Can you remember the first time you heard of SAP

[Ruthvik]

Hello Coffee Corner folks,

when was the first time you heard about or saw SAP, can you recall those early carrier days of yours? 

By Today I completed my 10 Years journey in the SAP World 

#SAPCarrier #SAPLife

[StephanieMarley]

@jhonny_pachas may I ask your area of interest? Please be sure to check out and join Groups that interest you. Interest Groups | SAP Community Enjoy!

[BidishaTripathi]

For me the First day at SAP LABS India, I joined for My University internship on March 2006 in HR-payroll globalisation team,that time we use to have One month Orientation program in ABAP + 20 days additional for the functional area, for me it was HCM, that detailed orientation use to build a solid foundation for the developers.

Then joined SAP permanently in 2nd April 2007, to the TIP core Analytics team as a BW developer for SCPM project after 5 days training, joined the team with 0 experience in BW, with my mistakes, experiences, collaborations I learned multiple tehnologies and functions, I feel this 17+year I grew and aged gracefully with SAP labs India, it was my second home.and what I learned there, I take to my next job after relocating to Canada.

Bidisha

[Katherine_K]

Really nice @BidishaTripathi !! Looks like we are both at SAP for around the same length of time - I joined in October of 2006 and haven't looked back! Found myself a lovely home with the SAP Community team, but have always worked in the area of SAP Learning more-or-less.

[StephanieMarley]

@BidishaTripathi awesome! It sounds like you made a great move to Canada in order to continue your SAP journey. Enjoy!

[vidarkalsund]

In 2002 I was put into play with SAP as a abap developer coming from the microsoft world as .net VB developer. A huge step backwords as a developer at the time, and had some hard times accepting this line based code language. Some short months later I read the future bible ABAP Objects: Introduction to Programming SAP Applications (SAP Press) by Dr Horst Keller (13-May-20... and have never looked back. 🙂

[StephanieMarley]

@vidarkalsund you have a great story. Thanks for sharing to inspire others. Are you thinking about taking any of the new SAP Learning role-based certifications? Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

[vidarkalsund]

Hi, well...my belif with certifications after working with SAP for many years already is more connected to my everlasting learning path, but I primarly use the community reading blogs, listening to podcasts, watching SAP videos on youtube, joining TechEd's, talking to partners and other customers on seminars or simulars mainly. I also take some of the fantastic OpenSAP courses. To deeplearn I still belive in reading a book and resonate..:-)...I see fantastic opportunities to get started with your SAP profession using the certifications and for my own to revitalize knowledge or to get a broader perspective. Time is anyway vital for the certification path decision.

[Eduardo_Barros]

Prezado Ruthvik e todos os demais colegas,

Eu ouvi falar do SAP na década de 1990, não sei precisar se em 1995 ou em 1998, quando entrou no Brasil num jornal que existe somente online agora, o Gazeta Mercantil. No início do século, como Consultor de ERP de sistemas, conheci Consultores SAP, mas somente em 2012 é que conheci realmente o SAP e, até hoje, trabalho com ele, prestando suporte.

Deus abençoe a todos.

[FabianMartinez]

Hola a todos,
Me llamo Fabian Martínez, soy de Colombia, y llevo muy poco tiempo en SAP. La primera vez que es cuche de SAP fue por un muy buen amigo que trabajaba en el modulo de RRHH, yo no tenia ni idea de que era SAP ni de RRHH, surgió una oportunidad y me arriesgue, y aquí estoy muy motivado para aprender.
Gracias por este espacio, saludos.

[Ryan-Crosby]

Hi Folks,

It was late 2007... almost 10 years removed from college with a degree in chemistry (at one point switched from Biology, and almost chose Computer Science), and I was taking classes part time in computer science.  The university curriculum was mostly focused on Java, so I had some fair experience at the time using the Java language.  I submitted my resume for a job at a local company that had strong relationship with the computer science department at the university for a Java development position.  I never heard anything back regarding the position.

A couple months later in early 2008, I got a call from someone at the company asking if I was interested in coming in for an interview to work on some thing called "SAP".  The other team had recycled my resume to the SAP team, and they were looking to hire a member of the team that would be focused on integration.  My former colleague got the job, but my first boss with the company liked me enough to create another position, and gave me my first development job in SAP.

