Facing a Career Crossroad: Should I Pursue an SAP HR Course Now or Wait?

Current Situation and Career Dilemma

Currently, I am working with one of the Korean MNCs as an HR trainee for the last 1.4 years. They do not have any regular HR positions in their business plan, so they are unable to offer me a permanent position in the company.

Potential Role Shift to Admin

Now, they are considering shifting my role and responsibilities to the Admin team as a trainee. Although HR and admin are currently in the same team, they will likely separate within 2 months.

Career Preference and Decision to Resign

I am not interested in the Admin department and only want to pursue a career in core HR. Therefore, I have decided to resign from my current position. I will discuss with my senior about not changing my responsibilities to the admin team, but based on my understanding, they may not accommodate my request as they do not have any available positions in their business plan.

Considering Further Education

While they are offering me a good stipend to keep me, I am adamant about not joining the Admin team. Hence, I am contemplating enrolling in an SAP HR course at a local institution. I have learned that the same course without certification is available for around 30K.

Financial Constraints and Course Certification

This course will not be certified by SAP due to financial constraints, as I do not wish to invest a significant amount at this stage of my career. With only 1.4 years of experience as an HR trainee, I am unsure if now is the right time to pursue this course.

Seeking Guidance on Career Path

I have heard that completing this course can open up better opportunities, although it might be challenging to secure a job afterwards. I am a keen learner and have a strong interest in software, particularly SAP HR.

I seek guidance on whether it is the appropriate time to undertake this course or if I should wait and gain more experience, then pursue the course after having 2 to 3 years of HR experience. Your insights would be greatly appreciated.

I have come to understand from many candidates working for Korean MNCs, who have attended interviews, that the role of employees in such companies is very restricted. In Finance and HR, the attrition rates are hovering around 15%. The reasons stated by them are that the freedom of working is very restricted, and they largely try to follow policies that are uniform across the globe.

Objective of Completing a SAP Course

Firstly, what is your objective in completing a SAP course?

- Are you planning to join a back-office setup offering HR solutions?
- Is your passion more towards software, rather than dealing with employees?
- Are you keen on taking up overseas assignments?

If you can state this, I will be in a position to offer more insights.

Not all individuals undertaking a SAP course secure suitable jobs after investing substantial sums of money. Being certified in SAP or not does not matter; it is all about the knowledge you have acquired.

Consideration of Your Role and Qualifications

Regarding your role, you currently have the tag of MNC experience. Instead of adding a certification course in SAP, you can consider pursuing a specialization course in HR from leading educational institutions such as TISS, XLRI, etc. What is your basic qualification?

If you are interested in studying while working, there are institutions offering part-time courses in HR. In my opinion, consider these options instead of specializing in SAP.

Business Plans of MNCs

Concerning your present role, the business plans of MNCs generally involve jobs in service departments on outsourcing/temporary assignments. They believe that roles in these departments can be carried out relatively easily.

Interpreting your statements, there may be two reasons for your being shifted to an Administration role:

a) They might think you excel in administration, hence offering you a good stipend to retain you. In such a scenario, I suggest you continue in that company for another year. If you find that you do not enjoy that role, consider seeking alternative employment.

b) They might be trying to assign you a role you are not keen on, hoping that you will resign on your own, enabling them to hire someone for temporary roles at a lower stipend.

You need to decide whether money or your role is more important. However, if you seek my opinion, I would choose role over money. Good performance in your role typically leads to financial rewards without you needing to ask for them.

Facets of the HR Department

You are aware that the HR department encompasses various facets:

- HR, including recruitment, training, retention, employee engagement, payroll, statutory compliance ...
- IR, encompassing employee relations, grievance handling, negotiations ...
- Administration, covering logistic arrangements, security, housekeeping, facility management ...

Each facet presents its own challenges. Since you have experience in HR, there is an opportunity for you to transition to Administration. Given your statement about being a good learner, I recommend that you take up the challenge in Administration and give it a try.

Typically, larger companies confine employees to specific facets and rarely move them around. However, in your case, within 1.5 years, you have been assigned a different role.

While software is challenging, I believe it can become monotonous over time.

Keep us updated on your career progress.

Best of luck.

First of all, thank you so much for your response to my queries. It is detailed and enlightening for me; it has cleared up lots of doubts and views. As you requested, here are further details:

My Educational Background and Current Situation

I completed my MBA with a specialization in HR and IR from a government university in 2012. I have been working as an HR trainee for the past 1.5 years. They have extended my training three times, with promises of confirmation each time, but it has not materialized. There are some politics at play in our organization. I have made it clear from the beginning that I am interested in the HR part only, not in the admin part. However, they have given me mixed responsibilities involving both HR and admin tasks.

