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To All The SAP Mentors

Former Member
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I am planning to get trained & try to make an entry in SAP EHS module as I have 3+ years of domain experience(that covers REACh regulation,MSDS labelling,chemical compliances,GHG protocol- Carbon Management, GRI - Sustainability Reporting, China REACh, Product Carbon Footprinting, Industrial Safety, Energy Management, Waste Management and few other related compliances & regulations).

Currently I am working

  • for a Cleantech Consulting Startup
  • along with a software mnc is working in the development of sustainability enterprise software.
  • involved in the requirement sharing, beta testing, implementation & configuration.

I hold an engineering degree in Chemical & later a post gradution in Energy Mangement & Climate Change.

I see a lot of similarity in the job description of a sap consultant and my current job profile.This reason has enticed me in taking up SAP EHS module as it's very closely related to my domain experience.

Now my question to all of you :

  • there is training available from SAP India but that is absurdly costly when compared to un-autorized training centres.
  • will there be a lot of difference from the quality of training point of view among authorized & un-authorized centres?
  • if i undertake a training from a un-autorized training center and learn the implementation will it help me to make an entry into SAP Consulting ?
  • is it worth to do a SAP EHS module only or are there more demands for the upcoming ones like SuPM,EHSM or any other related modules which I am not aware of ?

It will be of great help if somebody could kindly clarify my doubts.

Regards,

Sourav.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Former Member
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Hi Sourav,

With only 3 years, you're still at the beginning of your career. From an employer's point of view, you're a safer bet than a recent college graduate, but just barely. With no hands on SAP experience, it won't matter whether you take authorized or unauthorized training. Employers don't hire folks who have no hands-on SAP experience to do SAP work .  Period.

The benefit of an authorized training center, though, is that you'll be allowed to sit for the certification exam in India which you won't be allowed to do if you get your training from an unauthorized training center. Again, though, certification without hands on experience won't do you any good. (See My journey from Sales Professional to SAP Functional SD Consultant: A blog written for all SAP aspir..., DOs & DON’Ts for SAP Career (Certification) on the basis of my on going journey from an Accountant t..., Fraud Institutions, SAP Certified, Yet fighting for survival or any of a half dozen or more other blogs on the topic). The appropriate time for certification is AFTER you've had some hands-on experience.

If you would like to have a career in SAP, please check out the following blogs to start:

More blogs of interest can be found at SAP Career Blog Links.

I am not trying to discourage you, it is definitely possible for you to end up with a solid SAP career, but it takes time and persistance. I have found my SAP career to be extremely rewarding at all levels and work daily to help others achieve the same, but there are no shortcuts if you missed the boat prior to graduating college (which you did). (That's not a knock, only a very small percentage of folks get recruited to do SAP work right out of college, and those are mostly basis and programmers. The rest take the long road. See How did you get your start in SAP?)

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom

4 REPLIES 4

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi Sourav,

With only 3 years, you're still at the beginning of your career. From an employer's point of view, you're a safer bet than a recent college graduate, but just barely. With no hands on SAP experience, it won't matter whether you take authorized or unauthorized training. Employers don't hire folks who have no hands-on SAP experience to do SAP work .  Period.

The benefit of an authorized training center, though, is that you'll be allowed to sit for the certification exam in India which you won't be allowed to do if you get your training from an unauthorized training center. Again, though, certification without hands on experience won't do you any good. (See My journey from Sales Professional to SAP Functional SD Consultant: A blog written for all SAP aspir..., DOs & DON’Ts for SAP Career (Certification) on the basis of my on going journey from an Accountant t..., Fraud Institutions, SAP Certified, Yet fighting for survival or any of a half dozen or more other blogs on the topic). The appropriate time for certification is AFTER you've had some hands-on experience.

If you would like to have a career in SAP, please check out the following blogs to start:

More blogs of interest can be found at SAP Career Blog Links.

