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How is the life after SAP Certification?

You need to really experience the life after a SAP Certification. It will not make any much difference for the professionals who are already working in SAP arena. However, the life of the people, who are really anticipating a job in SAP arena or breaking into SAP Consulting world, is with full of anxiety and tension. Taking any SAP certification will surely require considerable amount of time, resources, money, effort and patience. This is particularly true in case if you are going for the certification through training. Some people are lucky enough to know which SAP Certification they are going to do it. However, it is not the case with all the people. They have to first of all enquire which certification is suitable for their future career. This may take a couple of months research in the market. Once they have finalized the Certification to be written, then they will have to plan for the Certification in terms of arranging for the money, taking leave from the current employer (if any), collecting the documents / materials etc. This would further take another two months of time. Then, if they are planning to attend the training, you can add further one month time. Some people are usually eager to give the certification immediately after training. This is good to some extent, because you will be surely in that flow. However, some people are really sceptical whether to go for certification after training or prepare for another month or so and then give the certification. This may also be good to some extent that you can plan well but at the same you will become more and more frustrated and nervous. Because you are reading the same material again and again, this makes you much nervous. By, putting all these items together, it may roughly take six months of your time from the day you decided for Certification in your mind to the day you really attempted the Certification. If the people are not lucky enough to pass for the first time, probably, they may have to add another month or so, which is really nerve wrecking period. You are already giving the Certification for second time, this makes more nervous, because you are investing more amount of money with lot of uncertainty. Therefore, six months of period in a professional’s life is really a big amount of time.

Congratulations!!! You have passed the Certification, you are happy and everybody is happy. However, the real test is going to be started from the next day. The days are more nervous after certification, particularly for the people who are looking for a job / SAP consulting job based on their certification. They might have invested large amount of money and spent 6 months of marathon preparation and effort, but it does not give any guarantee that you are going to get a job in the market. The market has become extremely competitive and employers are more cost intuitive in rolling out the offer letters. You might be attending number of interviews and blowing off each interview with different reasons. In some cases, you are going up to last round, but at the end of the story you are listening story like you have not selected for the position. This type of interviews are really painful to the heart, it will take a week’s time to come out of that disgust. The number of interviews you are going to fail, you would be getting mentally that much stronger.

I am not going to put down the pessimistic views but even I had to undergo all these difficult periods in my life. There could also be some fortunate people who have taken a month’s leave to attend the training and certification, but as soon as the certification, they had to go back to their previous job, which is in a remote area. However, most of the consulting companies are in cities and they may need the people at a shorter notice. Furthermore, nowadays companies are expecting the candidates to attend the interviews by face to face interview. It would be difficult for such candidates every time to come for an interview from such remote area to the cities and attend personal interview. Due to logistics constraints, some of the opportunities might have been evaporated for such candidates.
Some of the people might have resigned their jobs with a hope of getting job after certification and taken a huge amount of loan. For those kinds of people, the life is really unimaginable. Because, the monthly income from salary might have been stopped and the bank might be started charging the EMIs on a monthly basis, otherwise, the interest might be charging to your loan account, if they have taken the loan by pledging gold or valuables. For them the life is astonishingly difficult and every day is a sleepless night because of the amount they have spent on training and certification. They would really praying every day, that any type of SAP job is OK and even they are really ready to compromise in terms of salary. The employers who really can gauge these candidates may benefit out of the salary negotiations. Those candidates who are desperately looking for a break into the market may not be much worried about the salary and ultimately this turns to be a heaven on the part of the employers.
Let us think you have done everything you would like to do in order to get a job. However, unfortunately, fate, market conditions, luck, economy is not in your favour. You have spent lot of amount for training and certification. You have attended few tens of interviews (if not hundreds), still you have not received any job offer from any employer. What are the things you must essentially concentrate after passing for your SAP Certification?

1. Prepare up to date CV

As soon as you have appeared and passed the SAP Certification, take 2 – 3 days rest, which you really deserved, this would make your mind refresh. Then prepare up to date CV, may be you need to emphasize on the following points while preparing your CV

a) Detail your SAP knowledge or skills you have acquired
b) If you have any SAP project experience / end user experience / core team member experience, write down specifically what type of important tasks that you have performed
c) Try to give more weight to SAP Skills than your previous non-SAP skills
d) Always try to show positive attitude and willingness to learn qualities
e) Use your SAP Certification logo that you have received from SAP Education Team

2. Improve the contacts

You do not know who is going to help you or guide you. Everybody is looking like a god in their own way. You must have increased your listening skills for getting best and improved suggestions. You may better use different social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin etc. to your advantage. Particularly, you should utilise the power of Linkedin and update all your achievements, experiences, Certifications etc. Furthermore, try to be in touch with number of HR consultants, who are looking for skilled people. In addition, regularly watch the job sites and different reputed companies’ career sites. It would also beneficial if you could send your CVs to the companies through employee referral rather than directly applying on the website, as thousands of people might be uploading their CV and they might not have any time to look into those. Last but not least, do not forget to give a copy of your CV to training Institute, they might be having some contacts with some of the companies and they should be able to arrange the interviews for you.


3. Read and practice regularly

As soon as you are certified, your responsibility will be increased and you need to improve the habit of reading. There are different sites particularly https://help.sap.com, https://service.sap.com, www.sdn.sap.com, where lot of information and knowledge is available. Continuously reading these important sites would give you an up to date knowledge. This will not only improve the knowledge, but also give an idea what is happening with new technologies in SAP. In addition to this, continuously practice on the system. The better way to practice is to get the documents from SAP Best Practices and configure them. You have configuration, business process documents and presentations for different industries / countries. The more number of times you are configuring them, the confidence will be increased. No experience can replace you a real implementation project. However, these guides will gain you tremendous hands-on experience and keep you ready for next assignment.

4. Keep attending interviews

Interview is a chance to showcase your knowledge and skills and every interview is different in its own way in terms of expectations. There is no need to worry much even if an interview gone wrong. There could be different reasons why an interview has gone wrong and it is not necessarily relating to your skills and knowledge. However, each interview would give you an opportunity to know the expectations and what type of questions are expected. These interviews would give you an opportunity to refresh your knowledge and better prepared for the next interviews. Usually, your confidence will be increased from the interview number one to interview number five or so on, as you might be sensing the level of expectations from the interviews. At some time point, you would reach to a stage that you are going to convince the interviewers. This is almost like driving test, wherein only few lucky people are able to pass in the first time, but others have to try little more times. Perseverance is the key here.

5. Do not leave your passion and hard work

The most important thing you must remember is you are learning not just for job and money, but to keep up your passion on SAP. If you believe in your passion and hard work for SAP, the money will follow. Even after getting the job, you should never lose the same interest and intensity on SAP. This intensity and eagerness to learn will always put you ahead in getting the new skills and knowledge areas. Enthusiasm and passion to learn more and more areas in SAP is the key for success. Please remember that the skills are not developed over night. It takes years and years of continuous hard work to get to an master level. The kind of projects you are working will also take pivotal part in quickly developing skills. Working on few end to end implementation projects may give you more overview of the system than working on few years of support project. Whatever be the project, be pro-active and take every challenge as opportunity and try to help your colleagues and share knowledge. This is the key for your success.

Looking forward for your valuable comments.


