1-2-1 Commandments for your SAP Career

[former_member182098]

“Today’s mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law, but in no mood to understand the pain of her daughter-in-law’. The same rule and logic also ruling in SAP profession. 90 percent of the established consultants tend to forget the fact that they were also freshers and junior consultants when they started their career. You will hardly find people who are always willing to help the freshers or juniors in the market. Most of the consultants will find no time to help or guide the juniors. They would feel the kind of questions juniors are asking is ridiculous, but, they tend to forget the fact that similar questions were asked by them at the start of their career. The best help a human being can do is to help others without expecting anything back in return. This gives unlimited self satisfaction and such help would be remembered by the other person till the end of their life. Therefore, we should never forget our roots similar to trees, which gives us the best lesson. Bigger the trees grow more they bend. In the similar way, it is our responsibility, being a human whatever position we achieve in life, we should not forget our roots and always try to help others, no exception to SAP Profession.

More or less, daily I do receive number of messages from all over the world on my LinkedIn for some sort of advice or help in their professional life. I never hesitate to give them the best possible advice. Some people would send me thankful email after few years saying how my advice has helped their career. It just gives a great pleasure to know that my simple advice has helped someone in their life. I do not see any great overwhelming feeling than this. I strongly believe helping others should always be a matter of passion as opposed to compulsion. The more you help others, it would return in some way or the other to help you. I would definitely not be in my current position, unless many of the great people had not helped me in many ways in my life. It need not necessarily a SAP advice, even every person in our day to day life help us to move forward, for example, a taxi driver helped us to reach safely to office or an interview. If we continue saying like this, the list of examples can go on, which helped us in our life to become complete individuals. One of the beautiful quote shared by my friend and I cannot stop sharing that quote with you “Peace of Mind is a Beautiful Gift which Only We can give to OURSELVES.. Just by Expecting NOTHING from anyone, Even after Doing EVERYTHING for them.”

To end the year 2017 on a beautiful note, I would like to give 1-2-1 (you are right, indeed 121) advises for your wonderful SAP Career. I am not the guru of everything. With my very limited knowledge, I would only like to share my experiences in SAP world in the form of advises. I strongly believe that what I know is 1/1000^th of an atom, what I need to learn is the whole universe. If any of my advises help anybody in the pursuit of their professional or personal life, the very purpose of writing this blog is more than achieved. I would be more than appreciate if you share your professional experiences as comments to add greater value to this blog.

 

CAREER

1. Take SAP as a passion, rather than a profession.


2. Always open your eyes on the latest technologies of SAP in your area.


3. When you do not know something, you must be the first one to admit rather than bluffing.


4. If you find a better company, but, a bad manager, you tend to leave the job so quite early.


5. Concentrate on your skills rather than impressing your managers.


6. Always have short term and long term goals what you intend to achieve in your career.


7. Changing technologies is not just changing a shirt, stick to what you believe.


8. Learning daily is the only way to build palace of your SAP Career.


9. Do not run behind money, if you have knowledge, money follows you.


10. Keep your feet firmly grounded even if you reach pinnacles in your career.


11. Remember, 1000 miles journey start with a single step, your SAP career is no exception.

SALARY

12. If you are young choose a company that gives skill and if you are old enough to retire, then choose a company that pays you well.


13. Never throw your hat first into the ring, you never know the prospective employer might be willing to pay more than the amount in your mind.


14. Salary negotiation is a skill, if you cannot master it, will have to sell your knowledge for lesser price.


15. Salary is important, but, when you are confused between two offers, go for the job which gives you more skill than the salary.


16. Do not just change the company for the sake of salary, you may end up changing many companies in your career.


17. You are a commodity to the company, it may not hesitate to throw you out if you are not worthy, make yourself always demanding.


18. Contentment is very important in life, never compare your salaries with the others, else, you will be an unsatisfied person forever.


19. As long as you believe in your SAP skills, you have fair chance of getting good paying prospective employers.


20. Remember, you are never respected by your salary, but by your knowledge.


21. Remember the “law of demand and supply” before you start negotiating the salary or rates.


22. Choose an employer who pays you less but gives you enough freedom rather who pays you more and makes your life miserable.

LEARNING & SKILLS IMPROVEMENT

23. Learning is like a flowing river, the minute it stops, that is the end of the progress.


24. Learning is not a month’s task, rather a life long process, never fear learning new things.


25. With money you can buy books, but not knowledge, because it only comes by your application of mind.


26. Many Architects, Designers, Consultants and Experts never be able to post a document, never be part of such bandwagon, and make your hands dirty on the system to be the best.


