
Employment in the Agile Business
Today's workplace and employment market requires skills, techniques and adaptability that were unheard of 5 years ago.
Change is Inevitable
According to a 2010 study by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers today will change jobs every 4.4 years during their working life. That works out to 7 or more job changes over a thirty year career. People who started their careers in the 1990's or later likely will experience shorter job tenure. These job changes may or may not be by your choice. The 20th century career model of vertical promotion and pay advancement within a single career track is endangered, if not extinct. The new model combines horizontal, vertical or even downward moves and possibly multiple, different careers.
The End of "Business as Usual"
An agile business is one that can "...adapt rapidly and cost-efficiently in response to changes in the business environment. Business agility can be maintained by maintaining and adapting goods and services to meet customer demands, adjusting to the changes in a business environment and taking advantage of human resources." (Wikipedia).
IT departments in general continue to face pressures to reduce adapt to or drive business agility. IT organizations have been downsized, right-sized, outsourced, insourced, offshored, nearshored and onshored ad nauseum. Now we might be clouded, consumerized or mobilized. For those engaged in SAP practices these changes are multiplied by the major changes occurring for SAP products, services and SAP itself.
On the web, several blogs have been forecasting an upturn in hiring in the SAP practice areas. (SAP Skills in High Demand via Jarret Pazahanick and Optimal Solutions). The article is quite specific about the skills that are in demand: HANA, BI/BOBJ, Mobility, and SAP BPC. There is always high demand for the latest skills or many years of experience in older skillsets. The many new SAP technologies now in ramp-up or first release have created the expected shortage: SAP's Innovation Plans May Lead to Skills Gap (via Jarret Pazahanick). In his tweet Jarret commented: "Same old story for the last 15 years." That is definitely my experience as well. I have developed a theory on the supply/demand relationship between the skills or experience level required in job postings and the skills or experience available in the employee pool. This graph illustrates my theory of supply and demand in the job market for SAP skills.
The graph is totally subjective and with only a relative scale intended. Briefly, the demand is always greater for experience in newer technology or greater experience in existing technologies. Ideally your skills, experience and abilities will find you placed further to the left on the x-axis where the demand is higher and the competition less. Vijay Vijayasankar gives some hope for those with experience in existing technologies in his SCN blog: Road Ahead for SAP Consultants : 2012.
The Challenge
How do you respond to this new job environment? I suggest that it is necessary to become an Agile Employee. Someone who competes in and, hopefully, thrives in the Agile Business. Sitting back doing the "same old thing" the "same old way" no longer works for business or for employees or consultants. If you are full-time employee, you should learn to start thinking like a consultant or entrepreneur. Take stock of your skills, interests, aptitudes and begin looking to enhance your value in your career - today.
What To Do?
Below, in no particular order, I present some techniques, tips, and strategies that might be useful in preparing for this new workplace environment.
Here are links on social media from SAP Mentor Initiative and other SCN blog postings.
One last item on the new employment realities as presented by SAP Mentor Jon Reed. Jon hosted an Expert Lounge session on the Future of Tech Skills at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas. Take 10 minutes to listen to this Podcast from www.jonerp.com.
Disclaimer
I am not a recruiter, a career advisor or hiring manager. This is not presented as advice, counsel or suggestions as to what you should do in your current situation. I am a SAP Basis Administrator (#sapadmin). This list comes from lessons learned during my 3 months of unemployment this spring. There is no doubt that learning and practicing these techniques has made a major difference in my attitude, performance and career satisfaction. One thing I do know: building and optimizing my LinkedIn profile and spending many hours reading and learning on SCN shortened my period of unemployment significantly.
And now I'm off to learn more about HANA, or HTML5, or jquery or BPC, or maybe BOBJ...
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