How do I Become a Procurement Official?

In order to become a procurement official, you are generally required to have excellent interpersonal skills, a bachelor's degree from a university and as much relevant experience in sales and purchasing inventory as possible. People that want to become a procurement official have to develop very precise skills over many years to be as effective as possible at their job.

Procurement is a key activity in most companies that deal with the manufacturing or marketing of goods, and a procurement officer is someone who spearheads a corporation’s purchasing and inventory management. The journey to becoming a procurement official should start early in life and begin with a solid education in high school that gives a firm understanding of accounting and marketing. Selecting part-time jobs that grant experience with sales or inventory maintenance can provide a good head-start as well. Finalizing procurement contracts is a major component of a procurement official’s job, so having a working knowledge of contract law and how to interpret the various clauses is useful.

An individual that is aiming to become a procurement official for a large company needs to be well-versed in the art of negotiating and bargaining. These are skills acquired rather than taught. Work experience will be a potential employer’s primary consideration when reviewing a prospective employee’s application.

To become a procurement official, a person should have familiarity with computers and technology. Many companies have procurement systems that are web- or computer-based, and most of them are inexpensive and fairly easy to implement. Aspiring procurement managers must exhibit versatility and the ability to adapt to changes to be considered for jobs in sectors like construction procurement simply because there are so many variables. Other sectors that hire procurement officials may deal with thousands of separate items that are stocked all over the world, so computer literacy and excellent organizational skills are essential.

In larger corporations, procurement officials are given specific commodities to deal with, while procurement officers in smaller companies may well be the only purchasing officials on staff. The post of a procurement official, however, is considered pivotal regardless of the company’s size, because an effective procurement manager helps reduce costs, manage cash flow and procure goods of high quality. A procurement official is one of the most crucial components of a company’s supply chain, and an employer will normally go to great lengths to ensure that a prospective candidate has what it takes to shoulder the responsibilities that come with the job.