STRUGGLE FOR A BEGINNER

[amit_madkar]

Hello Seniors Need to share my thoughts on my Experience in SAP TILL DATE. SAD STORY.

I feel companies are more interested in experienced professionals than Freshers as that is more important to them. It seems they don't care about Education when it comes to experienced professionals.Education background is only a criteria for Freshers. I have come across so many professionals who are not even SAP Certified. This just tells me that companies only care about SAP knowledge and nothing else. But same in not the case for Freshers.

Me as a Fresher had a bad Experience. Would like to know the opinions of seniors on this forum.

I completed SAP Certification in MAY 2013. After Certification it was very difficult to get a job in SAP Industry as a Fresher. I got my first Interview opportunity with a major Multinational Company after 6 months and i cleared all the preliminary rounds and cracked the final Interview as well, but i didn't receive the offer letter as i had Education Gaps in my Graduation (Engineering)

I was Heart Broken, but thought some other company might look at my talent and hire me based on my knowledge in SAP. So i waited some more time.I got my 2nd Interview Opportunity with another Major MNC ( Don't want to mention names of the company or should i ? ) I cleared all the Interviews this time as well and submitted my documents but again i got rejected because of my educational gaps. I was devastated, thought no company would hire me based on my past.

My question to all the Seniors is, If companies hire based on the knowledge you have in SAP, why wasn't i hired? When i cleared my Interviews, their were candidates who couldn't even clear the preliminary rounds but their past education background was good. I don't understand the connection between Past Graduation performance and current SAP knowledge.

Shouldn't i be hired based on my Knowledge ? and not on past performances which has no relevance now in present. I mean i cannot change my past. Then how do i come out of this problem ?

Please guide me Seniors.Your advice would be a real help.

[Former Member]

Dear Amit,

Even after years of experience in SAP, MNC will treat you the same way unless there is a real need for them to hire you.

From a experience point of you, it is all about interest even with no domain experince and no finance background , No SAP certification I was lucky enough to get into SAP.

But my dear friend getting a job in SAP is just the first struggle, you cannot settle down that you can manage your client. You need to be  active and learn as much as possible in the smallest given time. even if you are able to Crack the intial interview, the second struggle starts when you are assigned to a project,where in the project manager rejects you saying you have no domain experience or relavent educational background to understand the business. You need to convince them as well.

Once you get into a project, you are all alone man. Seniors will let you free to explore with Minimum Knowledge sharing , Once you crack all that and once you settle yourself by solving the support issues you will feel that your time here is done, u will look out for an roll-out project or an implemetation.

This time your manager will be convinced that you will be able to perform the task, but when they forward your resume to Client you will face the third level rejection.

So back to square one, by the time you start working in the real SAP screen other than IDES it will be 1.5 to 2 years, the only thing that you can do is to update your resume . but the truth you are still a fresher.

from the above what I conclude by saying is that you need to understand the business process completely. end of the day when you are claming yourself as an SAP consultant you must be pro active enough to give the business with Value adds, which are abandant in SAP. I have also faced clients whose business process can no way be mapped with standard SAP, after years and years of following theirbusiness process they feel very reluctant to change to the SAP best practice. You need to know SAP completely to advice the by letting them understand the benefits of SAP.

In the course of time you will also feel that SAP has complicated a few areas whcih the client is dable to perform with a simple solution.

So don't give up learn as much as you can, understand the business process of each business sectors from Manufacturing, trading, Contracting, Construction, Pharma etc. and try to map the knowledge to SAP. Hope to see you in SCN as a leading contibutor.

All the best, keep calm till the tide passes.

Regards,

M S Lokesh

[former_member182378]

Amit,

You can come out of this problem by practice, positive attitude and good luck!

Passing all the interview rounds and still not getting an offer is a part and parcel of this game! It happens to freshers and experienced professionals. Recently I did not get offer from 2 companies, I had qualified all rounds.

These documents might help

Don't compare with others. Keep working and learning!

Good luck!

TW

[rajkumar_deshetti]

Hi Amit,

Don't get depressed, just keep the faith in yourself and move forward  may be a better opportunity is waiting to knock at ur door.....

Best Regards,

Rajkumar Deshetti.

[former_member182378]

Amit,

Completely agree with Rajkumar!

Think of this as a career spanning 15 to 20 years. This perspective will help you get over initial disappointments and motivate you to keep working and improving. Success will come!

TW

[Former Member]

Hi Amit,

I completed my certification in May 2014 and I cracked it. But, in my first couple of interviews I was rejected because I did not have get a first class in my Bachelors of Commerce finals. That was an exam I gave 22 YEARS ago. I asked my interviewer, you are giving weightage to something that happened 2 decades ago but you are ignoring the fact that I aced your certification exam a couple of months ago. They just shrugged at me. So this happens and will happen. You just keep working at it. Thats the name of the game. You cannot get disheartened. The only thing I would say, if you can get a break in a small company rather than a large MNC, go for it. The amount of exposure and experience you will get right of the bat is amazing, provided you can handle it. I got a job in a smallish company, but with very supportive seniors and I am working on live projects (support and implementation). So don't go for brand right now, go for which will give you a chance to get actual experience. Down the line you can use that experience to switch, if you wish.

Regards,

Aziz

[former_member188352]

Dear Aziz,

I am agreed with your above  point that

"if you can get a break in a small company rather than a large MNC, go for it. The amount of exposure and experience you will get right of the bat is amazing, provided you can handle it. I got a job in a smallish company, but with very supportive seniors and I am working on live projects (support and implementation). So don't go for brand right now, go for which will give you a chance to get actual experience. Down the line you can use that experience to switch, if you wish."

In small company you will be get  more opportunities & new learning things, which might be will not be get in big MNC  easily.

Best of luck for your future...

Regards & Thanks,

Dhaval Mistry