I remember on my first day opening an SAP Press book to start reading about ABAP and this "SAP" (don't recall the title).  In the opening paragraph it made a statement along the lines of... "SAP is so complicated that no one person can ever know everything there is to know about it."  At the time Charlie Brown's immortal words "Good Grief" went through my mind, but I have been an active member of the community ever since.  Interestingly, my main focus now is in the integration space, but I also spend a lot of time in the world of ABAP, and am willing to dabble in just about anything.

Ryan

[Katherine_K]

Thanks for the intro @Ryan-Crosby - an interesting read! It's so great to have people with your level of experience in our community, and for so long too!!

[Phyn]

My first time was in college. I studied HR and there was one class where we had to learn about HRIS. All I remember is folders on the left that just kept expanding. Full circle moment was when i attended a tech event last October and SAP won me over again. The presenters, just the way the employees represented SAP sparked my interest. Here i am , ready to learn and get certified 20 years later. 

[Wil_Wilstroth]

20 years ago, i was out hanging out at my buddy's place. And, i was out of job (the software house's owner went broke) at that time. Though the severance was good but I had to find a job to keep up with the car and rent. So my buddy told me this, "Yo, you know this consulting they are recruiting IT folks - you should go and give it a try". He told me they are training young folks for ABAP. Back in my mind, "Woah, what's that?"... 

Ya, let's give it a try.

So here i am... old man doing ABAP... i still remember the R3 ABAP editor... of course, it's whole lot different now with S/4 Hana... time fly very fast... 

 

[StephanieMarley]

@Wil_Wilstroth now, this is a great story. ABAP for life it sounds like 🙂 It is great to meet you in the SAP Community!

[LisetteM]

I first heard about SAP from a recruiter after a stint in the Financial Controls of Fedex, Belgium and my experience with was the University training in 2020. I am a rookie😊

[StephanieMarley]

@LisetteM it is great to meet you. What are you hoping to learn with other community members? Are there certain products or topics your most interested? I will enjoy helping you navigate and learn from you.

[LisetteM]

My module is finance & accounting, I practiced a lot during my training but haven't found the good match yet for the real world experience with the Fiori implementation that I am looking for. I had a real world experience with logistics and sales on-prem and I did very good for a rookie😊

[StephanieMarley]

@LisetteM we have a lot in common because my roots are also in supply chain before I started working in technology. I would recommend this field to anyone and especially how it can transfer to areas like finance and accounting. As an idea do you want to check out the beginner corner? I did a search on blogs for SAP Fiori - maybe you have seen the blogs and I was thinking something interesting to you may pop out here. Feel free to keep me posted or ask me questions too.

[LisetteM]

I had no plans to go into the direction, but looking for answers to solve a configuration issue during exercises opened a new world for me. With my background in the creative sector, I took a lot of open SAP courses and brought me up to speed with the new technologies and innovations, I love it. Thanks for the suggestions I will revisit and see what's new.

[EmanuelGraves]

The first time I found out about SAP was not so long ago, about 2 years. It was a course that was held in my high school and there someone just mentioned and spoke about it for several minutes, but it was enough for me to get interested.

[StephanieMarley]

@EmanuelGraves so great to hear. May I ask what areas your most interested? There is so much great engagement in the community on so many topics. This is one you may want to take a look? Beginner Corner - SAP Community Happy to direct you if you have ideas. Best of luck.

[TreavelerY]

I was laid off from the gaming industry during the pandemic, and since I enjoy working with data, I am hoping to transition into that field. Through a friend's recommendation, I learned about SAP and am currently starting the learning process. I hope to have a promising career development.

[sveabecker]

I am sorry to hear that you have been laid off, but it's great that you are now digging into SAP topics. The SAP Community is a great place to start, e.g. check out our SAP Learning Groups. Let me please also point you to these main components of SAP Community:

• Topic pages: https://pages.community.sap.com/topics to get to know about SAP products
• Blog posts: https://community.sap.com/t5/all-sap-community-blogs/ct-p/all-blogs to read experience and knowledge from other community members
• Discussion Groups: https://community.sap.com/t5/interest-groups/ct-p/interests to get in touch to each other and discuss specific topics
• What's New: https://community.sap.com/t5/what-s-new/bg-p/whats-new to find all about recent or upcoming news

Enjoy exploring SAP Community!

[StephanieMarley]

@TreavelerY no doubt the opportunity is ahead. Do you want to join Career Corner - SAP Community to learn and share your career journey? Best of luck.

