Job for Consultant: Re: [sap-career] SAP Trainer or SAP End User Job

Posted by VidhyaDhar (User-friendly SAP FI Consultant)
on Nov 1 at 10:28 AM

Hi Debashish

I can understand your anxiety in wanting to get a break through. In general ,the trend works as follows with regard to most employers in India:

Top priority : Good Academic Qualification, Adequate real time work experience in SAP in the related application area ( need not be SAP certified )

Next priority : Good Academic Qualification. Some real time work experience in SAP ( may be two years or so ) in SAP and also a Certification in SAP

Third priority : Good Academic Qualification, Some real time work experience in the application area ( but not in SAP platform ) and a certification in SAP

Fourth priority: Good Academic Qualification, some real time work experience in the Application area ( from SAP / Non SAP platform ) but no certification

Please note that a candidate has to work hard to prove his / her skill
during an interview session , candidates of category 3 and 4 are generally
considered as freshers and they have to work harder than others to do so.

Please understand that this is the general trend which applies to India. Of
course there can be exceptions to this pattern and it depends on various
factors such as

a. employer's ( and interviewer's) individual attitude
b. urgency of requirement on the part of the employer
c. level of job
d. ability of the candidate displayed during the interview etc.

It is always an added advantage to carry a global recognition by way of a
certificate from SAP AG , Germany and I suppose all the experienced people
who have answered your post have stressed on it, not without reason. Of
course a certification is an expensive affair .

One thing is for certain.....getting directly into consultancy without the
acquiring the required expertise in the application area ( be it by way of
real time work experience either in SAP or Non SAP arena, with or without
a certification ) is a myth and even if , for a moment, we imagine that it
happens - is not a healthy sign .....neither for the employer / client nor
for the employee / consultant. While it feels nice to walk into the realm
of consultancy, please do understand that *IT CANNOT HAPPEN* *without
fulfilling certain pre-requisites*.

Let me re-iterate. Some theoretical learning from a local institute / private tutor and a little
or no experience can never be assets enough to fetch one a consultant
status and that is reality. It is better to cal a spade a spade than
paint rosy pictures. However, you can start at the bottom and work toward
becoming a consultant which is possible in course of time.

Even people with the basic pre-requisites such as experience,
qualification, certification toil hard for many years ( there is no thumb
rule to quantify the period ) since getting into consultancy depends on
factors such as expert skill, opportunity, a certain amount of luck etc. A
good break can happen to some sooner to some it can happen much later.

All these activities involve a certain amount of risk-taking, acceptable risk-taking, I would say. One must be willing to take acceptable risks in life in order to be dynamic and that is true in every walk of life.

A sensible approach would be obtain the pre-requisites required , take a
chance and work toward one's aim methodically and step by step. Please
note that success is a gradual process which happens over time and not a
miracle which happens in a split second and that too without adequate
input.

I wish you success in your endeavors.

Regards
VidhyaDhar

---------------Original Message---------------
From: Debashish Pal
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 3:06 PM
Subject: SAP Trainer or SAP End User Job

Hi Mr. Vidya Dhar

You are saying certification is an added advantage. Accepted ...but not
mandatory or the basis for getting a job. As far as my background goes I
had an experience in HR generalist profile for 2 years. Currently I am not
working as my last company closed down. As you already mentioned, I learned
form online directly from a freelance trainer based at Hyderabad. I did
manage to get some interview calls from some major IT companies, who are
into SAP consulting (like IBM, Accenture, HCL etc). All they cared about
the amount of prior experience in SAP implementation (or support) I had, as
they required a minimum 2 years prior experience in SAP consulting. They
didn't even bother to ask whether I had passed the SAP certification or
not. As you can easily guess, I got rejected in those interviews due to
lack of prior experience. I gave references of my friends who had passed
their certifications, but still looking for a breakthrough. Later I came to
know that all of my friends, despite having passed their certifications met
the same fate as me due to lack prior experience in SAP consulting,
although they had a good domain experience in HR of 4-5 yrs. When one of my
friends got into an argument with the HR person of one of those companies
by emphasizing on his certification issue, the HR guy candidly said to him
that that they give a damn to the SAP certification, if that is not
supported by a minimum 2 years experience and abruptly hanged up the phone.

As I already mentioned my earlier post I have surveyed many of my friends
and acquaintances in my network, who have done SAP certifications both in
HR as well as in other domains.There are total of 40 such people whom I
surveyed. Almost 85% of them conveyed that the certification didn't help
them to get a job as a SAP consultant. Only those people (6 people out of
40 which comes to 15%), who already had prior 2 to 3 experience in SAP
consulting, did the certification add value to their professional careers
(ie the certification really proved to be an added advantage for only those
6 people out 40, in terms of some overseas assignments and promotions) .

The vast majority of them (34 people out of 40, which comes to 85%) , who
don't have a prior SAP consulting experience, the certification didn't
prove of any significant value, let alone be an advantage. Despite passing
the certification test, these 34 people are either working as SAP end
users or they have returned to their respective domain jobs or working as
trainers in those small time institutes to make out a living. This is case
of those people who had paid approx INR 4 lakhs, for the ILT (some went for
the OLT and paid approx INR 2 lakhs) in those SAP authorized training
institutes like NIIT or Siemens. As far as I am concerned, I don't have any
prior experience in SAP Consulting. I only have 2 years domain experience
in HR. Its not amount of money but the value from money that matters. How
can be assured of a job in SAP consulting even if I spend INR 2 lakhs for
my SAP certification (assuming that I go for the OLT option) ???? And if at
all I land up in a job as SAP end user despite passing the SAP
certification, why should I spend INR 2 lakhs in the first place??? Please
advise.

Also throw some light on what are chances of moving from end user to
implementation (or support). If I join as an end-user, perform well and
build a good rapport with my seniors, is there any chances that I will be
able to migrate to SAP implantation at later point of time. How much time
does it take approximately.???.

Please advise on these issues so that I am able to take a final decision.

Also thanking you from the bottom of my heart for all your suggestions and
advice till now, as I find your posts most useful as compared to other
posts.

Regards---
Debashish

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