At the start of the month, I was teaching at the University of Liverpool (an SAP Univeristy Alliance member), for their ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS WITH SAP course.

I was teaching on the case study part, and was delivering content around how SAPrunsSAP in SAP’s own IT using SAP data management solutions (HANA, BW4HANA, Datasphere), BI solution (SAP Analytics Cloud), and BTP to solve business problems. We also talk about, RISEwithSAP, private cloud edition, and some architecture designs in the multi-cloud environment.

Apart from teaching, the faculty opened some career talk office hours. I had the delightful opportunity to interact with students and share my personal insights and experiences. I was genuinely moved by the students’ enthusiasm. It was truly touched by the passion of the students, driven, passionate to learn, and eager for opportunities. It was like looking at myself back to 5 years ago (May 2018), when I just graduated from graduate school and started my first job in SAP. Hence, I would like to share some of the advice, that I would have given myself if I were in that stage once again.

Keep open-minded and be prepared for opportunities.

As you embark on your professional journey, remember to maintain an open-minded attitude. The only eternal thing in the fast-evolving corporate world is change. What you learned at school might be directly consumable in your career job, but the fundamental knowledge and the methodology of scientific thinking are transferable. So be adaptive, be open-minded, and be a fast learner.

Have your own opinion and keep your own pace.

Working in the technology sector could easily be overwhelmed by buzzwords. New technologies and new trends are coming in every now and then. As such, it’s very easy to feel that you have been left behind. Nevertheless, the reality is that it’s always using new methods to solve the same old problems regardless of what new names people are giving them. So it’s very important to see through the essence, and have your own opinion. Don’t panic and keep your own pace and have your own plan to be adaptive.

Grasp every opportunity to upskill yourself.

You should always invest in yourself to continuously learn to stay relevant and go beyond.

For example, I would recommend you take certification exams, especially at the early stage of your career. Because it’s good that you know it already, but it would be better if you could prove that you know it (by having certifications or years of hands-on experience). Hereby, I would like to share some free learning resources provided by SAP University Alliance in the reference section at the end.

Also, take learning opportunities from being a key member in a big project, or your employer’s training program, or external conferences. With that been said, I’d like to share the most profound one I took myself from SAP. Check my take-aways from SAP Academy for Engineering.

Build your reputation.

Be truthful to yourself and to others. When it comes to your words and your promise, be careful, as people might remember. Learn to refuse if you can not deliver, and never overpromise.

The end…

Everything just started, it’s ok to have uncertainty and confusion about your future. You got time, but don’t waste it. And you will find your own track in the end. I wish you all a bright future in your career. It’s a marathon, be patient, and enjoy!

Learning Resources (provided by SAP Univeristy Alliance and SAP Learning team)
SAP Learning - Student Zone
SAP Learning Journeys (with sandbox systems)
SAP Certifications List

Some RISE with SAP blogs that I showed on class
Empower SAP RISE enterprise users with Azure OpenAI in multi-cloud environment
Harmonized Single Sign-On for SAP RISE customers in Multi-Cloud Environment
DNS integration with SAP RISE in multi-cloud environment