assets of earning a degree are the connections you make while you do it. Some of the people you meet in school will become the foundation of your new professional network. Are the connections as strong and actionable in a virtual environment? Just as interaction with one’s peers is important from a scholarly perspective, establishing long-lasting professional connections requires it. In the current environment, new students may find these connections lacking.

• COVID-19 has curtailed campus recruiting. Many colleges maintain regular relationships with corporate recruiters, serving an important nexus for graduates launching new careers. Much of these relationships is based on personal visits and interaction with both students and staff that have now been disrupted by the pandemic. While both schools and employers are working hard to maintain these relationships, it’s stressful for everyone.

• Internship programs can be a bedrock component of a particular degree. For example, MBA candidates often use their summers for internships, and law students perform clerkships or summer associate roles. These not only provide the student with experience; they also make them more valuable upon graduation. Many of these programs have been scaled back, eliminated, or made all-virtual.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

6 Simple Ways to Stand Out in A Crowded Job Market

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It’s crowded out there and it’s getting more crowded every month. The unfortunate reality is that the economy and labor market will continue to be roiled by the Covid-19 pandemic for the foreseeable future and the buzzword of the year is “uncertainty.” Do not get overwhelmed. Focus on what’s in your control. Be kind to yourself. Get to work.

1.     Work harder and smarter. It can be more than demoralizing to be unemployed, or to be in a job with little security or satisfaction, and sometimes the obstacles seem or have proven to be all but insurmountable. It is easy yet catastrophic to slip into a state of professional paralysis at the time you need to be the most proactive. Whatever you planned for tomorrow, do today. Take whatever extra initiative you can to stand out. Be aggressive. Set realistic daily goals that will move the needle of your job search forward each week. For example, spend one day targeting companies for which you already know you would like to work and the next day researching new companies and opportunities. Nobody knows everything that’s out there. Do a little extra digging and you may strike gold.

2.     Be part of the LinkedIn community.  LinkedIn is a vital component to any job search. It may seem intimidating, but take the time to develop a strong professional story through your LinkedIn profile and it will eventually pay off. Take advantage of the extra opportunities LinkedIn gives you that a traditional resume does not. For example, each of your work experience entries can include links, documents, photos, and a variety of other data/visual rich content that provide a much more in depth panorama of your skills and achievements. LinkedIn is a large community, but as a percentage does not have that many “content creators”. If you post or share content, you will stand out and may drive traffic to your profile. The greater your activity the more potential traffic you may generate.

3.     Join LinkedIn Groups – Sure, you want to drive traffic to your profile, but LinkedIn is not a social network in the traditional sense; it’s a professional network, so if you are involved in a job search it’s not beneficial to drive other job seekers to your profile. You need the right kind of traffic. Join LinkedIn Groups. It’s part of the basic LinkedIn account, and recruiters and other professionals are in these groups and they’re often looking for great future employees. Shift some of your social media energy to LinkedIn Groups to increase your visibility, find out about job openings that may not yet be posted on LinkedIn or other job platforms, and keep up with trends in your field.

4.     Find a Hiring Manager at Your Target Company.  This is one of the trickier things to pull off and there’s no guarantee that you will be able to determine with certainty who is the actual person that will make the decision on who to hire. There are no foolproof ways to determine who the hiring manager may be of that dream job posting you just saw, but your best bets are some combination of company websites and LinkedIn. If you can determine this vital information, be sure to address any correspondence directly to the hiring manager. If you are a LinkedIn Premium member, you also have the option to send InMails (notes you can send to someone in LinkedIn without being a direct connection) to the job poster, who may be a recruiter, an HR staff member, or a hiring manager.

5.     If contacted, don’t delay. Make communicating with potential employers your number one priority. Be prompt. If you receive a call, return it as soon as possible and be prepared! Whether it’s the hiring manager or the receptionist, you should be prepared to provide relevant information and/or answer pointed questions about your interest and qualifications. If you are contacted by email, also respond as soon as possible. If any documents are requested, include them in your response. Respond once with any requested information and in a timely fashion.

6.     Pay it forward. Life challenges us in ways that are profound and unexpected, yet it is unlikely that any of us have lived through any stage of our lives without some type of support from friends and family, and, in turn, each of us are an important part of someone else’s support network. Now is the time to be selfless. If someone reaches out to you for help, give it without conditions. Karma can work in your favor during these unprecedented times – or any time, for that matter.

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 Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.