The curious case of Junior Consultants
This is something that has been bugging me for a while now – and I ranted on it yesterday night on my personal blog. If I was a bit more focussed, I would have posted it here on SDN in the first place, but any ways here it goes. Big thanks to my friend Jarret Pazahanic for nudging me to post it here. Although I am generally opposed to cross posting, I think I will be forgiven in doing so here this one time.
http://andvijaysays.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/the-curious-case-of-junior-consultants/
This is not just a problem with SAP projects – it is applicable in all kinds of projects. I firmly believe it should be debated and put to bed – and what better place to do it than SDN.
I am very interested in hearing your opinions on this subject. You can comment here or on my personal blog.
Hahaha... thanks for sharing ur blog, great post.
Regards...
I still remember doing my first US payroll project in 1998 and 8 months later after a successful implementation I was considered a senior payroll consultant. It was a different time and US payroll was very new so compared to "others" I was senior as I had actually worked on it but in no way was I really a senior consultant (though I may have argued this back then). That said is it much different today as folks that do the first in-memory projects will be "senior" in that area regardless of how much other SAP experience they have.
Just like there is lots of discussion on what makes an SAP Expert there is also around when a Jr Consultant should be considered a Senior Consultant. I know so people that can make that jump quickly while other never make that jump regardless of the number of years they spend.
The relative nature of junior vs senior is a fascinating topic. My 6 yo kiddo often tells me I need to be her assistant in her games, since I don't know how to play the game as well as she does. And she is spot on too - age doesn't distinguish seniority by itself.
Needless to say I drank through a firehouse for 6 months as not only did I not understand SAP very well I didnt understand the business (ie had to look up what garnishment meant minutes before requirement gathering). There were no SAP forums, no experts available for calls and the documentation and resources available were extremely limited given the SAP US Payroll was very new. It was definitely not a recommended way to learn and would never happen today but I was extremely fortune to have had to learn that way as that initial project shaped many things in my SAP career such as my thirst for information, realization of the hard work needed for a successful project, great understanding of SAP (you don’t forget trial & error configuration after it finally works) as well as a true understanding of the underlying business and the fact that SAP can be hard to learn. I always tell the story about how a grocery industry guy stumbled into SAP and my challenges as folks can easily relate.
I think a case could be made that since the junior consultants of today will not be able to learn the way we that it “could” impact their ability to be “experts” in the future.
On a side note my 5 year old son, similar to your daughter, always says “Dad I am teaching you…Right” many times whenever we play Angry Birds. Much like when I started SAP I am always willing to learn no matter how young the teacher 🙂
•‘Seniority needed for a project is also often exaggerated’- I completely agree with this. Seniority and skill set required is often overstated. Placement recruiters as well as consulting companies resource management people search for consultants with ‘n’ number of end to end implementation experience for an assignment which doesn’t essentially need so . It is quite surprising to see that Market is asking for consultants with only end to end experience even when the job description states that the position is for support assignments (which is a different a ball game and require different skill ). What needs to be analyzed is the past experience of the sourcing folks which resulted in this non alignment between project experience requirement and job description.
•Not every task in a project needs the most experienced consultant. – This needs to be discussed and explained to client, in detail, as often client is reluctant to allow junior people in the project . I am sure that if the role of the Jr. consultants is clearly defined and discussed with client, along with the cost benefits then client should be fine with it .
This is completely my personal view on this subject and not my employer's view/opinion.
Thanks
Kaushik
And I agree 200% on middlemen casusing the grief on this matter. But to be fair, there are some who find you the best possible consultant consistently - nd they are usually worth the premium
Being an academic who has taught in a Master of ERP Systems for the past 11 years I can certainly confer with some of your sentiments especially about what is perceived as a "junior" consultant.
The students we attract usually have had considerable work experience in certain areas and sometimes SAP. These students want a masters degree to for various reasons, improve knowledge and or job prospects. I spend a considerable amount of time attempting to educate industry as the skills these students acquire. For example a student could obtain skills in solution manager, BOBJ, BW, FI, HR, LSMW, ASAP, Config, PP, Project Systems, ABAP, CRM, Process Integration, ARIS, Workflow, and SDN depending on the subjects they select. Tehre are approximately 25 subjects.
In terms depth of knowledge, in BI the final exam involves the building of a BI environment (InfoObjects, InfoProviders, ETL and BEX) to produce reports based specifications. Students can undertake SAP Consultant certification in a number of these areas. So are these graduates "junior"? Yes with project experience but not in terms of knowledge in the different aspects of SAP solutions and their implementation. As far as I am concerned the employers who take this "junior" attitude to these students it is more to their disadvantage rather than the students.
Thanks for chiming in with your perspective - much appreciated. I have not directly hired anyone from college with an ERP major, so your comment is very informative and refreshing to me.
I should spend some time understanding the University Alliance Program. From your note - it does appear that the colleges will turn out people with a more balanced SAP education than the SAP academies.
Cheers
Vijay
Do we really or Can we really communicate quality of consultant to customer? Are consulting companies really honest in saying that?While project planning do we plan based on Junior/senior consultant? For customer it is bit of unknown-unknown in terms of what they will get and when, except Quality and On-schedule delivery commitment from management of companies who are placing them.
When IT managers and Business users and SAP leaders understand this equation the Subject Matter Expert will come back and high rates will be identified for WHERE THEY REALLY ARE!!!!! Offsite!! at Junior Resource Clustering Locations!!....but again I agree....how does a manager KNOW these things at the beginning of an engagement when EVERYONE LIES about the time and resource skills that will be on a project?
If you did not understand the above what I am saying is simple. 4 40 dollar an hour resources that take 6 weeks to deliver what a 290 dollar an hour resource can deliver in a week is a BAD Proposition for customers and more costly...and in my experience I believe that the CYCLE time of the MOST POPULAR delivery model for SAP engagements is about what I show above...6 times longer and 3 to 4 times more costly.....
38000 for the Typical Delivery model vs 11000 for the Single resource that can really do it ONSITE......Food for thought.
I do not like Junior Resources....How I measure that? CYCLE TIME....