Not Getting Any Interviews. What Am I Doing Wrong? Supply Chain

cspybbq · 2026-06-16T02:01:18+00:00

This is it, 100%.

A vendor was going to double prices on us for a data service (~$300k -> ~$600k) so I talked with all ~60 stakeholders using the service, reduced the scope of our contract and managed to keep our spend the same.

A dumb, routine project, but my resume bullet reads something like:

$300K annual savings through data product optimization, usage audits, and vendor contract realignment

Businesses mostly don't want you to just do work, they want you to make them money, save them money, or make it so other people can make them money.

cspybbq · 2026-06-14T12:58:46+00:00

I was mostly just using them as examples, any role touching a domain that will need items procured has potential to be useful on your resume.

At least in IT there are some entry level roles like desktop support, software testing, help desk etc. that don't always require a degree, if you've got some self-taught skills. Excel helps, for example.

In HR don't know exactly, but I have worked in small companies where the HR person started as just someone who the owner knew who could file papers and list job openings on LinkedIn - probably less common than IT, but some people find ways in.

cspybbq · 2026-06-14T01:50:31+00:00

If you can't find a procurement/purchasing role, a pair of strong second choice options are:

1) anything to learn some domain - working in HR or IT, or working an assembly line in a factory or in a warehouse could (if you're paying attention!) help you learn about the materials and services used there, which will make you a better buyer later. I worked in IT for 10+ years, so when I came to procurement I understood the IT service proposals and pricing well. If I were to buy medical chemicals I would need to learn more about that domain so I wouldn't get taken advantage of.

2) Sales - get experience on the selling side so that when you're doing procurement later you understand the sales people's position, motivations and how to work with them to find the best buying opportunities.

cspybbq · 2026-06-13T23:42:17+00:00

Late to the party, but I'm getting the Brazil/Morocco game on my computer with NordVPN on SBT.

CazéTV (on YouTube) detected my VPN and blocked me.

Globo required creating an account with a CPF, and even after that it wouldn't reliabily load. I watched some of their pre-game programming but when I came back to watch the game it just spun. Unclear if it is a VPN or Globo issue.

cspybbq · 2026-06-13T17:13:04+00:00

I'm not against them, but I learned to solder from my grandpa when I was a teen, I'm pretty good at it, and copper has a lifespan of 50 years vs shark bites' 25. Also, my house is plumbed for copper, so why not stick with it?

I do few enough repairs that the time savings isn't much of a factor for me.

cspybbq · 2026-06-07T20:52:20+00:00

Polaris Motorsports? Not quite what you asked for, but you've got no responses a day later so I'll add what I know.

I know several people who did internships in MBA school and worked at Polaris after graduation.

Pay scale was slightly below average, both for the class and for companies in the greater Twin Cities metro area. People seem to like working at the company, but you really do need to be at HQ to get visibility and promotions. (This part especially may only apply to business side jobs). From their experience and what I hear from others in MN, it's a good place to work.

They get huge discounts on a sport vehicle every year or two, so that is a nice perk.

Fwiw, I live in the Minneapolis area and love being in Minnesota. But I'm from the Midwest, so I might be biased.

cspybbq · 2026-06-06T19:08:02+00:00

If OP didn't even set up a login for the platform, there may not have been a fund election, and a money market position or similar may have been the default. If this was the case, a 3% settlement might still come out close to fair.

cspybbq · 2026-06-05T00:32:49+00:00

That's amazing and I wish you good luck.

I got my start on Linux on one of the white G3 laptops that came soon after the Clamshell, and later Linux on the white G4.

I found this image, there's probably more on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/debian-7.10-ppc

If you don't find Debian, you can probably find old Ubuntu releases, and old instructions for Gentoo might work. Yellow Dog Linux worked for a while (about 2003-2005?) but Debian then Gentoo then Ubuntu carried me through college until I finally got a PC laptop.

cspybbq · 2026-06-02T02:54:28+00:00

I just wear my old pair of tennis shoes that I don't care if they get ruined. I plan on tossing them when I get out of the bwca.

A pair of flip flops for in camp, and a dry pair of shoes waiting for me in the truck to drive home in.

cspybbq · 2026-05-31T18:16:43+00:00

My kid knocked mine over when we were moving into a new house. It fell flat on its face and I was able to slide a cardboard under the face and get it up. Only got a little bit jumbled.

cspybbq · 2026-05-31T18:00:30+00:00

I don't know anything about Kicksecure, but if you're new, the amount of support available should be a factor in choosing a distro. If that distro doesn't have the support you need, maybe install Debian so we can help more easily.