Best Regards,
Ravi
Source http://scn.sap.com/community/training-and-education/certification/blog/2012/08/03/how-is-the-life-after-sap-certification

How to Approach and Pass a SAP Certification


Me, after passing Six SAP Certifications, I thought it is time for me to share my experiences, tips and ideas with the user community on passing a SAP Certification. SAP Certification is a tensed affair not because of its toughness, but, because of the money involved in it (gambling on one day cricket match ). This is particularly true, in case if you have also attended SAP Training at SAP Education or SAP Authorised Training Institutes. There are many people who have invested everything for just a Certificate. Me also one of such bunch of jokers (my wife says !!! ) who invests everything in education / certification, and at the end of the day, what you get is a peace of paper. However, the value of certification will come along with you and definitely recognised your efforts in the long run. There are many people still blame the certification process itself, because they feel that SAP has not tested their knowledge properly or they might have failed in one of their SAP Certifications or they may feel SAP Certification is a waste of money. Probably, this blog is not for so called intelligent people. I know the importance of hands on experience, but at the same time your fundamentals must be clear to work on a system. I have seen people who are having very good knowledge and 5 end to end implementations under their belt, but failed. I cannot blame their knowledge, I feel, there is a GAP in approach in attempting SAP Certification. This blog is for those who are really motivated to crack the SAP Certification at any cost and prove themselves to add one more A4 size paper to the list of their certificates

I would like to summarize some my personal experiences, tips and ideas, may be helpful in approaching and cracking SAP Certification.
Identify your strengths: Before writing a certification first know your strengths. If you want to write a certification in a particular area, you should know whether you have worked in any of those areas and gained any functional knowledge / domain knowledge / end user experience / configuration experience / coding experience / training etc. Note that everybody cannot get all the opportunities in all the above areas. But, you should able to Identify your strengths with respect to these areas, then decide which Certification you are required to attempt.

Understand SAP Certification Policies: Unfortunately, SAP is having different type of policies with reference to SAP Certification in different countries. I had to travel from India to Malaysia in order to write my SAP BW Certification . Dictionary meaning says Policy means, the rules are same for every one. But, unfortunately, SAP Education policy change from country to country, person to person and organisation to organisation. They are very complex, layman like me cannot understand . First contact your local SAP Education Team and understand what is their policy applicable for your case and get a written confirmation that you are eligible to write the certification. Sometimes, it may so happen that you are eligible to write SAP Certification on day 1 and surprisingly may not be eligible on day 2.

Formal Training: If you are really new to an area, but intended to write SAP Certification, you need to attend the formal training. In some countries, SAP says, you must get trained from SAP Education / SAP Authorised Training Partner. But, in other countries, you can register yourself and write the exam. If you are fortunate enough to afford the money, then, it is recommended to get some sort of formal training. There may be some exceptional people who has written some Certifications without formal training. But, please note all the certification you cannot adopt the same approach. Some of the Certifications really test your ability and conceptual knowledge. Please note that unless you are formally trained, you cannot reach the level of passing the Certification Exam. If you pass such certifications without having any knowledge and training, then you are a star

Plan in advance: You must plan in advance. At least couple of months are really required from the date of start of your formal training and attempting the certification. If you are privileged to get a formal training from SAP, you would get lot of new concepts every day and will have less time to practice and study, then your next day starts for new movie . Therefore, hardly you get any time to master the things. Since, you have gone through every page in detail, probably, you may in a better position position to attempt the examination.

Exercises: At the end of the each chapter, there used to be exercises, but do not worry if you are not able to complete them. In my whole life, I could not complete all the exercises in a book (little incompetent !!! LOL ). Please note that the exercises are given only to get clarity on the theoretical and conceptual knowledge. They are not intended to make you master or test your hands on exercises. Therefore, do not put much stress even if you cannot complete them.
After Training - Before Examination: I would say this is the real crucial stage. During the training period, you never had chance to revise anything. But, this is the period where you will really put the concepts into your mind.

Read each Certification Curriculum book for not less than FIVE times, very RELIGIOUSLY, before going to examination. First time, it would take longer period, but the more number of times you read, the time would be reduced. You must keep a notes and note down the important points. Meanwhile, you also highlight any important points with marker and note some questions with pencil. But, all my Certification books are filled with different marker colours, so could not read anything

Give more importance to chapters with +++ or ++ ratings in the syllabus. You may expect more number of questions out of these chapters.
You are not advised to memorise the things, but, try to read in order to understand the concepts. Because, in certification, SAP is trying to test your conceptual knowledge, but not your memory.

Try to answer the questions given at the end of the each chapter.
Practice number of questions during this period. There are number of yahoo / google groups, where you can find number of sample questions. Try to attempt them. Do not worry, if you are only able to correct few in your first attempt. Even me used to get few correct answers only. If it is wrong, understand why it is wrong, if it is correct, why it is correct, this is the only way, you can clear the conceptual understanding, rather than blindly remembering the answers.
There are number of pictures / graphs that are being given in the Certification material. Please do not look them as nice looking coloured pictures. Try to analyse them in functional / technical perspective. Hopefully, you will find lot of meaning from them. Then read the underlying text in conjunction with those pictures. You will see much and better confidence view.

If you have any time try to go through help.sap.com, where the concepts are written in crystal clear language. If you find any time and also go through some of the threads on SDN, that would be a bonus.
Day before examination:
Know the address of your examination center. Otherwise, you may get panic in searching for the center tomorrow morning
Go to bed little early.
Do not read too much the whole night, it may not help, moreover, you may be sleepy in the examination.
On the day of examination:
Get up little early and have relaxed bath, take adequate breakfast.
See if you have time and can rush through pages, but not spend too much time here, you will forget going to exam.
Ensure that you have identity card (passport / driving license) or admission ticket, pen / pencil etc.
Ensure that you reach half an hour in advance to the examination time. One time, I could not reach the examination center due to traffic and I am forced to reschedule my examination.
Whoever be the person, there will be definitely some tension boiling inside. But, try to keep yourself as much relaxed as possible. Just think, even if you do not pass, it is not the end of the world, still there is a tomorrow. Be calm.
In the Examination Hall:
Before coming to the examination, you must have enquired the pattern of the examination. In earlier pattern, you can still get partial credit for partially correct questions. However, for new pattern, SAP only will award marks if all your answers / sub answers are correct in a question. Even if you make one sub-question incorrect, you will not get any marks for the total question. Therefore, your concepts must be crystal clear, you cannot take chances to put lotteries in the examination center , whereas in old pattern, many people used to put lotteries for unknown questions (including me ), as you were not going to loose anything. No negative marking is there in either current or old pattern of valuation.

Ensure you have completed all the formalities, like filling the form containing the name, contact details, address (where you should get your certificate) etc.
Use elimination technique - First try to identify the wrong questions, which you can identify very easily, then finally you will reach the right answers.

Concentrate on Single Answered Questions - For certain questions are called single answered questions, which will have radio buttons, only one question will is the correct answer. I heard that they have higher weightage, but not sure. Ensure that you reach the correct answer by using elimination technique.

Try to attempt the easy questions first - Try to attempt the easy questions first, then this will give you confidence and keep you in better frame of mind.

Mark the questions - If you cannot answer the question completely, then put them as "Marked question", then at the end you can easily identify such questions and complete the answers. Even if you do not put as "Marked Questions", still you can come back and complete them, it would waste your valuable time.

