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Logistics is the first official job after I quit my job as a shipbuilding engineer at Hyundai Vinashin shipyard. Officially turning from engineering to business.

 

Regarding the reason for choosing a career in Logistics, there are two simple reasons:

 

At that time, I oriented to start an import-export business, so I chose Logistics as an opportunity to accumulate knowledge and experience.

 

I had the opportunity to know a director of a logistics company, so I was brought back by him for an apprenticeship as well as an assistant photo when the company's personnel was in flux.

With 1 year experience in the position of voucher cum sales, it has helped me understand the process of the supply chain of goods and other practical experiences in the field of import and export.

 

Those valuable experiences have helped me go faster and more confident when entering the current Amazon business.

 

So today I want to share my real experience with you who are interested and intend to switch to this Logistics profession. Thereby helping you better understand the logistics profession and as well as give orientation for yourself.

 

I. What Is Logistics?

 

I will not use theoretical definitions to answer this question for you. Instead, I use a practical interpretation, which can be called "sticky rice" to define the logistics profession.

 

According to me, Logistics is a profession that will perform a series of jobs to help goods circulate from one place to another, from one country to another quickly, efficiently, safely and in accordance with regulations. under the law.

Because logistics is a series of jobs, the logistics profession is just a common name for many different job positions. The most popular can be mentioned as: Sale, Documents, Documents, Field, Warehouse….

 

Companies operating in the field of Logistics are often called Forwarder or larger, Consolidator.

 

I will have another post to distinguish between these types of companies in the near future.

 

Below I will share more specifically about the job characteristics and nature of the job positions in the field of Logistics that have just been listed above.

 

II. Job Positions In Logistics

1. Sales Location

 

Perhaps there is no need to explain too much about this position when the name of this position says it all.

 

The position of logistics sales is a position with the task of finding new customers, who need to use logistics services.

 

This position often has the highest volatility in and out of the company, especially for new people. Because after about 3 months to 6 months, if you can't find customers, you will often get discouraged and look for opportunities in other companies.

 

The salary of this position will always consist of 2 parts: base salary and a percentage of revenue (or profit) from the services that the customer uses.

 

This is also an easy position to bring the company's customers to other companies. Perhaps so, this is also a popular position for many forwarder companies.

 

2. Location Documents

 

In some companies, this position is also known as customer service (CS). This is also my specific job when entering the field of Logistics besides cum sales position.

 

This position will also work with sales to take care of customers and track and handle problems for customers' export or import shipments. In order to ensure that goods are delivered and received on schedule, according to procedures and to minimize costs.

 

The main tasks of this position such as: contacting foreign agents or shipping lines to get train schedules, booking reservations, making bill of lading, declaring Manifest, working with related parties to prepare necessary documents such as Invoice , Packing list, CO, Fumigation, Phytosanitary and especially to track and promptly handle problems arising during the shipment.

This is the position where I understand the overview of the entire process of an export or import shipment, which is also the position that I consider to be the most knowledgeable and will be a very good premise and supplement if any. intention to move to a sales position.

 

The salary for this position is mostly fixed salary. However, in some large logistics companies, good handling of specified shipments will result in additional commissions.

 

In addition, this position also often faces the risk of using out-of-pocket money to compensate others due to making mistakes or checking lack of document content, leading to costs for the shipment. Especially the costs related to import and export taxes.

 

Like myself, I also had to pay out of pocket for customs to handle an error related to the content on the document to ensure on-time delivery for customers.

 

However, if you have a big problem, the costs are high, you should talk to your manager for support from the company. Because although it is my fault, this is a business risk that the Forwarder business has to face.

 

It is necessary and obvious that the company shares risks with employees.

 

Therefore, brothers in the Logistics industry often joke with each other that: salary is calculated in VND but payment is calculated in USD.

 

3. Location of voucher

 

This is the position related to making import and export customs declarations for the shipment as well as making other documents.

 

In addition, this position often has to support sales in determining the HS code for the product and updating the process and procedure to export or import a certain item.

 

Similar to the Documents position, this position also often faces wrongdoing and must be compensated out of pocket.

 

Regarding the salary, like at my old company, Winway Logistics, the document position will receive a hard salary and commission (fixed rate) usually about 10,000 - 20,000 VND for each customs declaration.