27. Take a resolution at the beginning of every year and stick to that learning schedule, always compare your actual progress vs set planned learning targets.


28. No matter how intelligent you are, without continuous learning you become a rusted bolt soon.


29. Do not forget to follow the latest courses on https://training.sap.com, if possible subscribe SAP Learning Hub.


30. Regularly reading SAP Help https://help.sap.com/ and contributing on the SCN https://www.sap.com/community.html make you richer by knowledge.


31. SAP Market Place https://service.sap.com is not just a place to raise the tickets to SAP, but a great source of knowledge.


32. Never think you know everything, this ego would kill your learning spirit and brings you down.


33. Remember, always Read, Read, Read and Practice, Practice, Practice.

CERTIFICATION

34. Never under estimate the power of SAP Certification.


35. Some people think doing Certification is an insulting thing do in life, this shows their immaturity and ego to learn new things.


36. People believe they know everything and reluctant to give SAP Certification mainly because their inability to understand the conceptual knowledge may get exposed, never be part of such jokers list.


37. Certification is not a job minting machine, but a process driven test to quantify your understanding about the fundamental knowledge on the subject.


38. Those who cannot dance would blame the musician in the similar way those who cannot pass SAP Certification would blame the SAP Certification itself, why would you want to join with such broken legs?


39. Passing Certification is not a pinnacle of the world, but just a starting point for new beginning to pass another Certification.


40. Having hands-on experience is a bonus, having certification is also another bonus, however, having Hands-on experience plus Certification is bonus plus bonus.


41. The first certification you always put your heart at it, the more number of Certifications you attend, it just becomes a child game.


42. If you have any questions regarding certification, the first contact point is your local SAP Education in your country, as the rules may differ from country to country.


43. Never forget now the SAP offers Cloud Certification, which gives you a chance to pass the Certification in 6 attempts.


44. Do not think that someone will come and sponsor you for your Certification, it is your responsibility and interest to fulfil your appetite for learning.

OPPORTUNITIES

45. Always open your eyes for the opportunities around.


46. Opportunities are not always advertised on the job portal.


47. Do not think that you always get dream opportunities, at times, you may need to face the toughest employers.


48. Remember, bad market conditions will not spare highly skilled consultants.


49. People only look how successful you are, but they never understand how hard you worked to grab those opportunities.


50. Success lies in selecting the best opportunities, rather than taking what comes on your way.


51. When you find it difficult to find an opportunity, never forget to develop your skills during that period.


52. If you have the right frame of mind set, opportunities always knock your door, do not just dream, but also make it happen.


53. Remember opportunities are through multiple ways like job portals, job groups, recruiters, friends, old colleagues and networkers on LinkedIn.


54. At times you must also ready to say NO for the opportunities not worthy to pursue, note there are brokers who ready to exploit your knowledge, be aware of them.


55. Opportunities knock regularly those who constantly take the calculated risks.

CV

56. Never fake your CV, be honest and reflect the same on your CV.


57. If you cannot write your CV, you are not fit enough for the Job.


58. If you can write a better CV, you are already 50% successful in getting the job.


59. Do not prepare multiple CVs with totally different jobs and descriptions.


60. Always showcase your strengths and articulate your achievements on the CV.


61. Remember the recruiters will have one minute time to scan your CV.


62. Copying the projects or work from the others CV is unethical and useless.


63. Do not add the company names that you have not worked or exaggerate the work that you have not done.


64. Give the examples of how you could add value to the business, rather than what you are expecting from the prospective employers.


65. If you are strong in SAP, showcase your strengths such as Configuration, Business Processes, Business Analysis, Change Management, Programming and System Administration etc.


66. Never turn a blind eye to your soft skills and other special qualities, such as being a team player, proactive, communication and eager to learn etc. kind of attributes while preparing your CV.

INTERVIEWS

67. Always be punctual, show “Can Do” attitude, thoroughly prepared and well mannered.


68. Failing in the interview is not the end of the world, it is a just a new learning.


69. Success starts thinking positive after a failed interview rather than feeling proud after a successful interview.


70. Know the expectation of the role, always refresh on your weak areas, show self confidence, give business examples and concentrate on the communication.


71. Highly intelligent people do fail in number of interviews because of their bad attitude.


72. If you do not introspect honestly the reasons for a failed interview, you will have very less chance of successful in future interviews.