Take few minutes break - Go to wash room and come back, your mind may be recharged.
Do not worry much about the time - You should usually get ample time. Every time, I used to get time to go through all the questions 3 to 4 times. Therefore, in my opinion, time will not be a constraint, unless somebody spends more than an hour on a single question
Give last ten minutes for re-look at all questions - At this point of time, you do not have the time to read the question, only look at the question with your eyes and ensure that you have answered all questions. So, go through in this fashion for all the questions.

Relax - If you are confident, then you can click submit button, if you are shivering, just sit, relax and close your eyes, the system will take your session and issue the results. If you pass you will see Congratulations, otherwise, you will see your failed message. You can note down the marks obtained chapter wise on a plain paper.
Even if you pass or fail, do not much worry about it, calm / relax and come out of the examination hall.
After the Examination:
You should get your hard copy of the certificate within 4 - 6 weeks of time from the date of your Certification.
If not contact your Local / Global SAP Education Team, they should be able to help you out.
Contact SAP Education Team for password of your S ID. This you can use in order visit Service Market Place (https://service.sap.com). Do not share this User ID and Password with others.
Contact SAP Education Team for your Certification Logo, which you can use on your CV.
Earlier SAP used to send S ID cards. I got for my three certifications, but not for other three. But, I do not know where I misplaced

Hopefully, I believe that I have covered most important points and will be useful for SAP Certification aspirants. This is the approach I used to follow. If you have any better approach, you are always welcome with suggestions and updates.
All the best.
Best Regards,
Ravi
PS: Please do not waste your money on bogus web sites, who are selling the questions / useless materials.

http://scn.sap.com/community/training-and-education/certification/blog/2012/03/22/how-to-crack-a-sap-certification

When is the right time to take your SAP Certification?
I have come across a lot of content recently around the subject of SAP Certification. To say this is a hot topic does not really make the point well enough. It has been a key talking points for many years now and I cant see the subject going away without drastic changes but that is another blog all by itself.

SAP is a truly Global product, with a Global appeal. SAP as a company has been growing by double digits for the last couple of years, and the number of products keeps on growing due to acquisitions and innovation. All this means is that the volume of work is growing as well. For every large licence sale that SAP make, there will be a large implementation project consisting of a small army of consultants. Some of these consultants, maybe internal, some may come from a SAP Partner and others could come from SAP themselves. There will be project management resources, as well as program management resources, as well as technical and functional consultants.

Geographically the maturity of the SAP market will vary. Europe and America will have a number of experienced consultants and at times the volume of consultants is more than the volume of work driving down the rates. In the UK we have noticed the contract market rates for “commodity skills” drop around 15-20% over the last 12 months for example.

How do you enter the SAP fold?
There are two common entries into the world of SAP. The first would be as a graduate or higher educated level where the employee would be joining a SAP Partner to learn SAP (normally a chosen area or product niche). There is still a strong stream of employees taking these types of roles up, and there is a clear appetite within the SAP Partner ranks to acquire talent and grow this way.

The second is the more complicated route. The employee will not be sponsored by a SAP Partner. They may have some business knowledge, however they wish to bypass the Graduate route and seek direct employment. Normally this is successful is where the employee works for a Company that is either thinking about implementing one of the many SAP products, or they currently use one or more of the SAP products and require internal assistance. Sometime business users who are using SAP want to try and work closer with SAP products in terms of configuration.


So when is the right time?

For the graduate the right time might feel like getting certified as the first part of their employment at their SAP Partner. However I am not sure this is right. Apart from a piece of paper stating the employee has passed an exam what skills can that employee over to a potential client (leading to chargeable work)? Some technical roles may just require the employee to learn a new technical skill or language, however if this cant be put into a business context the benefit of the certification is watered down. Surely the best start to their professional education is hands-on work with certification occurring once they can put the technical requirements into context with the actual consulting work they are performing.


The non graduate route is slightly more complicated. Any would-be SAP Consultant thinking of becoming certified prior to gaining a SAP based role within a Company is doing things the wrong way. It is much safer to try and secure employment and then look at education. A certified consultant without SAP consulting experience or implementation experience is not attractive to most Companies. When there are others out there with both, why would you select
someone that has no experience?


Please note the type of SAP product may sway this argument.
Having a certification in a “hot product” will be attractive, however not as
attractive as someone with the certification and the experience.


Working for a Company that uses SAP is a good place to start. You may be working for example in the Accounts department, but you wish to become a certified SAP Finance Consultant. To do this, you need to learn how to use the product as a business user. Remember if you become a SAP Finance
Consultant this is the type of individual you will be servicing and assisting. You also need to engage with the current Finance support team and understand
who they are and how they work. If you can see a viable plan to move into the team try and make the move, but you need to be honest with yourself about this if this is achievable.


There is also an option that certification is not actually valid for you. You have to question why you want to be certified. If it is to get a job within SAP Consulting, and you have one you may question the benefits of the piece of paper. From my experience most roles, especially more senior roles do not ask for certification as a requirement.The experience you will pick up over 4-5 implementations or support cycles will be more valuable than that piece of paper.


You may also need to walk away from your dreams. I have read a few blogs where consultants have gone into great details as to why they wanted to be SAP certified. One common theme, is their perceptions around being SAP Certified and the realities they faced after are totally different. I would have loved to be a footballer but due to a lack of skill I never got the chance. If someone had told me I could attend a course and I would be playing Premiership football, I might have been tempted. Hopefully I would have questioned the merits of this scheme. If it is that easy to do, why doesn’t everyone do it that way? Your career should be something that aligns to your actual skills not skills you dont have but could pick up on.
source http://scn.sap.com/community/training-and-education/certification/blog/2012/08/13/when-is-the-right-time-to-take-your-sap-certification

DOs & DON’Ts for SAP Career (Certification) on the basis of my on going journey from an Accountant to SAP FI Consultant.
Posted by CHIRAG SHAH in SAP Certification on Aug 9, 2012 5:06:17 PM
I am just a commerce graduate (15 years of education); I could not get through my post graduation due to some of my personal reasons & problems.

I started my career as an accountant and 16 years down the line I was working as an Accounts Manager in a company.

I was directly reporting to MD & Chairman of the company and there were 8 colleagues who were reporting to me.

I was enjoying very good respect, power, conveyance, freedom over and above a satisfactory pay package.

My life was going very smooth and I was very happy.

Day by day slowly & gradually recession serpents started swallowing my happy moments one by one.

Staff strength was reduced in the company by imposing more burdens on existing employees. Almost all extra benefits and freedom was withdrawn by the company. More qualified personal were available in the market that was ready to work for less money and it increased job insecurity also. Work pressure along with job insecurity started increasing day by day.

I started looking into improvement of my own education & qualification for survival in the market. It was very difficult for me to pass post graduation now as it has more than 15 years passed I dropped my studies.

With the guidance of my seniors & well wishers I selected field of ERP for further studies. And with the help of market research I decided to be a SAP ERP consultant.

I approached SAP Education partners, I consulted councilors, in view of my CV I was advised to opt for FI module and I was given JOB assurance also. Passing percentage in this exam as per past records was between 30 & 50. I did not want to take any chance; as a result with all the planning & calculations I resigned from my existing JOB, I spent full time and handsome amount of money for getting through the exam. I succeed exam in my first attempt and became a Certified SAP-FI Consultant.

