Guidelines for Interviews

Top 10 Guidelines for your SAP Interviews

Technical Interview is one of the main hurdle in the selection process, SAP Technical Interviews are not exception to that rule. Every interview is demanding and different from its own perspective. The expectations could be different from interview to interview. You need to understand the requirements of the prospective employer in order to become successful in your interviews.
Though the expectations are different in each interview, most of the interviewers would  expect conceptual clarity, business process knowledge, clear communication, positive attitude and willingness to learn. Therefore, you need to demonstrate these skills throughout the interview process and convince the interviewer. There are number of candidates failed in the interviews, one of the main reason, they failed to demonstrate the positive attitude. Number of candidates are being rejected because lack of positive attitude. Though with reasonable amount of technical knowledge. real positive attitude could help you. However, most of the times, with wonderful technical knowledge, but a negative attitude or arrogance would miss you the boat. There is a very thin line between your success and failure, which is your attitude.

 Failing in an interview does not mean that you lost everything in your life. It is part and parcel of professional career. The key in success lies when you learn something from the unsuccessful interview. Each unsuccessful interview would be a stepping stone and give you a different kind of experience. There are many factors that could eliminate you from the selection process. Therefore, you should not take your failure too much to your heart, however, try yourself to rectify the mistakes you have done in the interview. Nobody is perfect in this world, as, nobody knows all the questions. Each failure is a stepping stone and would give you increased check point for your future interviews. Please remember even thousand miles journey starts with just a single step. Initially, when you have given your first interview, you would be expecting so many weird questions from the interviewers. However, after some years of experience, you would be in a position to take the interviews from Senior Consultants.
 The interviewers would really appreciate your sincerity if you categorically accept if you do not know something, rather than bluffing. Particularly, in SAP you have two types of answers, "yes" or "no", but, it cannot be "yes" and "no". The more important thing in interview is try to give the honest answer. If we do not know something, we should not hesitate to accept the same. When you try to bluff something or attempt to answer which you do not know the head and tail, then the suspicion would start in the minds of the interviewers. Furthermore, whenever you know something, you try to explain it with some business process examples, which would give a good impression to the interviewer. Interview is not just explaining the transaction codes or configuration screens. There is obviously something beyond, which is correlating something with the business process scenarios.
 The following guidelines would be handy for the candidates who are attending SAP interviews.
 1. Updated CV
 Always keep your CV up to date. You will only get interview calls based on your CV. Therefore, you must take utmost care in drafting your CV. I do NOT believe in taking help from the professional writers who write the CVs for money. If you cannot write a quality CV of yours, then what a Client can expect from you? How can you resolve and communicate the issues of the Client? Therefore, you are the right person in order to write your own CV in a better way. The CV should showcase your most relevant experiences, strengths, capabilities, education and certifications etc. When you are presenting a professional CV, you would not afford to have the grammatical mistakes. You may think, it is a small matter, but you should give reasonably good importance to this point, other your CV could be rejected at the entrance. By reading your CV, the client should visualise yourself as a prospective candidate. If you are successful with this activity, then half of the task is completed.
2. Be Honest
 Not just you, most of you disagree with my statistics. However, my conscience says, 90% of the CVs in the market are either falsifying or exaggerated. I know many people would try to find fault with my 90% statistics. However, if they ask their conscience, definitely, I believe, my 90% would be a smaller figure Falsifying is something you have never done and exaggerating is something which you do not have. Furthermore, the kind of quality-less and basic questions that are being asked in SCN is provoking me that my statistics are correct. Trust me, you would never be successful in your life without honesty. Sanskrit proverb says "Satyameva Jayathe" (Truth alone triumphs). Even if you fail by honest, you would enjoy that failure and your moral spirit would always be upbeat. If you are successful by dishonest, you would die every minute and every second in your life. Therefore, please write your CV honestly and answer your interview in a honest manner. Please accept proudly if you do not know something. There is no shame in it. If you try to falsify anything, then please remember, you are cheating your conscience, yourself, your parents, society, country, environment.  Not only this, you are cheating your prospective employer and Clients. Be proud in being honest.
 3. Positive Attitude
 Show your self respect in interview with your positive attitude and willingness to learn / share. Never be arrogant, which would not give you any any benefit, but would give you every chance to fail. Try to express in your feelings how you are inspired to learn something and how you are inspired to help others. This is the best quality that the employers are looking for. Just having good knowledge may not be sufficient, if you fail to show the right amount of attitude. You would find number of people with good amount of technical knowledge, however,very bad attitude. Attitude is not quantifiable by any means, however, it can only be felt by others. You should know how you can demonstrate this immensely powerful quality. If you see in the society, some people are always respected, because of their positive attitude and helping nature.
4. Punctual

