** Breaking into SAP is opening up soon for new students **

Before you watch part two, please download the learning styles framework cheat sheet (PDF) - it will really help to have a copy of this while you’re watching part two.

Part One: Ethos
Click here to view the embedded video.

Part Two: Logos
Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think of these videos? if you’d like me to release the third, please let me know by posting a comment below. If you have a story about an SAP interview, or a question about “interview persuasion” please share it here as well.

gotcha questions

The sad fact of the matter is that early in my own SAP career, I probably blew at least a half-dozen interviews because I failed to respond properly to the gotcha question.  This blog post will explain what these gotcha questions are. And thus prepared, you can embark on your journey to accumulate answers to all of your gotcha questions.

OK, so you know that when I started looking for work in SAP I had a background in computer science and business administration, and I’d like to think that I was eminently qualified for every position I ever applied for (call me crazy). And I believe firmly that I would have faithfully and successfully executed to any demands that might had been placed on me.  Because my background in engineering taught me that it wasn’t what you know that’s important — it’s how you think that’s important. I know even today, as I have always known, that it’s more important to understand where to go to get the answer to any question you may have than to have memorized the particular answer. If you have intelligence and experience working with one technology, you should be able to very quickly acquire the specific bits that you need to work in another adjacent area. It’s just common sense. There’s only one catch.

This truth is totally lost on SAP interviewers. They will ask you the gotcha question, and if you don’t have the answer on the tip of your tongue, you will not be hired and you will just have lost yourself a large opportunity. (My last SAP contract was for $155/hr plus expenses) so yes, the opportunities are large. And there are many reasons for recruiters and screeners to be this way. I do get into these reasons in my Breaking into SAP course, and it’s important to understand where these people are coming from if you really want to master SAP job-getting.

But back to gotcha questions.

Now the gotcha question isn’t usually, “Do you have experience working in SAP?” or “How long have you been working in SAP.”  Not at all. These are the straightforward qualification questions. If you don’t have what they’re looking for (5 years plus working in SAP sounds familiar these days) then you of course are not qualified in their eyes and you will not get the job. Remember, I’M not saying that you’re not qualified if you don’t have 5 years.  And I perceive it as my job to help those of you who don’t have ANY experience get jobs in SAP. But no, the gotcha question is not something so obvious.

It’s something more subtle. It could be “tell me about your experience installing SAP GUI…” or “What is your experience with variant configuration” or “What do you know about pricing conditions in SRM POs?”

These questions have very specific answers. They have answers that, given correctly, would guarantee the interviewer that you have worked with the technology in question. An example for those of you with very little SAP experience would be, “Tell me about your experience working with Microsoft Windows on your SONY laptop…”  my answer to this gotcha question would be, “Well it’s a great operating system with many programs, and I love the SONY hardware, but I just can’t understand how such a mature operating system and hardware platform crashes each time I try to use the sleep mode.”  Because if you happen to have a Sony laptop like mine, you’ll know that the sleep function NEVER works. It crashes the computer every time. It’s just one of those things.

So if someone is asking about installing SAPGUI, and if you really have experience working in large implementations, especially with centrally managed instances and more robust security procedures. One “gotcha” could be problems with managing your own  .hosts file. As in I’m always finding that I have to have control over my own and that this is something that I need to go to the security team to care care of. This is just something that everyone has to deal with if they’re adding new systems and instances in a new implementation, and if you brought it up in an interview with someone who has worked in SAP for any amount of time they would recognize you as legitimate.  It’s a small thing, yes, and a tiny example. But it does illustrate the “gotcha question” concept.

It’s subtle, but if you understand the concept here it can be very powerful. Because let’s just say that you didn’t happen to own a SONY laptop with Windows on it but it comes up in an interview and you say that you do actually have a SONG laptop. You didn’t know that the sleep function crashes the computer every time. So when you’re asked, “what do you know about sony laptops running windows” you might say, “oh well, I love this computer and the USB 2.0 feature is fantastic.” The interviewer would secretly thinks “Ah, I see… no knowledge of the sleep crashing functionality. I see. LIAR!!!” The interviewer may even give you a chance or try to give you a hint… “do you have any experience with shutting down or sleeping?” and you may respond “Oh yes, I love it - works fine.”  And then you’re a goner.

OK, but say for instance that you read a list of gotcha questions for Sony laptops running Windows and you knew that there was a problem with the sleep functionality. You could report something like “you know I have read, and I know many of my friends with Sony’s running Windows have had big problems with the sleep functionality — and I just can’t understand why Sony would put out a product with such a lousy flaw.” There’s a good answer to a gotcha question.

So to wrap this up — If you’re new to SAP and looking to break in, you’re going to have to avail yourself of these gotcha questions by any means. Mostly, it’s going to be reading online on SDN, and acquiring as many resources as you can.  Of course our interview question books were written for this express purpose.

And it’s my firm believe that the more gotcha questions you can have the answers to before you interview, the better.

1. The final paycheck never arrives, once they’ve rolled off the project

2. Hours are unilaterally “not approved.”

3. Same for expenses - not approved, never paid.

Have you had any recent experience with this?  Your stories much appreciated. Since you’re among friends, please feel free to share any contracting agency names. Nobody here is going to hold it against you for sharing.

Please share your experience:

I believe that one can become fully trained and qualified to contribute successfully on an SAP implementation in far less than 5 years. But you have to have the right sort of training. And you have to have a strategy to address the “Catch-22″ in the marketplace. Perhaps most importantly, you have to be going after the right skills. I wouldn’t be studying MM, SD, or FI if I was new to SAP.

So how do you move beyond the Catch-22?

If you’re not familiar with the famous book by Joseph Heller, by “Catch-22,” I mean the following:

1. You can’t get a job working in SAP without experience.
2. You can’t get experience in SAP without getting a job.

Please share your thoughts and experience!

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If you have any questions about this, please post them in the comments below.

I’ll see you on December 10th!

Truly, Jim Stewart

Do you have any other questions? Please post them below, and I’ll answer them right away.