ABAP newbie wanting to getting certified via self study??

[HalfMan_HalfAmazing]

Good Day

I am about to graduate with a B.TECH I.T in May. After graduating i wanted to venture into the SAP world particurlaly ABAP.

If i wanted learn abap and certify via self study where would i begin. Thats if it is even possible. Any ideas on what materials/books i would need. Keeping in mind that i have never even seen the SAP system.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[karnuffel]

Why SAP? Why ABAP? Have a look at basis, bi, fi, bw, etc.

Its hellishly expensive do all the courses and cert. The certs are also quite difficult.

I would suggest get a job where the guys are willing to guide and help you with your training. You can work as a SAP consultant without a cert.

Do the cert while working.

Where are you based?

 

[HalfMan_HalfAmazing]

im based in pretoria. after asking around a few people suggested that if one likes programming then abap would be a good place to start. i agree that the courses are extremely expensive hence i wanted to find out if sell study was possible. i have the next 6 to 7 months free so i was willing to dedicate as much time as possible to that. my line of thinking was that if i could certify before graduating then my chances of landing a job would increase.

 

[HawkiesZA]

I did that certification last year through an "internship" at a company in Menlyn. After the year was out though, I decided that SAP really wasn't my thing.

You'd probably be looking at this then, probably the "Development associate". There is a book for the certification and I'm fairly sure it's this one.

I had to self study for the exam as well, and I didn't particularly enjoy it. The material can be quite daunting to someone who has never seen SAP before. Thus, my suggestion would be to find a company that is willing to help out at least with the material and then do the certification while working - at least then you have experienced people to ask if you get stuck.

 

[grok]

Another possible option is to look at Oracle certification. PL/SQL first, which is basically SQL with Oracle's own procedural extensions & it forms the basis of every other Oracle tool.

There's many blogs and books available on the net for someone wanting to self-study. Also, its not impossible to get hold of some of the official Oracle course material to work through. Some sites on the internet even offer a 'live' sandbox environment for you to play in.

Pros: Oracle is a huge product so you can specialize in whatever takes your fancy .. dba, developer, business intelligence, java developer, BPEL & SOA etc.
Cons: Oracle consultants on average earn roughly half of what their SAP counterparts earn.

 

[Corbin]

I did that certification last year through an "internship" at a company in Menlyn. After the year was out though, I decided that SAP really wasn't my thing.

You'd probably be looking at this then, probably the "Development associate". There is a book for the certification and I'm fairly sure it's this one.

I had to self study for the exam as well, and I didn't particularly enjoy it. The material can be quite daunting to someone who has never seen SAP before. Thus, my suggestion would be to find a company that is willing to help out at least with the material and then do the certification while working - at least then you have experienced people to ask if you get stuck.

+10

 

[DukeofHouse]

Welcome to the dark/SAP side

If I remember correctly the ABAP academy is 5 weeks long at an average of 500 pages of study material per week.
You will be hit with a tremendous amount of new (SAP specific) information that you will probably not grasp given the fact you are just out of varsity. Having not seen a SAP system before will only amplify this fact.
It is pretty daunting, but if other's have passed the certification, so can you.

If you can get your hands on the material, you can study for however long you need and just write the certification at SAP SA. I think it cost's about R2500 to write. If you fail, there's a mandatory 3 months gap that you will have to wait before writing again and if you fail three times, you will have to attend the academy again before they let you write.

Note that getting certified without any work experience and/or business experience will not get you far. So like the other's here, I'd recommend getting into a company that will sponsor the training at SAP SA (and enjoy their amazing coffee machines) so you get experience as well.

Also, don't expect wonders as a junior SAP techie. You'll probably spend the first year doing documentation and odd pieces of code. In about 5 years, you'll start seeing some reward.

Finally, don't get into SAP because of the monies. It's really not what everyone out there perceives it to be and the working conditions and hours do get to you sometimes. For me it's working in big organizations and making a tangible difference that keeps me motivated...

 

[FarligOpptreden]

You can work in big organizations and make a tangible difference using PROPER programming languages (like C#) as well... Just saying...

 

[DukeofHouse]

hehe..
Yeah I know "real" programmers mock us lowly SAP-mongers (often without any knowledge of the subject). We can take it.
btw what's the market share of big organizations running SAP vs in house solutions written in PROPER languages...?

 

[stevenv]

if one likes programming then abap would be a good place to start

Which "programmer" told you that? Sounds like something someone who knows 0.000001% about IT would say.