It took around four months time and handsome amount of money on top of loss of earning during this period. But I was feeling some relief from the pressure through which I passed since last four months as now it was time to recover all those cost.

I was very happy. Again I started dreaming respect, power, conveyance, freedom, good pay package as before or may be more than that as over and above 18 years of domain experience I am a SAP Certified consultant NOW.

Next day morning I updated my resume and mailed it to the SAP education partner who had given me JOB assurance. In reply I was told that “We are forwarding your resume to companies, you may get interview calls but at the same time even you keep searching Job from your personal resources”

It is more than 3 months are passed post certification (and 7 months passed resigning my previous job), In spite of following up with SAP education partners for N number of times, there was not even a single interview call.

I got the message that the SAP education partners are stepping back from their word & I started exploring new opportunities at my own. All the JOB portals were flooded with Job opportunities for experienced candidates. Domain experience and end-user experience was not given any weight age. Those candidates were considered as fresher in this field. And surprisingly there was not even single opening for fresher.

One day I received a mail offering me working on SAP live project, please find it below


We are pleased to inform you that your profile fulfills the desired minimum Eligibility Criteria and hence has been short-listed to be a part in our On-Going SAP R/3 Live Implementation Projects on Client-Site.
We are looking out for Jr. SAP Consultants with Good Knowledge of respective Domain and relevant SAP Module, Good Grasping Power, Ready to relocate anywhere in India or Abroad.

These candidates will placed in our Client Team involved in Live SAP Implementation Projects in our company. This is an Opportunity for all those Candidates who wish to make their career in ERP-SAP Industry, need a proper break in Live SAP Implementation Projects, and have the ability to handle SAP Projects.
For first life cycle you have to pay Rs 55 thousand. You work under our senior team.

Company will be providing all the documents related to HR. You will not remain a Fresher, but a Genuine Experienced SAP Consultant after the completion of the Project, with all the necessary Documentation.


One another day I received an Interview call, I appeared for interview, I got selected, I was offered not even 33% of salary which I was getting previously. I accepted it as each day passes without JOB was giving more and more pressure. I just had to finish all recruitment procedure. Surprisingly I was asked to sign a 3 years bond with a bank guarantee equivalent to 18 months salary. And to avail bank guarantee it was required creating bank FD equivalent to 20 months salary.

Ooppssss!!!!!!

It broke all my confidence & back-bone. I was almost on my knees for survival.

I decided to give up and go back to Domain, I inquired with my previous employer for job again but obvious the position was filled and there was no vacancy.

Finally I got a JOB as a shadow consultant SAP-FI with almost 25% of pay than that of what I was getting (and that too on irregular basis some time late and sometime 2 month salary together). On the top I was used as an extra personal for replacement in case of absenteeism and leave of senior consultants.

Like wise I did 2 projects but in both the projects I was not given sufficient authorization on system even to surf through the configurations. Many times I was not even given sufficient infrastructure. I was not given any guidance; no seniors were willing to share their knowledge. I was just killing golden time of my life without any assignments.

Today after completion of almost 2 years from resigning my previous JOB and I have no option but to keep on censuring & scolding my fate.

With the grace of GOD, blessings of well wishers, on the basis of certification knowledge, my domain experience and with the help of some of my colleagues and many knowledge sharing forums, Blogs and Sites etc. I started understanding a little bit of SAP. I am confident of doing wonders if I get an opportunity and of course a mentor.

Looking forward to gain back the same happy moments in my life…..

My advice to my juniors…

DON’Ts
Don’t ever resign from your existing job for studies. Today the world is very competitive so train your self to sail on multiple boats simultaneously.
Don’t relay on any third parties job assurance.
Don’t sign any long term bond without studying it properly and knowing all the paratroops.
Don’t enter into the field heaving rozy picture in the mind.
Don’t take hasty decision as there are all the chances of all your calculations and planning go fail.
Don’t dive or dip into your investments nor into borrowings for investing into further studies your current earnings should be the source of investment into it.

DOs
Do dream but always with open eyes.
Do further studies or develop your self only with your current earnings.
Do keep 51% reserve for your fate and do your best for rest of 49% as even after putting your best efforts there is no assurance of success as your luck always runs faster than you.
Do study ground level reality, possibilities & probabilities before entering into the field.
Do keep patience & persevere towards the goal once you enter into this field.
Do hold your mentors hand. This field is like an ocean, it is impossible to sail across without a Ship (Mentor).
Do keep on passing your knowledge. As no one on this earth has born with knowledge. Every one has gained knowledge from others in one or the other way. Therefore it becomes your duty / responsibility to pass it to your next generation.

As my journey is not yet finished, I request advice, guidance, direction, counsel from my seniors.

And appeal to juniors to learn a lesson.

Suggestion and comments on the blog are most welcome.

Regards
Chirag

http://scn.sap.com/community/training-and-education/certification/blog/2012/08/09/dos-don-ts-for-sap-carrier-certification-on-the-basis-of-my-on-going-journey-from-an-accountant-to-sap-fi-consultant

No it is not.

How to a successful SAP freelancer
Networking

When you are working as a SAP freelancer, obviously you create and build connections from different companies to long time clients this makes a SAP freelancer more popular of his profession. In order to establish the trust and confidence of your clients, you need to have a blog or have a social platform like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin so that the people that will be working with you will know where to contact you and see your portfolios.

Recruiters

As you go along on your journey as a freelancer doing SAP projects, the challenges for looking projects will be difficult which is why online recruiters that are in need of SAP freelancers whether a short term or long term collaboration should be prepared with the interview. You need to remember that each client and recruiter are looking for that skills that will meet their needs and you as a SAP freelancer should be able to deliver the necessary product. Make a list of your portfolios and recent projects you have accomplished so that once a recruiter would need a sample of your work, you have something to present and remember also make a list of those references where the project was successful.

Get Help

With the various projects you would be dealing as a SAP freelancer, you will come across with the easy down to the difficult ones. Sometimes, you want to implement something but don’t know where to start. This is the time your connections works. Say if you’re just starting as a SAP freelancer, it is recommended that you get advice to Senior SAP freelancers for an advice of a particular project. You’ll gain something that will help you finished your project or solve the problem.

Have 6 Months Buffer

As a SAP freelancer, projects can stay for long or end in a breeze. A timeline for a specific project that you chose is very important before accepting so that you have everything organized. If there is a big project that needs to be work on in fast manner, then basically that translates to big money. You should manage to save some of those funds. It is always best to save for the rainy days. This scenario is to prepare yourself when you get sick or you need to have medication.

Know Your Rates

When you work on particular project may it be as freelance SAP Consultant or moderator, you should be able to gauge your rates competitively. If the client is negotiate on your rate perhaps you could give them some leeway but if the project is too tedious and the budget of the client is small then don’t be hesitant to ask for an additional but just make sure you’ll deliver.

New Skills

As a SAP Freelancer, you will faced a number of project some may require you to learn new skills or study new software. It is important that you keep yourself updated so that if a client questions you on the SAP Project you are working, you’ll be able to provide a definite answer or a solution to their query. New skills also translate more revenue. The more complex a project is the more money you can ask on your client.

