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

Posted by Debashish_leo
on Nov 1 at 1:03 PM

Hi Mr. Raj Singha !!!!

I came across quite a few students in Delhi /NCR, who obtained training
form Small Time institutes like Applied Labs, Peronet Systems, Webcom, Sky
Infotech etc.They were all promised lucrative job in the SAP consultancy.
They are charged b/e 20K to 30k each depending upon the institute,
desperation of the student etc.There were given 2 years of fake
implementation experience of particular IT company, post completion of
their course.

Now the students don't have any implementation knowledge to support
their experience. Here the students are further taken for a ride. They are
asked to shell out INR 75K -1Lac and they are allocated a SAP trainee post
in some small company, located in another city like Jaipur, Pune, Meerut
etc. These small companies are generally sister concerns of these
institutes themselves. They are given a stipend of INR 3-4K for six months
in name of equipping them with implementation skills. In reality in these
small companies, these poor candidates don't do
any implementation whatsoever. They are simply given a system loaded with
fake SAP software to practice, who no trainer or supervisor whatsoever to
guide them. After they complete their six months, they are given a
certificate of successful completion of their training. Here also these
institutes earn. For example if a person shells out INR 75K and given
stipend of 3K for six months, the cost incurred by the institutes is INR
18K in six months but the net earning is INR 57K (75K-18K). ie. the poor
students are given stipends from the money they have paid.

Now these poor students go for the interviews supported by their fake 2
years experience with the six months so called implementation training to
support it. As anybody's guess they are rejected in the first round itself
as they could not answer even the basic questions. Even is anybody is lucky
enough to get selected based on his own hard work and knowledge they had
gained through their own laborious practice, he may eventually shown the
down with-in a month if joining if the company has a strong reference check
policy.

I know of a friend who was selected in Accenture with the help of his
fake experience. He himself claimed that he got through the interview by
virtue of his hard work and practice and not the knowledge gained for the
institute he studied. He studied from Applied Labs and given a fake
implementation experience of 2 years of company of "3i Infotech" which does
not even exist on the SAP domain. This company said to be a group company
of ICICI but known for harassing consumers as well as it's employees. There
may be a secret tie up b/w Applied Labs & 3i Infotech for these fake
experience certificates, which I am not very sure about. But I know fully
well that companies like IBM, Accenture etc. have a strong employee
reference check policy. They outsource their ref check to various reputed
reference check agencies, who sometimes even visit the premises of the
previous organization, the employee worked for to check their antecedents.
This friend of mine got caught as a result of this and was shown the door
with-in a month of his joining.

Now coming to the trainers of these small institutes. I also knew some
people who previously worked as trainers in
these institutes.These institutes claim that they have a very experienced
faculty - experienced in SAP consulting domain for 10-15 years and are in
level of Project Managers in the company they work. A very tall claim
indeed. But the reality is that the trainers are individuals without any
regular job or end-users in SAP, who know a little bit of configuration.
Sometimes they are completely ignorant of the back-end configuration and
teach only the front end operations which they themselves do in their
regular jobs. They claim part -time job in these institutes and work as
end-users in the company they work full-time. Whatever
back-end configuration they know, they either came to know by hit and trial
methods or from previously studying from these small time institutes
themselves. When I applied for the job of a trainer in one of
these institutes, I was told by the manager of the institute to convey to
the students that I am a Project Manger having 15 years of
SAP implementation in reputed corporate firm in order to support their tall
claims they make to the students, in reality I am myself a fresher.

This is how these small-time institutes operate. If have any different
experience or opinion, please share. I may reconsider my decision.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks,
Debashish

---------------Original Message---------------
From: lakhya baruah
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 4:30 AM
Subject: SAP Trainer or SAP End User Job

Take an implementation experience and go out for the interviews. Give a damn, if people says that it is not the right way. You have tried all the right way- have you gained anything? How many calls did you get for an interview? Does your resume in fact gets short-listed? Even if you are short-listed, you will be rejected in the PDM round/HR round. Remember most of the consultants started this way and see where they are now. There are 100s of local institutes that provide training in SAP and even most of their candidates get selected in top IT companies. They dont have certification, but they have experience of 1-2 years and THAT COUNTS. When you keep on giving interviews, you know what questions will be put and what the answers will be. Studying the books will never give the answers as they are real time problems. Even you will find consulting companies charging you a deposit of 80000- 1lakh and fees of 50000-80000 and they in turn will train you with an implementation and provide you experience as a consultant.

And, these counts when you appear for the interview- how many implementation, what is the client, the org structure of the client, did you work on LSMW, what is the name of your Project Manager.... They have provide you all the answers. Rest the technical answers can be taken care by you if you have studied during your certification. And, some question about real time problems can be handled when you give more and more interviews. In simple terms- The more you appear for an interview the more you increase your chance.

This is the current situation in India- If it is so- go after it.

You come out from local institutes with exp and get the job showing exp of 1-2 years. And, a candidate who is genuine is looking for end user jobs. This is what SAP is. OH! One more thing. Please dont think that your END USER exp is going to count. It is again a ZERO.

The SAP Education team should take it seriously rather than getting serious about the money they are making. At least, the SAP certified candidates should get a chance to appear for the interview. If his/her knowledge is not good, reject the candidate. If the candidate has good knowledge at par with someone who is coming with a exp of 1-2 years what is the point for not accepting the candidature.

Recently, I have appeared in an interview and during the second round of interview with PDM, I was given to write an essay. Felt ashamed of myself...

Raj Singha
FI consultant

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