Part 3: Staying relevant | Future-proofing

PLC analogy: Do you have the ambition to be at the top? Maybe, you are at the prime of your career but do you fear falling? Do you want to stay relevant for the SAP market considering the frequent innovations? If yes, I have a few things to share with you that would help you out.

There are mercurial people but not that many!

From the newest apprentice to a partner at a big 4 firm earning €1m pa along with founders of start-ups there are 100,000’s of SAP consultants. It is indeed a very pointy pyramid and not everyone can be at the top. I guess everyone wants to be, at some point in their career. But until you really get to the top, my experience is that, packages tend to even up and the points I have made in the last article apply. I have known quite a few of these leaders and in many cases they are were special when I first met them and remain special even today. If you are that good you will rise to the top wherever you are and your company is probably not holding you back you will however be pretty restless by nature.?I have met far more people who think they should be leaders of large SAP business but really don’t have what it takes. I am not sure how you work out if you are the real deal or not. While being ambitious is good, but staying relevant and not becoming a zombie is also very important.

Becoming a Zombie?

I do see quite a lot of zombies in the SAP world, these are people who earn a good salary, probably have a damn fine job title and a huge expenses budget, but are trapped in their role.?Think about someone who was an ISU architect in the early 2000’s and was treated as a God for ten years, but now that solution is being simplified and pared down to a core. They have nowhere to go, they don’t have up to date skills. They are overpaid and will find it hard to move and possibly have a large office they don’t want to give up. I think it is really important not to become one of those, and if you do take a role that could lead to this, think about it and make sure you move on before you become one.?Too highly paid to leave is a real problem. Moreover, the pressure you will put yourself under as you realise you are no longer valuable will be a bad feeling.?For example, if you take a role on an end user project, the likelihood is that once it is over, you will no longer have the status or purpose you had during the programme. But you may be trapped in your corner office and getting out is harder than you think. Try to plan early, not at a point when you need to take a step back to move forward.

Keep your skills up to date

I think this is self-evident from everything I spoke about earlier, but say you are an expert in something that is in high demand at the moment, you know it won’t last forever. For example, I see BRIM as a space for rapid growth and career progression at the moment, with the move to new billing models etc., but this won’t be so for ever.?For a short while, you can be highly paid and be treated like a king/queen. But in 5 years or so, your work will be done by a bunch of hungry new people who might work harder than you and who can bring new skills to the party.?So always keep your skills up to date and be constantly inquisitive.

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Class is permanent, form is temporary

This I think is a football phase, my observation is that the people who were great at SAP were great 30 years ago also, and they have always earned a premium. They have done the most interesting roles and never really have had to take a career break. They may not change employers much, but they know they will always be wanted somewhere. Others may have done better for short periods of time. But this is a marathon, not a sprint and short term decisions can disrupt more than they build.

Anecdote[VR1]?

In Summary

To summarize, there are huge opportunities in the SAP space at the moment, but they can be in your current employer as well as outside. The grass if often not greener. Before you make a change consult widely and work out why you are working. Figure out what you want and don’t be driven by envy and gossip from project colleagues.?I believe we have a 5 year boom with S/4 and we may all have great opportunities in this time. But once it is over you have to make sure you are ready for a great career that will sustain you for many years to come.

?Sadly, I did not know any of this in the first huge SAP boom in the 1990’s, and it caused a lot of angst for me, maybe sharing has helped.

P.S. These are my personal views and not ones shared with/by my employer.

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?[VR1]Please share an anecdote to relate to this point.