What are good career options for someone with 3 years of Exp ?Higher study Noob here!

eggman

eggman

Adept
I know it should be in career thread, but need to get answers quickly .
I have to make a decision by tomorrow .

About myself..
10- 73 %
12 - 88 %
BE - 75 % (from an ordinary college)

Currently - Working in SAP Labs, 3 years exp.
Salary : Around 8 lakh

Issues : I work in a relatively new product , so there isn't much scope outside of SAP,
I mean out product has not been implemented much yet, so my scope is less.
But it's changing and opportunities should come in next 2-3 years.

Dilemma : Have an offer with IBM Kolkata, offering around 10.5 lakh.
It's not too tempting money wise, but I will get implementation experience which would be beneficial in career later on.
I'm planning to change in 2 years.

From what I have evaluated , if I stay in the same domain , I would not have too much of scope for next 5 years.
And changing domain now would be difficult .

Now I am planning to do M.S.
-Part of the reason is to learn new stuff.
I'm bored with the kind of work I do, there's no way to innovate anything. Career growth isn't much.
-But another part is to earn more and have a decent life abroad. Moolah is a motivator here to be honest.
- And I do not want to regret having missed out on doing a masters maybe after 5 years or so .

Now here are my questions:
-> If I prepare for GRE next year and go for M.S. in 2015, I would have 5 year exp by then? Will it be an issue, negative factor?
-> How much loan will have to take. I'm from a middle class family , so don't have much saved.
-> I don't have any papers published and all, and I've given my academic record. So how much should I aim in GRE? and What other things i should start working on ?
-> If I do get into a top 10 university, what are the chances of landing a job. I do not want to end up with no job and huge debt. :(
-> Is it worth taking so much loan ?

I have a stable life now, if not fully satisfactory. Is it worth leaving all this and start a new course in career.

Thanks
 
eggman said:
-> If I prepare for GRE next year and go for M.S. in 2015, I would have 5 year exp by then? Will it be an issue, negative factor?
Top universities generally look for younger aspirants so this 5 year gap can have a negative impact

-> How much loan will have to take. I'm from a middle class family , so don't have much saved.
-----

-> I don't have any papers published and all, and I've given my academic record. So how much should I aim in GRE? and What other things i should start working on ?
Lack of papers is going to look bad so you should aim for a quite high GRE score, much higher than your competitors. Other things ? Well a great letter of recommendation will really increase your chances

-> If I do get into a top 10 university, what are the chances of landing a job. I do not want to end up with no job and huge debt. :(
Don't worry about that if you get in top 10 . ;)

-> Is it worth taking so much loan ?
Yes

I have a stable life now, if not fully satisfactory. Is it worth leaving all this and start a new course in career.
Totally depends on how much enthusiastic you are about it. If you are not determined enough it might be a bad decision but if you are quite driven and really want to get out of your current life then it may be one of your best decisions ever.
Click to expand...
That's just my 2 cents. Hope it contributes
 
eggman said:
I know it should be in career thread, but need to get answers quickly .
I have to make a decision by tomorrow .

About myself..
10- 73 %
12 - 88 %
BE - 75 % (from an ordinary college)

Currently - Working in SAP Labs, 3 years exp.
Salary : Around 8 lakh

Issues : I work in a relatively new product , so there isn't much scope outside of SAP,
I mean out product has not been implemented much yet, so my scope is less.
But it's changing and opportunities should come in next 2-3 years.

Dilemma : Have an offer with IBM Kolkata, offering around 10.5 lakh.
It's not too tempting money wise, but I will get implementation experience which would be beneficial in career later on.
I'm planning to change in 2 years.

From what I have evaluated , if I stay in the same domain , I would not have too much of scope for next 5 years.
And changing domain now would be difficult .

Now I am planning to do M.S.
-Part of the reason is to learn new stuff.
I'm bored with the kind of work I do, there's no way to innovate anything. Career growth isn't much.
-But another part is to earn more and have a decent life abroad. Moolah is a motivator here to be honest.
- And I do not want to regret having missed out on doing a masters maybe after 5 years or so .

Now here are my questions:
-> If I prepare for GRE next year and go for M.S. in 2015, I would have 5 year exp by then? Will it be an issue, negative factor?
-> How much loan will have to take. I'm from a middle class family , so don't have much saved.
-> I don't have any papers published and all, and I've given my academic record. So how much should I aim in GRE? and What other things i should start working on ?
-> If I do get into a top 10 university, what are the chances of landing a job. I do not want to end up with no job and huge debt. :(
-> Is it worth taking so much loan ?