I am not trying to discourage you, it is definitely possible for you to end up with a solid SAP career, but it takes time and persistance. I have found my SAP career to be extremely rewarding at all levels and work daily to help others achieve the same, but there are no shortcuts if you missed the boat prior to graduating college (which you did). (That's not a knock, only a very small percentage of folks get recruited to do SAP work right out of college, and those are mostly basis and programmers. The rest take the long road. See How did you get your start in SAP?)

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom

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Tom, broadly agree with you - experience is the King. Nothing beats that!

But that's an international  (global) perspective.

  • Putting things into Indian job market perspective, things are slightly different
  • and ultimately you want to do something that leads you to job, not neccessarily what right-or-not what makes sense-or-not

(and I mention that assuming original poster is interested in Indian perspective who ultimately intends to get a job in SAP area).

From my observation (and I am open to be proven wrong!) Two things can be real deal breaker

- were you trained in Authorized or Non-authorized institute. Irrespective of quality. It's like a "stamp " / "seal" of approval

- AND if it was Online or Classroom training.

Apart from that, if you are a new comer to SAP trying to build SAP career afresh, yes you ARE expected to hold SAP certificate beforehand (another deal breaker!). Whether it makes sense-or-not to certify in something for which you have no practical exposure and just the theoretical knowledge from the coursework, is up fro debate. But that's the way in India… I don't know how much certification without-prior-practial-SAP-experience hel ps to judge someone's skills at job or is it merely a tactic to EASILY filter through 100s of CV they get from SAP aspirant

On other hand, most Hiring managers continue to admit privately that experience is the king, that beats any trainings, any certificate. The truth is when it comes to hiring new comers there continues to be 2 entry barriers:

- t rained from SAP recognised institute (pref. classroom sessions)

- SAP certified

so my point of view is - Irrespective above two things make sense or not or whether experience is more valuable or not... you HAVE TO pass these 2 entry barriers for any SAP aspiring candidate. They won't even let you apply unless you satisfy both criteria

There may be exceptions, people who have made SAP career in other ways but that may be an exception / luck vs norm

Lastly, again from how Indian job market works… Some domain experience is must have, but you cant really say how much is enough or not-so-enough. Infact some organisations won't let new comers to enter SAP area (SAP Fresher in Indian parlance) if your experience >'x' years. From my observation 3-5 years domain experience is acceptable (+/- 1 years should be acceptable margin to that I suppose)

Sourav, I hope that helps to clarify you so me doubts.

best wishes,

/Vibhor

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Hi Vibhor,

Thank you for the reply.

After a lot of searching and through your's and Thomas' valuable inputs, I do understand the importance of getting trained from a certified body and the importance of passing the certification.

Now SAP EHS doesn't have any certification till now(as far as my seraching goes and also informed by SAP India). Also in companies like Accenture, they often post the job opening for SAP EHS Consultant under "niche skills". Again to the contrary, I see so many job openings which require SAP EHS Consulatant with an experience ranging from 2-10 years.So I am bit confused about the availability of SAP EHS consultant.

This is something which I want to point out, I do understand I have only 3+ years of domain experience, but this domain can be considered pretty new in India atleast(solely my perception). With that SAP SuPM,EHSM covers such topics which I am already working on but in a different platform.

So do you think if I learn the SAP Ehs from a local institute and then build up my resume, will that fetch any weightage considering the fact that SAP EHS is still a "niche skills".

Waiting for your valuable reply.

Regards,

Sourav.

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Dear Sourav

sorry for late reply:career options in EHS are asked often. Check:

I am sorry to say that most of the companies looking for EHS/EHMS consultants are looking for experience one (startuing wiht at least 2 year or more experience).

More important is to understand the "skill" level. Currently most of the companies differentiate these levels:

functional person

technical person

person with on topi project management experience

In most cases you will start your career as "technical" person (coming fro ABAP point of view); the market is (according to my knowledge) looking nearly 90% of the cases to people wiht "functional" knowledge; here the game is "playing"; but honestly: without good technicalback ground you can not start a functional career.

Currently a lot of "youtube" videos are online discussing EHS trainings; most of them not good quality; but some are a good starting point

C.B.