[LakshmiPrabhaka]

In the early 2000s, while walking through Ameerpet, Hyderabad, I was approached by many people promoting SAP training. The cost, however, was equivalent to a year's salary at the time, which discouraged me from pursuing it. I further inquired about the program at SAP Ecuation, but their fees seemed even higher than what I had encountered earlier. Ultimately, I decided that SAP training wasn't feasible for me at that point in time.

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[Raje1]

I was hear about SAP in 2008, I have started to learn about SAP. I have get opportunity to work on SAP as a end user than I have get opportunity to work on implementation project. Since 2018 working as SAP EWM Functional Consultant. I have get my firs SAP Certification SAP EWM 9.5 Associate Functional consultant in 2019 after I did multiple SAP Certification to enhance my skill in SAP now I am doing SAP S/4HANA Extended Warehouse Management Implementation projects.

Over all my 25 Plus Year Experience I have 13 plus Experience in SAP. 

[StephanieMarley]

@Raje1 you have an incredible journey. Would you be interested in telling the community more about your career journey (just an idea!) Career Corner - SAP Community It is fascinating to know how community members got to where they are. Best of luck.

[Raje1]

Thanks to share about your SAP journey. It will motivate to all of us. 

[Samudra]

Hi,

Yes, it was 2 years back, when my cousin was coding in ABAP. I felt bored with what she was doing. She was working in HCL Tech at that time. So, I was doing my graduation at that time, and the Covid Lockdown happend. So I took a step back and decided to get involved with some productive work. I looked into the matter of SAP and understood that there where a lot of things to know and learn about the business processes. I had a faint interest to know about SAP and first I came up with SAP EHS from Open SAP. My learnign and love for SAP started from there. After that I started with SAP Finance and Controlling. Now currently I am working as a solution architech. That is all, thank your for reading my post.

Kind Regards,

Samudra Gupta

[StephanieMarley]

@Samudra I'm so impressed. You touch the very roots of SAP with ABAP. I can't think of anything more rewarding. Any chance you would share your career journey in the Career Corner - SAP Community? So many may want to pursue solution architecture and they are not sure where / how to get started. 😆Best of luck.

[OlgaSchwEcke]

Hello! What a nice question! For me it was the IT Basic course during my studies in an University for Applied Sciences. Actually I studies Business Admin. I passed the exam easy going and our professor nominated me as Tutor, what means, that I needed to support other students during his lectures about SAP. Haha, so I showed my talent and from then, my career was pushed somehow automatically. 

[Katherine_K]

Nice one @OlgaSchwEcke ! Do you still tutor others?

[OlgaSchwEcke]

I have been working as SAP Consultant in the area of AMS in the last 5 years. And yes, I think solving incident tickets and processing changes requests is somehow still helping others to deal with SAP, but this is of course different than introducing students to SAP. ^^

[StephanieMarley]

@OlgaSchwEcke wow what a (career) journey. It is fun that you have so much fun and success. Would be awesome if you want to share highlights Career Corner - SAP Community. Wish you luck and see you here in the community!

[markus_schaefer242]

Hi,
I had my first contact with the three letters over 35 years ago, when my brother started his career as an SAP consultant. I think that was still SAP R2...
I myself started with SAP B1 in my job with SAP B1 version 2007. Since we went LIVE in 2009, I still work with it as an internal consultant. It's a lot of fun to develop smaller functions myself, but above all to carry out the training courses with colleagues, as the software is very easy to learn.
Have a nice day 🙂

Greetings
Markus

[Katherine_K]

Thanks for the introduction @markus_schaefer242 - great to have your wealth of experience in our community!!

[StephanieMarley]

@markus_schaefer242 great to meet you. You have experienced quite a career with SAP. Not sure if you would be interested in sharing career highlights Career Corner - SAP Community? There is so much to learn about SAP careers. The best to is to here SAPers real-life journeys. 😁

[Geeta_Menon]

I came in through the acquisition of Quadrem by Ariba and subsequently the acquisition of Ariba by SAP. However the first time I heard the 3 letter word SAP was in my first job with Accenture where SAP skills were highly prized for career growth.

[StephanieMarley]

@Geeta_Menon hi (again!!) I joined SAP from a customer to become a BW support consultant. I was a supply chain manager using MM. I must say working as a BW support consultant I was able to get a good perspective on the different SAP modules. I am familiar with Ariba from a user perspective. 

[Geeta_Menon]

Integration between Ariba and SAP MM was a key value proposition for our customers. So I can see why you would have been familiar with Ariba as a supply chain mgr.