73. Never take success in an interview to your head and the failure to your heart, treat them the same.


74. Never blame the employers, even if you are rejected for no reason, as you do not know their actual reason of rejecting you.


75. Remember even many of the great people in the world were once rejected in their interviews.


76. One rejected interview means opening of the doors for thousand opportunities.


77. Whatever be the result of the interview, always have utmost faith in your abilities.

ON THE BENCH

78. On the Bench is not a period of honeymoon, but an opportunity to improve your skills.


79. ‘Simply sitting and freely getting’ may be good in the short term, but will make you rusted for life.


80. Remember all employers will have a keen eye on the people enjoying life on the bench.


81. The scariest time for the Contractors is to be on the bench for long time, make best use of it by learning niche skills.


82. Try to make a team of like minded people on the bench and at least complete a dummy project if you have access to sandbox.


83. Not a bad idea to configure the SAP Best Practices on the sand box if you have access.


84. At least try to learn on new skill every time when you are on the bench.


85. If you are on the bench, you could still refresh your skills by training the junior or new entrants.


86. On the bench, you could still help the management with the business proposals and the bids.


87. If you are continuously on the bench for most of the part of your career, do not blame the management, rather let yourself introspect.


88. Whenever you are on the bench, always be proactive to find the next role, rather than wasting the useful time in the canteens.

BRAND VALUE & NETWORKING

89. You are the creator of your own brand value.


90. Any brand in this world is not created in a single day and you are not an exception.


91. Keep updated LinkedIn Profile, be enthusiastic, proactive and helpful to build your reputation.


92. Try to network with all the like minded colleagues, recruiters and your client personnel.


93. If possible, never ignore to get a recommendation for your well deserved abilities.


94. If somebody recommend you on LinkedIn, it is a courteous to reciprocate.


95. Building the brand value is a part of life, but it is not the only thing in life, hence, do not spend all your time only on the social media.


96. The more you contribute to the development of the community, you will be automatically recognised.


97. Do not run behind brand value, do your bit to the people, your brand value will build on its own.


98. The best things to develop your brand value is to help the people honestly without looking anything in return.


99. Brand value cannot be build if you work for yourself, it will only be built if you help the world.

WORK LIFE BALANCE

100. Life is not just work, must have enough balance between work life and personal life.


101. Unless you are very lucky SAP Consulting jobs are mostly away from home.


102. If you get a chance to remotely work from home, it saves your time and personal life.


103. Do exercises, cycling, meditation and yoga to bust your work life stress.


104. Do not take up the job, if your current role makes you stressful.


105. Leave your work stress once you left out of Office, do not carry it to your home.


106. Find the ways to work smart, but not to work hard.


107. You do not need to sit for long hours in the office just because your boss is working.


108. Time is precious, away from the toxic people to make your life worthy.


109. Money can buy many things in life, but not the inner peace, because it comes from within.

HELPING & SHARE KNOWLEDGE

110. Helping others, particularly in SAP world is very common.


111. The more your share your knowledge with others, it multiples your abilities.


112. Sharing knowledge is a treasure, it always multiplies your skills and knowledge.


113. Make helping as your habit, whether it is at your professional or personal front.


114. Before you ask anybody to help you, just check if you have done enough home work.


115. You will be remembered for life only when you help others selflessly.


116. SAP is an ocean, remember at times even an expert consultant may not be knowing simple things.


117. Sharing knowledge should be a passion, but not a compulsion.


118. Teamwork, helping and sharing knowledge is the only way to grow together.


119. Sharing your knowledge is a gift of God, blissful and eternal.


120. Learning and sharing knowledge will always go hand in hand.


121. The best thing in life is not to compare yourself, but do your bit to help others.

Hope you all had a very good year 2017. Wishing you all a successful SAP career, professional growth, success, joy and health in New Year 2018. Happy Reading!!!

[former_member182521]

Great blog Ravi. Thanks for your time to write and share your knowledge here.

Thanks

Mani

[former_member183501]

Hi Sir,

Frankly speaking, I feel myself fortunate enough to be in touch with you through this wonderful community and on other social networking site(s). Hats Off to you for your contribution for new comers of SAP.This blog is a "Masterpiece" going to help everyone who reads this. The blog which you have shared can be read in few minutes but will take a lot of time to understand each line so I need more to read this and come up with a reply.

For me, an attitude of a person can me measured by his behavior towards others.

