“I did not know we were supposed to dress up”. Those are the words that have me traversing towards enlightenment, but the word I would rather use is “clarity”. As I am seasoned, in other words old to some, I am going to use websters definition as opposed to going to ChatGPT, although I am a professor and teach IT. Per webster “clarity” is defined as “the quality of being easily understood, the state of having a full and orderly mental grasp of something, and the quality of being transparent or easily seen through”. Full disclosure, I am sitting on a beach early morning in St. Lucia celebrating my 35th wedding anniversary but I am awake as I jot down these few words and head to the Caribbean Sea.
The context of “I did not know we were supposed to dress up”, is that I recently had a job interview as an SAP consultant. I won’t divulge the name of the company or participants, but I will say that they are one of the former Big 4. Based on my research of one of my interviewers, a recent graduate with a few years of SAP experience, he was 26-year-old. His team member proclaimed 27 years’ experience in the industry that their project was based in. I wore a suit jacket, appropriate for any interview, my young interviewer wore a baseball cap. For myself, a former production supervisor, industrial engineer, corporate buyer, purchasing manager and 28 years of SAP experience, worked for two of the Big 4 consultancies, working in various industries in operations, procurement, inventory management and all the related business functions that a company performs. Basically, I was interviewed for a position I’ve done on numerous projects, no heavy lift but 10 to 12 minutes into the scheduled 30 minute interview after a question on BOM’s (bills of material) and MRO, maintenance, repair and operations, my 26 year old expert said “know need to waste any more time” I wasn’t a fit and the interview ended abruptly. So, the “clarity”. It has become apparent that after almost 30 years in SAP its about time to do something different. Not that I haven’t enjoyed working with customers and end-users around the world but when the gate keepers and other “experts” with little real world knowledge are now the determinants of who gets to work on the “business nervous system” and I say that because SAP becomes the backbone of your business information system, it manifests itself into what I call a “racket”. I don’t say this lightly, in that I know good work is still being done, but for me and others who’ve had higher positions and been in the game longer say the same. The industry is in trouble. When it becomes more about billing hours and revenue on one hand and on the other promotion and ascension in the corporate structure, the customer and the end-user are secondary. Greed is a powerful thing as Gorden Gekko’s Wall Street “Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms” there is some truth to that but when it becomes the main driver within an industry, we have what we have now in SAP, and that is a mess.
There are still great SAP consultants out there, but I know that many that started when I did have retired. They did good work because they came into the industry already knowing how things worked. For myself, I was 37 years old when I learned SAP after being a production supervisor, industrial engineer and corporate buyer. No Googling or ChatGPTing for answers to SAP questions. I guess 26 years are using the “new math” to become experts. And back to “clarity”, I think I will take the Doctorate I earned at the ripe old age of 61 years old and go teach full time and leave SAP to the next generation. Maybe they know something I don’t but at least I know how to be presentable during an interview, it just shows respect. More to come as “clarity” becomes even more clearer. In the meantime, if you won’t “an old guy” teaching your users SAP, you ca reach me at Bassaptraining.com.
Dr. J