Should I take an SRM position with lack of MM experience?

Should I take an SRM position with lack of MM experience?

I have just passed MM & FI-CO certifications. This was my first exposure to SAP and I thus have no practical experience with SAP. I have been offered a position within an SRM team. However, as SRM builds on R/3 MM, I am afraid this lack of experience with MM will become a weak point at a certain level. Another question is whether it will be difficult to get an MM job in the future.

So my questions are:

1) Is starting directly with SRM an advisable path?
2) I have an alternative offer for a more traditional MM position. Should I take it and build some experience before getting into SRM?

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I have answered some very similar SRM questions in the SearchSAP Career Discussion forum, so check that out as well. I think you've asked a very good question, and it's true that having a deeper MM background will certainly help you to be a better SRM consultant. But if you're already being offered an SRM position, I would seize that opportunity. Believe me, I know plenty of very experienced MM consultants who would jump at the chance to get involved in SRM!

The risk you run by taking a pure MM offer is that you might find the SRM market closed to you later on. And remember, there are always ways of deepening your MM knowledge as you go. Consider that in MM, if you lose your current job and have to find a new one, you'll be up against all those MM consultants who have five years -- even ten years -- of MM experience. In the SRM market, it's hard to have more than a couple of relevant projects because the market is so new. That's a better market, in my mind, to compete in. If I were you, I would take the SRM job, but make a point of filling in your MM knowledge by sending yourself to core MM training on your own dime. Also, make a point of learning all you can from the MM folks on your project. I'm sure they will be interested to "swap knowledge" with you on the SRM side as well.

This was first published in March 2005