Several reliable sources have told me this surprising news: some managers inside the "Big Four" feel that the SAP market is "as hot as it was in the mid-90s." Frankly, that's bunk. Admittedly, I have also heard from several SAP consultants who told me their rates have gone up for the first time in years, but we're still talking about a competitive consulting market with a sophisticated and cost-cautious user base. In the mid-90s, the demand for SAP consultants exceeded the supply to a degree that created unprecedented opportunities. That supply and demand gap has closed considerably, aided by the abundance of cheap "offshore talent," and now there is little margin for error, even for the most experienced SAP consultant. That's why it's so important for SAP professionals to make proactive career decisions before those decisions are made for them. Even the most experienced SAP professionals can make major errors in their career planning. The most common blunder is a failure to recognize the most important criteria for choosing a new job or project: skills enhancement. In this column, I'm going to present a methodology that will allow readers to avoid this mistake and make better career decisions. During the course of a successful career in almost any field, there are two main reasons to take new positions: one is to gain new skills, and one is to "cash out" on those acquired skills. Of course, many career moves involve a bit of both, but for the most part, a job change can be boiled down to one or the other. The same is true in SAP, but with this caveat: at least 90 percent of all SAP job changes should be made based on skills enhancement. Many consultants allow salary or rate to have too strong an impact on their project choices. What these folks forget is that if they do not keep their skills on the cutting edge, they will find themselves with plenty of time to dwell on their missteps. Let's use an example of how to botch this up. Currently, I know two functional consultants, one FI/CO and one MM/PP, who are on long term projects. Both are making about $150 an hour - a very attractive rate. But the catch is that they are both on 4.5B projects. They have ignored several chances to get 4.6 or 4.7 project exposure at lesser rates. If they do not act soon, they are going to find themselves on the bottom of the pile. It's great to have eight-plus years of SAP experience, as both do, but if you don't stay on top of the latest releases, your depth of experience will not be enough to avoid bench time. In terms of consulting opportunities, there are many interesting niches across the SAP product line, but they are all moving targets. For the vast majority of SAP consultants, choosing projects based on skills exposure is much more important than maintaining a high rate. Of course, everyone needs to earn enough to survive, but if you can't live on $120 per hour instead of $150, it's fair to say that SAP is not your biggest problem. If ninety percent of SAP folks need to approach job changes with skills as their top priority, what about that other ten percent? How do you know when you've established a marketable niche and are ready to "cash out"? The easy answer: you'll know when you've reached that point because the phone won't stop ringing. You'll be hearing from lots of headhunters, trying to talk you into too-good-to-be-true deals. For a moment, it may even feel like the '90s again. Generally speaking, when you have accumulated several consecutive projects doing the same thing, and you are getting more calls to apply that same skill, and you're working on the latest and greatest versions of SAP or mySAP, then you are on the right track. It's hard for me to say exactly when that is, because SAP is a "winners and losers" market. By that I mean that within almost every area of SAP, there are people faring well and people struggling. As a general rule, we can say that CRM and BW are "in," and ABAP and APO are "out," but that's an exaggeration. There are some ABAP and APO folks doing very well, and some CRM and BW folks who are struggling. One reason for this is that marketable niches have become more and more specific. Take ABAP for example: not all ABAP programmers are created equal. Some know BAPIs inside and out, some have no BAPI exposure. Some have ABAP-BW experience, some don't. There are many tools of the ABAP trade to master, and companies are a lot better at conducting intelligent SAP interviews and hiring the "top performers." Thus, the only way to know for sure you're on the right track is when you put your resume out there and get a lot of bites. That's when it's time to "cash out." Otherwise, you have to put skills first. As for which skills to pursue, that's a topic for another column. In my next SAPGenie piece, I'll talk about the best approach to skills acquisition. The nutshell version is: don't chase what's hot; instead, seek to add cutting edge skills that are logical extensions of your core competencies. Using this philosophy, an FI/CO consultant is better off transitioning into SEM than trying to break into CRM. Of course, the issue of skills development is not always that simplistic, so I'll get into this topic in detail in future articles. In the meantime, let's take a closer look at how the prioritization of skills over rates can play out. This is one of those issues that sounds pretty logical until you find yourself in the position of taking less money than you are used to. Real life example: I recently talked with an SAP professional who was an SD/MM specialist and full time employee of an SAP end-user. He was interviewing with a major SAP consultancy that would certify him in SAP CRM and put him out on CRM-related projects. When I first spoke with him, he was very excited about the chance to get exposed to CRM. But his enthusiasm dampened when he was given an offer that was considerably less than what he was making currently. He felt personally insulted. To be fair, his expenses and lifestyle dictated that it would be difficult to live on the new salary. Some uncomfortable belt-tightening would have been required. To be honest, I was not all that sympathetic. I see sacrifice and belt-tightening as part of what we have to do sometimes to get where we want to go. I was really concerned that this fellow would turn down the offer and get stuck. True, he was making good money, but he really wanted to continue in SAP, and his current project was over. His company was in "maintenance mode" for the foreseeable future. He was looking at long-term stagnation, and the job offers weren't exactly rushing in. I have to give this guy credit: he found some middle ground. During the offer stage, he negotiated an increase in the initial offer - taking a stronger stand than I would have recommended - and ended up accepting the new position to become an SAP CRM consultant. The offer was still less than what he was currently making, but he was clear on the importance of moving ahead skill-wise. I got the feeling that a key part of the money thing was pride on his part. Honestly, I think we have to get over ourselves. If we keep our eyes on the skills prize, and continually focus on improving our skills and performance, then the money will come. And more importantly, it will keep on coming. Don't get me wrong - I know how sweet it feels when the big bucks come in. But it seems like our lifestyles rise to the level of our incoming revenues anyhow. Fiscal self-discipline is beyond the scope of this particular column, but I do believe that keeping expenses down is a vital part of the flexibility SAP consultants need in this consulting market. The freedom to choose better projects at lesser rates is a major key to competitive advantage. The SAP market is never going to be what it was in the '90s, but there are still great opportunities for those who are willing to make proactive moves to keep their skills on the cutting edge. |
