Maryland Smith’s Supply Chain Management Pipeline Primed for Amazon H2Q

Amazon, via its Northern Virginia-based second headquarters, reportedly plans to hire about 400 workers next year and 1,180 in 2020, eventually adding 25,000 jobs. Such an outlook has helped prompt Washington Post Express to highlight Maryland Smith’s graduate programs in Supply Chain Management as a source for filling those jobs.

The following is excerpted from “Want to get a job at HQ2? These local graduate programs can help”:

Whether you want your Amazon order to arrive in two hours or two days, you probably know that the e-commerce giant relies on supply chain management. Lucky for you, the University of Maryland has a very well-regarded program in that field.          

“[Some of our graduates] have already worked for Amazon locally, supervising their warehouses or distribution centers, so we already have a pipeline,” says Thomas M. Corsi, a logistics professor. “But this new opportunity would be at the executive level.”

U-Md.’s supply chain management programs teach students about the supply chain from end to end, including customer and supplier relationship management, warehouse management and supply chain software.

They equip students with skills that Amazon will need at the corporate level, such as “understanding transportation costs, the best combination of insourcing and outsourcing and how to come up with the best delivery system at the safest and lowest costs,” Corsi says.

U-Md. students can study supply chain management in a one-year M.S. program or as part of a full-time or part-time MBA program at campuses in College Park, Shady Grove and downtown Washington. The school plans to launch an online M.S. degree in supply chain management by 2020.

“It’s such a huge field, and an amazing and interesting field,” says Muhammad Hasan Ashraf, who graduated from U-Md. last year with an M.S. in supply chain management. He credits the program with helping him land a job as an industrial engineer at UPS’ Laurel, Md., hub. “Everyone just wants to stay home and order online, so e-commerce is booming. And people want stuff at their doors as soon as possible.”