I’ve received a few letters from readers that have let me know about a troubling trend: Contractors billing hours and incurring expenses — and then not getting paid for their work.  I’m hearing two categories:

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.

Have you been trying to get a job in SAP with little or no success? Have you noticed that freshers are claiming 6 years of SAP experience, and therefore even experienced consultants with 5 years of legitimate experience aren’t being considered for jobs?

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!