Need an Expert advise

[Former Member]

Dear All

I am Mcom MCA graduate having 13+ years experiance in Finance & Banking Operations, need to change my carrier and want to become a SAP consultant.  Request your advise whether i can go for FI training.

Regards

Vijay

[Former Member]

Dear Vijay,

Do you have SAP experiance?

If no, please do not enter  in this field after spending 13 golden years on other fields. you will be treated as fresher, would you like that?.

Domain experiance is not considered when you come to the SAP fields, though you may get some competitive advange if other person is also fresher in SAP and having less domain experiance than you.

Even one or two year experiance guy will be given preference over you. Would you like that?

You should not go for this at this stage.

and if you have sap experiece then you can do the same and this will give advantage also.

Best Regards

Ruksana Khan.

[Former Member]

Ruksana,

I respectfully disagree with your overall assessment. I do agree, however, that for a year or two Vijay would be treated as a fresher again. Given his long history and experience, he would quickly be regarded as a senior consultant and would be better able to give customers options when required.

The most difficult part of being a consultant is not translating business requirements into SAP configuration. The hardest (and most valuable) part of being a consultant is being able to guide customers' thought processes during the blueprint and making sure they have all the information they need to make an informed decision. Having a great deal of real world experience prior to becoming an SAP consultant typically translates into an augmented ability to see benefits and consequences for decisions customers need to make.

There is a cost benefit analysis to be performed for this decision, though. Vija should look at his current salary, his salary for the first few years after transitioning, and eventual salary. I recommend working up a payback curve (including any cost of training) before making this decision.

Another approach Vijay might want to consider is to try to find an end user job at a company that already has SAP using his current FI experience. Once hired, Vijay could get a better feel for SAP and work internally to get transferred into the group that supports SAP at that company. The company would then probably pay for the training and certification and he might not even take a hit on his salary.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom

[former_member182098]

Hi Tom,

Prima-facie, I would agree with your opinion. But, I am really not sure how lucky really Vijay is to get training and certification from the new company. It is very difficult to get the training and certification sponsorship from these companies. Very few companies have such kind heart for employees Joining internal team would really be a safe game rather than directly jumping into hard core consulting.

I appreciate your contribution to Training & Education Section. Some of your blogs are thought provoking and more informative.

Best Regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

Dear Tom,

What you said sounds good. It is my opinon that Vijay should not change his career path which is not changed even now.

Let Vijay decide what he has to do. As he must be aware now pros and cons of transitioning.

But a common thought- selecting different carrer path after 13 years is not easy not in SAP but in any other field as well. What you think?.

Tom, One Quetion: Why interviewer ignore overall experience and ask for relevant experience for SAP job?

He will always be asked for relevant experience and he has to say zero, one, two, three...every next year. Salary will also depend on the same.

Best Regards

Ruksana Khan

[former_member182098]

In some way Ruksana, you are also right. Tomorrow when the person is going for SAP job, they will definitely ask for SAP experience, particularly implementation kind of experience. The salary will be fixed based on that only. At that point, they will not give much important for domain experience.

For example in this case, currently Vijay may be in "Managerial" position with nice looking designation. But, when he gets a SAP job, probably he may get designation like "Jr. SAP Consultant" He should be get ready to work with freshers. This is how everybody grown up. In Consulting, the designation does not matter, but only role matters.

Best Regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

Vijay's current career, Financials, is a superset of SAP FI. SAP is just the tool. The concepts of how to properly run the business from a financial perspective doesn't change if the company is running SAP or not running SAP. Vijay's previous FI experience is directly relevant. Yes, he'll have to take a step back on the career ladder at least temporarily, but after a few years, he will probably be a much stronger consultant.

Will Vijay be able to get an SAP consulting job directly after receiving certification? Probably not.(Very unlikely, actually.) This is why I recommended that he take a slightly slower approach by finding an SAP FI end user job and trying to migrate into the support group. He can use the FI experience he has to slowly move into the job he may eventually want. I've actually found that most companies do provide training for employees transferring into a related area, but every company is different.

Best regards,

  --Tom

[former_member182098]

After having 13+ years of experience, by this time you should have judged whether to go for a training or not. Long time back you should have jumped into SAP. Learn SAP out of passion, then definitely you will reach heights. If you learn SAP just for doing a job, then you will go nowhere. You should always push yourself for new heights.

All the best.

[Former Member]

Don't know why this question is placed here?

Yes, it would be a good option to get into FICO by considering your background.

Regards,

Nick Loy

[Former Member]

Thanks a million Nick Loy.

[marilyn_pratt]

This has been moved to Certification.  Please Vijay, take care to post in correct forum in future.  Thanks