Interviewing Tips for ERP Consultants Tips

With both SAP job opportunities and Oracle job opportunities, you may find yourself talking (long distance) to hiring managers who are working through a list of interviewees. You need to stand out from this crowd. Learn to build your communication skills so that you can truly interact with your interviewer, get your own value across, and sound like a seasoned professional in your SAP or Oracle interview.

The first step in doing so is to get rid of any contemptuous attitude you might have towards soft skills. Guess what—your first interviewer (if you’re lucky enough to get the callback) doesn’t have the time and luxury to hear you ramble on about your experiences and education. If you’re not succinct and pleasant, you’re toast. So start listening to other people in your environment who are good communicators. Think about what makes them special. Is it their tone of voice, their cadence of speech, their diction? Once you understand what makes a good communicator, it’ll be much easier for you to become one, simply by emulating your models. In time, you’ll grow your own skills ... but fake it ‘til you make it!

Want to see an SAP job opportunity slip away? Tell your interviewer how much you want to learn on the job, or what a lifelong devotee of ERP learning you are. Whether it’s SAP job opportunities or an Oracle job interview, no one involved with hiring is going to feel confident bringing aboard someone who isn’t experienced. That means you shouldn’t do anything to take the focus off your ability to do the job at hand. If the opportunity is not a fit for you, that’s fine; be candid and tell the interviewer. But if you have the skills, you’ll just be shooting yourself in the foot if you start talking about learning, growth, and all that stuff. To the client, you’re not an ERP consultant to learn; you’re there to perform, and that means you already know your domain. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep advancing your knowledge; just don’t tell the client about it.

Overeager or overconfident consultants can mention money too early during an interview, leading the hiring manager to conclude that you’re more of a mercenary than a professional. Of course you’re going to have to iron out the financial details, but wait to get the job offer first! Luckily, when you work with a staffing firm, like B2B Workforce, the awkward money talk never has to come up. They handle rate negotiations with their client employers. Their experience means you can be sure you're getting the rate you deserve, and you can discuss your own requirements with them.

Instead of bargaining with an employer during your interview, you can focus on answering those SAP or Oracle job interview questions first. Explaining what you will or won’t take before the offer even comes your way is both unprofessional and off-putting to the interviewer. Emphasize other factors that are important to you: working with fellow professionals, solving business problems, helping a client achieve ROI, etc.

Sometimes a client will have the wrong idea about a product or a specific piece of functionality. This development is a blessing to you, the consultant, because you can step in and educate the client, showing your expertise even before you’re hired. For example, if a client mentions that they’re looking for someone with one year of experience in a module that’s only been out for six months, feel free to explain the situation to them; don't just wait passively for the next SAP or Oracle job interview question.

However, don’t be smug or combative. Educating people is a delicate process and, all too often, people refuse to be educated. There will be times that clients simply have the wrong idea about some aspect of their own ERP project, and no amount of correction will set them straight. However, if you demonstrate the right knowledge in front of the right client, you may get a leg up on an ERP job opportunity simply for being sharp.

You don’t have a lot of time in an interview, but you need to spend a lot of time preparing. Most people will focus on brushing up general and specific interview questions for SAP, or reading Oracle interview tips, but forget the big picture. Remember, you’ll get SAP job opportunities or Oracle job opportunities because the client will think of you as an asset. As soon as you walk on site, you’ll be helping the client get ROI from their ERP investment. That’s why, in any interview, you need to focus like a laser on how you will add value to the client. Don’t talk about your desire to learn on the job or your lifelong commitment to learning some ERP module that isn’t deployed by the client. Do talk about how you can help the client get a return on investment, and they’ll start thinking of you as an asset before you ever walk in the door.

So you’re a techie. You’ve gotten into the nuts and bolts of many ERP modules. You can ace an Oracle consultant interview, or SAP interview questions and answers are old hat. But can you get your technical competency across to a project manager, who may well be the first client representative you deal with? Rather than focusing solely on your technical capabilities, present your well-roundedness by presenting your skills from different perspectives.

The project manager will be interested in your professional credentials as well as the technical details of project work. You want to be able to convey your role in past projects, and discuss the business value of what you do (i.e., your skill at module X helps companies come in on time and under budget during implementations). Discuss technical issues, like your competence in certain areas, but also be sure to express your value in business terms. It's wise to emphasize your reliability and commitment to projects, and the way in which you have left past clients pleased.

Oftentimes, consultants want help for Oracle interview questions or SAP questions that could come from the client, but it's worth putting as much effort into digging into the business side. ERP clients aren’t just installing functionality for the heck of it. They have business drivers and, with a little effort, you can find out just what these drivers are. Sometimes, clients discuss the rationale behind their ERP projects with the media, or mention them in SEC filings. At other times, managers within the company, or even consultants who have previously worked for the client, know the score.

With all this information out there, you don’t have to go into interviews blind. Scour the press, read company filings, call your friends, do whatever you have to do in order to understand why a company is pursuing its particular ERP project. That way, when you get the call, you can pitch yourself as someone who is going to help the company solve that particular business problem. You’ll sound like part of the ROI solution, and that will give you an advantage over an equally-qualified consultant who doesn’t know the first thing about the client’s business drivers. Treat your clients like dates—check up on them long before they show up at your door.

Very few people know how to prepare a functional, attractive resume. Even if you’re genuinely talented, you won’t find yourself fielding a single SAP interview question or need any help boning up on Oracle dba interview questions and answers if you turn in a resume on shocking pink paper, or with a dozen spelling errors. Remember, at the early stage of many interviews, an HR manager somewhere is just looking for reasons to trim down the resume pile.

Don’t do anything to put yourself in the reject pile. Invest in resume-quality paper, use black ink and standard fonts, and be concise but informative about your qualifications. Some things to remember when creating your resume:

• Shorter is better. Employers aren’t going to read through your entire life story, so make sure you say what needs to be said, and nothing more.
• Emphasize your last three jobs—these are the most important in the eyes of the hiring manager.
• Keep it clean. Use only the most pertinent details from each position.
• Use common sense—if you have a three-page resume and there are only two lines on the third page, find a way to trim it back down to two.

The first person who interviews you for an SAP job opportunity or an Oracle job opportunity is going to call you. Maybe the second and the third person will call you as well. The point is that it could be a while until you get to sit in front of an actual human being to pitch yourself. That’s all the more reason to improve your phone manner.

For example, pay close attention to how you answer the phone, because you could get a callback from a potential employer at any time—even when you’re on site for another job. You have to learn to think and act quickly in situations like these. On the one hand, you should always have cheat sheets accessible so that you can look up details about the company that’s calling you back as well as consult your own resume. On the other hand, you should be careful about where and how you answer your cell phone if you’re on another job site; none of your employers should know any more than they need to about your professional situation.

When people get nervous or excited, the first thing they do is talk too fast. Since so many of your job opportunities depend on impressions you leave on the phone, remember to relax during every conversation so that you can have a productive back-and-forth with your interviewer. Take deep breaths, and don’t panic. You have plenty of time to respond to questions and to express yourself. Remember that the interviewer will be favorably impressed by a calm, assured voice on the other end of the line, whereas someone who sounds like a hyperventilating chipmunk will sound unprofessional and uncharismatic.

As a consultant, you want to project an aura of authority, and this aura begins in your voice. Whether the interview is just shooting the breeze or asking specific interview questions for Oracle DBAs, stay relaxed to stay in charge. However, don’t shout or over-enunciate. Just talk as you would if you were making small talk at a dinner party. It’s a good opportunity to remember the old Japanese samurai saying that ‘matters of great importance should be treated lightly.’