Practical tips for a fresher to get a break into SAP.

With markets slipping into slowdown it has become more difficult for a fresher to get a break into SAP.” There is absolutely no opening for fresher in SAP". You must have heard this sentence so many times. Let’s probe it.

Let me first define who is a "fresher" in SAP job market.

I am certainly not referring to a just pass out from college. Here fresher means a candidate who does not have any real time implementation/support experience in SAP as a consultant.. He may have 10 years of experience in finance or he may have worked 5 years as SAP end user but unless he has the experience mentioned above, he is a fresher in SAP.

Based on my experience of interviewing candidates for SAP positions,  I will give you an example of a top tier I  IT MNC.

If there are 10 open positions then approximately there will be around 75 candidates. However  only 5 candidates will have  the qualification and experience required for the position and eventually at least 4  or all of them will get selected. So there is shortage of genuine SAP consultants and it’s a cakewalk for the experienced candidates.

Now we still have around 5 positions vacant  and remaining 70 candidates competing for it. This means there is still some chance for fresher/end users/core team members etc etc to get a break. One out of every 14 to be precise.

If you are among such candidates you must work towards 2 things

• Improving your odds for selection.
• Trying to bring yourself closest to real time experienced candidates.

Here are some practical tips.

• Select your module very carefully keeping in view your educational background, domain experience and communication skills. Having said that I must caution you that you must not select a module blindly just because it's job market is hot. You need to have proper qualifications and domain experience to support it. All i mean is that if your qualification and experience makes you eligible for more than one module then go for the one which is hot in job market.
• Choose your training institute carefully. Quality of input matters a lot. Look for some real time consultant to help you out, if not train you. If you manage it  half of the problem is solved.
• Don’t enter job market unless you have developed sufficient competency.
• Your resume needs to be professionally written. I saw one resume which had 3 pages describing the candidates domain experience and as regards to SAP only sentence I could find was “ implemented SAP in XYX ltd.” Another one I saw had something more written about SAP. Infact it has mentioned names of 2 projects, the name of client and its duration but no information about what the candidate did in these projects.
• Look for sap client companies/staffing organizations/small IT consulting companies – simply because your odds for selection will automatically improve.
• Work hard on your technical skills. This is something you can do on your own without actually working as a consultant. One way is to join some sap yahoogroup and try to solve the issues. Your technical skills will matter most.
• Work on a mock project –Benefits will depend on the way you do it. However this will improve your technical competency for sure. For maximum benefit you should work with some fellow consultants of different modules and implement your current organization’s business under the guidance of some real time consultant.
• Target hot areas in your module which few consultants know and there is a good demand for it. For example  shipment, variant configuration for SD consultants. Typically companies are looking for candidates with sound knowledge of such areas and are not able to find candidates. Your chances will increase leaps and bounds if you know them.
• You need to have a very good understanding of SAP implementation process, it's various details and documentation process. However avoid getting into too many tools and details as this is just not possible to understand without actually working.