Have you ever met someone who grew up wanting to go into public procurement? When all of their friends were dressing up as doctors and firefighters for Halloween, they came as a purchasing agent? Us neither. Hardly anyone actively seeks a job in public procurement; you just kinda fall into it. So whether someone is coming to the procurement department from finance, public works, planning, or even fresh from school, the field of public purchasing can be a bit overwhelming to say the least. Procurement is a whole new, scary world complete with a new language, processes, rules, and tools. What’s a newbie to do? One thing that public procurement doesn’t get enough credit for is how friendly and helpful the community is. Procurement pros are always ready to share their knowledge, experience, and advice to help others. For Keith Allen, Senior Buyer at Jackson County, Missouri, leaning on a mentor and his peers has been one of the most crucial parts to him finding his rhythm in public procurement. Not only that, as a fresh mind in the department, Keith identified a lot of opportunities and helped the County ditch dozens of drawers of paper records, among other innovations. Keith sat down with us at the NIGP Annual Forum in Boston to talk us through his transition into procurement from finance, advice for new procurement pros, the power of new perspectives, and the best way to make seafood pasta. You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast. Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.