Indirect purchasing assistant Review

My roles includes various tasks such as support commodity leads, facilitating meetings, managing supplier relationships and running tenders. You work as part of a close knit team to create cost savings for the company and ensure a sustainable, safe and efficient supply chain. Purchasing is also an enabling function so you work very closely with other areas of the business, depending on what you are buying, to work as part of a cross functional team.

I have developed many hard and soft skills. For example, I have improved my competencies on Microsoft O365 applications such Word, Excel and Powerpoint to create legal documents, cost comparisons and financial reports. My networking and collaboration skills have also improved significantly. My bilingual capabilities certainly helped in giving me more opportunities as this is strong sought after by BMW and increases the amount of opportunities in your career. Also self-confidence, analytical and presentation skills.

I have been given significant responsibility throughout my apprenticeship. My first year heavily involved getting used to working in a corporate world and developing my soft skills however once this was achieved, my managers begun developing me towards being able to manage my complete own commodity. I now procure IT hardware almost independently for the UK and Ireland which gives you a great sense of autonomy and achievement. However, you are always encouraged to make mistakes and supported by managers.

I received great support in my daily tasks, predominantly from my line manager and peers. Furthermore, I requested monthly one to ones with the HR apprentice manager at my office which has been beneficial for discussing any HR-related queries, concerns or interests. Everybody is extremely friendly and there is never a 'stupid question' as everyone is also very happy to help. On projects there is always a more senior colleague to assist you on this too.

We have 5 key values: Responsibility, Appreciation, Trust, Transparency and Openness which I feel are integrated well throughout the business. Due to it's German origins BMW can be subject to being overly bureaucratic and process driven at times however. People are usually always happy to help you even if they have never met you before. One of the biggest things that surprised me is that the company is rarely overly hierarchal which creates a nice sense of equality.

I was the first degree apprentice to do my combination of course and job role. Because of this, my experience has been fairly 'trial and error' but HR and management are usually open to hearing suggestions for improvements. One thing I think could be improved is the opportunity for placements within the purchasing degree apprenticeships as this is an aspect that many other apprentices get to experience and I believe this significantly helps our development.

Yes

Be authentically yourself and also have confidence in yourself in the interview. BMW looks for leadership qualities in candidates when hiring but also many aspects of their emotional intelligence such as how they demonstrate active listening towards others, body language and management of their feelings. There is a strong culture of talent development here in BMW so you very much get out of the experience what you put in. There are also great opportunities for international working so languages are preferred.