The CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025, in partnership with Hays, underscores the professional aspirations of procurement and supply chain professionals. Globally, 40% are looking to switch roles in the next 12 months. But for those early in their career, it’s not always easy to know which path to take – and when to make the move.
Linda Todd and Kate Langham, business directors at Hays, share their advice for ambitious, early-career professionals looking to get to the top.
Got more questions to ask? Join the CIPS Salary Guide Next Steps webinar on Wednesday 26 November to find out what kind of employee procurement leaders are looking for.
Let’s run this as a scenario. I have a year or two of experience behind me, and I’ve got the procurement bug. I want to aim high, but where do I start? What can I do to kickstart my career?
Linda Todd (LT): My first piece of advice would be don’t try to move too quickly. Take a step back and make sure you have experienced running a procurement process end-to-end – or at least as many parts as possible. If I look at the public sector a standard procurement activity can regularly take 6-12 months, so make sure you can say you’ve seen a project through from start to finish.
What we’re seeing in the market is that procurement officers and managers are moving on too fast without exposure to all parts (or as many as possible) of the process – it’s then hard to say what you’ve achieved when you’re asked by hiring managers.
I’d add that it’s also important to open your network – starting your CIPS journey is a really good way of doing this. Even if you’ve not started your qualifications – attend some branch events and meet new people in different roles. It really helps!
Kate Langham (KL): I completely agree with Linda. If you’re ambitious and want to move up the career ladder, the networking element is really important to start as early as possible.
I’d also advise you to find a mentor. If you’re in a larger organisation they often have mentoring schemes set up already, but there’s nothing to stop those in smaller organisations reaching out internally or meeting someone at networking events. CIPS also run mentoring circles which you can join virtually, led by FCIPS volunteers.
It’s also something organisations like Hays can help with. Just recently I was able to connect a junior candidate with someone more senior in our network. An external mentor can really widen your perspective – it can be easy to get tunnel vision early in your career!
OK, so I think I’m ready for a new role – one where I’ll get that end-to-end experience you mentioned, or will enable me to develop – what should I look for?
LT: Speaking from a public sector perspective, each role is very different. What I’d advise is think about the role you’re applying for and ask yourself – what is going to give me good exposure to stakeholders and end-to-end projects? And will I want to stay in this role for two years?
The first question isn’t always easy to spot, but if you’re going to get good access to lots of different stakeholders, that’s a good sign that it might be a bit more strategic. The second part is important because two years is a good length of time for development. Try to apply for an area that you’re actually interested in – if you go for a digital procurement role and aren’t interested, then churning out digital procurements would get very boring, very quickly!
Put some thought into the role and that’ll put you in a better position when speaking with the employer. We see a lot of ‘scattergun’ approaches and it becomes clear that either the candidate isn’t tailoring their job search, or they move on quickly. Ask questions about the access to stakeholders, the types of things you might be procuring, and what kind of support and development is available.
KL: Linda’s right, it varies depending on what you want as a candidate. There are two paths you can go down – you can become a strong generalist, or you can become an expert in a particular category. You don’t have to choose these right away, of course!
There are pros and cons to both. Generalists will be open to a higher volume of roles, but specialists might be more aligned to opportunities when they do arise in their particular category or subject. It depends on your temperament, what excites you and what you want in your job search. Trends can change as well – in the last year, we have noticed a high demand from clients needing candidates with expertise and knowledge of supplier risk, for example.
So when you’re interviewing, assess the make-up of their function. Do they separate vendor management and sourcing? Or does the team get visibility across the whole process? I’d also explore where procurement reports into and what level of investment the function has seen in the past few years. If you can spot organisations where procurement is driving the success, that’s the sort of place you want to work – where you can demonstrate real influence.
What skills am I going to need to, and could reasonably expect to have at an early stage in my career? What will hiring managers want to see?
KL: At this stage in your career, no-one is expecting you to have run multi-stage £1million tenders independently – so don’t fret! But I think being able to isolate out parts of the end-to-end process that you have either supported or led yourself, demonstrates awareness of different steps of procurement.
Those with a couple of years’ experience are usually pretty strong at procurement analysis, database management or contract supplier management onboarding. Specific skills could include activities like sending out RFIs, RFPs, gathering responses to tenders and presenting on the top options to the category or procurement managers.
To talk about areas of the process like these gives you a chance to converse with hiring managers – talking about your experiences, how you’ve engaged with suppliers and scored tenders. Be honest with what you haven’t yet done as well, as this gives you the chance to say what you’d like to do for your next steps. This might be negotiating or more strategic elements, but it helps you show ambition and areas that you’d be keen to take on in the new role.
LT: Communication skills like negotiation and being able to deal with stakeholders are important. And following Kate’s comments, I’d also advise adding what you’ve achieved on your CV. We get lots of feedback around applications reading like job descriptions because applicants have just matched their CV to it – so make sure you are specific and demonstrate what you’ve achieved. It helps you stand out!
At earlier career stages, just showing your willingness to learn and that you’ve done a bit of background research will help. So if you’re going for a role in the public sector – are you aware of public sector regulations? Just because you don’t cover it in your role now doesn’t mean you can’t show the desire to go that extra mile and learn a little more before an interview. It’s the sign of a good attitude!