Question

Career guidance query (please advise)

Business/IT alignment, Project management, SAP, SAP careers, Development, Lifecycle development

Hi Everyone,

I would appreciate if you could advise me, based on your experience and educated guesses, for the following questions:
Background-
I am pursuing MS in MIS with Enterprise Systems(SAP) as my major. I have taken courses which deal with FI/CO, MM, SD, BW. I am very much interested in pursuing a career in SAP(not for the money part),since I like the whole ERP space.

I especially liked BW and believe it has good future market potential. I have ruled out the ABAP option since, dont like programming.

I have narrowed down my options to BW,HR,SD( I believe these fall in functional/techno-functional areas and are within my interest areas).

My long term goal is to be a IT Project Manager, since I want to be a techno-functional professional throughout my career.

Questions-

1) If I choose SAP as my career, which module should I get trained on?
2) Would choosing a career in SAP lead me to the goal of Project Manager?
3) What would be my other career paths for being a project manager?

I have more questions, but getting above questions answered would definitely answer the remaining ones.

Appreciate your help in any kind.

Kindly chip in your 2 cents.Thank you.

Actually, I'd personally recommend against majoring in anything THAT specialized. Especially if your long-term objective is to get into IT project management.

If there's one clear thing that the last 20 years have taught us, it's that change has taken on a far more rapid pace than ever before in history.

With that in mind, what I'd suggest is that, while you can learn all about SAP, it should be within a framework of "How do I solve problem X?". This means that you should be acquainted with areas of specialization that you don't particularly care for - or those will a weak point for you. If you have enough weak points, they affect the shape of your hairstyle - if you get my drift.

Case in point - I took a year of accounting - I HATE accounting!! But - I understand its value and what it can and cannot be used for.

Project managers need to have an understanding of many different disciplines. Not to be able to do them, but to be able to know where they are appropriate or not, on track or not and such. Project management is an art/science unto itself.

Don't become the kind of manager whose only tool is a hammer - that tends to make every problem resemble a nail.

'nuff said?

Bob