I have a stable life now, if not fully satisfactory. Is it worth leaving all this and start a new course in career.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Well what are the courses are you looking at? As @hitesh12 said most courses have a younger crowd make up and it has negative impact - admission wise and job wise both. Given the US job market, it just might not be a good idea. A friend who had experience with ICICI direct, did MFE from Haas had struggled over 6mths just to find a job at a desi IT company - now has 80k $ in debt with nothing to show. So be careful choosing what you actually want to do.
 
Unless you have a scholarship/assistantship, DO NOT go to the US to study. It makes zero sense considering the job situation there.
 
^^ Depends. Lots of caveats. Are you talking about working to support oneself or actually working AFTER graduating?
As a recent grad, I've not had nor heard of anyone having issues in any of those.
(A couple of my friends from other schools DID end up returning to India.. Of course it's all going to depend on individual circumstances.)

@eggman
I don't think it makes sense to go to Grad School for 'learning' after working for 5+ years. It's a different thing if you are using it as a stepping stone for 'getting out'.
 
think about a further education after 5 years, keeping the current scenario and instability in mind.

you are in a more than decent place right now, spend time where you are.. you are quite well paid to be honest with 3 yrs of experience from an ordinary college.. but thats labs.
are you bengali? IBM Kolkata with 10.5 sounds a bit dicey, kolkata might sound like home but ibm hikes are notorious for being 2% ( do check) annually and CCU does not offer much of options.

if you are comfy and happy, stay where you are, get 6-7 years of solid experience in SAP Labs, get your car lease, drive around a bit, enjoy the comforts. then think about education/switching jobs/sabbatical etc

by then 6-7 years of SAP LABS will stand out on your resume... when I recruit or interview, i'd always prefer ppl with 5 years ata company than 2/3.. thats becoming the industry norm.
SAP Labs in my opinion is a great place, so stay and observe how the company does, restructures, and enjoy the ride for a few years more..

I know this is a long post, but being from CCU, now in BLR; and having my younger brother in SAP labs for 9 years now - gives me a good understanding of where you are and where you are going.. so hopefully this post helps
 
babhishek said:
think about a further education after 5 years, keeping the current scenario and instability in mind.

you are in a more than decent place right now, spend time where you are.. you are quite well paid to be honest with 3 yrs of experience from an ordinary college.. but thats labs.
are you bengali? IBM Kolkata with 10.5 sounds a bit dicey, kolkata might sound like home but ibm hikes are notorious for being 2% ( do check) annually and CCU does not offer much of options.

if you are comfy and happy, stay where you are, get 6-7 years of solid experience in SAP Labs, get your car lease, drive around a bit, enjoy the comforts. then think about education/switching jobs/sabbatical etc

by then 6-7 years of SAP LABS will stand out on your resume... when I recruit or interview, i'd always prefer ppl with 5 years ata company than 2/3.. thats becoming the industry norm.
SAP Labs in my opinion is a great place, so stay and observe how the company does, restructures, and enjoy the ride for a few years more..

I know this is a long post, but being from CCU, now in BLR; and having my younger brother in SAP labs for 9 years now - gives me a good understanding of where you are and where you are going.. so hopefully this post helps
Click to expand...

Hi

I wanted to stay in SAP labs forever to be honest. It's just awesome in many ways.
But unfortunately , the product I work with (SAP TM) is very new and it's getting impossible to get new jobs with just development experience in my domain.
Implementation experience is something I need right now in my career, and that is something I am going to IBM for.
There is not much market value of development and technical experience only right now. And unfortunately that's the only thing I will be getting for the next few years here. Functional and implementation experience is more important.
Money wise, IBM is dicey in the long term. But I am planning to switch again after 1 or 2 implementations .

Worst case , I will try to get into SAP Labs again (my manager was totally willing to let me back after a few years if I wanted) .
 
eggman said:
Hi

I wanted to stay in SAP labs forever to be honest. It's just awesome in many ways.
But unfortunately , the product I work with (SAP TM) is very new and it's getting impossible to get new jobs with just development experience in my domain.
Implementation experience is something I need right now in my career, and that is something I am going to IBM for.
There is not much market value of development and technical experience only right now. And unfortunately that's the only thing I will be getting for the next few years here. Functional and implementation experience is more important.
Money wise, IBM is dicey in the long term. But I am planning to switch again after 1 or 2 implementations .