Blog your Contributions

With all the hard work you have accomplished in completing those SAP projects for different clients, you should be able to share these things to your audience. This will allow you to be recognizing as an expert on SAP and be able to help other aspiring SAP freelancers.

Whether you’re just starting as a novice or already an expert in SAP Freelancing, with the right attitude, dedication and effort, you can never go wrong with your career.
Source http://scn.sap.com/people/daniel.graversen/blog/2012/03/30/7-suggestions-for-new-sap-freelancers?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Very Urgent vacancy SAP PP Associate Consultant needed

We are currently seeking an experienced SAP PP/PM functional resource to join our Application Support Center
To qualify for this outstanding position, the candidate must possess at least the following:
A minimum of 4+ years of SAP Production Planning and Plant Maint. configuration / support experience in ERP 6.0 or above.
At least 2 full life cycle implementations.
Ability to handle a pipeline of numerous tickets, in terms of prioritization, categorization between break-fix and enhancements, etc.
Knowledge of interfaces supporting MM/PP/PM/WM.
SAP Hands-on experience in all aspects of SAP Production Planning, covering forecast to finish goods and req. to pay processes.
Experience with core Production Processes activities.READ MORE.http://www.scisap.com/jobs-2/

@skills_ict
As for Nigeria exporting SAP skills,i mean all the skills available in SAP.

So many companies are on global roll out in Africa

and it is my view that we(Nigerians in SAP ) can have a large lion share of these projects.

If you have your ears close to the ground like Al barny you will understand what i mean.

@skills_ict
As for Nigeria exporting SAP skills,i mean all the skills available in SAP.

So many companies are on global roll out in Africa

and it is my view that we(Nigerians in SAP ) can have a large lion share of these projects.

If you have your ears close to the ground like Al barny you will understand what i mean.

I have made alot of progress in every sphere with this forum.
I must commend Seun for his tenacity and vision.
I have also found http://nairaface.com a very wonderful forum by a Nigerian for Nigerians with some very advanced features
Marketplace,VOIP blogging etc

@T.Jay.Next time leave your email addr when making requests
To be sure that you know what you are talking about. it would be very nice if you attach the course ware codes Eg TAW10,TAW 12.TAW 11
http://www.sap.com/services/education/catalog/netweaver/abap.epx

@Ibomade.You also forgot to leave your email addr?But why?

@KokoA. You have to choose a DB TADM51 or TADM52 etc to complete the too many pages of NetWeaver training manual you must read and remember for your exam
Lagos SAP market will be a good start for new project implementations. Abuja and PH will be good also but you might be supporting projects,Many orgs in Abj and PH run SAP.It is always difficult to share the whole project experience here for everyone to read.For me, i will say the two biggest areas, a consultant must be very good at are 1.your domain knowledge 2.you must have fantastic interpersonal skills.With these two great attributes,you will succeed in your career
SAP jobs in Nigeria are rarely advertised unless the resource is extremely scarce due to market demands eg C,R,M or Is Oil etc
@skills_ict
We need you to share tips on how to get and retain SAP jobs,Nigeria is exporting SAP skills in and around Africa now.
We have a huge number of young,trained ,certified,smart and talented men and women yearning for there first SAP projects but cant find any.
We need to conquer Africa,some one should lead the way pls.
I wonder why some of us claim to have read the whole pages of this thread but still cannot locate materials,it is annoying,it simply means that such person doesnt know what he or she wants.
Please do not open more SAP threads,lets keep everything here.
@YamaKuza,Tick my name in your register,i answered present sir but you didnt hear me
@jaidopor Thanks for the compliments,i dey feel like Bill McDermott.Lets chat over the weekend

for the adverts,i will say do not throw away the baby with the bathwater at the same time.Let us use wisdom

Stop using Facebook,start using Linkedin now for the salvation of your career
cheers

@Japaidor

HANA is more straight forward than BW.

Check out the data modeling and reporting tools that goes with it HANA versus the BW modeling tools,BWA and BEX.

Use web intelligence tools or dashboard tools,in fact you will younger, if you dey use BEX,you go dey feel like say

your oga wan punish you.BEX no try at all. , and not forgetting the unique selling feature of HANA,which is

speed.Depending on what you do ,one might not need SQL and ABAP that much for example ,the HANA admin.Even

the ABAP no follow,if na python and SQL i for go begin roll my agbada for python ultimate search.


To understand the business process of the SAP app and the business process of the client is really the most

important knowledge area,a functional consultant needs and not so much for technical consultant.

An experienced consultant should know that the business process of a client must be done thoroughly at

requirement gathering phase in order to reduce change request especially here in 9ja .

Outsourcing of technical jobs is really nothing new as long as independent consultant live.it is normal and will even

grow bigger this time around----India is taking over big time.

Thank you for your advise on focusing on understanding business processes.Hope to chat with your soon.


For all of us that do not want to contribute,you only come here to grab knowledge and run,it is wrong.

Contribute,share your knowledge for heaven sake.na wa for u.una worse pass politicians.i no go beg again ,na to

go blog straight away.Okada carry me go blog str,dis guys get mind,make i check weda markos n kiwi dey dia.

Redbull migrates BW to HANA – I am suitably impressed


SAP allowed some of us bloggers to interact with Christian Stoxreiter of Redbull. They just finished migrating their BW system to HANA. We will see him during Vishal’s keynote tomorrow I think explaining in more detail. I am a big fan of Christian now after he made the comment “We want to be dynamic and flexible, but we are NOT stupid. I know the difference between marketing slides and actual technology limitations”.



There is a lot that impressed me with this .



Redbull has been an SAP customer for 11 years. They have ECC, CRM and BW. The BW system which is 1.5 TB in size was moved to HANA platform and now the data size is 300 GB. What is even more impressive is that 200 GB out of this is in row model, which means once the data models are rationalized – it will get even smaller.



It took just 10 days to migrate BW to HANA. Of course this included working night shifts and all, and had the best of SAP techies on the job. The relationship between SAP and Redbull has been at board level from SAP, with Vishal Sikka being involved directly. But even then, that is quite a short period to pull this off.



Redbull did not see a big improvement in query performance because they were already using BWA. Moreover, they found that HANA does not have all the features that BWA gave them. But they think this is ok, because SAP is commited to working with them to put in features in future revisions of HANA. However, ETL performance improved in some cases from 50 minutes to 2 minutes. This is a big value add for them since their total ETL time to get global data from 39 countries to a single BW instance was 32 hours or so.



Redbull thinks HANA is a great investment for them. They are not doing HANA for just BW alone. They want to influence SAP on Trade Promotions Management on HANA. They also have key areas in ECC where they want SAP to make things better. Redbull thinks they can influence SAP due to the first mover advantage. I think they are thinking smart here – sounds like a good strategy to me too.



Redbull’s BW on HANA is running in parallel to their disk based BW system now, and there is no clear answer yet from SAP on when they can put BW on HANA as stand alone without running parallel. But apparently that decision will be taken by next Monday on the time frame. Redbull is fully aware of limitations in HA/DR etc, and made an educated investment and they believe that it will pay off in spades down the line. I think this is pretty smart of them since it is a product that is gaining rapid market share ac, and will face an information explosion. My making an investment now, they will be well placed to concentrate on business without worrying about handling all the data that comes in future, including unstructured data, social media feeds etc.



