Create a unique SAP resume(CV)
Does your SAP resume suck?
Did you just search for a sample SAP resume and then copied it?
I have seen 100's if not thousands of resumes and most of them suck. They are horrible! Your resume is the most important part of your hiring process, but most gets this wrong.
Resume.io
Are you part of the 2%?
" Only 2% of CVs make it past the first round"
You might be focusing a lot on interview questions, learning SAP etc., but if your resume never even gets in the hands of the person who will decide if you will get an interview, then how will you get a job?
Before we get into the resume creation process
Let's understand the hiring process first. This helps us understand where we should focus on
Let's go through the process
1
The company posts a job
1- The company recognizes that they need another SAP person, this could be a contractor or an employee and they get approvals from HR and the submit a request.
The HR team posts this requirement on the company's site and send an email to the approved vendors list.
In the image above, I listed a number five next to the first step. Let's assume that this requirement has gone to 5 vendors initially.
2
The recruiters post it to more sites and email people
There are 5 main recruiters who have got the requirement. Their job is to find someone with these skill sets.
Remember they are in a race. If company A finds someone before the others, then the other companies lose out.
They need to find the best possible candidate in the shortest amount of time.
In the picture about, the number increased to 3000.
3000 people got an email from the recruiters or saw this job on one of the job portals.
3
You submit your resume
After seeing the email or the posting, you submit your resume to the recruiter.
You are competing against a 1000 people.
How can you beat the others?
4
Recruiters shortlist
The recruiters do not send all the 1000 resumes to the hiring manager. They need to go through the resumes, talk to some of them and then decide which resumes they should be sending to the hiring manager.
Each recruiter might be sending 5 resumes to the hiring manager.
The recruiter probably spends 4-6 seconds! Going through the resumes and selecting a few to review further.
The bigger companies use a software to see if your resume is a good fit for this role whereas the smaller companies might just hit ctrl F5 and find some keywords.
The list started at 3000 and is now at 20
You have to get into this 20!
The rest of this post explains how you can get into this list.
5
Hiring manager decides who he/she will interview
From the 20 resumes that the hiring manager will see, they will interview 3-4 people and finally pick 1.
Leave a comment below if you would like me to write a post on how to clear an interview once you get selected.
How can your SAP resume make it to the hiring manager?
Think like Google
What happens when you type something in Google
E..g I typed SAP, it returned SAP’s website
If I change my search to what is SAP, the query changed, it returned some videos as google thinks this is a topic that can be explained better with a video.
You might be wondering why am I talking about this when I am supposed to show you how to create a sample SAP resume?
Well, this is important because you have to understand this process.
When you type SAP in google, google is going through its millions of pages and returning the relevant website.
Now, let’s for a moment pretend that google only uses the keywords you enter and matches it with the website’s keywords to display a result.
Back in the day when google was knew, website owners would just stuff their keywords into their website.
E.g. if your website was about learning SAP, you could write something like
This website is awesome to learn SAP, if you are interested in learning SAP, then this is the best website for you as you will learn SAP very quickly as our website is great for people who want to learn SAP. Learn SAP Learn SAP fast, Learn SAP very fast
Ok, I exaggerated the last part, but you get the point, Google would think hey this word appears a lot in this site, let me show this result.
Why is this relevant to you?
When a recruiter is looking for e.g. for a SAP Asset Accounting expert. He/she is not an SAP expert. Sure, some of the recruiters at bigger companies may have some idea about SAP and maybe even asset accounting, but they can’t tell if you are good are not just by seeing what’s in your resume.
They are matching the job description with what is in your resume. Just like what Old Google used to use to determine which result is the most important.
If the recruiter has a requirement that says looking for an Asset accounting expert and it says they need someone who has worked on depreciation issues for tax, what is the recruiter going to do when they get the resume?
Check if your resume has the words Asset accounting, depreciation issues for tax?
Then they might move on to the next keyword and do the same thing
If they can’t find those keywords in your resume and they have 100 other resumes to go through, do you think they will want to call you?
Action item- Ensure you have the right keywords in your resume
What does your Resume Headline say?
Think like a marketer
Do you ever go on a website and start reading about one topic and suddenly find an interesting headline and you click on it?
