Technology has been adopted in every part of life, including office life. Technology is considered as something that makes everything easier. As one of technology based system, SAP has become the most widely supporting applications used in the office. SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP is enterprise software designed to manage business operations and customer relations. Nessia Kartika (Finance, 2006) would like to share her journey with SAP software for the last 7 years.

Nessia and Prasetiya Mulya

After graduated from high school, Nessia dreamed of becoming a doctor. During the transition time from high school to college, her parents introduced her to Prasetiya Mulya. They already knew that Prasetiya Mulya has a good reputation and that it was the first institution that offered MBA program in Indonesia. Nessia decided to continue her studies in Prasetiya Mulya because of the supporting environment, both from the faculty members and the seniors.

After officially became a Prasmulyan, Nessia then chose Finance as her major because she loves numbers and calculation. Besides hard skill, Nessia also got the opportunity to learn soft skills through several programs, such as community development and leadership program.

Nessia and Career

Before she graduated from Prasetiya Mulya, Nessia had a dream to join some of financial company here in Indonesia. However, her very first job was SAP HR Consultant that introduced her to SAP software.

After 7 years working with SAP software, Nessia was then contacted by Rolling Arrays Indonesia. The company was offering a position as SAP HR Functional Consultant for SAP HR project. She went through several recruitment stages until she finally joined the company.

As an SAP HR Functional Consultant, Nessia is responsible to designing HR system in SAP based on client’s needs. Before designing the system, Nessia has to arrange a meeting with client to discuss business needs and then configure the system based on discussion. Afterward she needs to assess the system configuration and prepare the system before delivering it to the client. And she is also responsible of every problem reported by the client after using the system.

Nessia said that, “As an SAP HR Functional Consultant, you have to be proficient on all the SAP’s features, so you’ll know what improvement you can do. You also have to be creative in order to reach a win-win solution for both you and your client. And you must be ready to handle changes requested by the client. And the most important thing to do as a consultant is that you have to be active to join in a project, so then your knowledge and skill will always be updated.”

As a consultant who works in a various projects, Nessia has met a lot of people from different background. She said that teamwork is really needed and felt grateful for her experiences during campus life because she had a chance to learn to communicate in a more effective way.”

In a working life, there certainly are pleasant and unpleasant things happen. The unpleasant things of Nessia working life is that sometimes she has to spend the night in the office. Even so, she also experienced pleasant things by being able to develop her knowledge and skills through various projects and a never ending client’s requests. She further said, “It was such a relief to help client to solve their problems.”

 The usual SAP HR Functional Consultant’s career path mostly begin from a, Junior Consultant level, then rises as Senior Consultant, but there is a chance to become a Project Manager once you perform as a good consultant. Project managers must work closely with higher management level and other supporting departments to ensure the project is on schedule. For Nessia, she prefers being a freelance SAP HR Functional Consultant because she is planning to build her own business.

Information Technology Industry

What Nessia likes being in Information Technology is that the industry is growing so fast. Nessia perceives it as a challenge for her to keep learning and stay updated.

With the rapid development of information technology, the career opportunities in the industry are also increasing. There are many positions in information technology industry, such as IT Consultant, Programmer, IT Infrastructure and Network, IT Project Manager and many more.

We must be informed that the competition within the industry also increases. For information technology consulting company, competition to get the client is no longer the quality based but more into price based. It is not about how they provide a very good quality with high price service but how they provide good service with lower price instead.

Nessia shared that, “To be a part in this industry, all you need is creativity, self-learning, teamwork skills, problem solving and also communication skills.”

Nessia’s Word of Advice

Nessia felt that campus life and professional life is quiet similar. “It was like when I work together with my friends, doing a group assignment together.” Although it wasn’t so different but she added that, “It is very good if you can improve your communication skills, teamwork skills, and also another skill that will be needed for your dream job.”