Redbull has a clear vision for ECC running on HANA in future, with no aggregate tables etc. Again – smart in my opinion, since this is key to get SAP to create cutting edge new innovations on the core.



I have been fairly critical of SAP on several aspects of HANA. But this one is different – and I am glad to say SAP did an excellent job, as did Redbull. Good luck, and I am eager to see how BW on HANA will evolve. Maybe we will get more in keynote tomorrow.

http://andvijaysays./2011/11/09/redbull-migrates-bw-to-hana-i-am-suitably-impressed/

Hi,

I have added BusinessWarehouse 7.x,  Web intelligence 3.1 SP3,    Universe design  3.1 SP3 and dashboarding to

my Netweaver admin skill set since the middle of the year .It was not cheap anyway.you can send me a mail,if you

are interested in any of the skills. (ngsapmasterdata@gmail.com) This HANA sef,una get am make we try am.I don

read every readable on am.

Do you know any HANA remote server for training?

HANA on my mind day and night!

In this age of globalization business processes are becoming more and more complex with various interlinked factors and parameters. It is evident that every business has its own opportunities and challenges. But if you delve deep into any business you will find that the basic underlying process is quite similar for all of them. This initiated development of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) packages that could change the way businesses used to be performed decades ago. SAP is one such ERP packages, which has not only helped many enterprises to transform but also helped them to achieve operational excellence.


Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/do-you-want-to-be-an-sap-consultant-facts-you-must-know-672531.html#ixzz1bANeGbni

I read this article and felt i should share

How to Write an Effective SAP Resume by Jon Reed

I wrote this important piece on writing an effective SAP resume years ago, and it has disappeared from the web. We are now publishing it as it was originally written. Over time, I hope to update it further, but there is plenty of useful info in this version that you can put to use right away.
In today's SAP hiring market, whether you are applying directly or through a third party, the resume plays a vitally important role. Usually you are judged on paper before you have the opportunity to "make your case" over the phone. Structuring a compelling SAP resume is hard enough if you have all the right experience- if you don't, it can be even more difficult. Let's look at the strategies that make for a good resume on a point-by-point basis.
1. There is no one correct format. The nature of the experience is more important than the style of font that it is relayed. There is also no correct number of pages to a resume. Limiting yourself to a one page resume may work against you in many cases, as the important details may have been unwisely deleted.
2. Usually you will need to customize your resume for each position submitted, or at least for the genre of positions submitted. For example, a hands-on SAP project manager will have a different resume for full time project management positions and another resume designed specifically for FI/CO contract positions.
3. Lead with your strongest card. The standard U.S. resume begins with your most recent job experience, and then works its way back in time, position by position. If this recent experience is not SAP related, it should still go first, but in brief, because you need to have some solid SAP experience listed on your first page. The key is to tie in your SAP experience to specific projects with precise chronologies. For example, if you were at a company for four years, but only worked on SAP for the last two years, the experience needs to be broken down by dates (to the month), so that we can see the precise duration you worked in an SAP environment. If you worked in technical and functional areas, you should clearly define which areas of exposure you had in each area. Some SAP professionals with strong technical and light functional backgrounds try to hide their functional weaknesses by mixing up the SAP experience in a hodge-podge of responsibilities. This is not effective. If you want to do something that is different than what you're currently doing, an objective at the top of the resume is the clean way to handle this (in other words, you might state your objective as: "seek to transition from an SAP technical to SAP functional consultant"
4. Do not mix your SAP training, education, and hands-on project experience. Assuming that you have project experience, your SAP training and coursework belongs at the end of the resume. The exception would be if you do not have project experience- we'll address that later in this article.
5. When you lead with your SAP experience, organized by chronology and project, make sure that you drill down into a deep level of detail. Sadly, many hiring managers prioritize by buzzword, such as: "does she have legal consolidation experience?" If the legal consolidation experience is not on the resume, it could cost you. Generally, you want to be able to get as deep as the specific submodules, including the versions of SAP you worked in to obtain the experience (obviously experience in 4.0 or above should be highlighted). Generally, you cannot go wrong by listing a good deal of detail on your SAP positions. However, if you are finding yourself running on over a page for one position, you may want to include an addendum which elaborates on each project in more detail.
6. A skill without a project is an orphan- tie each SAP skill directly in with a project. Don't leave the details hanging on a long list- give each one an honest home on a project. If you would like to supplement your project experience descriptions with a more general list of platforms, programming languages, etc (especially useful for Basis folks), then you can certainly also make a summary list of skills. We like to see these on the end of the resume because they are not as interesting to read as they may have been to compile. Our favorite treatment of the skills summary is not a long list but some type of chart, rating the level of experience and exposure in each area. For example, if you are a Basis person and you list the AIX platform on the resume, you will get calls for AIX jobs. If your skills in AIX are light, you're wasting everyone's time. The project chronology should address the depth of experience, but the weighted skills grid at the end of the resume can be exceeding useful.
7. The most recent project is what counts- what you've done in the last six months is who you are. There are exceptions to this, but generally, as your SAP experience ages, it is less interesting to hiring managers and needs less detail. So as you go back from year to year, you can list progressively less information on each position worked.
8. If you are a functional specialist, brag about your configuration skills. On the functional side, until you get beyond the project manager level and up into project lead and beyond, it almost always comes down to configuration skills. On each project, you need to detail the areas you configured. By all means, include entirety of the life cycle that you were exposed to, from gap analysis to end-user training, but always include each area you've configured, broken down by project and submodule. Once again, including some indication of how much experience you have in each area is very helpful. Phrases such as "heavy configuration experience in CO-PA, with some experience in foreign trade configuration" help to indicate if you were fully involved or just a "lighter" team member. This is the delicate art of listing all the areas you've been exposed to, and playing them up as much as possible but not stretching the truth. The technical interview will get at the heart of the issue, so you might as well "come clean" on paper.
9. Learn how to find words that quantify your accomplishments and showcase your strengths. This is an especially important skill for project managers and revenue producers. Tell us, in quantifiable terms, how you impacted your firm's revenues, or how your team delivered their piece of the project on a timely basis.
More and more, SAP projects are "bean counting" affairs, and your ability to get your project efficiency across on paper is an important one. Even if your overall project had problems, you can still do you best to break achievements down into your project team's objectives and what you accomplished. Companies like to know that you understand the financial bottom line that your skills will bring their organization. Hopefully you either helped to cut costs, increase revenue, or both. If you're not sure how you contribute to one of these two objectives, your SAP career may be headed for troubled waters. Usually it is simply a matter of looking at the underlying objectives of the project and then finding a way to detail your contribution. If you aided in the development of your company's client base, be specific about the revenues gained or the number of clients added. Remember though, that numbers do not lie. Be only as specific as can be verified.
10. Leadership and communication skills are best expressed in project-based terms. Everyone wants these "soft skills," but there are classy and tacky ways of expressing that you have them. Promoting yourself as a "great communicator" seems a bit over the top, but if you include certain kinds of descriptions in your project chronology, you can highlight those same skills. For example, perhaps you served as a "liason" to the technical team, or you had a leadership role during a blueprint phase of an ASAP implementation. List these duties clearly and matter of factly.
11. When you list your positions previous to your SAP jobs, filter them to show the most relevant skills for your current objectives. As we're noted before, in general you start to decrease the level of detail in each job or project description as you go further back in time. But you have to balance this with your other goal, which is to bring out the themes you are emphasizing in your SAP career.
Since the best SAP professionals combine "soft skills" with hard technical and implementation skills, indicating an awareness of the big business picture, emphasize the appropriate parts of your background. For example, if you are an ABAP programmer, you obviously want to bring out the programming and development experience in your previous positions, but it might not have occurred to you to also include some detail on another job where you functioned as a consultant in a technical support capacity that was not SAP-related. However, because you did pick up some nice consulting skills on these projects, you should detail that position with an emphasis on the consulting duties. This helps to send the message that you are not just a "techie" who does fine in an isolated cube but rarely interfaces with others.
Another example would be the MM consultant who is looking for a team lead role, despite the fact that he does not have any team lead experience in SAP. Obviously, highlighting the manufacturing lead roles in your previous positions will help to indicate that you have the ability to lead teams in that capacity. You would come "up to speed" quickly as an MM team lead and your resume indicates that as such. It should be clear now that your current job objective, whether or not you list it on the resume, provides you with a way of prioritizing all of the previous positions and helping you to bring out the most relevant parts.
Remember once again that anything you can do to quantify your accomplishments in one of two ways, cost-savings or revenue production, will give a positive impression: awareness of numbers and project goals shows that you can see that all-important "big picture." It's always surprising how many folks simply don't see their work on those terms. We had one SAP professional who singlehandedly reduced the number of outside consultants at her company from five to two, but it had not occurred to her that she could express her accomplishments in those terms.
12. Account for all of your time dating back to when you graduated from college (or if you have no Bachelor's Degree, since high school graduation. If you don't have a high school diploma yet, you may want to shift your priorities away from SAP and get that taken care of).
Nothing sends a job search in the wrong direction more than gaps in time on the resume that are fudged or not unaccounted for. If you took two years off from your consulting career to travel with a carnival then you need to account for it. You'd be surprised just how positive certain seemingly unimpressive or unrelated jobs can look on a resume if they are dressed up properly. Even "waiting tables" can look somewhat relevant if you talk about management duties and volume of customers served. Food service consulting may not be all that different than SAP consulting if it's presented properly, with your can-do attitude shining through. Many times we have seen resumes that have up to ten years unaccounted for in any way. At least indicate one line with a date to tell us what you were up to.
13. Unless your degree is particularly prestigious, it belongs at the end of the resume. This makes sense organizationally, since all the rest of your training courses and certifications are also found at the end as well. Sometimes a Master's in Business from a well- respected school looks nice at the top, but generally, as soon as you pick up solid work experience, it should go at the bottom. This applies also to PhDs. You might think that a terminal degree is something to show off, but in our experience, it is not something you want to call attention to in an SAP job search.

