SAP trainee has hard time finding job

Q. I am an SAP trainee (Abap), working on in-house projects since June 2008.

Although I want to continue my carrier in Abap, I seem to have a harder time, now, looking for SAP-related employment.

What can I do to improve my employment chances in IT?


Career advice from Tay Kok Choon, country manager of JobStreet Singapore:
The employment market is definitely getting tighter than before. However, I would advise the public not to lose heart as the economy will turn around and get better in time.

It is important to progress in one's career. Move along from the basics, progressing gradually to the more complex tasks.

Expand your horizons to include applications other than SAP. For example, at the "system analyst" type of training (explained below), skills are no longer simply applications specific; rather, relevant business knowledge is more appreciated at this level.

However, while continuous training will be beneficial for career development, one should not to fall into the trap of overtraining or undertaking training that is irrelevant.

There are, broadly, three levels of SAP-related training:

1. User-type training: For people who want to use specific modules or applications, which the IT professional should be able to master within a very short period.

2. Basic system training: Relevant for entry level staff doing configuration of the application to be implemented in an organization.

3. System analyst-type training: For people who have sufficient technical depth and business knowledge so that they can advise others on how best to exploit the application to its fullest.

In our opinion, IT professionals should aim to attain item (3) within a longer period of maybe two to three years.


Source: ZDNetAsia

SAP: Days of the database are numbered

A top executive at SAP has predicted the eventual demise of the database, as solutions that allow for information to be stored and accessed directly via servers and other forms of hardware begin to mature.

Speaking on Tuesday at the SAP TechEd 2009 event in Vienna, SAP executive board member Jim Hagemann Snabe told an audience of press and analysts that as businesses move increasingly towards an "in-demand" world, there will be more demand for solutions that enable information to be accessed faster and faster.

"I can imagine a future where people don't even need a database," said Hagemann Snabe, who heads up the business solutions and technology division at SAP, one of the world's largest database developers.

In April, SAP announced a partnership with Californian data-analytics company Teradata to work on products for in-memory data management and other technology. In-memory databases eliminate disk access by storing and manipulating data in the main memory, and do not require caching.

SAP is working on similar projects with renowned Berlin-based technology think tank Handelsplatt.

Hagemann Snabe said SAP is rethinking the traditional database architecture to reflect the growth of technologies such as cloud computing and the move towards on-demand services, as well as the more collaborative approach to solutions development being demonstrated by the open-source fraternity.

SAP also announced in Vienna that it had joined a number of projects with the Apache Software Foundation, an independent group focused on open-source software initiatives. The software company said it wants to foster a more open relationship between SAP and developers.

However, Hagemann Snabe quipped that the company was not likely to be getting into the business of "free software" any time soon.

Source: ZDnetUK