how stamp myself as an experienced consultant?

[Former Member]

I recently took training in SAP APO. I applied to IBM. one consultant interviewed me and gave a honest opinion that i am very good at process issues

but need more experience to do DP & SNP configuration independently.

I am wondering how do I get more experience, when everybody rejects on this basis? Recently I had an interview with another company, which also said the same thing.

If everyone looking for experienced people, where from these people coming? Where are they getting the experience? This means, either people have to falsify their resume or

get this experience from an unknown mysterious company who takes only fresh people like me. I am willing to join at a lower level if IBM or some other company gives me a chance to work and get me some experience.

I am sincerely, asking you to advice me how do I get a job in APO?

I am looking forward to your advice on how to crack this market?

Thank you.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Typical chicken and egg situation.

Employers want 'experience' - of you having done the same exact stuff as their requirement, so they can be reasonably certain that you can do it for them as well.

What value an individual may or may not bring is secondary if not entirely inconsequential.

'Creative resumes' and 'full life-cycle implementations' are a big farce, perpetuated by the 'middle' men - of HR, Recruiting Agency, Big-billing firms (who need impressive resume to bill big) and so on.

The actual consumer of your services - an IT or functional lead (who is going to get work out of you) will anytime look for the real skills than mere experience, but he/she has the least say in this process (who to hire). And so, the hiring process is tuned to benefit the middlemen - its almost a scam.

To answer your question - how does a fresher get into it? By being creative in resume - its a universal practice (and is implicitly accepted if not actively encouraged, by all the participants of the hiring chain).

When I interview someone, I take the probability of any thing on the resume being a fact as 50%. And when I am interviewed I assume the other person may have similar assumptions about me.

[Former Member]

What a nice description of the problem. You really told the story beautifully.

Is not it so bad and no one is doing any thing?

If I get the certification will it help?

i am very uncomfortable making false claims in the resume. But I don't know how to find a job?

Thanks again for such a candid description. I hope the business world recognizes that.

[Former Member]

Certification will help - but do not count on it. Its not considered a substitute for 'experience'.

Ask any fresher - most do not want to write anything other than truth on resume, but the system in IT recruiting is completely broken.

All the players involved recognize it, it is just that sticking to facts doesn't suit their professional interest.

Let us see if there is a fresher Vs someone with same knowledge but heavier resume

- The second candidate makes life easier for project manager/sponsers because they assume the risks are reduced.

- Second candidate makes the resource supplier look good (having experienced resources) and more importantly makes more money for it.

- Second candidate makes screening easy, since it is hard to screen people on new technologies (the interviewer many times is clueless as to what all to ask, going by resume is the easier option)

Now put yourself in the first candidates' position. If you are hired, you will do the same job that the second one would, only you will be treated as a novice and get paid less. And that is if at all you are hired against the odds.

So, what do you do? Stretch your conscience to the extent you can and become the second candidate, or get lucky (maybe land a job through references).

[Former Member]

Well said Ajay... I totally second that.. Steven, I personally knew many people who were in the same situation as you are in now, but they did make it to the market by falsifying their resume.. Too bad that such things need to be done to secure a job now..

[Former Member]

Ajay & Virender

Thanks a lot for sharing the facts you know. If one falsifies the resume, it is quite easy to get caught. For example, one can ask, who are you reporting to. how many people are in the group. For which company you are working. These all can be prepared but out right lying makes it very uneasy. That uneasy is good enough to get caught.

What a way we complicated the world by ourselves.

thanks to both of you. If you have any other tips please post it. It will help lot of novice people like me.

[Former Member]

falsifying resumes is a dangerous practice.

Firms do check references....

Reputations can be permanently damaged by this.

[Former Member]

References are usually a big joke and in any case if you are a decent consultant you'll have far far more expertise than the person who may be asked to give a reference.

I've been in this business as an independent "contractor" for a long long time. The real problem is usually that a lot of projects are now run by such companies as Accenture (formerly Andersens consulting), PWC (price Waterhouse coopers) etc, and hence it's almost impossible to get a contract directly with the Ënd User".

These Middle companies are full of squeaky clean fairly inexperienced personnel who charge the end use a fortune and are selling "an Image" at a high price rather than a "Service"'.

To get into SAP the first time is not easy --but approach it from THE BUSINESS end.

There isn't a whole lot of future for ABAP devlopers, whilst Portals, XI and web applications still have some life in them this will tend to die as well as the market matures.

Understand Business Processes, Workflows etc --it's amazing how a business process can be streamlined by even a small use of Workflow.

If you understand the business process everything else will follow.

In the business area currently experienced Logistics personnel are in incredibly short supply and proper logistics management can make or break a company. You can learn about these processes without even going near a SAP system and if you can demonstrate knowledgein these areas you will probably net a good job sooner or later --after all if You've got the basic Logistics knowlege then there are plenty of "techies" who cabn put it into SAP for you.

Cheers

-Jimbo

[Former Member]

I was a business process owner and got involved with the implentation that way!

Seven years on I am an SAP XI Consultant... Working for a large consultancy firm.... (not one you mentioned!