http://www.jonerp.com/content/view/133/45/

How to increase your chances of starting a successful SAP career

Is SAP Truly the Brilliant Career Choice it Appears to Be?

Choosing a career these days requires much careful thought and research. You want to be sure you’re entering a field with a secure future, but many such careers involve several years of training before you can even think of getting hired. If you don’t have that much time and money to invest, but you do want a lucrative career that will support an enjoyable lifestyle, SAP is indeed worth taking a look at. For many career seekers, SAP has appeared as a bright spot in a sometimes bleak job market.
What are your expectations from a career in SAP?

But before you add SAP to your list of promising career paths, it’s a good idea to review your own expectations in a career to see whether a job as an SAP consultant would be a good match for you.

Of course, many types of employment meet the basic requirements that you would expect from a job, such as adequate pay and decent benefits. But too many people spend years stuck at a job that barely pays the bills, and provides little or no satisfaction, feeling they have no other choice, and believing that the opportunities for more fulfilling, better paying work are very few.

Perhaps you’ve been feeling the same way yourself, struggling from paycheck to paycheck, knowing that opportunities for a better life must be out there, but feeling uncertain of which path to take. You might already have employment that provides your basic needs. But life should be more than just an exercise in survival, and often the first place to start is with a better job—one that will enhance your life, not be the bane of your existence.
Good information on SAP is not easy to find

If that is your situation, then a career in SAP is definitely worth looking into. Unfortunately, you could probably earn a doctorate degree in the time it will take to find a morsel of solid, trustworthy information about SAP training amongst the junk ads and offers littering the Internet.

If you have heard about the lucrative careers that can be had in SAP, and tried searching for further information, you know what I mean. With so many SAP modules and training options out there, your research efforts will likely leave you with more questions than answers.

That is exactly why I created SAP Unveiled.
Who am I?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my website and blog, allow me to introduce myself. My name is James Abayomi, and I have worked in the IT industry for over eight years. My career has taken me from small enterprises to multinational companies like Nokia and Philips.

Over the years, my career profile has changed quite a bit, as is common in the IT industry. When I decided to make the move into SAP, I ran into several very frustrating roadblocks. So I began charting my progress on my blog, and soon discovered that there are many others out there trying to enter the field of SAP, and encountering the very same challenges.

This led me to create SAP Unveiled, which, along with this series of articles, will not only answer your questions about how to get into SAP, but will also guide you through the entire process. I will do everything I can to help you find your way through the SAP career maze. But to make this truly work, you will need to set aside your fears and doubts, and visualize yourself entering this field that is wide open with possibilities.

Imagine how you will feel when you have the skills to qualify for lucrative positions within prestigious Fortune 500 companies. Positions that will not only pay your bills, but also allow you to realize the future you’ve been dreaming about. Before you toss this scenario aside as too good to be true, think about some of the people who started out just the way you are, and have gone on to build extremely successful careers in SAP.

Kenneth Taylor, for example, began his SAP career at Mobil North Sea, and was instrumental in the development of Mobil’s widely recognized petrochemical industry solutions. After several years with Mobil, Mr. Taylor established his own international SAP consulting firm, UCE, which in turn offers employment positions for other SAP consultants.
What is coming next?

I firmly believe that such opportunities should not be available to only the elite few who can afford to spend thousands of dollars on training. But what are the alternatives? The next few articles will give you the answer to that question, and many others you probably have, such as:

• How much will training cost?
• Do I really need SAP certification?
• Which module is right for me?
• How do I get my first SAP job with no experience?

I have devoted a special section of the next article to that last question, and will reveal some new job seeking techniques being used by a small group of people, that allow even newbies to land excellent jobs in other industries. These very same techniques can be easily applied to getting a plum job in the SAP module of your choice, even if you have little or no on-the-job SAP experience.

The next article will divulge these techniques, and give you the resources you will need to apply them to your SAP career search. In fact, my next article includes so much information that you might not even need my SAP Unveiled program, but that’s okay. So many people need this information that it just wouldn’t feel right to hold back.

read more at

http://www.sapunveiled.com/sap-unveiled-intro/

4 Steps to Your New SAP job


Welcome to part two of these article series, dedicated to helping you find your way into a new job in SAP. In the first article, we talked about why you might want to consider a career in SAP, and some of the roadblocks and questions you will likely encounter. I got a lot of feedback from the first article and I would like to thank everybody that left a comment. If you haven’t read the first part of this series of articles, click here to view it.

