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Looking for a blue-collar career with job growth and earning potential? Warehousing and distribution might be your answer. According to widely used salary counters, a warehouse worker can start making $28,000 within a couple of years. Become a manager, and you can get close to $60,000. A distribution manager can earn up to $83,000 with less than 10 years of experience. But be forewarned: If you want to succeed in this industry, be prepared to study up.
Change Is Coming
"The warehousing environment has a lot of change," says Bob Shaunnessey, executive director of the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC). "What people are looking for is flexibility in their employees -- the ability to learn and grow and take on different tasks."
One of the reasons for this change is that many warehousing and distribution tasks are becoming increasingly high tech. Barcodes, handheld computers, sophisticated webs of cross-docking conveyor belts and mechanized scooters are all becoming part of the landscape. Ken Ackerman, a warehousing veteran and owner of The Ackerman Company, a consulting firm, predicts that even voice-recognition technology -- such as machines that dictate which boxes need to be picked up where -- is not far off.
How to Improve Yourself
If you want to succeed in this environment, industry professionals say you'd be wise to educate yourself. Fortunately, seminars and certification courses abound.
A former warehousing manager himself, Shaunnessey says that applicants who go the extra mile by taking seminars or getting a logistics certificate have an edge. "They show that they have the initiative to improve themselves," he says.
That's not to say you need a top-tier education to advance. In fact, you can still get a warehousing job with a high-school degree and work your way from the floor up, says Kathleen Hedland, director of roundtables and education services for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. But you'll still be better off if you do some supplementary coursework along the way. While certification is "not a requirement for entry-level warehousing jobs," some companies may use this factor as a means of culling out the pool of applicants, explains Hedland.
A number of organizations can help. One organization that is aiding high-school graduates in adding to their knowledge base is The Boys & Girls Club of Memphis. The club, located in a logistics-heavy region of Tennessee, has a technical center to help high-school graduates improve their skill sets.
The WERC also offers online and on-site seminars in subjects ranging from "optimizing space" to benchmarking personal performance. The seminars run two days. "They are definitely good resume enhancers," says Shaunnessey.
Several logistics organizations also offer certification programs, including the Association for Operations Management and the Logistics Institute in Canada.
And if you really want to do well, you also might consider going back to school. The bottom line is that the higher your academic level, the bigger an advantage you'll have. An associates degree is good, say industry professionals, but a bachelor's degree in such subjects as mechanical engineering is even better.
"People coming out of school with computer skills and other analytical skills would have a leg up," says Jim Kennedy III, president of Kenco Group, a company specializing in warehousing, materials handling and third-party logistics. "The salary possibilities are higher, and the job is more demanding."
In the long term, having these skills may also increase your job stability. As artificial intelligence increases, robots may very well begin to replace the average warehouse worker, notes Ackerman. But good managers -- whether in the warehouse or at third-party logistics providers -- will always be in demand.