Whenever freshers enter the SAP World as a Consultant, they find it difficult to understand. Many Freshers find SAP World scary and confusing as they find it challenging. It’s somewhat hard to train and master SAP platforms without a Technical background, but everything is possible with the right approach and dedication.
Some frequent questions may rise to them as below-
1. What is SAP and How does it work?
2. What are their roles and responsibilities?
3. What are a consultant’s day-to-day activities?
4. What is the best way to learn SAP?
5. What resources are available to learn SAP?
6. What will be their future growth?
This gap between the expectations and reality impact the new employees in various ways-
•Workplace readiness- Mostly the new workforce lacks SAP knowledge, skills, and attributes to engage in endeavors required in their Job.
•Practical knowledge- For freshers, there is more focus on theoretical training to get the certification, but the practical experience still needs improvement.
•Clarity and coordination.
•In starting due to many factors, candidates feel a lack of guidance and motivation, resulting in low confidence in new employees and often seems like a big problem for survival in the competition.
As a fresher, it can become a bit difficult to adjust to new surroundings. Remember that you will eventually have to work in a team and therefore developing good work relations with your colleagues is important.
There are 3 types of Consultant roles in the IT consulting field and you must understand them to choose a suitable role.
- Technical Consultant- A technical consultant is typically a Developer or a System Administrator. As the name suggests, they have an in-depth understanding of languages, hardware set-ups. This person will likely have a background in SAP administration and will be able to ensure that all requirements are met and executing the technical configuration for your system to work the way it’s supposed to.
- Functional Consultant- If you’re not able to program, don’t worry that’s where a Functional Consultant comes in. Functional consultants have more of a process background; they combine business process knowledge, and technical knowledge. They automate processes leveraging technologies (SuccessFactors, Ariba, SAP FI/SD/MM).
These two roles complement each other and are both essential to operating in an IT field.
- Techno-Functional Consultant- There’s also a third role, the Techno-Functional Consultant, which is a hybrid of the two consultant types. A techno-functional consultant is a multi-skilled professional who combines the skills and competencies of functional and technical consultants.
So first, new joiners must find a suitable role/area by self-research and guidance from seniors and decide which area they are interested in making a career. If you have a doubt or query, ask it right away. Sometimes we think that, Is it the right question? Should I ask it? What others will think if my question looks silly? These are the main hurdles in your learning so don’t be shy, open up, and never hesitate in asking for help.
Understand the various Business Processes in general and then look at the overview of the selected module, try to relate this module to the process. Ex- for the Performance & Goal Management module you first need to understand how Performance is measured in any organization without using the SAP system. It will give you a great insight into how SAP Solutions can redesign this process and help the business grow.
Explore different portals to gather the latest information and material about SAP and preferred module. There are two types of platforms Subscription-based (Company Paid) and free. Some SAP resources to keep you updated are below-
Open platforms Like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and many more resources are available to improve your knowledge base for free.
A certification doesn’t prove one’s actual skill sets. But it definitely validates one’s skills in the professional world. SAP certification showcases a participant’s effort and dedication to go through an exam and get certified.
Every fresher must know that the Training objective is not just to have a certificate but to gain knowledge and experience. Otherwise, it will take many years to gain the same level of knowledge and experience to survive in an open market.
I know it's not easy to understand such cutting-edge technology world in a few months of training so focus on gaining knowledge and skills first, then have some practical experience.
Sometimes one project is enough to understand and sometimes ten projects are not enough, so always analyze yourself after you are done with a project, understanding the work you do will make you prosper.
Wish you all a great Journey, keep moving forward.