Ellen Musialowski ⋅ Buffalo, NY Linde ⋅ 14 years experience

Some experiences and skills that you probably already possess that you should "shine" when interviewing is your ability to work under pressure and stressful situations. Our Logistics organization at Linde has to deal with severe weather, re-routing critical need gases, hospital shortages, potential emergency situations at customer sites, etc. Those that succeed in Logistics Planning and Managing had handle these scenarios well. Efficiency over elegance is key and something that you already know how to work through.

Louis Schwarz ⋅ Somerville, NJ AIG ⋅ 43 years experience

Look at Amazon Prime. Get a job with them and learn how they came from no where and impacted UPS and FEDX. All those amazon trucks use to be UPS or FEDX trucks. Amazon knows how to impact logistics. Learn from them from the inside. Do not become a victim of the system, learn and move to your own space. Knowledge is power! good luck..

Tim Feemster ⋅ Dallas, TX Foremost Quality Logistics ⋅ 40 years experience

There are a couple of logistics organizations not mentioned here, they are WERC.org and CSCMP.org. Both have regional events you can attend. I know CSCMP has one in Dallas and one in Houston. You can go and not be a member. WERC has one in Dallas as well. Some across the country do virtual ones these days. Both websites are full of great information. Also they both have frequent informational blogs via email you can sign up for free.

David Eastman ⋅ Gresham, OR Gamma Therapeutics, Inc. ⋅ 35 years experience

Hello, John

Thank you for your service. Rather than give you advice about going back to school and getting a degree in Material Handling and Logistics, I am going to send you a link to my son who is in the logistics group at Amazon Corporate in Seattle. You can ask him for some advice and guidance and he will give it to you, possibly even a hook up with Amazon in Texas.

You can contact him at: sumnereastman@gmail.com

Good luck and much success in your new career.

Regards,

David Eastman, CEO Retired, US Navy Avionics Veteran

FRANCIS TEPEDINO, ESQ. ⋅ San Diego, CA THE CONDOR GROUP ⋅ 30 years experience

My two cents; Get a job, even an entry level job, in Purchasing. Learn the craft. Spend two or three years there and if there are no promotional opportunities, look at another company with your new proven procurement/sourcing skills. I have seen too many folks wading into Logistics who have not the faintest idea about the necessary sourcing/procurement/vendor
skills.

Andrew Danwin ⋅ Killeen, TX U.S. Army, Colonel ⋅ 32 years served

There several certifications you can get at the local community college. And of course on through the Army or on LinkedIn. I am assuming you did not have a logistics job in the military.

Jason Aepli ⋅ Walnut Creek, CA Northrop Grumman ⋅ 8 years experience

I great way build logistics knowledge and skills is to work at a company warehouse or distribution center. For example, earlier in my career I worked for Walmart Logistics and we had Area Managers and Ops Managers working in our facilities that would be a great launch point for a logistics career. After a few years there I could see you working in more of a logistics planning role.

Keith Van Sickle ⋅ Menlo Park, CA Tensilica ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi John,

You might want to check out the Association of Supply Chain Managers (https://www.ascm.org). They have certificate courses in a variety of areas, some of which might be helpful to you. They also have meetings that can be a great way to network and find opportunities in your area.

Best of luck,
Keith

ACP AdvisorNet Staff ⋅ New York, NY ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi John,

Thank you so much for your question! I noticed you have applied to our formal mentoring program. One of our Operations Associates here at ACP will be reaching out to you today with next steps for getting started. Additionally, please feel free to check out our "Community" tab, where you can reach out to Advisors in the any field to answer your industry-specific questions and build your network within the Logistics field.

Best,

Samantha

John Martinez ⋅ San Antonio, TX U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 10 years served

Hello All,

First and foremost, I wanted to thank you ALL for sharing your perspectives and insights into what I had asked for, I truly appreciate it. I feel it is out of respect that I provide you all an update.

I did have prior Transportation / Logistics experience as I served in the military for 10 years as a Transportation Coordinator. I worked for 3 years once I left active duty as an Operations Supervisor for a Distribution Center in a Fortune 100 company. So you may ask why did I ask for advice?

Well I learned and am still learning that public sector logistics/ transportation / distribution works very different from military logistics, although some areas are the same, focus is on bottom lines, sourcing, efficiency, profits and customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, during my time in the military and 3 deployments, the focus was on mission first, which provided me with plentiful operations experience but not the business aspect.

I have since completed the following as I feel it will assist me in reaching that Supply Chain / Logistics Planner Role:

1. Joined ASCM, I will be studying to take my CPIM certification in the next 6 months - 1 year.
2. Attained my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
3. Attained my Agile Scrum Master Certification
4. Almost complete with my Certified Project Officer certification
5. I am 1 class away from finishing my Bachelors Degree in Transportation & Logistics Management.
6. I have attained a mentor through ACP, that has served in the public sector Supply Chain role for over 15 years.
7. Lastly, I have challenged myself for more and attained new employment, I will be heading a warehouse for one of the biggest electric construction companies in San Antonio. I will be running the warehouse optimization program and assisting them in optimizing their plans for building a new Distribution Center while managing their fleet and assisting in procurement.

It is not the Logistics Planning Role yet, but I am closer. Thank you all for your help!
Please if you find me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndmartinez85/), please send me a connection request if you'd like to stay in touch!