Rotman MBA Career Fair: Meeting the Next Generation of Supply Chain Leadership

On Monday, March 3^rd Sam Manna and Rob Atherton, two of Argentus’ top recruiters, attended an event at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Aimed at approximately 150 first and second-year MBA students, the event was designed to help educate new business leaders about how to work with recruiters and, more importantly, to help these students assess career possibilities and job markets in a variety of industries and business functions.

Sam and Rob attended on behalf of Argentus to represent the Supply Chain field – which, as any regular reader of our blog knows – is growing and maturing rapidly. (By the way, here’s an awesome article from this week about the tremendous strides Supply Chain is taking into the highest levels of strategic business: How a Profession Went from Zero to Hero, via LinkedIn today.)

Supply Chain talent is in very high demand, and that demand is only increasing. Many industry leaders are partnering with educational institutions to make sure the next generation of talent understands the huge opportunities that are available. Rob and Sam reported some very encouraging signs on that front as they met MBA students from a surprising diversity of career backgrounds, all looking to get into Supply Chain.

“The backgrounds of new MBAs who wanted to get into Supply Chain at this event were completely varied,” says Rob. “Most of them had foreign experience. There were people who had been Planning Operations Managers, others who had consulting backgrounds, others who were Project Managers in Financial Services, some from investment banking.”

It’s certainly telling that so many young MBAs from very lucrative fields are looking to get into the field. And we know from first-hand market intelligence that financial compensation for Supply Chain professionals is very competitive. But despite that, some of the MBAs reported other, non-financial motivations for wanting to get into Supply Chain.

“Most of these students had been talking to friends who were involved in Supply Chain,” says Sam. “And the different challenges that it could offer sounded good to them. People liked that the Procurement side of Supply Chain offers people interaction and relationship-building. And people liked that the Logistics side offers a fast-paced environment. A few of them mentioned an interest in the analytical side of things.”

“It was a refreshing perspective for a graduating class,” he said, “that the reason for their interest in Supply Chain wasn’t only financial, that it was also about relationship-building, a good work environment and the fact that it’s not boring work. They weren’t looking at dollars and cents but were more interested in enjoying what they did.”

Sam and Rob were happy to dispense some advice about how to enter the field, and to make some new contacts for future searches.

Thank you to the Rotman School of Management for the opportunity to connect with some of tomorrow’s Supply Chain leaders!