By Odette Richards, Davidson Projects & Operations
Your resume is your opportunity to showcase your skill-set, experience and how it directly applies to the logistics and supply chain industry.
The purpose of your resume is to demonstrate why you are the best person for the job and what makes you stand out over the other hundred applications the company receives.
As someone with around seven years of experience sourcing staff within the logistics and supply chain industry, I have seen my fair share of resumes and find many common mistakes that let the candidate down.
Based on this, I have compiled tips for resume writing for the supply chain and logistics professionals:
- Objectives
After including your personal particulars, you need to spend time drafting a succinct objective. Too many people ignore this section or include a generic line that doesn’t provide any directive at all.
Articulate to the hiring manager/recruiter your value immediately. Make it easier for the reader to understand what your professional strengths are and your ultimate objectives at first glance.
For example, “My previous experience has been within the fields of operations, supply and sales across South East Queensland. To further my experience and develop my interest within the logistics industry, I am seeking a position that allows continual learning and increased responsibility in order to be a valuable asset to my new team.”
- Summary
Follow your objective with a tailored summary, which outlines your skill-set and connects with your past experience. Use this area to highlight and promote the scale and breadth of your key responsibilities from your past roles. Here are some examples:
“I am an experienced FMCG logistics operations leader with a proven track record in driving change and performance improvement in sites of up to 500 employees.”
“I am a highly experienced senior level management professional with outstanding business acumen and a proven history of achievement. I am driven to constantly improve operations and optimise business performance throughout the supply chain industry and this is evident by my following experience…”
“Presently working as the Warehouse Manager, I coordinate incoming and outgoing stock, deliveries and logistics. Part of my role includes monitoring stock levels and coordinating periodic stocktakes. I supervise more than 30 staff members, which includes the responsibilities of preparing weekly rosters and managing staff evaluations.”
- Keywords you should include in your resume:
Research tells us that recruiting managers will spend, on average, just 6.25 seconds looking at a resume. Given the sheer volume we receive on a daily basis, the first thing we will look for is keywords that relate to the job opportunity and position. A leader in this field should utilise the following keywords:
Head of Global Supply Management, Supply Chain Manager, Purchasing Manager, Logistics Manager, Supply Chain Coordinator, Buyer, Supply Chain Procurement Specialist, Business Services Manager, Project Purchasing Manager, Procurement Coordinator, Supply Chain Project Buyer, Sourcing Specialist, Supervisor of Purchasing and Materials Management, and Inventory Analyst and Purchaser.
Connect with the keyword that best resembles your previous experience and ensure it is provided within your resume where applicable.
- List past and present job titles
Make sure you accurately list your past and present job titles. When calling for references we often get a different job title to the one provided to us on the resume, which gives us reason for questioning your information further.
Furthermore, you need to provide strong and succinct dot points under each job title to provide recruiting managers an understanding of what each job entailed.
- List career experience
Never assume people know what jobs you performed at previous roles. Remember each position is unique and presents varying level of responsibilities. Each role and position can vary depending on the company’s size, workforce and expectations.
Remember to include key areas of responsibility, the number of direct and indirect reports and departments under your control.
For non-managerial candidates, such as planners, coordinators and analysts think about areas such as the number of products, fleet size, systems you work with to provide an accurate and full picture of your previous work.
- What’s the best timeframe?
I am regularly asked how far back candidates should go back in their resume and there isn’t one set answer for all.
It should be where you feel best represents your experience and skill-set in relation to the jobs you want in the future. Employers will be considering your most recent experience when benchmarking you for a prospective role. While you may wish to list a position from 20 years ago, the benefit of writing a summary of responsibilities for that particular position is negligible and may lengthen your profile unnecessarily.
However, do consider that hiring managers like to see where you started and how, and when and where you built your career to where you are today.
- Presentation
Keep your resume as clean and professional as possible. I suggest no more than two fonts. Keep it easy to read, map out the timeline and don’t clutter it. Also don’t send a resume in a hard-to-open format or file, they will just move on. It’s always safe to stick to Word or PDF formats.
Best of luck and hopefully these seven tips will help you in your future job search within the supply chain and logistics industry.
Odette Richards is a Senior Consultant specialising in recruiting within the Supply Chain and Logistics sector for Davidson Projects & Operations. Odette has worked in a senior internal role in logistics/supply chain for more than seven years and has been within the recruitment and HR services of the industry across Australia and South Africa for the past two-and-a-half years. Odette works with clients and candidates across Australia to source business support and professional services consultants within the Supply Chain and Logistics sector. She is regularly called upon within the industry and through her extensive contacts to provide commentary and support within sector relating to workforces and employee engagement. Odette looks forward to providing regular columns for My Logistics Magazine on future trends and attracting and retaining talent within the sector.