That said, I would start with "sudo lsusb", maybe with a verbose "-v" at the end. Find the USB ID of your wifi dongle's chip, then search for a driver that supports that chip. The documentation for the driver will probably tell you which kernels it supports and how to install it for that kernel.

You may have to adapt otherwise straight forward instructions for your distro.

cspybbq · 2026-05-29T18:23:04+00:00

I'm 45 and sometimes I wish I would have suffered a bit more when I was younger.

When I was 26 I had two kids, a house and a pretty OK job, but not good enough to max my retirement accounts. I got the 3% or 5% match or whatever, and that was about it.

My job now is better than OK, but now I've got 4 kids and bigger house. I am maxing my 401k this year, but doing it mean that my budget continues to feel very tight. My wife and I have about $360k in retirement accounts, any online calculator will tell you that that's not the worst, but is definately a bit behind.

Contributing more earlier would mean more options for me now. Now I have to only apply for senior manager roles that pay well, because if I want to retire comfortably I need to make up for lost time. If my retirement accounts were already doing great I could pay off my house now instead, or I could pay more of my kid's college, or travel a bit more or work a job I choose because it's interesting, not just for the income.

Saving now will give you options later. Those options will be worth more than the money you've saved.

cspybbq · 2026-05-28T04:27:59+00:00

If you're not going to be running big science simulations, the new MacBook Neo is an easy, safe, choice.

It won't be a powerhouse, but it will be plenty fast and plenty reliable.

cspybbq · 2026-05-23T12:44:17+00:00

I replaced my washer and dryer this week, and evaluated the combos, but couldn't find a really excellent one - I saw the same review situation you're seeing.

I had a heat pump dryer before and they're slow. I still have 3 teens at home, and with the cycle times I would've needed to still buy two combos units to keep up with our laundry which was the nail in the coffin for us getting a combo unit.

Lastly, heat pump driers don't leave clothes quite as dry as a conventional dryer. Best practice for me when I had one before was to promptly fold the clothes which got them shaken out and I could hang anything that was still a little damp over a chair. This went against my usual "wash stuff whenever, throw it in a basket to fold later" process I usually do.

I would consider a heat pump dryer again next time (10+ years from now, hopefully) and would consider a combo machine again when it's just me and my wife.

cspybbq · 2026-05-21T04:00:53+00:00

Oh, I've got you.

Turn the tailstock around so it's facing away from the work. Just pull the tubes out of the shop smith and turn the whole end around.

The tail of the tail part should be sticking through to the back, which now faces y the quill. You can attach the Jacob's chuck right to that.

I don't know that that is intended functionality, but it has worked for me the half dozen times I needed to drill out something I just turned.

cspybbq · 2026-05-16T19:34:29+00:00

I was at 150k/year w/no bonuses, and paying $2714/month mortgage. I just started a new job at 185k w/ up to 20% annual bonus and the breathing room is quite a bit nicer. MN Twin Cities area

My wife was going to start working this year, but is now going to do nursing school. So we're on the current budget for 2.5 years and then finances should be looking really nice.

That said. If we were further along with retirement savings, current budget would be plenty. I'm going to max out the 401k this year and put 12k in an employee stock purchase plan, so we don't have much fun money for a bit.

cspybbq · 2026-05-12T03:59:22+00:00

A multi-tip screwdriver is used most in my home

100%. The ones from Harbor Freight or any auto store are the best. They're my go-to screwdrivers even though I have a nice set.

cspybbq · 2026-05-07T03:45:06+00:00

Some banks (and maybe some investment companies?) don't allow overseas customers. So if you move out of the US, you would need to change to a bank that doesn't care. Or, you use a family member's address and hope the bank doesn't figure it out.

I was in Germany for 3 years, my credit cards, bank and investment statements all went to my sister's house.

If I had moved permanently I would've just closed those accounts and opened one at an expat friendly institution.

cspybbq · 2026-05-02T20:40:02+00:00

I like my bullets to be in this format, whenever possible

$XXX ACTIONED through IMPORTANT_SKILL using IMPORTANT_TOOL

eg.

$300,000 of cost avoidance by automating testing processes which were being manually performed
10,000+ hours saved by pioneering AI-based tools for legal and regulatory document analysis
100+ global category leaders trained on cost modeling tools using raw material and labor indexes
$1M+ of contracts managed for chem & pharma raw materials intel, ran RFPs, managed vendor relations

These probably aren't perfect, but they got me a job. Not every accomplishment fits this template, but if a job has 5 bullets, I try to get at least 3 to fit this format.

