Moving from SAP Basis to programming career & back

[Former Member]

Hello All,

I started my career as SAP Basis consultant in a MNC 1 year back. As you all know, I am doing usual tasks what freshers do at MNC in first year and moreover i'm in support projects. After seeing what my seniors/SMEs do, I'm not getting any satisfaction or joy from Basis works. I enjoy programming and very good at it in Schools/College. Basis looks like administration(if I'm not wrong). Hence I'm thinking of moving to programming career. I am asking all those techies & friends here to put their knowledge/advise whether is it good to move from SAP Basis to programming (Java, C, etc. wanna stay away from SAP as of now).

I guess many people would have come from programming to SAP. I guess my Basis Knowledge will help if I wanna move to SAP again after several years. Please put your thoughts and experience.

PS: I'm new here to SCN. But I searched for similar questions but I couldn't find anything.

[Former Member]

There are some programming areas in SAP also.. Like ABAP, UI5.. why don't to explore more about those.. So you will be in SAP and in programming areas too..

[Former Member]

Yes. But SAP looks very closed or fenced to me. I can work only on SAP but no other knowledge where one can build their own product or (small) softwares.

Interestingly, it's very hard or not possible to move from Basis to ABAP or anything within my Organisation(may be some unwritten policies).

[Colleen]

Hi Mohamad

You appear to have thought through your career a bit. SAP Basis is known as "System Administration". Your current level of work would be quite repetitive and may take a little while before you "step up" to next levels. It is quite a varied are (System build, performance issue, admin tasks, client copies, backups, upgrades, transports, background jobs, etc). Most Basis colleagues I know don't have time to get bored.

However, if you have observed your senior colleagues and do not feel this is a career path for you then by all means find something that you are passionate about.

My only confusing is this is SCN = SAP Community Network....and you are asking for career advise for non-SAP? It sounds like you want to become a more generalist/diverse and not be tied down to SAP. Some member might be able to provide you with advise about programming to help you but your might get more assistance by seeking out a non-SAP forum?

Is part of this decision that you want to find more fulfilling work that you are passionate about but at the same time you want to keep a door open should you ever wish to return to a SAP job?

Regards

Colleen

[Former Member]

You understood well. I do transports, batch jobs, printer creation and little performance issues as well.

My only confusing is this is SCN = SAP Community Network....and you are asking for career advise for non-SAP? It sounds like you want to become a more generalist/diverse and not be tied down to SAP. Some member might be able to provide you with advise about programming to help you but your might get more assistance by seeking out a non-SAP forum?

I asked few programmers (java, .Net, etc) working in both support and development stuffs. They don't know what SAP is and what we do? But here people came from all areas. That's why I put it here.

Is part of this decision that you want to find more fulfilling work that you are passionate about but at the same time you want to keep a door open should you ever wish to return to a SAP job?

That's because i'm 1 year old in SAP. It's not about keeping the door open but will my Basis (technical) experience help in later time - I hope it will or I have to forget about it.

[Colleen]

HI Mohamed

In your first post you ended with

 I guess my Basis Knowledge will help if I wanna move to SAP again after several years. 

But now you say

That's because i'm 1 year old in SAP. It's not about keeping the door open but will my Basis (technical) experience help in later time - I hope it will or I have to forget about it

Okay, what is your actual motivation here: your don't want a career in SAP or you want a more-fulfilling/future proofing career that gives you longevity and good prospects?

You mention that you would "forget about it" if you Basis experience no longer counts? Do you mean no longer counts for non-SAP development work or for a chance to re-enter SAP?

Things to consider in the SAP space (and by no means these should be reasons for you to stay)

• It is very hard to get a level entry position in SAP. You may have experienced a hard recruitment process with lots of competition amongst you peers. If you were fortunate to find a job immediately, considered yourself fortunate compared to some of the posts and questions we get from members in Careers, Training and Certification spaces
• First year in any job (SAP or other) will be "low hanging", repetitious work. It's all about learning and slowly stepping up to the difficult tasks. It is the same as you must crawl before your you walk and walk before you run. I suspect the same will be with development.
• SAP (as mentioned by others) does have an area of development and it is a growth market. HANA is a platform is and being marketed to be used with Non-SAP systems so it opens up a heap of other develop opportunities. Having a 1 year Basis could assist transition into SAP development as you understand system architecture and landscape. Also, monitoring performance logs and so on might help you appreciate why/how clean code should be written
• Leaving SAP market for a few years and returning later may be a bit difficult.Your training may become outdated and you will have competition. I am speculating here. You never know, your newly obtained skills may be complementary to a job back here (again, goes back to original question if you really want to work in SAP)
• SAP is changing quickly with new products all the time. Development is undergoing an overhaul and Integration of systems (including to non-sap) is challenging work. Basis is part of that.

But at the end of the day, if you do not want to work in SAP then your Basis experience is really work experience. You might be able to transition basis to other system administration roles in non-SAP products. However, if you truly want to become a developer then the focus should be on what language(s) you learn.

Why do you think SAP is "closed fenced" and what do you mean by this?

