How to get hired
Supply chain jobs fall into three families. They pay differently and want different people, so decide which one you are aiming for.
Warehouse and fulfilment operations
E-commerce, 3PL (third-party logistics), FMCG, pharma and retail companies run warehouses on the edges of every big city: Bhiwandi near Mumbai, Hoskote and Nelamangala near Bengaluru, Farrukhnagar and Manesar near Gurugram, Chakan near Pune, Sriperumbudur near Chennai. Graduates join as "Warehouse Executive", "Inventory Executive" or "Shift Supervisor", managing pickers and loaders, inbound and outbound, cycle counts and returns. A WMS (warehouse management system) and handheld scanners are used everywhere; SAP EWM or a company's own system comes up in interviews.
Interviews ask what FIFO and FEFO mean, how you would find out why physical stock doesn't match the system, and how you'd handle a shift where half the loaders don't turn up.
Transport and distribution
Transporters, courier companies and manufacturers' dispatch teams hire "Logistics Executive" and "Transport Coordinator" roles: booking trucks, negotiating freight rates, tracking vehicles, managing POD (proof of delivery) and freight bills. You'll need to understand GST e-way bills, part-load versus full-truck-load, and lane rates. These jobs suit people who like phones, numbers and pressure.
Planning and analytics
Demand planners, supply planners, inventory analysts and S&OP coordinators sit in head offices and capability centres. Employers ask for strong Excel, some SQL or Power BI, and an understanding of forecasting and safety stock. B.Tech, B.Sc (statistics or maths) and MBA graduates get these more often than others, and they pay better than operations roles at the same experience.
Ways in for freshers
- Graduate and management trainee programmes at 3PL and e-commerce companies, usually through campus.
- Staffing-firm roles in warehouses, with conversion to company rolls after six months to a year. Ask how many people converted last year.
- An apprenticeship under NATS with a logistics company: the minimum stipend for a graduate is ₹12,300 a month under the 2025 rules.
- A Logistics Sector Skill Council course if you have no other experience: it tells a warehouse manager you know the vocabulary.
Certifications
ASCM's CPIM (planning and inventory) and CSCP (end-to-end supply chain) are recognised by multinationals and help mid-career planners. For operations, a Lean or Six Sigma Green Belt is named more often. None of these substitute for knowing your WMS and Excel well.
What the work is like
Warehouses run 24 hours in many places, and supervisors work rotating shifts. October and November bring the festive peak, when leave is frozen and twelve-hour days are normal; plan your life around it in the first years. Targets are measured daily: orders shipped, accuracy, damages, truck turnaround.
The ladder in operations runs executive, senior executive, assistant manager (often a whole shift or site), site manager, then regional or cluster manager. Planning runs analyst, planner, senior planner, manager. Pay jumps when you take a whole site or a category, and moving from operations to planning (or the reverse) at the three-to-five-year mark makes you far more valuable.