Challenges in Job Applications

Now, after 1.5 years of experience, when I apply for jobs, companies say I am overpaid. Therefore, I am considering doing a SAP HR course. Despite having an MBA in HR and IR, companies treat me as a fresher due to my trainee profile. How can I overcome this situation? Please advise me!

Objectives in Completing a SAP Course

- My aim is to enter the market where I can work freely and efficiently.
- I am not looking to join a back-office setup offering HR solutions.
- While I am interested in using software to ease my job, my passion lies in dealing with employees.
- I am not particularly keen on taking up overseas assignments, but I am open to it if the opportunity arises.

You are aware that the HR department has different facets. I would like to enter the IR sector, but I have heard that a minimum of 2 to 3 years of experience in an HR profile is needed to understand IR. Is this correct? If not, please guide me on how I can secure a job in this field, considering my theoretical knowledge of legal compliance. Please correct me if I am mistaken anywhere.

Thank you for your responses to my queries.

Mr. Kannan has given you sound advice. For all the efforts you have put into posting this thread and sending private and visitor messages to me, I have taken the time to go through your profile and contributions on CiteHR.com. This has allowed me to understand you better as a person and gain insight into your moral values.

I find that you are in good company, as you have prominent senior members and moderators in your Follow list, as well as some excellent contributions in this forum. You have been doing quite well for an HR professional with only 1.4 years of experience, and as I see, you are on the right track. However, any journey takes time, and one has to be patient and should not expect results too soon. Your present dilemma stems from this, and perhaps you are comparing your career growth with your contemporaries. Although the duration of still being a Trainee does appear a bit long.

You have mentioned that you can still avoid going to the Admin stream and continue with the HR stream. That sounds good. If things do not work out, then you can volunteer to take on both assignments - HR & Admin. That is what most senior HRs, including myself, have done at times during their long careers. However, I would again caution you not to settle for only an Admin profile. The simple argument is that being an HR professional necessarily requires certain specialization and certification, which has intrinsic value, unlike Admin roles where any graduate with certain experience or ex-Army personnel can be considered or even favored.

I hope the distinction is clear to you now!

SAP Certification

Coming to SAP certification - it is definitely good, valuable, and much in demand. By all means, you can and should pursue such additional qualifications. However, one cannot recommend such unscrupulous institutes of doubtful integrity that help candidates cheat with fake experiences in fake company jobs. So far, you have been on the right track, working hard to learn and develop yourself. Why change tracks and adopt doubtful and illegal ways to get ahead in life? Such actions will haunt you throughout your career if the foundation is built on fake certificates and experience.

The very fact that, rather than engaging in such an immoral act and gaining short-term benefits, you have chosen to discuss this matter and seek advice from seniors and experienced HR professionals shows your dilemma in taking the wrong path. This is a good sign and your strength!

Think coolly, proceed in the right direction, and make correct decisions. The rewards for the right actions are always there, even though they may take some more time.

Warm regards.

Thank you very much for accepting my request for a comment on my thread and giving your valuable time to my queries. As of now, I have cleared many doubts and definitely, I will not go for the SAP HR course at that particular institute (which I have described in your private message).

I have done a bit of research on the SAP course. I came to know that there are some institutes also providing the same education as SAP without any certification. They clearly mention that they will only provide knowledge, not certification. They will issue a certificate from their own institute stating that you have knowledge of SAP HR. After that, you have to search for a job in the market with your own effort. They will only help with job openings and clearing doubts post-course.

So, I would like to know if it is right to go for this course as the course fee will be only 30K. Although the SAP certification fee is around 3.4 Lac, which is a significant amount for me.

I have also searched a bit more for specialized courses to enhance my skills. I found that in the market, there are courses providing HR generalist profile training for 15 days. They teach legal HR compliance and common payroll methods.

This course seems like a way to improve my skills. I would appreciate your opinion on this!

Please suggest some courses where I can polish myself and enhance my skills to secure a good job. Your guidance would be of great help to me.

Also, advise me on how I can enter the IR field?

Warm regards.

Your thought process is very clear, and there seems to be no ambiguity. The only aspect you are worried about is the extended duration of your assignment as a Trainee. You also seem to appreciate the compensation offered by your current employer.

Doing an SAP course will help, but as I said, it is not your passion to take up software assignments full-time. You are aware that generally, large companies outsource the software processing to other companies, and you may only be able to play a support role from the management side to understand and implement the various systems/subsystems developed by such companies. This may become monotonous over time as you appear to be keen on handling the employee engagement part of it.