Regards

Kamlesh

[Gustavo_Vazquez]

Excellent blog Ravi !!!!!!

How much true is in there 🙂

 

[mmcisme1]

Excellent blog!   It must have taken some time to write.   A couple of quick ideas.

1.   If you help someone, they might ask you questions that make you think about something in a different way.   That's a huge bonus.


2. Don't be afraid to answer questions here.   If they are not the best answer, someone else will make another suggestion and again you learn.   I always remind myself there is 100 ways of doing things.


3. Consultants are a different breed.   Travel is required.    If you don't like that think about working for a company full time.


4. Certification.   I've read what you have written here before.   Perhaps it means more to a consultant company?   I'm not sure.   None of the companies I have worked for have asked if I'm certified.


5. Remember there is free training and they do give certification.   I really love that area.   Some of it is marketing.   But remember, if you hate the course, you don't have to finish it.


6. SAPTeched is a great place to learn about a lot of things.   It is also a great place to make contacts.


7. I do have a different idea when it comes to CVs.   You can only put so much down on paper.   So I tend to highlight different things on my CV.   Explain them more or not have everything I've done on  it.    It's just too large.   So I look at the company and what their requirements are.


8. I have to work for a company where I am valued.   I have to be able to make a difference, learn, and grow.   So one of the really important things to me is learning when I look at a company.


9. Build your own brand!   I keep hearing that.   I'm not real sure how to do that for myself.


10. When you are looking at companies based on salary.   Remember it has gone down recently.   Globalization is making the old salaries harder and harder to get.   Learn the new SAP information...   But do keep up with the old things too.   You may find that not as many companies are running the latest and greatest.  (That's probably for non-consultants)

Thank you for this wonderful blog.   It got me thinking.

Michelle

[former_member182098]

Hi Kamlesh,

 

Thanks so much for your kind words. Your cheerful words really helps me to motivate myself to pen down future blogs. Much appreciated your comments. People like to you make this SCN a wonderful plat form.

 

Kind Regards,

Ravi

[former_member182098]

Hi Michelle,

 

Thank you so much for adding more valuable points to this blog. Much appreciated for adding the Open SAP Link.

I like your sentence 'None of the companies I have worked for have asked if I’m certified'. You are true, when somebody have considerable amount of experience, Certification does not matter. I believe still Certification has it own merits 🙂

I am sure your points would definitely add value to my blog. My only purpose of writing this blog to be more interactive and helping the Community with those discussion.

Thanks once again for sharing your valuable experiences.

 

Kindest Regards,

Ravi

 

 

 

 

 

[mmcisme1]

And it has worked!   Look at all the comments here.  I love it.

We could debate certification 🙂   I will agree to disagree.   I think the classes are important.   I think learning as much as you can is important too.

I could be late to the party for this one - but I've just found a developer's version of SAP Cloud Platform.

I'm just now using it - so I can't tell you how good it is!

Michelle

[former_member182098]

Thanks Mitchelle for adding the link to SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit. Really people would are immensely benefited out of these links.

Certification is a never ending discussion 🙂 I just had my last one two days before on Cloud. It is my first cloud Certification, hence a bit nervous with the technical issue on my laptop. I had to write twice, the first time I answered 75 questions and about to submit the test, my webcam get crashed. I rescheduled again at midnight and luckily this time passed without any hiccups 🙂

Many many thanks to you Mitchelle.

 

Kindest Regards,

Ravi

 

[sanilbhandari]

 

Hi Ravi

Your observations are very true and I can vouch for that from personal exp of consulting for last eleven years.

Thanks for putting together in a very concise form.

Regards

Sanil Bhandari

[former_member548454]

Thank you Ravi

Good one.

[former_member306381]

Hello (Ravi) The Guru of Motivation and much more,

And the wait is over i was waiting for your Blogs since very long there is a reason behind in this let me quickly tell you ..its been exactly 2 years into SAP Tree ,like others i was expecting some golden motivation to make myself stronger in professional career and your blogs made me somehow changed my thought process  ofcourse i became true follower of yours

I read all your blogs some words in the current blog touched my heart really .

Awaiting for your near future blogs Thousand thanks to you sir

 

Bhaskar

[former_member235725]

Hello Ravi,

 

Thanks for the masterpiece of notes for the career aspirants at any point in the professional journey. It helps freshers as well as experienced. My best wishes for the new year 2018.

