Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#21

Post by knight17 » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:29 PM UTC

cobbzilla wrote: post #12

unexpected wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Big 4" used to refer to accounting firms. Accenture used to be a part of the "Big 5" with Andersen, but they had to re-brand because of the Enron scandal. They no longer do accounting. But now all these companies are bleeding over into each others business areas - many do strategy, operations, implementation, accounting.

another minor nitpick-- Arthur Anderson had just recently spun off its consulting division as Accenture before the Enron scandal hit, not in reaction to it. It was a move that had been planned for some time. And I'm sure they thanked their lucky stars they completed the spin-off before Enron; Accenture was safely insulated from the fallout that absolutely killed Arthur Anderson.

Auditors cannot provide other services—mainly tax and IT—to audit clients for auditor independence (SOX in the US, Combined Code in the UK and similar laws are in application worldwide).

All Big4 firms had to shelve their IT consulting to separate divisions or into new companies which most later sold:

Arthur Anderson formed Anderson Consulting which later became Accenture.

Ernst Young - Ernst & Young Consulting which was acquired by Capgemini

PriceWaterhouceCoopers sold to IBM Global Services

Deloitte retained its consulting division I think

KPMG - KPMG Consulting - Bearingpoint?

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#22

Post by dualogy » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:42 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #20

Aren't we seeing more and more companies (especially smaller companies who could never afford SAP to begin with) move towards programs like JIRA, and achieving much of the same. Where would JIRA (including its wealth of plugins) lack in terms of what SAP can offer?

How about, JIRA is an issue tracker last I checked, SAP has provided a wide range of corp/biz solutions from ERP to what-not since the early 70s...

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#23

Post by jamesmp98 » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

patkai wrote: post #17

You said "like" SAP, not SAP only, so let me suggest Cobol. It's a language we rarely hear about but it is an exotic niche that could also pay well. Well, this is just an idea, I'm not an expert on Cobol.

I don' think so. Most COBOL jobs I've seen want like 10-15 years experience which is effectively impossible to obtain in 2017.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#24

Post by ig1 » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

Join a consultancy firm that specializes in that area, many will hire people with zero experience in the area and train them up. It's also the best place to learn as you'll be exposed to many different deployments.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#25

Post by tyingq » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:47 PM UTC

Others have covered that the usual path is to first have a job that sends you to SAP training. That could be an entry level job at a consultancy, or a job at a Fortune 500 that uses SAP...where the initial job isn't specifically SAP, but you find a way to get onto the project.

It would be difficult to do that any other way, as the setup costs to have your own SAP environment to learn on are prohibitively high.

That said, there are other niches where the environment and tools are available to you at a reasonable cost. You can, for example, sign up for a Salesforce.com developer account. Perhaps not SAP niche level salaries to be had, but Salesforce experience is in demand.

Just one example though...generally, search for niches with a reasonable way to get access to the platform if you want to gain some experience on your own. Other ideas might be single-sign-on/kerberos/saml/oauth, devops (puppet, chef, docker, etc) or specific e-commerce shopping cart software (magento, for example). Keep in mind though, light experience will likely only help landing an entry level spot.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#26

Post by snuxoll » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 5:49 PM UTC

jlj wrote: post #18

Starting in an analyst, support, or end-user role is a good way to get exposure. Or try working with a small boutique consulting firm as an alternative to the big guys, you may get more variety of experience. Understanding the business processes supported by the application will set you apart from other developers. It is common to find developers without business process or functional experience, and visa versa. If y…

This is pretty good advice, this is how I ended up getting into Salesforce stuff. Started at a company that used Salesforce heavily on the help desk (which used it as a ticketing system), after 4-5 months I managed to get into a Jr. Salesforce Developer role.

I no longer work there, nor do I work full-time on Salesforce projects, but I do maintain our small Salesforce org at my current employer as an additional responsibility and if I ever decide to move back into it full-time I'll have the experience to do so (I can't really see it, Salesforce is a great tool but not something I enjoyed having 100% of my time consumed by, I'm much happier in my current DevOps role).

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#27

Post by VT_Drew » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

>How do you break into a career in a niche field like SAP development.

OH GOD WHY? Have you used SAP? SAP is the most expensive pile of shit I have ever seen. No company in their right mind would deploy such a system at this point in time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#28

Post by beachstartup » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 6:28 PM UTC

VT_Drew wrote: post #27

>How do you break into a career in a niche field like SAP development. OH GOD WHY? Have you used SAP? SAP is the most expensive pile of shit I have ever seen. No company in their right mind would deploy such a system at this point in time.

people pay good money to maintain expensive piles of shit.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#29

Post by npiazza83 » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 6:34 PM UTC

dualogy wrote: post #22

sgt wrote: post #20

Aren't we seeing more and more companies (especially smaller companies who could never afford SAP to begin with) move towards programs like JIRA, and achieving much of the same. Where would JIRA (including its wealth of plugins) lack in terms of what SAP can offer?

How about, JIRA is an issue tracker last I checked, SAP has provided a wide range of corp/biz solutions from ERP to what-not since the early 70s...

You don't use JIRA to communicate and track order statuses between your manufacturing wing and shipping dock?

We've been using the Atlassian logistics plugin for forever now. Its got emojis so its clearly the best solution.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get into a niche field like SAP development?

#30

Post by ci5er » Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 6:42 PM UTC

jamesmp98 wrote: post #23

patkai wrote: post #17

You said "like" SAP, not SAP only, so let me suggest Cobol. It's a language we rarely hear about but it is an exotic niche that could also pay well. Well, this is just an idea, I'm not an expert on Cobol.

I don' think so. Most COBOL jobs I've seen want like 10-15 years experience which is effectively impossible to obtain in 2017.

Maybe, but I don't know. A lot of the COBOL-herders for billing systems for utilities are retiring and people are searching for a journeyman coder they can train. For now, the situation is held together by these older people retiring, and then coming back on as consultants until replacements are found and trained -- and they aren't cheap.