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SAP FI Certification - Associate vs Professional

Former Member
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Hello

I am working as an SAP FI consultant with 5.3 years of experience. I want to appear for SAP FI Certification but confused between the 2 below:

1) C_TFIN52_66(Associate)

2)P_FINACC_66(Professional)

Which one should I take? Please advise.

Regards

Vibhor Narain Sharma

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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Hi Vibhor,

Please go with Associate.

If you have 8+ years of experience, you may try with Professional.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

Former Member
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Thanks Ravi. Appreciate that!

Sorry if it isn't relevant to this thread, but I also want to pursue MBA(Part Time).

a)Should I complete my certification first and then go for MBA or vice versa?

b)And Is it true that since I am an SAP FI consultant(with Engineering background), pursuing MBA in Finance would look more logical on my resume as against other specializations(viz. Technology Management, IT and so on)?

Please advise.

Regards

Vibhor

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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Hi Vibhor,

You will find very less SAP Finance consultants with engineering background. If you are confident and have requisite experience in SAP FI, you can go and apply for SAP Certification. There is no need to wait until you complete your MBA. It may take two years to complete your MBA. There is no sense to wait for SAP Certification for two years. If you are really interested, you should plan for it sooner than later.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

Former Member
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Thank you Ravi for your prompt response. I will surely target it in the forthcoming quarter.

Could you also please advise for second part of my question - Should an SAP FI Consultant(with Engineering background) pursue an MBA in Finance only or it can be in any domain?

Regards

Vibhor

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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Hi Vibhor,

If you want to pursue your career as a SAP Finance Consultant, it is ideal to have a finance degree.

MBA Finance would not be a bad option, which gives you fundamentals to finance and accounting.

I would advise you study MBA finance in parallel. MBA Finance would only give you basic fundamentals, unlike in-depth study like CA / CWA.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

Former Member
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What if I say I want to become an SAP Project Manager in due course(as I wouldn't stick to consulting forever). Will you still suggest MBA finance or I can choose other specializations in MBA as well.

So now its like MBA(Finance) vs MBA(Other Specialization) -  No CA/CWA/Prince2/PMP !

Thanks.

Regards

Vibhor

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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My personal opinion is MBAs are just for degree sake. They are clearly lack depth of knowledge. When university conducts an examination of MBA mostly 90% people would pass, whereas when it comes to CA / CWA / CS, the pass percentages are hardly around 2 to 3 percent. In my opinion, all the MBAs are one and the same same, just for a degree purpose, with few fundamentals here and there. For the same person who passed MBA Finance with University First, it may take years / life time to pass a CA type courses. There is a vast difference. Therefore, you can decide which MBA you would intend to do. It does not really matter. But, out of all of them I would still prefer dual MBA Finance with Information System. You will have fundamental knowledge in Finance and Information Systems.

To become a Project Manager, it is advisable to have Prince2 / PMP Certification. You need to follow certain project management standards, unless you have gone through some of these courses, it might be difficult to understanding concepts of project management. In addition to this, a project manager should have a sound confidence in handling the project. In such situation, no Certification would help. If you want to be a PM in future, you must look into Prince2/PMP.

Former Member
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Thanks Ravi for such detailed insight. I did not intend to waste your much precious time on this post but I couldn't control posting my queries.

Coming to the Prince2/PMP, I am aware that it is indeed helpful for budding PMs but I have seldom seen PMs with such certifications in my last 5.3 year old stint in SAP.

Having said that, I dare not reject these outright but is it that mandaotry(I know you mentioned the word "advisable" and not "mandatory"?

Will Certification+MBA+Experience not suffice to be a Project Manager?

The reason why I say this is because yesterday I glanced through some of the openings for SAP Project Manager, and only handful of these required Prince2/PMP cetified.

Sorry if I am arguing the toss.

Regards

Vibhor

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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Hi Vibhor,

Some companies may make some senior consultants as project managers, they must be just doing the most of the administrative stuff a project manager is doing without knowing the fundamentals of project management.

You may become a Project Manager with "certification + MBA + experience", but mostly not knowing the many of important aspects. When somebody has attained adequate knowledge to pass the Project Management Certification like PMP / Prince 2, they follow the structured and world standard methodologies accepted by across industries.

If if somebody becomes a Project Manager by chance, I would advise them to pass these reputed Project Management Certifications.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

Former Member
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Thanks Ravi, got your point.

SAP Certification followed by MBA followed by Prince2/PMP...looks like I have a got too much on my plate already for the next 3-4 years 🙂

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

Former Member
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Hi Ravi

Got this link from one of the post here at SCN:

https://www.sapindiacertification.com/help/directcertification/sap_pdf.pdf

One of the eligibilty criteria it says is the last one year should be with the Current employer. Now it has put me in a spot as I have resigned from my current emplyer after 6 months of joining.

Do such criterion exists in other countries as well? I did read in one of your posts that you appeared for SAP BW certification from Malaysia.

Could you please suggest such workaround for me. Else I have to wait till Dec'16 to write my certification as I am joining new company in December.

Regards

Vibhor

former_member182098
Active Contributor
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Hi Vibhor,

I have written my BW Certification almost 10 years back. Now many things might have been changed in those countries. You may need to check with them regarding the evaluation process. I understood, they also now have the similar evaluation process like India.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

Former Member
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Hi Ravi

So does it mean I am left with no other option but to wait for an year?

Regards

Vibhor