I am engaged in the international freight forwarding industry, that is, freight forwarding. I have worked all the way from document specialist to operations specialist, and then to sales specialist. I would like to share some experiences with the juniors and juniors who are about to graduate. This industry has its pros and cons. In my personal opinion, this industry has an advantage. It will not decline due to the changes of the times. International trade will always exist. The work technology has not changed much. The English requirements are not very high. Just look at It is enough to understand basic industry English and be familiar with some trade terms.
There are three main positions in freight forwarding: 1. Documentation 2. Operation 3. Sales; Generally, some small companies will combine documents and operations into one position. The work of document operation is generally about 4.5K before tax, and the salary does not increase after several years of work. It’s not too big. Senior document and operation salaries are generally about 7K before tax; graduates’ basic sales salary is about 3K, and sales mainly rely on commission, which is usually 25%-40% of profits. Consider your own situation before making a choice.
Benefit 1: You can learn knowledge about more industries and meet people from various industries
The industry involved in freight forwarding is relatively large, and the basic knowledge of the industry is updated slowly and is relatively easy to get started. The freight forwarding industry is a mixed bag. If your company has a certain scale, you can learn a lot by doing freight forwarding, which is definitely better than simply doing international work. Learn more by trading.
Benefit 2: Customer accumulation is considerable
The profit from freight forwarding sales is still considerable, and customers have a strong intention to make repeated purchases. This industry is not about one-time consumption. If you develop a stable customer, he will usually ask you to ship the goods the second time, and those who want to ship will keep shipping. , but it is difficult to develop customers in the early stage of sales, and industry competition is stimulating. You must first gain the trust of customers, which takes some effort, but once you gain the trust of customers, you will maintain a long-term cooperative relationship, unless you make a major mistake at work. Or customs inspection incurs a lot of expenses and causes trouble with customers.
Of course everything has two sides:
Disadvantage 1: It’s easy to hit the career ceiling
There is not much room for improvement in file operations. As mentioned before, the salary of senior operations is generally around 7K. Occupations have salary ceilings (except sales), and of course there are higher ones. Congratulations, you have found a good boss. The basic knowledge of this industry is relatively easy to learn, and the replacement rate for newcomers is high. Nowadays, many freight forwarding companies like to recruit college graduates. They are quick to learn and the most important thing is that their wages are low. If you have not saved your customers after working for several years, you really should not change jobs casually. This is what this industry pays attention to. channels and customer resources.
Disadvantage two:
The time difference between working abroad is not good for your health, and the work pressure is really high. As long as there is a problem with one order, you will be overwhelmed. Every day is full of expenses. Sometimes you have worked hard to develop a customer, and you have just cooperated with the first customer. Once the order was placed, it was unfortunately inspected by Shanghai Customs. I can tell you frankly that all the previous development work was in vain, and it will be difficult for this customer to come back to you again.
If you want to work in the freight forwarding industry, I suggest you do document operations first, and then do sales. This way it will be easier to issue orders. Of course, there are also people who do sales directly, but suddenly a customer comes and asks you a question, and you don’t know what to ask. The customer ran away, which was a huge blow to my self-confidence. I will share this much for now and will add more later.