Interest in Industrial Relations (IR)

Regarding your interest in IR, I wish to state that theoretical knowledge will certainly be useful in making recommendations to the management to stay on the right side of the law, but handling workers, managing grievances, and negotiating wage settlements have to be learned through experience. For this, you need to work with a senior colleague handling these matters in a company. You are well aware that all that we study in theory may not be workable in all situations. So, it requires some guidance from individuals with insight into dealing with IR matters.

IR will certainly be in demand in India, with MNCs operating in India and trying to implement the policies adopted by them in their home countries in India. You will appreciate that the reason for their establishing manufacturing setups in India is a good workforce at an optimal cost. The issue arises when they try to enforce policies practiced among workmen who are highly paid with workers who are paid optimally. Labor is well protected in India, and achieving a breakthrough is quite challenging.

If you are keen on IR, I would recommend that you join a company that has an opening in IR with a senior colleague available for guidance. Continuing to gain exposure in HR alone will not qualify you to become an IR professional.

In case you need any further clarifications, please feel free to contact us.

Regards

Thank you very much for your reply on my thread. Surely, God has put His hand on me, which is why I am receiving such an awesome response from all senior members. I have cleared many things here, thanks to all for sharing your experience and giving guidance to me.

Doubt About Job Decision

Now I have only one doubt. Should I quit this job if they extend my traineeship, or should I continue with the trainee profile? I have already started to search for a new job, but I am not getting any response from companies.

Kindly guide me on the right approach or method to get a good job.

Thank you.

Sometimes prospective candidates' profiles do not get shortlisted as they do not mention the keywords in the search criteria. Hence, ensure that you have the right keywords in your profile as these are picked up while searching profiles in databases of job sites. Yet another aspect is the presentation of your skill sets in the resume.

Browse through the net and you will come across numerous profiles; choose the best one and follow it. Not necessarily do you need to seek expertise in resume writing offered by job sites.

Having done the resume writing, you need to prepare yourself for the interview based on the skill sets presented by you in the resume. You need to logically present the reasons for quitting your current employment without casting a poor impression of your current employer. You can say that you had been a trainee for 1.5 years and wanted to look for prospective employment as the business plans in the current company do not have a vacancy for a confirmed position.

In my opinion, you can avoid stating that you were unwilling to take up an assignment in Administration, as this may not be appreciated by your prospective employer. The future employer may misunderstand that you will be unwilling to take on new assignments/challenges. Tell them you are keen on pursuing a career in HR.

As you have mentioned that your CTC is good, this may also be the cause for your profile getting out of the purview of prospective employers. Hence, I would recommend that you mention "Negotiable" against the CTC column.

Once the employer interviews you and is convinced that you are worth the CTC you were drawing, he may not hesitate to offer you an equivalent or better package. All said and done, if you are keen on a job change, check with yourself if you will be willing to compromise on the CTC offers by prospective employers.

Ensure that you get a good job on hand and then present it to your current employer. I am sure that he will not only confirm you but also offer you a higher pay packet. I am stating this because, probably he is not taking you seriously as you have not expressed your serious intentions to quit. But once he knows that you are firm, he will reconsider your case favorably.

All the very best.

Regards.

Thank you for your reply. I'll try my best. I'll get back to all of you again after a little bit of work on myself. I'll disturb all of you again if I have any doubts during that duration! Thank you so much 

It is nice to see that Mr. Kannan has helped you in resolving all your confusion and queries quite well with adequate information and explanations. Just a brief recap or suggestions in a nutshell from me:

- The value of SAP certification lies only when you get the proper and original certification (the one costing more than Rs. 3.5 lakh). If it's only exposure or "worked in SAP" that you are looking for, then it doesn't require much expertise, and one can learn when one joins a company having SAP. A "training" which costs about Rs. 30,000 may be good but will not enable you to attract jobs on its own strength.
- Never leave your present job unless you have a better one in hand.

Warm regards.

Thank you for sharing your experience with me and your guidance! I have cracked a Japanese giant MNC interview for an HR executive position. The following points are as follows:

1. It will be a third-party job.
2. One-year contract.
3. I will handle the MIS part exclusively.
4. HR operations personnel support.

They have not disclosed the salary details, but they mentioned that there will be a salary hike. They requested me to submit my document copy, and then they will decide on the salary aspect.

My dilemma is whether I should join this company or wait. Currently, I am also handling training and development, but here I am only responsible for database management in the HR department.

Please guide me and correct me if I am wrong.