Job for Consultant: Re: [sap-career] Which SAP Course for a PhD Student of Supply Chain Management

dimanche 11 décembre 2011

Re: [sap-career] Which SAP Course for a PhD Student of Supply Chain Management

Posted by VidhyaDhar (User-friendly SAP FI Consultant)
on Dec 12 at 12:02 AM

Hi LokNath

I do not subscribe to the notion of concluding that a company is bogus when
they ask for experience when they want to recruit people. After all, from
the standpoint of the prospective employer he / she is right in ensuring
that their operations run smoothly ( especially when SAP is the working
environment and the employers have invested millions of dollars ) and no
employer would risk their operations by entrusting a job to an
inexperienced novice ( despite the fact that the prospective employee's
excellent academic credentials ). As everybody in this thread has rightly
pointed out, academics alone is not sufficient in the real business
scenario; one needs good exposure to practical situations where business
and social skills are also required to resolve issues. I am not downgrading
the importance of good academics; am simply suggesting that equally
important are other preactical skills which can be gained through practical
work experience ( A research scholarship is laudable but it is no
substitute for years of practical experience ). A BA graduate with good
exposure and work experience can do an equally good job as that of a
research scholar, if not any better.

While academicians need to be appreciated for their knowledge, it is no
good idea to overrate them to the extent of belittling those with less
academic credentials but possessing abundant work experience. Making
general and harsh comments about the genuineness of an organization wanting
to employ experienced people , I suppose, is not an objective way of
looking at things and concluding.

I hope you agree with my views on this count.

Regards

VidhyaDhar

---------------Original Message---------------
From: Loknath Rao
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 11:36 PM
Subject: Which SAP Course for a PhD Student of Supply Chain Management

A sure way of knowing that a company is bogus is when they ask for prior
SAP experience even from people like you. Unfortunately this is a big
disease in the SAP consulting industry, where most employers are no more
than stop gap recruitment agents for some opportune project they landed.
They need ready made billable resources. They dont need Einsteins but they
are happy with someone who has a BA in History with SAP experience,
whatever thats worth. These firms neither have the backbone in furthering
the practice and profession of ERP nor are interested in making you
a genuine value adding consultant by grooming and exposing you to
various technologies. They use the word "skill" analogous to skilled as in
a plumber, electrician or fork lift driver.

So if you dont want to be a "module" expert for the rest of your life,
I suggest find a company where SAP is already in place and look for jobs in
line management like supply chain planning. You can overtime learn and add
value to yourself and also the company. First things first. Be a good user
and learn to interpret the solution right viz. in case of supply chain
planning the results of a supply planning run using a particular
heuristic and a particular profile and particular parameters. I can assure
you half the consultants cant get this right because they have ended up
becoming mechanics without knowing how to drive a car. Once you have a
sufficient feel of the solution and application capabilities, you
can venture out or even remain as inhouse consultant. Your manager if
literate like you will faciliate this. This ofcourse wont be easy. You
would need to read a lot on fundamental premise of the design and the best
place is help.sap.com, sdn.sap.com (check wikis and posts),
service.sap.com(solution maps) or even
sap.com.

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