Career as SAP analyst/consultant

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am exploring the option to build my carrier in SAP analyst/consultant field.

I have more than 5 years of experience of sales and business management in automotive industry. At the same time I have worked on or used SAP as a business user for these 5 years.

I am quiet conversant with the business process, material movement, orders/approval flows etc.

I have the desire and will but I am looking for some answers to convenience myself that it will be a good decision to move in this direction financially and in terms of career growth also. It would be a big help if you could answer the questions below, before I make my final decision. I would request you SAP Gurus to please guide me.

1. Some of the agencies (AtoS and some others) I have got in touch with to discuss this certification have suggested doing SAP SD or MM certification, keeping my experience in view. If I do it what is your guess how soon I could find a job with this certification.
2. What kind of salary will I be able to attract if I do get a job. Currently I am getting good salary by auto industry standards (around $15K). As per the information I have got the starting salaries in these roles are some times less than half of what I am getting now.
3. Finally how fast is the growth in this industry? Let us say I do the certification spend some $500 and join a company with salary less than half of my current. After doing this, as per your experience how soon will I be able to reach or exceed the salary I would have been getting otherwise (assume I perform fairly well in my SAP role ;-).
4. So finally should I go ahead with the certification?

Rather than an instinctive one, I want to make a well thought over, planned and fairly well estimated decision. I am looking forward to your valuable answers.

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi Pankaj,

  I think your experince is good. There is no need to Do Certification in SAP

[Former Member]

Hi Dnyaneshwar,

Thanks for your input. This is great to know.

So are you suggesting that i should straightaway go ahead with posting and looking for Jobs.

Regards

[Former Member]

YES

[former_member182378 · Accepted solution]

Moderators, please move this thread to http://scn.sap.com/community/career-center

http://scn.sap.com/people/m.lee

Pankaj,

As a consultant you will be expected to know SAP module "back-end" (configuration, how SAP works, tables,fields etc.) along with business processes. Do you have this type of knowledge? E.g. What is movement type? How to make Ship To party mandatory in a delivery? How to setup pricing? etc.

Certification is different from knowledge. Certification is optional. You will face interviews, in which your knowledge will be tested.

To break into SAP job market is difficult. The salaries will be very low, during the initial phase, probably for 3 to 5 years. In the long run it does not matter if you choose SD or MM. In SAP, you need expertise, good communication skills and hard work.

TW

[Former Member]

Hi TW,

You are correct i have more of knowledge and just an overview of back-end processes.

The fact that pinches me most is the salaries part.

Thank you so much for your input, I might have some more questions in future also...please be kind enough to reply.

regards,

[Ritz]

I am trying to reply all the bullets in your post one by one.

• Some of the agencies (AtoS and some others) I have got in touch with to discuss this certification have suggested doing SAP SD or MM certification, keeping my experience in view. If I do it what is your guess how soon I could find a job with this certification.

for training and certification you can go to any SAP authorized institute , you can find many depends upon which country you are presently staying.

• What kind of salary will I be able to attract if I do get a job. Currently I am getting good salary by auto industry standards (around $15K). As per the information I have got the starting salaries in these roles are some times less than half of what I am getting now.

if you are already at $15K  (1,50,000 US Dollar if i correctly understand)  then you are earning much higer then a SAP consultant having a decade experience in SAP. Better look for management job. If salary is the criteria.

• Finally how fast is the growth in this industry? Let us say I do the certification spend some $500 and join a company with salary less than half of my current. After doing this, as per your experience how soon will I be able to reach or exceed the salary I would have been getting otherwise (assume I perform fairly well in my SAP role ;-).

refer the above one

• So finally should I go ahead with the certification?

Certification is optional , if you just have user level experience you may not be knowing all what comes within an module, i still recommend training as it give you all back ground about SAP and you can understand most of the master data piece to create a right foundation for a module.

Hope this will help you.

Thanks

Ritesh

[Former Member]

hi Ritesh,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I appreciate the time and effort you have put in answering.

Well all of your answers look fine except for my salary has one Zero lesser, it is 15,000.

regards,

Suthar