Worst case , I will try to get into SAP Labs again (my manager was totally willing to let me back after a few years if I wanted) .
Click to expand...

implementation experience is important, so is development exp in the long run. you can see this in two ways. Most of IT is in maintenance and support, and part of this becomes implementations ( major upgrades version refreshes etc etc)

however, there is a clear niche market around product development, next generation products etc. This will turn out into implementations in the long run.
where do you see yourself, in an innovative product based company where you work on the latest integrations and code, or upgrading versions for modules for client companies.

they payscale after 7-8 years in SAP, moving into the product space - this will happen to you : (either become a TL/TM or move into product development /management roles) is always better cleaner and might give you something to be proud about.
if as an individual you decide you want to implement things ( mostly outdated, or required by business/compliance requirements since their versions are no longer supported etc ) - thats your call ; again I wouldnt advise it personally.
you seem to be bent on leaving / doing something different because the job market you see today - you dont get jobs in your field. heck, jobs are tough to find - for you, for everyone.. also you never know ehat the market will be a year from now or two years - honestly dont bother, work on the product, learn see how SAP gestates it, takes it to the markets, who are the clients ( ala cream clients) who implement it.. its still a better option in my opinion

at the end your call....
 
Hey , again thanks for the reply.
I would like to say that I enjoy development a lot and personally love to work on technical side of the things more than the functional side of things.

Unfortunately, when it comes to SAP product and implementation knowledge is valued much more.
Let me explain my scenario in a bit more detail. I would love your feedback on it.

As I told you, I am working on SAP TM. It is a relatively new product, and only now it has started to attract a lot of customers. In an year or two , there should be lot of new opportunities.
SAP TM is basically created technically on ABAP and a framework BOPF.
And unfortunately BOPF is used in only a couple of products inside SAP and outside not at all .

In the past 3 years I feel that I have a pretty good grip on the framework and I'm extremely comfortable in ABAP too.
However , working further in the same technology wouldn't help me much is what I feel. There is not much to learn for me technically now. (at the same project, ofcourse the entire ABAP landscape it too big to master ).Reason being the framework does not have much market value . It is kind of a dead end knowledge , atleast for the time being .

Unlike java, c# etc where it is possible to get a new job just on the basis technical skill . ABAP is a different beast. All recruiters expect to have a relevant Functional knowledge too.
On stable and established products like SAP HCM, CRM etc there are far more new opportunists . But with my domain experience of SAP TM , it was not so easy.

Secondly, even functionally I am not learning too much. Because the team is divided in 10 scrum teams, I am expert in one part of the product and know about related 2 parts.
But that is not much worth . I( or most of the people in my team) can't even run one end to end scenario . Point being, it has been impossible to get functional knowledge due to the nature of development.

Thirdly , with SAP's bad results the hike till next 2 years will be bad. (Basically they will spend the budget allotted till 2015 , by the end of 2013. ) . Cost cutting has already been started (No outbound ).
TL;DR- Even though I love developing new stuff, because of the domain and technology used the knowledge was not much useful.

What my future plan / goal is to become a TM consultant . A techno functional role .The reason honestly is moolah. :-D
That's where most of the money lies.

And for that I have decided to go to IBM , implement TM to customer , understand how to configure the product to meet customer requirements.
By the next 2 years I am aiming to gain enough Product functional knowledge and implementation knowledge on top of the development knowledge I have right now.
I believe it will open up more oppurtunities for me in terms of career.
Even though I hate Kolkata (I love Bangalore ), the hike in IBM is no where SAP (but I am still ahead with money by 2 years ) and work environment is considerable worse (formals, no free food etc, not stress free like SAP) I thought of taking this job just to improve my profile.

Should I feel that it is not for me, or I am not gaining in IBM as I expected, I will try to jump back to development into SAP again (my manager was happy to know that I plan to return) .
But if things work out, I might be one step closer to become SAP TM consultant, and with more and more customers not buying SAP TM , it might turn out to be a better deal.

I will miss Bangalore and the chilled life of SAP Labs a lot . But I really needed to get out due to my career going to a dead end.
let me know your opinion on this.
 
my friend, i know of the cost cuts, but SAP is SOLID. regarding your career, you have a 36 year career span, 3 years is just 8% of your career. if you want immediate profile and money ( onsite opportunities) remember its not the long term haul...

you have time, study. develop knowledge, become a scrum certified professional or whatever. since you are 2 years ahead of the curve, invest the additional earnings in courses, self development etc etc..

when you implement, you will implement a section of the whole implementation, just like your current scenario.. again if you are confident you can be hired back, good for you and good luck...
 
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