- Completed certification
- Countless resumes sent out
- Few interviews
- No job offer
Problem Analysis:
So you spent the (considerable) time and money to get certified. You worked hard and completed the credential. Now you are finally ready to enter the job market, but no one's calling. The certification proves that you know what you're doing, so what does a person have to do to get a job offer? Should you lower your salary requirements?
Problem Solution:
"You may be surprised to learn that this is not usually the key to landing a new SAP job," says Jon Reed, SearchSAP.com's career expert. While Reed advises flexibility in salary requirements, the real kicker that will get you the job offers is to have the right level of SAP skills and experience to meet market demands. Applicants who are certified but who have little work experience will usually be passed over in favor of more experience candidates.
The best way to break in may be to take your previous work experience and use that as the angle from which to approach SAP. If you have experience in sales but want to work in SD, break in as a pre-sales consultant and then leverage the experience later to transition into a functional role.
Another option is to apply for non-SAP jobs related to your past experiences at a company that you know for a fact runs SAP. Companies will often consider internal applicants over external ones should an opportunity open up elsewhere in the company. This would give you the opportunity to switch to a position related to SAP somewhere down the line—especially if you are already certified to work in SAP. More information:
- SAP Job Seeker's Learning Guide
- Sharpening up your soft skills
- Breaking into IT with little experience
BREAKING INTO SAP
Home: Introduction
This was first published in December 2005