semaphore
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He codes in VB. Enough said.
My dad forced me to do SAP a few years ago, have never used it.
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Doubting my studies
- Thread starter DrewChan
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He codes in VB. Enough said.
My dad forced me to do SAP a few years ago, have never used it.
staunchy20
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just remember, unisa from 2nd year of study you must pass 4 modules a year so 2 modules a semester.
DrewChan, as a matter of interest, how did you come up with those figures? While 600k-960k is not unheard of for SAP, it really doesn't look like the norm. One data point is that I see anything from 350k-850k per year advertised (pnet, careerweb, etc.), but with a definite leaning to ~500k if you take a rough average). Another data point is that the ITWeb salary survey in 2011 shows 533k, which adjusted at 8% pa increase gives approx ~600k, which although above your min, is far from the midpoint of your range (780k). I see one job advertised up to 850k, nothing more.
Also, do these SAP developers in your company have other qualifications? How many years of experience do they have?
My point is simply that even though a lot of the titles and job descriptions just talk about "SAP/ABAP/etc", and the technology is certainly "SAP/ABAP/etc", but the real skillset implictly assumed is actually the business logic, trouble shooting and system integration experience that these guys have. i.e., they need to develop the core theory they need to know in order to become an expert in the functional modules Diabolus mentioned (e.g., you need to know quite a bit about supply chain managment before you can develop something useful with the SCM module). If you do an ABAP course, you may learn some of technology basics, but you won't be able to get close to those salaries until you get the experience. I suggest trying to find out more about what these developers do day to day, and try to get involved somehow in order to get the relevant exposure.
Kloofvreter
Honorary Master
Does he work for himself?
Azbubu
Honorary Master
He is the top "googler" !
Well that's how he got his education. The University of Google.
diabolus
Executive Member
Also note there are 2 types of SAP Certifications. There is a "theoretic" one, which is the type we are discussing here. If you go do the first ABAP certification, you will get "Associate Developer" certification. This implies (to any employer), you have read a book (or read sufficient documentation to pass an exam), that's it.
Then there's the "Professional Developer" certification. This you can only do with proven works experience (3-5 years i think). The exam is also much more difficult and focus on testing your experience as opposed to your memory.
Now i don't know what the salary stats are, but i can't imagine just having an SAP ABAP Associates certification will suddenly skyrocket you into those big salary brackets. My salary did not mysteriously go up when i did ABAP, i'm still considered an "Analyst" or "Developer" . That said, SAP consultants are in demand, big time, but not so much the purely ABAP kind (my perception anyway) , but the kind which knows the modules and architecture and business logic. I'm certain you can grab a good C# dev and have him pour out an ABAP program within a month, but you need someone to know the data the logic and what to do in the ABAP program.
And -that- you don't learn in the ABAP courses. Simple example, maybe you need to develop an ABAP program to capture specific manufacturing data . You will need to know the underlying SAP manufacturing tables , the transactions currently used to change/insert data in those tables, the screens and logic behind those data and then you need to build ON TOP of that. Yes, you can add your own tables and screens, but 99.9% of the time you are going to either use existing content or supplement it.
This is why this field is so tricky, a C# dev can walk into a place and create something from scratch. An ABAP dev needs to actually understand huge enterprise modules riddled with busines logic to even start developing something. If you are going to write an ABAP report and the finance director comes to you and tell you "write me a balancesheet that looks like this" , you will need to understand Finance AND the SAP Finance module to even know where to start.
I swear , most of my time on SAP from a dev/analyst perspective is spent not on writing code, but just figuring out
[1] How the business have configured their process on SAP and how they capture/maintain the data
[2] Where is this data stored in the back-end and does it make any sense.
[3] How SHOULD the business have configured their process so that the data is accurate or meaningful (this is almost always not according to SAP standards , resulting in not finding the data where SAP says it will be or simply finding useless or incomplete data)
....only then can you start coding and worry about "loops" and "if statements" and "classes" . The irony is, half the time you get to this point and realise "but SAP already have this! The users must just freaking use the system correctly!" /facepalm. Trust me, these germans have thought of everything, they're just not very good at telling you about it (and neither are the SAP Consultants).
Then there's the "Professional Developer" certification. This you can only do with proven works experience (3-5 years i think). The exam is also much more difficult and focus on testing your experience as opposed to your memory.
Now i don't know what the salary stats are, but i can't imagine just having an SAP ABAP Associates certification will suddenly skyrocket you into those big salary brackets. My salary did not mysteriously go up when i did ABAP, i'm still considered an "Analyst" or "Developer" . That said, SAP consultants are in demand, big time, but not so much the purely ABAP kind (my perception anyway) , but the kind which knows the modules and architecture and business logic. I'm certain you can grab a good C# dev and have him pour out an ABAP program within a month, but you need someone to know the data the logic and what to do in the ABAP program.
And -that- you don't learn in the ABAP courses. Simple example, maybe you need to develop an ABAP program to capture specific manufacturing data . You will need to know the underlying SAP manufacturing tables , the transactions currently used to change/insert data in those tables, the screens and logic behind those data and then you need to build ON TOP of that. Yes, you can add your own tables and screens, but 99.9% of the time you are going to either use existing content or supplement it.
This is why this field is so tricky, a C# dev can walk into a place and create something from scratch. An ABAP dev needs to actually understand huge enterprise modules riddled with busines logic to even start developing something. If you are going to write an ABAP report and the finance director comes to you and tell you "write me a balancesheet that looks like this" , you will need to understand Finance AND the SAP Finance module to even know where to start.
I swear , most of my time on SAP from a dev/analyst perspective is spent not on writing code, but just figuring out
[1] How the business have configured their process on SAP and how they capture/maintain the data
[2] Where is this data stored in the back-end and does it make any sense.
[3] How SHOULD the business have configured their process so that the data is accurate or meaningful (this is almost always not according to SAP standards , resulting in not finding the data where SAP says it will be or simply finding useless or incomplete data)
....only then can you start coding and worry about "loops" and "if statements" and "classes" . The irony is, half the time you get to this point and realise "but SAP already have this! The users must just freaking use the system correctly!" /facepalm. Trust me, these germans have thought of everything, they're just not very good at telling you about it (and neither are the SAP Consultants).
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I know a few of the developers within my company (well 2) and can see the salary level of the position when a developer position becomes available (It gets posted internally)
The company I work for is very large and is known for competitive salaries.
The figures I mentioned were from "senior developers" it is possible juniors get less.
smallearth
Expert Member
Get a good IT degree at the same time. The market for SAP skills is not growing as fast as the international supply of consultants. It is becoming a very much more competitive field. Make sure you stay cutting edge and that your work is quality. There are a LOT of consultants without work in SA at the moment. It is good money though.
ABAP is a good choice but make sure you understand one or more functional modules as well. It makes you a lot more efficient.