I teased this last week to see how much interest there was in doing it, and a number of y'all responded.
I noticed a number of folks on this board ask about various jobs, how to get into certain career paths. Over the 9 or so years I’ve been posting on the board, there’s a lot of us on here that are pretty accomplished, but most of us aren’t wearing it on our sleeve. Likewise, there’s a number of us that are just searching for information on what’s possible.
As a black man, in my years I’ve come to realize we have a number of things working against us societally, but the biggest issue bar-none is we simply don’t know what’s available to us; what we personally would be a good fit for and how to get your foot in the door. I personally floundered around for about 6 years after I graduated college before I got into this career path and hit my stride. I was 29 when I finally said this is my career and I started to make some decent money from it. Had I known what was available, I could’ve been doing the same work straight out of college or the military at 21-22 making the same money.
There are literally thousands of different career profiles we could do, but I don’t have the time, bandwidth, and I’m sure no one is trying to read all of that anyway. So, I’ve narrowed it down to 19 different sectors:
· Advertising and marketing
· Aerospace/Automotive
· Agriculture
· Computers and technology
· Construction
· Education
· Energy and Mining
· Entertainment
· Fashion
· Finance
· Food and beverage
· Health care
· Hospitality
· Law and security
· Manufacturing
· Media and news
· Pharmaceutical
· Telecommunication
· Transportation
This series will be broken down into 19 different industry sectors. Each with a thread of their own. I will add a new thread once I have enough respondents for that respective industry. If this is your career path, please contribute; the more the merrier. If you do contribute, remember to be anonymous and vague enough that no one can trace you back your company, but try to be detailed enough that the information is purposeful. Please @ me, or DM me with your industry and job if you want to contribute. If I miss you in the original post, please feel free to copy the template from the "Career Profile" down and add a post in that respective thread.
I’ll add a brief summary of the industry, and just let the posters here do their thing. We’ll be starting with Supply Chain, because that’s my home base and what I know the most about.
Career Profile: Supply Chain
Current Role: Business Integration Manager
Previous Role: Logistics Manager
Salary Range: $140-175K (Will vary more depending on the metro area/market)
My years of experience: 13
Location: Chicago
Hot Markets: Chicago, NJ/NYC/PA, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Denver, SoCal, NorCal, NW Ohio, Seattle, Portland.
Job Summary: I work end to end with raw material suppliers, buyers, manufacturing plants, warehousing, transportation customer fulfillment, sales, and the end customer to fill order requirements.
Education: Bachelor’s or 4 Years of military service. However, you don’t really need a degree for many of the jobs, even corporate roles.
Work Specifics: I work with multiple departments internally and externally, in meetings, reading and submitting reports, creating project decks, project management, financial management, vendor approvals, operation change-overs.
Why choose this career path/Backstory: I honestly wanted and tried to get into the music industry. I worked in radio for 4 years. Radio didn’t pay me shyt, so I was working 3 jobs to make ends meet. I worked 80 hours a week and probably slept in my car or an office chair as much as I slept in my own bed at that time. 1 of those jobs I worked to make ends meet was UPS. Because I had my degree, UPS would automatically consider and promote you to be a supervisor. I bounced around multiple companies and kept upping my experience, connections, and pay until I made where I am now.
Related Jobs: Logistics manager, planning manager, warehouse manager, transportation manager, materials manager, plant manager
How to get your foot in the door: Every company has a supply chain…EVERY COMPANY. You can get your foot in the door doing hourly warehouse work, driving a truck, being a receiving clerk, being an accounts payable clerk, data entry work
Notable Companies: Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Unilever, Apple, Pepsi, Exxon Mobil Coca-Cola, CVS, Wal-Greens, LVMH, Toyota, Volkswagen, BP, Shell, Zara
Entry Level Jobs: Logistics Analyst, Warehouse Worker, Truck Driver
Entry Level Pay: $30-$50K (depending on the metro area/market)
Top End Jobs: CEO, COO, VP Supply Chain, Plant Manager (If it’s a really big plant; think food or automotive),
Top End Pay: $500K+ with long-term incentives, stock options, etc.
Work/Life Balance: The work/life balance from company to company will vary, but generally you will work longer hours in this line of work. 45-50 hours a week. More if you are executive or it is a just poorly run company. My balance is actually great…I work 7-4 and still have enough time to do an MBA part-time.
Any Other Interesting Information: Connections and experience are everything in this business. The only thing that makes money is making money. Doesn’t matter how hard you work, how important your job is…the only thing in this line of work (and any line of work) that will make you money is making money. When you are trying to climb the ladder, take on more responsibility, join that meeting, ask the dumb questions, be personable but stern, lastly…be open growth and change, but NEVER lose the core of who you are. You’ll never have any respect from your peers and you’ll feel like a sellout if you do. I’ve met MAD dumbasses that are executives. Some that are actually in the media eye.