4. Site location

 

This is a position that is rarely present in the office, but often has to work at the port or airport.

 

The job of this position is to directly work with customs at the port or airport to submit documents or do inspection procedures as well as argue with customs to help the shipment quickly complete all documents to clearance.

 

In addition, this position can also support the documents position to get seal or DO (Delivery Order) and other documents.

 

The salary of this position also includes 2 parts: a fixed salary and a commission (fixed rate) for each shipment in charge.

 

In addition to the above positions in the Logistics industry, there will be other positions, depending on the structure and size of the company, such as: freight charge location, container truck dispatching position, warehouse location, etc.

III. Logistics Job Salary

 

As I briefly introduced in the above section, the salary of the logistics profession in most positions will be a hard salary and commission.

 

In particular, the sales position will often have a lower fixed salary than other positions, but in return, the commission percentage will be much higher and the income may be unlimited if there are many customers.

 

For new sales people, the basic salary is about 6,000,000 - 7,000,000 VND. For those with experience, it's about 8,000,000 - 10,000,000 VND. The commission is usually from 10% - 15% of the profit of the shipment.

 

Other positions will have a basic salary of about 9,000,000 – 12,000,000 VND. If you work for a long time and have a lot of experience, you can reach 15,000,000. The commission depends on the policy of each company but will not be as high as the sales position.

 

Some people I know in these positions share that if you want a high income, you have to handle many shipments and have to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Generally take quantity to improve income.

 

In addition to the above salary, of course, there is always a "contraband". This pirated part comes from solving problems for customers.

 

However, to get the "smuggled" part, it requires you to have a lot of knowledge, experience and relationship with customs.

 

And this "piracy" part is indeterminate. It can range from a few hundred thousand to several tens of millions.

IV. Development Orientation Of Logistics Profession

 

1. Become a department head

 

In my opinion, the general direction is to become the head of the department in which you are an employee. Becoming a department head will always come with a much higher salary and income than an employee position.

 

2. Open your own Forwarder company

 

Another direction is to pull customers away and open a forwarder company yourself. This development often occurs with sales or voucher positions because these positions often work directly and have a relationship with customers.

 

Therefore, when they open their own company, they will immediately have a source of customers for the company.

 

Therefore, quite a lot of people joke that the Forwarder company is now springing up like mushrooms after the rain.

3. Go to work for businesses

 

There is also another direction is to apply to be the purchasing or logistics department of businesses.

 

Working in businesses will usually be less stressful because the business does not deal in too many items, so specializing in a certain product of the business will help you make less mistakes.

 

Besides, the revenue of the business can also be considered better and the welfare regimes will often be better than that of the Forwarder companies.

 

4. Open a trading company

 

And another development direction is to establish a trading company to export and import goods. This development direction comes from the fact that when working for Forwarder companies, you will understand which items are being exported - imported a lot, where the source of goods is, what the price is ....

 

With the knowledge and experience from the Forwarder, you can set up and operate your own commercial business.

 

Of course, this direction is not easy and requires you to have grace and business ability.

V. Which School Should You Go To For Logistics Career?

 

Currently, most universities and colleges have groups of majors related to the logistics profession.

 

These industry groups are often referred to as “International Business”, “Logistcis and Supply Chain Management”, “Shipping Economics”.

 

But in my opinion, if you only need to study groups of industries related to economics, you can apply to work in Forwarder companies.

 

Like myself, as a shipbuilding engineer, after only 3 months, I was able to handle the work of the Documents department by myself.

 

As for which schools have good training in Logistics, I think the curriculum between schools will be similar. Nowadays, information is very common and easily accessible, so it is important that your thinking ability will determine whether you will do well in the assigned work or not.

 

As for businesses, there are not many companies that put too much emphasis on which school you have to graduate from.

 

However, I would also like to list a few universities that have training in this field for your reference such as: Economics, Financial Economics, Foreign Trade, Transport City. Ho Chi Minh City, Finance and Marketing, Ton Duc Thang.

 

As for the college, it is Foreign Economic Relations. Previously, there was a Customs and Finance College, but it seems that it has been merged into a university now.