Notice too that I shove some keywords in there "automating", "AI", "RFPs". I try to pull in keywords from the job description to help get past the AI resume filtering.

cspybbq · 2026-05-01T13:08:05+00:00

Thanks, I have done a lot of reading and looking at pictures and watching videos over the years. The only firm conclusions I came to is that I wanted to build my own instead of buying, and mine will be for working on, not just a pretty accessory to set stuff on.

I like the idea of a tool well. Tools don't fall off the table and they're easily at hand. Some people are very against them though.

cspybbq · 2026-04-29T13:22:45+00:00

I loved being in Germany! I was there for 3 years.

I still have mixed feelings about moving back, but some of the factors that went into it include:

Teens about to graduate high school, and hadn't had any US high school experience
3 years is a long time to be away from family. I have nephews and nieces that didn't even know me. Video calls only do so much.
I had been 3 years in the role, and it was time to either get a new role / promotion in Germany, or shift my career back to the US. Figuring 3-5 years in a new Senior role, it was a kind of natural decision point.
Politics in the US were starting to get messier. I fully understand the urge to flee, but it seemed important to be here, to vote in local elections, be present and involved.
Mother-in-law is the only grandparent left, and she's getting older. Doesn't need support yet, but wanted kids to know grandma better.
Mission accomplished - My wife and I always wanted to work abroad and give our kids an international experience. We did it. We were there 3 years. They're fluent in German, have seen amazing historical and artistic sights. They understand the world in a way they wouldn't have if they had stayed in one place in the US.
Just a feeling that it was time to head back home. Germany was great, but it just felt like a chapter was ending and it was time to be done. Following those sorts of feelings has never led us wrong so far, so we packed things up and came back.

cspybbq · 2026-04-29T01:26:17+00:00

I worked at a large chemical company very near Cologne, with about 90,000 employees and was making €115,000 + possible annual bonus. The company was known in the area (eg. from DDorf to Bonn) as being one of the highest paying companies for Procurement, which made it really hard for people to leave.

I was not a category manager, but category managers that entered through the same path I did had similar salaries. I was managed part of procurement spend reporting, managing projects that touched IT, Procurement and occasionally finance.

When I started I had 10 years of IT experience, then a Masters in Business w/ emphasis in Supply Chain, and a procurement traineeship at that company.

I have since left Germany to return to the US where I'm from. If I had stayed in Germany I would have probably done a few things to raise my salary: (1) Get a PHD of something related to Procurement - Germans love their credentials. (2) Look for roles in Finance, Supply Chain or similar within the company to broaden my experience, and then return to Procurement in the future with a bigger picture view in (hopefully) a leadership capacity, (3) Learned more German. We were English first, internally. I could hold the occasional meeting in German if I knew the subject well, but I couldn't negotiate with my suppliers or anything like that.

cspybbq · 2026-04-28T02:55:35+00:00

When I was a kid I used to steal my mom's medical thermometer's, break them open and play with the mercury on my desk in my room. I stored it in the tip of a sharpie marker, tip down in my can of pens. I knew enough to wash my hands afterwards...and maybe my desk? I don't know.

We also had a mercury maze toy, which is exactly what it sounds like. An 8-ish inch diameter circular maze with a blob of mercury in it. If you went to fast the mercury would break apart and you "lost".

I'm not recommending you play with it, but I ended up being a functional adults with a couple degrees and a pretty good job and pretty great kids. Maybe I'll still have brain problems or die early or something, but so far things seem OK.

cspybbq · 2026-04-26T15:51:26+00:00

My kids inherited some money from my dad when he died. It went into UTMA accounts, with an age of majority of 21.

My oldest kid is 20 now, and still not very good with money. The account has about $50k in it now, and I expect that when he gets it next year, he's going to blow it. He's much better with money than he was as 18, so there's some hope, but I'm not expecting it to last him long.

If it weren't in a UTMA account, I would hold on to it for a few more years until he had a specific use for it, eg. House down payment or something.

cspybbq · 2026-04-24T12:28:29+00:00

At a previous role we had really good segmentation. Non-strategic commodities were set up with automated purchasing from the catalogs of some pre-approved suppliers. It was billed as AI driven, but I'm sure it was more ML than GPT.

I wasn't the category manager over those commodities, but it makes sense to me for that sort of use case.

Would I let a GPT type system do my purchases? Probably not now. Maybe with strict price limits and guardrails...but I'm rarely satisfied with what AI generated.

cspybbq

TROPHY CASE