Regards

Colleen

[Former Member]

In addition what is suggested by Colleen with regards to ""Closed Fenced""..

I am also a programmer and works on ABAP, and many time i also felt like there is nothing much to do with this technology or language but it doesn't mean my programming career is over. If we are good programmer and have a strong basic concept we can move to any programming language without much effort. You  just need to know some data flow and syntax.

[Former Member]

You're simply great Colleen and happy to see mentor like you.

Okay, what is your actual motivation here:

That's because I'm in confused state. "The grass is always greener on the other side." If SAP looks greener to me after certain years?

• I'm not worried about future or employment proof. It's about self satisfaction.
• For a chance to re-enter SAP if it looks greener. But not Basis and Security (sorry colleen. I got trained in Security also. It's a good job but I don't like it. People are not same)
• Yes I understand getting into SAP is not very easy and my new skills may not be in line with future SAP.
• Closed I mean what Chandra put it. For example, If we see a non-SAP programmer, in addition to job he can work on his own project or other interested project which might be completely different from other project.

Let's see what others reply especially those came from programming side.

Colleen, do we use those complicated logic, algorithms, thoughts in SAP basis or SAP?

[Colleen]

Hi Mohamed

Zero insult on my side You never mentioned an interest in security so it would be pointless for me to attempt to provide guidance and direct you down that path. It is a risk in this space - members passionate about their area of expertise will recommend it to beginners. It's why I encourage those asking for assistance to provide as much context as possible.

That pesky "grass is always greener" and crystal ball of what will the future hold is a challenge for all of us. I have am constantly trying to improve and diversify my skill to remain current as well as challenges. I too want to have a job that I enjoy in years to come.

From your comments it's obvious system administration (basis) is not for you. It seems clear that you want to look at development. Again, I can't recommend a language. What I do recommend is that you search through SCN to see the different programming languages and development spaces (it appears Java background is useful now). You might actually find a challenging area for development within SAP that you could train and transition to (career win as well as personal fulfilment)

What you could look at doing to help you make your decision is search for MOOC (massive open online courses) and try some development courses to see what it's like. If you enjoy it the you could research a career path. For example, SAP has open.sap.com where you can sign up to some courses. Quite a few universities have them as well and programming might be a subject on offer.

Another way I look at work: if you cannot find the career that fulfills you (that you are passionate about and ticks all the boxes) then find a job that pays enough so finance a hobby. In the short term you could remain in basis and study development on the side. If you are creative, you could look at building your own apps, etc (you can even take Basis challenges and write your own code to solve them). Alternatively, choose a language completely unrelated to SAP (search job sites in your country to see what skill employers look for). Just a another pathway you could consider.

Good luck in finding your way

Regards

Colleen

[Former Member]

Thanks Colleen and for directing to openSAP. Exactly, I wanna diversify my skills. I already joined similar open course on Java too (i researched a bit earlier) to understand whether it will suit me. Now trying to align my Job and learning activities. Already started those job searching.

Another question as reply came before I edit my previous one. May be it needs to be posted as separate question:

In Basis, is there any way to practice on my own like Kernel Upgrade, patch upgrade,etc in a system (without paying huge bucks). I hope you understand because in support projects, we cannot try even in Sandbox.

No one is replying other than two!

[Colleen]

Hi Mohamed

I'm not aware of any training environments that you can rent for a good price. Possibly try searching to see if there are any options out there. Some training providers might rent servers but I'm unsure of cost (and trustworthingness). It is a challenge to practise that type of work if you do not have access in your job.

Few people are replying as it's that time of year (people taking leave) and it's also the weekend

Regards

Colleen

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot. lets see. I already read that you went home, enjoy holidays.

[Jelena]

In general, I find it very beneficial to have some system / network administration background for the developers. But as far as employability goes - in our area I see more ads for Basis than for ABAP and pay is also better (although depends on the skill level). So if you have financial obligations you'd need to be very careful about any career changes.

Usually I find it easier to transition to the new skillset within the same organization. Maybe there is a project that needs help or some extra work you could take on for another team. If you completely leave the job for another opportunity it will definitely be more difficult to get back to where you were or switch again to something different. Diversification of skills without a complete career change is a safer option IMHO. And I believe any decent company would also support their employees in acquiring new skills within the company.

Also if you're just thinking that programming might be of some interest to you, I'd suggest to learn basics of Java because it's an object-oriented language and relatively easy to learn on your own. At least few years ago all I needed was a free complier and 'Java in a Nutshell' book. In case programming is not for you or is not what you thought it was I think you'll see it immediately then.

Good luck!

[Former Member]

Good points Jelena.

Diversification of skills without a complete career change is a safer option.

In case programming is not for you or is not what you thought it was I think you'll see it immediately then.

I'm a graduate from Non-Computer Science background. So I don't have strong knowledge on anything - programming, OS, DB, N/W. If I'm strong in any of these, it would be good for Basis person. Let's test your last point. Will update here (after sometime).

We are in different parts of the globe and organisational environments are not similar. Just FYI, in my area Basis requirement is little compared to ABAP & modules. Yes that pay is higher.