One topic that continues to be really valued by both our clients and our candidates we work with both actively and in a more passive fashion,  is the on-going comparison of current or expected salaries for Supply Chain Management professionals. The business intelligence we have at our fingertips provides tremendous value in the compensation area particularly. Our clients love this information because it shows them whether they’re offering competitive compensation and how they might need to tweak offers to be more attractive. Candidates love it because it opens their eyes to the potential for career growth. It lets everyone know how the market fluctuates for skilled Supply Chain Management professionals, and because there continues to be a skills shortage in the field, market demand is HIGH, (right out the gate) as you’ll see.

We posted a few months ago a piece that compared salaries for Procurement specialists. The feedback was interesting – many hiring managers were surprised that salaries were higher than they thought. More recently, we got some info from Supply Chain Management Review about salaries that people can expect with and without formal education. But the thing is, this second part of the information dealt with the U.S. But what are job prospects like for new Supply Chain graduates here in Canada? Supply Chain Management is a booming specialization here in Canada just as much as it is in the U.S. So we asked some Canadian post-secondary Supply Chain Management programmes to weigh in on career prospects for their recent grads. Argentus deals mostly with intermediate sole contributor. Manager and more senior, executive-level positions within the Supply Chain vertical, so it’s very encouraging to hear how good things look for people just getting into the game.

Salary Expectations:

We heard back from the Rotman School of Management, at University of Toronto that offers excellent programmes both at the undergraduate and graduate level in SCM. Karen Jackson-Cox, who is the Associate Director of the Career Centre for Rotman, had this to say about career prospects for Rotman MBA grads:

“Our MBA graduates who enter into a position in the Supply Chain area can expect to earn between $75,000-$90,000 upon graduation. These candidates are typically around 29 years old with 4 to 5 years work experience and also have an undergraduate degree.”

But what if you don’t have an MBA? According to Ms. Jackson-Cox, the expected salary range is $65,000-$70,000 for those young candidates with no MBA but a bit of experience under their belt. That looks pretty good to us, especially given that the average salary increase for Supply Chain Management professionals in 2010 in Canada was 3.3%, well above the average in a year when the economy was still moving very sluggishly.

But what types of firms are hiring up all those great SCM candidates? 

“There is currently fairly strong demand for our MBAs from Retail and Consumer Goods firms like Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Mondelez (previously known as Cadbury), and Kraft,” said Ms. Jackson-Cox. “But demand is more limited for them from the consulting firms who have a Supply Chain practice area such as Deloitte and Accenture. The consulting firms are looking for candidates who already have work experience in the area and/or an undergraduate degree in operations and engineering.”

This information is great, but averages can’t tell the whole story. If you’re a recent MBA graduate, or someone just getting started, what have you experienced? How has the job market treated you since graduation? And how has it affected your plans for a future in Strategic Sourcing or Planning or pure Supply Chain for example? Let us know in the comments section, and of course, we’d love to hear from you if you’re looking for a new opportunity.