Regards,

Satya

 

[ektakamani]

Hello Sir,

 

Its always feels so good reading ur articles, be it any blog u never fail to inspire and make me feel that u are crème de la crème of Motivation.

[Former Member]

Hi Ravi,

excellent post. Long, but well structured. You have create an excellent balance, giving some general advises, but also some very specific directions.

Ravi, I am new to this community. For the most part, I have been SAP advanced user, but never done actual configuration / implementation work. However, I would very much like to change that so I was wondering if it would be "ok" with you to link directly (how?) and perhaps help me understand more about SAP Learning Journey? More specific, I would like to create a learning road map with outlined milestones, clear objectives and budget. I think that an experienced mentor would be key, but I am also conscience of the fact that time is sacred to everyone.

In any case, I thank you for all points mentioned above. Truly an useful reading.

Best Regards,

Delyan

ps: happy new 2018. All best wishes 🙂

 

[Former Member]

Excellent Blog Ravi.

It makes me to rethink on my path to set right things..

Thanks
Sam

[former_member187694]

Hi Ravi,

You have given right resolution to start new year 2018 by following your guideline we can have peaceful life along with SAP career.

you have covered all the points to lead successful life and it sets agenda for entire year.

Happy New Year 2018 🙂

Regards

Manjunatha V

[Matt_Fraser]

As always, Ravi, you embody the spirit of empathy in all that you write, something moshe.naveh2 also enjoys writing about and promoting. Thank you.

I wonder whether it would also make sense to add the Careers tag to this post?

Cheers,
Matt

[former_member550133]

Dear Ravi Shankar,

I hope you doing great!!

Awesome Ravi.. Thank you very much for your personal exp of consulting for last eleven years for your very valuable guidelines and helping nature

Many many many Thanks once again for sharing your valuable experiences..guidelines

Best Regards,

Sekhar

[nishan_dev]

Dear Ravi,

Excellent Blog, You are always an inspiring person !

Thanks,
Nishan

[Former Member]

Hello Ravi,

First of all, I want to tell you that your blogs have been highly significant for me and have helped me in many doubts I had.

I would like to expose my situation because I still do not know how to start as a finance consultant and I would love if someone could point me in the right direction.

I am a SAP BUSINESS ONE project account manager. In general I only sell this solution but also i am certified in Financial Accounting with ERP 6.0, I would like to become a consultant but I do not have that experience.

So these are my questions;

where can I find the platform to practice the configuration?

where can I find the manuals of the finance module in PDF?

How the implementation is carried out from the beginning to the end of this module.

If someone could support me with my doubts or have a better recommendation on how to make this transition to a FI consultant I would appreciate it very much.

[Former Member]

Hi Ravi,

I would like to appear for the Certfication Examination in regards to 'C_TSCM42_67 - SAP Certified Application Associate – Production Planning & Manufacturing with SAP ERP 6.0 EHP7'. I don't want to join any course provided by SAP in preparation for appearing for this exam. How do I get or, if it costs some money due to SAP charging for it, where do I buy the relevant Book/s from SAP?

My personal email id is ram.sunkar@gmail.com. If it's okay with you, would you mind touching base with me through this or please provide yours for interacting with you.

Ramesh Sunkarapalli

[former_member183501]

"Your cheerful words really helps me to motivate myself to pen down future blogs".

Sir, It is my privilege to comment on your blog(s). Thanks for motivating us!

 

Regards

Kamlesh

[satya11719]

Hey Ravi,

 

It will take a lot of time to write to this kind of blog, except time you need experiences that you come that you across in life which is the most important thing.

When i read every line in your blog i remembered each and every person i worked with that's the amazing thing in your blog.  I hope your blog will definitely change the people mindset.

Really some guys are sitting for years doing nothing in their life.If you know something you can share it. It may help someone who are trying for days they may finish in minutes with the help.

 

Really appreciate you are efforts. please write this kind of blog once in a year.It makes some people alive.

 

Thanks

Satya

[Former Member]

Hi Ravi,

Very nice and informative Article. Thanks for sharing.

 

[former_member577863]

Dear Sir,

Good Day!

I'm working as a SAP end user for the past 7 years and now going to non-certification class in SAP MM module in which I have more interest to learn.

Your blogs are providing clear vision and proper guidance in many junctures.

Request you to please guide how to get a demo SAP version, to make daily practises.

[former_member588946]

Finally some body have  discussed the core of problems for  budding SAP consultants. This page should be starting page in SCN for all new to the SAP world !!

Thanks Ravi !!