How to start a changing of career into SAP ?

[Former Member]

Hello everyone, my name is Henry, I come from Indonesia.

I would like to share about my background story first before I ask for your kind advices and suggestions.

I am a Mechatronics fresh graduated student with a double degree in Engineering Management. I am right now working in one of my relatives' company which work in gaming center and entertainment for families. At first, my boss (my relative) wants me to start IT department with RnD people. I know it is a little bit confusing, since RnD is not really connected to IT area. However, the RnD in the company is now a new IT department. The boss wants to make a system that will reduce the uses of paper, for reports, invoices etc. He called it this project "paperless" project. In this case, we all know that it is ERP system, in which a database connected to share information effectively for every department.

At first, i am looking for in the internet, then I find SAP as one of the leading ERP software. The more I do research in SAP and ERP subject on the internet, the more i get interested. After several consideration, I make a proposal to use SAP as our ERP software. However, it is rejected, without any notice of reasons. Furthermore, in several meeting, there are a huge debate about whether they want to make their own software in ERP or not. There are also no communication in making the business processes blueprint between the executives (top management) and IT staff. There are also no awareness from the both side that ERP is a huge project which needs a lot of dedication and preparation. Instead, they think it is just another implementation of software.

In this state, I become hopeless, that this project can be successfull. I already try my best to communicate the importance of communication, dedication, blueprinting of whole business processes, and change management. However there are no responses from the top management.

Now, i consider to quit my job and start for a new career in SAP. I have learnt that starting SAP career without no experience is difficult. Hence I would like to ask for any suggestions and advices from all of you. FYI, I already look for a job related to SAP or ERP which needed no experience but it is none. I also consider to take a course in SAP, but still cannot decided yet.

So, I ask for any supportive suggestion and advices

Sorry for the long story and bad english grammar and vocab..

Sincerely yours,

Henry

[Former Member]

Hi Henry,

You are exactly correct in your assertions to your work mates. I wrote a post, Advice for Recent College Graduates (aka "Freshers"), which you might find helpful. I commend you on your research and your initiative. My recommendation to you would be to look for a job at a company that already has SAP and apply for a position that requires your skill but no specific SAP expertise. Once you're hired, over time you will be able to migrate your career towards working with the folks who support the SAP system and eventually you will be able to work your way into the SAP support group yourself, get SAP certification and eventually a career as an SAP consultant if that still excites you by then.

You might also want to read FAQ for SAP NetWeaver Admin (SAP Basis) Careers which describes the duties of an SAP Basis person. Your background might be moving you in that direction or into the direction of ABAP or JAVA programming. Your business saavy might lead you to be a functional consultant as well, so you have some research to do on career paths as well.

Hope this helps and I wish you all the best in your career, whatever you decide!

Best regards,

  --Tom

[Former Member]

Dear Mr Dulaney,

Thank you Sir for your advices. However, for the couple of days, I have already looked for a job that not need my experience but my skill, but the result is nothing. In my country, they are looking for senior consultant mostly with more than 3 or 5 years of experience.

I have just read your post " the advice for freshers" and since I have a hard time to find a job that requires no experience, hence I consider to take MBA in Singapore. The government there already accredited and acknowledge the university, so that I don't need to have working experience to apply.

I also have read your post " How did you get your start in SAP?" and if I may ask, what do you mean by entry level job and entry level SAP jobs?

Sincerely yours,

Henry

[Former Member]

Hi Henry,

entry level job --> entry level SAP end user job --> entry level SAP support job

An entry level job for an HR person is, for example, keypunching new hire information into a system. an entry level HR SAP job is doing the same thing, but at a company that already has SAP installed so that you're doing it as an SAP end user. In the US, it is fairly common for folks to switch companies doing essentially the same job in the early years of a career, either because a spouse's job requires the family to move or for other reasons. For someone who is working at a company that does not run SAP, it is good to specifically target companies running SAP if you're considering a lateral move. That way, you get SAP end user experience and you can consciously target the group which supports the SAP system as you manage your career within the company that runs SAP.

As an end user, you can look for deficiencies in the system and suggest fixes. If you're lucky, this will get you assigned as the person to work with the support organization to fix the problem. In this situation, you would be providing the requirements, the SAP support org would implement the solution and then you would test to make sure the solution was adequate. Once you've made connections into the support organization, over time, you can apply for any openings and get transferred into that group.

I am recommending that you NOT look for consulting jobs, but jobs that would make you a direct employee at a company that already runs SAP. Consulting jobs are always going to require a higher skillset because consulting companies sell experience. Customers by consultants from consulting companies because they have a hole that needs filled immediately and they need someone who will hit the ground running.

On the other hand, companies often hire less experienced employees and develop the employee's skillset over time. This often means starting at a lower salary in the United States when you compare consultants (higher salary) to direct employees (lower salary). The odd thing is that I've seen at least one salary survey that indicates that things are opposite overseas, so your local employment market may be different. Perhaps it is so difficult to fire folks once hired that companies only hire the most experienced at higher salaries and use outside labor (what we would call contractors or temp worker, not consultants) for lower skill positions. It would be very interesting to me to hear any differences in the market mechanics in your country vs. Unites States.

How do you target companies that already run SAP, you may ask? In the United States, we have an organization called America's SAP User Group (ASUG). I know Europe has it's own different organization. Indonesia probably has one as well. Often you'll be able to glean company names from the web site. Also, there are several job boards in the US (Monster, Dice, etc). Start searching every week with the key word, SAP. Take note of the companies and check their web sites directly. Don't look for openings in the SAP support organization directly, you're not ready for that. Look for a job that is essentially the same as what you're doing right now. Since you have experience in IT and can point to accomplishments on your resume, you should be able to get a generic IT job at a company that runs SAP.

Hopefully this clears things up a bit. Please ask if there's any more/different info I can provide!

Best regards,

  --Tom

[Former Member]

Dear Mr Dulaney,

I don't think Indonesia have such organization liked ASUG, I only randomly look for a job in a job search engine, with the key word SAP. I have fully understand now about your advice that I should look for an entry level job in a company which already applied SAP first.

Thank you for your complete explanation Sir, it is very helpful and encouraging. I hope that I will learn more from this network.

Sincerely yours,

Henry

[Former Member]

I don't know what your ability to travel is like, but it looks like Indonesia had a user group that folded in 2006. You might want to check SAUG (the Australian SAP User Group) as there's a chance that Indonesian companies belong to SAUG. Singapore may have a user group as well, although that's not totally clear from the limited research I've done. While traveling to participate in these groups meetings might be cost prohibitive, you can check the sites for companies that have SAP in the area. I hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom