Obtaining a job in SAP consists of several parts:
- The arduous job search
- Submitting an eye-catching, professional resume
- Exciting the interviewer in an initial phone screening
- Impressing during in-person interviews
- Finally, receiving job offers and navigating the negotiation process
After finding the dream job, applicants must impress on paper to continue into several phases of interviews.
Here are my Do's and Don'ts for creating a stand-out SAP resume:
Do:
- Choose a professional, but non-standard font for headers and the body of your resume. Times New Roman is overdone. I prefer Calibri, Veranda, or Arial. Just don't choose Comic Sans.
- Limit the white space on the page. You can use narrow margins and headers to maximize the space on your resume. Every word should serve a purpose.
- Focus on measurable results in your SAP experience. Use dollar amounts and percentages where possible and appropriate to demonstrate your value.
- Provide specific examples of tasks you completed and how you excelled. This is much more interesting than the fact that you were part of a team. It explains in detail what experience you have and how you could bring exceptional value to a future employer. For example: maybe you wrote functional specifications or tested a development object.
- Indicate the phases of a project that you were involved in. Full life-cycle experience is very valuable. If you don't have a full life-cycle, you can mention the phases you were involved in and the outcomes from your work. For example: If you saw a project through integration testing, you can mention how you helped the project complete testing on time, or the percent of overall defects you resolved.
- Limit the technical terms and language. It is great to use buzzwords and products like HPQC, Solution Manager, or UPerform in your resume, but be careful with using transaction codes or overly technical language.
- Include your last three positions or last 5-7 years of experience including internships. This rule works well if you are a college graduate or young professional with little experience in SAP.
- List your Grade Point Average if above a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale if you are a recent graduate. Make sure your GPA meets the minimum for the position.
Don't:
- Lie about your experience. This is unfortunately all too common in the field of SAP. Be honest about your level of experience with any module, tool, or solution you list on your resume. You will waste your time and the interviewers by submitting a misleading resume. Even worse, you may be placed in a job where you are unqualified.
- List courses and course numbers. This provides no information to the interviewer. Instead, focus on awards and achievements that demonstrate and prove you are qualified for a position.
- Simply list every SAP module, system, or tool you've ever used in an effort to seem experienced. This is not impressive and actually comes off like you have little experience. Instead, focus on where you have expertise and highlight it using phrases like 'experienced in' or 'knowledgeable in'. Often resume appear like someone just navigated through menu path's and just typed in the descriptions of configuration. It's important to demonstrate actual achievements you've made.
- Indicate confidential information about projects and clients. This can be tough because you might be really proud that you worked on a project at the largest company in a certain industry or an up and coming company, but confidentially is important to that client, and the person reading your resume. If you share too much information, the recruiter reading your resume might be hesitant to share confidential information about this new position with you.
- List things on your resume that you are not comfortable speaking about or performing if you got the job. For example, if you watched a demo or clicked through a presentation on a topic, you should not indicate that topic as a competency on your resume. You want to highlight project accomplishments and expert skills on your resume and not every single topic that you've read about and topics where you just have a general understanding.
- Try to impress with bold colors. Colorful paper and fonts will bring the wrong attention to you resume. The words on the page should do the impressing, not your creative paper selection.
- Include 'References Available Upon Request' at the bottom of your resume. It is assumed that you will provide references when requested. This is just a waste of valuable space.
- Provided a CV when a resume is requested. It's great to keep track of every project in your career in a CV for your reference and some recruiters and interviewers may request a CV in addition to a resume. However, note which document is requested. Usually they will just want to review your resume first to see if you have the right experience for the role. Extremely long and detailed resumes will have the opposite effect- most of it won't even be read.
What SAP resume questions do you have? What are you Do's and Don'ts for others?
If you enjoyed this blog, you may be interested in my book, The Essential SAP Career Guide. It is a comprehensive guide to starting your SAP Career and covers topics like how to find a job, consulting vs. industry tips, and key skills you need in your first job.