Now that you have an idea of what a career in SAP can do for you, and the difference it could make in your life, let’s get into some concrete steps you can take to train for and land your first job in SAP. I will guide you through this process, so you will know exactly what to do next. You will soon begin to see that a satisfying career in SAP doesn’t have to be some distant dream, but is a very achievable goal.
Step One : Inform yourself about the SAP module you are considering

information SAPTake some time to familiarize yourself a bit with the different SAP modules. This is important because it will give you an idea of the aptitudes and supporting skills you will need to succeed as a consultant in each one, as well as the job outlook for the various modules. When you specialise in a specific module, this will allow you to focus your training and become proficient within that module.

You will also be able to discern which complementary skills would be helpful in your chosen module, and work to develop these. For example, working in CRM will require, not only the specific skills for that SAP module, but also excellent customer relations skills. In most of the modules, you will definitely need a certain degree of ‘people’ skills, as well as functional business abilities. In a future article, you will learn more about what it’s like to work in some of the different SAP modules.

You can also find information online about each one if you are willing to spend some time researching. SAP’s own website offers descriptions of the modules, although their information is mainly directed toward their customers—companies that are considering purchasing SAP software. There are several blogs by SAP consultants like Jon Reed, where you can find advice on the outlook for the different modules, and what type of background is helpful to work in each one. Once you have learned about the modules, you can select one or two that seem to be a good fit for you and that you believe you would enjoy working in.
Step Two: Get an edge, Get certified

Your next step is to train for a career in that module, and get your SAP certificate. Naturally, you will want to find a quality training program that you can afford. If you do any reading about SAP careers, you will no doubt encounter a few very vocal experts who say that you don’t need certification to get a job in SAP because employers favor experience over certification. Yes…and it’s also possible to find work as a chauffeur without a license, though not very likely. By obtaining your SAP certification, you will position yourself a step above the members of your competition who have not taken this step. The key here is finding your winning difference, you have show that you have an edge over the other guy. In the next article, I will show you how to find companies that are ready to hire newbies/freshers and having a certification will go a long way to convincing those companies to hire you.

This brings us to the matter of experience. It is true that many employers prefer SAP consultants who already have experience. Of course, this is the conundrum that job seekers have been facing since the beginning of time—or at least since the advent of paid employment; you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to gain experience. Not to worry…with a bit of creativity and resourcefulness, you can find your way around that challenge and into your first SAP job. But as I said, we will get to that in the next article
Step Three: Blow the competition away with advanced strategies

competition SAPYour best bet is to combine SAP certification with the advanced job seeking strategies alluded to in the first article. In fact, you can start working on some of these techniques while you’re still studying for your certificate. That way, when you are SAP certified, you will already have in place some of the tools to help you land that job.

As a job seeker in today’s competitive market, you need to work harder than ever before to open doors to a career that will provide the lifestyle you dream of. But the effort is well worth it, especially in the promising and growing field of SAP. Realising this, an innovative group of people have analysed the marketing techniques used by large, successful corporations, and have applied these strategies to help individuals market their career skills. Two of these techniques are:

1. Personal Branding

Successful companies know the importance of establishing their brand. Businesses that have done this well have a loyal following who would not consider purchasing their particular product from anyone else. You can build similar credibility through what has come to be known as personal branding, or professional branding. How is this done?

You start by building your curriculum vitae, or CV. A well-written CV can leave a much better impression on a prospective employer than a traditional résumé, which typically offers only a basic summary of your experience. Your CV will give an employer a more complete understanding of your background and skills.

2. Social Networking

Some of the best jobs are never actually advertised. So how do you find these opportunities? One way is to harness the power of Twitter, LinkedIn, and other networking sites. Start by creating your own page highlighting the abilities and skills that make you stand out among your competition.

When an employer reviews your profile, they will gain a familiarity with you and, if you have done your work well, a feel for how you can contribute to their company. Creating a compelling profile as part of your personal brand development is just the first step. In order to be sure your profile is seen, you need to do something else that large companies do regularly—market yourself.

Jed Hallum, whose story is featured on Lifetracks.com, is an excellent example of this. He put his online networking skills to use, making both social and business contacts within the PR industry. When he found a company he really wanted to work for, Jed created a profile page featuring the skills he felt made him a perfect match for that company. But he didn’t stop there. Jed then invited the network of contacts he had built to visit his page, and add their own comments about him. He also invited the execs at his target company to view his profile, and they were impressed. Within one week, Jed had a new PR job working for his dream company.

The same tactics Jed used to land his dream job can work just as well for you when applied to your SAP career search. It will definitely take some diligence on your part to create an outstanding personal brand, but many job seekers are finding that these efforts pay off surprisingly well.
Step Four: Find companies that will hire newbies

hiring SAPOnce all of these steps are in place, and you have positioned yourself as the best candidate for the SAP position you seek, the last step is to find companies that are willing to hire newbies. Contrary to information you read (which could well have been written by SAP consultants wanting to psyche out the competition) there are companies that will hire you even when all you have is your SAP certificate and a dazzling smile. Applying to such companies is the easiest way to step into your SAP career.

Want to find out, which companies will be out of their minds to hire newbies? In the next article, I will be revealing

    Why these companies will want to hire someone without experience
    How to find such companies that are ready to hire you without experience
    3 examples of such companies

http://www.sapunveiled.com/sap-unveiled-4-steps/

Free SAP IDES Access : To request your account visit: http://ides.consolut.net/user_request

Solution Manager Key for SAP IDES
If you don't have Solution Manager installed and you need SOLMAN key for your IDES System, Use following:

SID: IDS
System No: 00
Host Name: IDES
Generated KEY: 5488FA3EDB

Hope the project manager doesn't consider you to be a risk

@jaidopor,

How is your SOLMAN project going?

i added you to my IM but you seem not to have accepted.


@Briz,

Congrats on your SAP career achievement,This is the beginning of good things to come


@ngsapdata,

I am very much interested,thank God,You finally you decided to train.

@jaipodor



i.what version of SOLMAN are you installing?

ii.which database are you using?

iii.what do you intend using it(SOLMAN) for?

iv.what have you done ?

v.which area of the installation are you having challenges in ?

vi.can we have the screenshots?

I think we can solve our file sharing challenges with this site transferbigfiles.com

@ obiora et al,

You can get all you want from

filecrop.com

way2sap.com

amaderforum.com

DONT QUIT YET,HANG ON

I am have been informed that many of the CVs sent in are threatened by the absence of information on

1.Applicant's Certification status (if the applicant is certified or not)

2.Evidence of an attempt in getting certified(exam score or screenshot of exam score)

3.No hint of experience in DEMO or LIVE project

4.A general CV with no hint of interest in any of the SAP MODULES.

Few of the CVs are very very impressive anyway.

i will have to confirm the closing date for submission of CVs for the project.

if you are interested send your CV to ngsapmasterdata@gmail.com

State if you are ready to travel at short notice or not

@bode, Thanks for sharing your experience

To all,that read everything here, without contributing  a word , i say please share your experience(s).

Are you certified in any module (both technical and functional) but without placement send your CV to

ngsapmasterdata@gmail.com

In your CV state everything you have done with SAP,from training,to hands on experience on IDES or live project implementation.dont forget your claims will be verified during interview by seasoned SAP consultants.

Those scared of writing the exam or unlucky in passing the exam can equally send their CV for internship consideration

-- ----------ngsapmasterdata@gmail.com-------

@gbemi why 2004?

Thanks KIWI,i will always try my best.

Expect two more threads soon on SAP