You are going to Interview, but not your friend's marriage. Try to be at the interview at least 15 minutes before, in case if you are attending a face to face interview, unless it is a genuine reason why you are late. First impression would be your best impression. If you are early, usually, you would be in a a peace of mind. If you go to interview in a hurry way, usually, you would loose your peace of mind. Not only just punctual, some of the employer even could ask you to get some documents, if so, please be prepared that you have collected them to produce for them. You cannot afford to miss the employer's organisational policies.

 5. Refresh Weak areas
 Interviews are stepping stones. Not every consultant in this world is successful in their first interview. Particularly, the competition is enormous and the expectation from the employers are also at high magnitude. Therefore, do not much bother even if you fail in an interview. Please note down the areas you are failed to answers and brush those areas for the next interviews. The more number of interviews that you are giving, the confidence would be definitely boosted. For example, in the initial interview, if you have failed to answer the integration points between different modules, then refresh those areas thoroughly and educate yourself in those areas. This could help you in your future interviews.
6. Know the expectations

As I said, the expectations of each interview is different. You may not be knowing but you can easily guess the expectations of the employer. You cannot use the same approach and preparation for all the interviews. You may have to use different approaches and strategies in order to be successful in your interviews. For example some of the interviews particularly look for configuration skills, therefore, you need to demonstrate them how good you are in configuration of the application. Some people would expect you to be more business enriched personality, you need to attempt the questions with more business acumen. Particularly, if you are going to interviews with Top 4 Consulting firms they would expect you to have more excellent communication and advisory skills. You need to demonstrate such skills with them. Therefore, be prepared with different approaches for each interview.

7. Self Confidence
Self confidence is the key for your success. I know when you are really new to this interview process, you would be much tensed up with the kind of questions that interviewer may ask you. Though this is very much natural, there is no point in getting panic before interview. This would only push you towards the wrong side of the coin. Therefore, be confident and be prepared for anything. Maximum what is going to happen, you might not get the job. It is not end of the world, there is definitely better side of the coin. Every human being is living with a hope. Hope is the driving force of our lives. There is definitely a brighter sunshine after today's night. Therefore, there is no need to panic, be confident and be positive in your interviews.
8. Give Business Examples
You are going to interview NOT just to explain the configuration screen. You need to explain the SAP system / configuration with business process examples. This would give you good amount of confidence and the interviewer will be surely impressed with you. By seeing the different interviewers of various countries, there is a vast difference between how the interview questions are being asked in different countries. Mostly if it is SAP Technical Interview in India, then they would expect you to remember the screens and transaction codes. Therefore, you would have very less chance to bluff with them. However, in Western countries, though they are Technical Interviews, they are mostly process driven interviews. If you are conceptually clear about the processes, then they would not put much stress about the screen, check boxes and radio buttons. Therefore, you may have to prepare the interview accordingly. In any case, giving business example would showcase your good amount of analytical skills.
9. Concentrate on Communication

Communication is the most successful element of your whole interview process. I would say it is 90% deciding factor whether to get success or failure in your interview. There are number of consultants with very limited technical knowledge, still managing the get through the interview only with communication skills. Once selected, they are some how managing the show by pinching the other people . You cannot expect everybody would have excellent communication. However, you should ensure yourself to have a reasonable amount of communication skills. In case if you are failing in this area, your utmost importance would be having good amount of communication skills. If you have good communication skills and reasonable amount of technical knowledge, it would help you to crack the jinx. If you have good amount of technical skills and conceptual knowledge, but if you fail to communicate them, then definitely, it would not serve the purpose. Therefore, please never underestimate the importance of the communication skills

10. Present yourself well

The most important thing is how you present yourself. Your appearance, the way you dress, your body language, your sense of humour and your communication; all these would really matter. Therefore, you can show the better body language when you have peace of mind. If you are tensed up, whatever you do, probably, you are going to mess up. Therefore, keeping yourself cool and looking confident is important. As a consultant, you would be expected to visit number of client place for them. Therefore, your prospective employer would expect such presentation skills from the day of interview. Some people tend to ignore these small things, however, they play a pivotal role in taking the decision of your selection. 

 For further details see : http://scn.sap.com/people/ravisankar.venna