By Peter Cannellos
Bachelor of Science in Global Supply Chain Management ’10
Master of Business Administration ’11
I started my career in supply chain management after earning two degrees from Clarkson University — a Bachelor of Science in Global Supply Chain Management in 2010 and a Master of Business Administration in 2011. My time and education at Clarkson University has definitely helped me in beginning and growing my career. First and foremost, Clarkson is recognized as a great school, and the success of its Global Supply Chain curriculum is known in New York and nationwide. Graduating from such a prestigious college alone helped me to obtain a position at a Fortune 500 company (Danaher) within 90 days of graduation.
The rigors of Clarkson’s programs and the discipline required to finish and succeed in them truly prepared my classmates and I for the real-world, professional working environment. Entering into supply chain management opens up a world of opportunities in many different industries. Supply chain management has complete involvement in the end-to-end business process and is valued more and more each year.
In my undergraduate courses, I learned about global sourcing, forecasting, demand planning, economic order quantity analysis, risk reduction and mitigation, supplier relationship management, supply base management, distribution management, and inventory analysis — supply chain concepts that are widely used across all industries. I practiced almost all of these and more within the first year of beginning my career as a buyer/commodity manager at Danaher.
During my undergraduate studies in Global Supply Chain Management and my graduate studies in the MBA program, I was exposed to many relevant ideas, practices, and challenges that I would later face in the professional workplace. Professors supplemented their lectures with real-world case studies to help us understand how to apply the concepts we learned about.
The team-oriented structure of the MBA program was crucial in supporting my development and understanding of teamwork in a cross-functional environment.
Along with the exposure to supply chain management principles, the business courses I took further prepared me for a profession in supply chain management. In my profession, it is critical to understand quality management, accounting and finance, human resources, research and development engineering, information technology, information systems, and project management. If you enter into a supply chain management profession you will be exposed to all of these functions within a corporation, and understanding them will put you a step ahead.
Lastly, the team-oriented structure of the MBA program was crucial in supporting my development and understanding of teamwork in a cross-functional environment. The diversity within Clarkson’s student population and the structured team work allowed me to easily transition to a global supply chain environment that required cross-functional teamwork and project management with professionals in engineering, quality management, accounting and other various professions. Without my education from Clarkson University, I would not be where I am today.