Becoming a Procurement Specialist
Posted by Daria Tkach, Senior Recruitment Consultant on Thursday, June 30, 2022
Becoming a Procurement Specialist can take time, effort, and a lot of dedication. It needs not only someone with a strong working and technical knowledge, but someone with right attitude and personality for the job. In this article, we’ll examine some of the top skills needed to become the best Procurement Specialist you can be.
Maxim specializes in procurement jobs and works with procurement employers working in the following sectors and areas of specialism: construction, property, transport, rail, water, power, nuclear and the MOD & defence sectors.
What are the key skills required to becoming a successful Procurement Specialist?
Project, Category, & Strategic Management
Firstly, you need a strong grasp of Project and Strategic Management to thrive in this role. Strategic Management requires in-depth knowledge of your chosen market and be able to offer crucial insight to your employer about any projects they’re planning to undertake. This can include projected growth, industry competition, and industry profitability. Category Management is similar to Strategic Management but relates to customer expectation. This links to the in-depth knowledge required but instead of looking internally at the construction industry, it requires looking outwards to the whoever the project will be serving – whether that’s a contractor or the public!
Project Management is the skill that combines the work of Category and Strategic. The ability to initiate, plan, and execute an assignment given all within a specific time frame and budget. This is an essential skill, as one of the key duties for a Procurement Specialist is ensuring costs are kept as low as possible whilst not skipping out on quality.
Professionalism & Relationship Management
As with any job requiring colleague or customer interaction, Professionalism and Relationship Management are necessities. Professionalism is essential to running and working within a successful and efficient team. Remaining professional in all situations can diffuse or even prevent conflict. Relationship Management is similar, as remaining professional with your companies’ customers or vendors fulfils customer expectations and builds loyalty, leading to increased repeat business and profitability.
Trends & Technology Aptitude
With a key duty of Procurement Specialist being able to ensure the delivery of goods, whilst keeping costs low, being able to utilize all varieties of technology can greatly help fulfil this duty. With a vast array of new technology coming to the forefront and simplifying business practices, keeping up-to-date with each of them is a difficult task to conquer. These can include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and even Cryptocurrency! As our technology progresses, it’s vital for a Procurement Specialist to keep note of all trends new and emerging. Being on top of these can help give your construction company an edge over your competition in developing new techniques to fulfil your role – combined with Strategic and Category Management, it can put you lightyears ahead of others!
Financial & Analytical Skill
As mentioned earlier, keeping costs as low as possible is crucial in the role of Procurement Specialist. It’s also one of the most common skills you may be tested on during an interview. Without strong mathematical and financial evaluation skills, you can fall at the first hurdle. You’ll need to show your ability to analyse metrics and reports, and work with large figures when procuring the delivery and service of goods costs. Not only do your Analytical skills apply to your mathematics, but they’re helpful in making constant improvements within your work. The ability to analyse and reflect on previous work you completed and identifying where you can improve isn’t just a great professional skill, but a great self-development tool. As they are so essential to this job, we’d advise making sure your Financial and Analytical skills are up to scratch!
Maxim Recruitment specializes in procurement job roles relating to construction, property, transport, rail, water, power, nuclear and MOD/defence sectors. If you have experience in these sectors or transferable category experience from other sectors, please get in touch with your CV to discuss a range of opportunities available across the UK.
Daria is a Senior Recruitment Consultant with day-to-day responsibility for researching, shortlisting, contacting, and interviewing premium construction industry candidates. Daria works with our UK team to help construction industry jobseekers into exciting new construction jobs with our market leading employer clients. Daria also covers the Canadian market as part of her international recruitment responsibilities. Her focus is on Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and other major cities in Canada.