<p>I'm in bit of bind here: I'm considering majoring in Operations and Supply Chain Management but before I commit, I need to know if it lives up to the reputation it's getting.</p>
<p>Many sources (my school faculty,WSJ, and other news media) call this field the "next big thing," as companies increase the complexity of their supply chain and internal operations, demanding more employees to manage all that. And beyond that, it's not just about supply chain management; this field also covers any regarding a company's internal operations, including logistics, IT, or project management. While that sounds nice, there's a few things I want answers for</p>
<ol>
<li><p>So far, I've met almost no one who majored in this field (not counting a few students in my school). Is it because it's just not as sexy as Corporate Finance or Investment Banking, or is it really a terrible job that nobody wants?</p></li>
<li><p>All of my school's alumni working in this field come from engineering backgrounds. So if demand for jobs in this field really start to grow, would employers want engineers or people who actually majored in Operations/SCM?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This is a relatively new field, and I generally don't trust new fields of study because they generally haven't had time to develop so there'd be absolutely no useful applications yet. But computer science is also new and ever since the digital age really started, the demand for people with computer backgrounds has skyrocketed, and it's still the #1 most in-demand major today. I wonder if Operations/SCM would also experience something similar to that.</p>
<p>For the record, I do like studying Operations/SCM. I tried studying engineering at first and epically failed that, but I still had an almost engineering type of mindset. This field is foten perceived as the "engineering approach to business," which is why I like it and am able to do well in this class far better than most of my peers.</p>
<p>What school do you go to? At my school (smaller regional state school), there are only ~50 SCM majors, but they only started the SCM program about 5 years ago. I am looking to transfer to one of the better SCM schools (Michigan State), and there are a lot more SCM majors there, obviously.</p>
<p>I think you’re right, a lot of people do not major in Supply Chain because it is not as “sexy” as finance/accounting/whatever. It’s also not very well known, generally speaking. Whenever I tell people what my major is, they immediately ask “what’s that?”. The thing is, the 124943942042 Finance majors from state schools are NOT going to be getting those sexy Wall Street finance jobs at all in the first place, even though they think they are. Less competition in SCM.</p>
<p>I’ve been reaching out to a lot of people in the field, and I would not say that it’s a “terrible job” at all. Certainly a lot of headaches, but what job doesn’t? At MSU, SCM majors have the highest average starting salary out of the business school, about 50-55k. It does not seem uncommon for people with great grades and internships to get closer to 60k. In fact, I spoke with an SCM grad who started at 75k at Microsoft right out of school. Obviously he’s an outlier, but it’s not impossible. All of the juniors/seniors at my current school have gotten good jobs and internships as well.</p>
<p>I think part of the reason that a lot of engineers work in SCM is because there really aren’t that many schools that offer the major, and not that many people that major in it in the first place. I imagine companies will want people who can step into SCM roles right away, and having an SCM degree with internships will allow you to do that. If Industrial Engineering was that much better/in demand than SCM, then they would have much higher starting salaries than SCM, but they are nearly identical.</p>
<p>Here are a couple older threads on this topic:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/991991-industrial-engineering-vs-supply-chain-management.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/991991-industrial-engineering-vs-supply-chain-management.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/1050555-supply-chain-management-vs-industrial-engineering.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/1050555-supply-chain-management-vs-industrial-engineering.html</a></p>
<p>I kind of disagree with saying that SCM is a new field. I think the emphasis it’s been receiving is definitely more recent, but the field itself has been around for a while. In fact, I know that MSU has been teaching SCM since the 60’s.</p>
<p>If you think you’ll like SCM and want to do it, then do it. Just stop caring what other people think.</p>
<p>Ok, well I attend a somewhat renown private school. Its MS SCM program (which I did get into but still considering going through with it) is ranked among the best in the country (and possibly world?) according to Wikipedia. The program has a 100% job placement rate and admissions statistics on par with top MBA and other Master’s programs, with an average undergraduate GPA of about 3.6 and average GMAT of 720.</p>
<p>And why wouldn’t you consider it new? I think first uses of it dated only back to WWII-era; the term wasn’t heard of by the public until a consultant from Booz Allen coined it in 1982, and it didn’t become very well-known until the 90s. At least relative to Finance/Accounting (which have been around since ancient times), that’s pretty new. Speaking of which, how exactly did your school even teach it in the 60s? Was it called something else back then?</p>
<p>But it does matter what people think. This economy is terrible and there have been no signs of it getting better. It matters now more than ever to be wise of what we should major in.</p>
<p>Aside from all that, ever since the dawn of the digital age, the demand for programmers and anyone with computer background spiked and is still high today. As more and more companies increase the complexity of supply chains and internal operations, do you think SCM is going to become as hot as computer science? </p>
<p>Also, it’s funny you mentioned Microsoft, because my professor once used that example to show why we should major in this field. Microsoft used to have only 2 tracks to climb the corporate ladder: business track and the technical track. They now have a 3rd track: operations. He also mentioned (though I still question its credibility) that more CEOs today are coming from SCM backgrounds.</p>
<p>Also, before SCM became a thing, these types of jobs were traditionally performed by engineers. But even if SCMs are becoming more prominent, would many companies truly commit to hiring SCM majors instead of engineers? I’m sure SCM majors have their advantages, but this would be a big change, and historically firms have always taken their precious time in committing to such changes. Engineers aren’t doing a terrible job, but it trend is that they think SCM majors can do better; in this case, would companies adapt to what’s new or stick with tradition?</p>
<p>Another thing: would SCM be considered something that is difficult to learn on the job? For instance, investment banking hires almost anyone and none of those people actually apply what they learned in school, but you learn well on the job. Is SCM like that too?</p>
<p>If SCM is one of those majors where school is the best place to learn it, then it would be worth studying. But if anyone can learn it on the job without learning it in school, then I think it’s worthless.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think the employment figures speak for themselves.</p>
<p>I want to believe it’s that simple, but numbers have always known to be misleading to some degree.</p>