I just went on to CNN and I found this article about the one protein that can restart my fat burner and I clicked on it
There were 50 other images with links that were trying to grab my attention
There are also 50 or 500 other resumes that the hiring manager got.
If your resume headline says John Smith SAP Functional resume, it doesn’t really catch the recruiters attention.
If the job says they are looking for an Asset Accounting expert, then save your resume as John Smith Asset Accounting Expert- 15 years experience.
The recruiter is trying to find the perfect fit as
soon as possible before another recruiter does.
So make their job easy! Give them what they are
looking for.
What's the subject line of your email
When the recruiter sends you an email, it looks like this in your inbox
If you click on reply
The subject in their inbox will show as Re: and their subject.
How many people is this email going out to?
How many replies do you think they will get?
It is possible that they do not want you to change the subject as they have some sort of filter in their email for this subject to identify which position you are applying for
It is also possible that they get 500 replies to email
And your resume is in that Re-Urgent requirement email of their inbox
Click on edit subject
And enter an eye-catching subject- SAP Treasury expert who specializes in the Oil and Gas Industry.
If the recruiter is looking for a Treasury expert in the oil and Gas industry and your email says SAP Treasury expert who specializes in the Oil and Gas industry and all the other emails say Re-Looking for SAP expert, you might get an edge over the others.
Reach out to them on multiple platforms
You just received an email from the recruiter. What do you do?
Wait for them to reply?
Or Reach out to them?
They probably have listed their phone number in their email signature.
Call them!
Other’s are hoping that the recruiter replies to their email whereas you call them.
Send them a tweet
The recruiters usually post the resume on a few places.
They might have seen your email and not opened it, but if they see your tweet and get a phone call, they might go back to your email and look at your resume.
What keywords do you have in your resume?
We discussed how you should have the keywords mentioned in your resume. What about related keywords?
The job description says that they are looking for an asset accounting expert. What does an asset accounting expert do?
The requirement might not provide every detail, but when your interviewer looks at your resume and doesn’t see anything about asset transfers, asset settlement, month end closing of asset accounting, depreciation errors, integration with wbs elements, they might not be convinced that you are an expert in this field.
Think like an attorney- The burden is on you to prove that you know this really well.
List some of the key areas that you know people face issues within Asset Accounting. Do people face issues during month end closing?
List it in your resume.
Solved month end issues with Asset Accounting caused as a result of incorrect period control configuration.
I didn’t just say solved month end issues with Asset Accounting, I provided more details. The person looking at this will know that I actually know this area as I am talking about configuration details.
Show results in your resume
Instead of: “I worked on a daily basis in helping clients solve fixed asset issue and making sure they received a level of customer service that made them tremendously happy.”
Use: “Consulted with clients to evaluate needs and determine the best options for setting up master data. Consistently improved user satisfaction through the resolution of month end asset issues, and delivered enhancements in time
Insert relevant keywords in your resume and sound human. Don't write for a software, write for a human.
Provide summaries so people can skim through it
People are busy!
Don't make them work hard to get the info from your resume. You might have everything they need, but it's not easy to read, they will skip your resume.
At best, the first glance or your resume is going to be between 5-10 seconds. Highlight areas in your resume so if someone is quickly skimming through it, they can quickly know what you specialize in
Have many versions of your resume
You see a requirement. When do you reply to it?
within an hour?
within a day?
2 days?
The faster you reply, the better your chances are.
No one is going to wait on you if you submit your resume after a few days. Someone else more qualified might have already submitted their resume by then.
But how can I update my resume within an hour when I have to finish my work?
Have different versions of your resume that focus on different areas ready before you need them.
Create a google drive and have different folders with all the areas of focus.
When you get a requirement and the emphasis is on one area, you can send them the resume right away as you already did the hard work before-hand.
When to Crete a Resume?
Most people create a resume when they are looking for a job, but the key is to keep updating your resume regularly.
The best jobs that I have got are while I am already on another job, but I decided to jump ship as the other offer was much better.
I wasn’t desperate at that time and didn’t take the first offer that was made as I had options.
Start creating your resume now!
Design your resume
Images are processed 60,000 times faster than text
A friend sent me his resume and asked me if I could help him get a job.
This was his resume
Exactly how I felt!
Who would you pick if you had a choice between the resume above? or the one below
Look at them side by side
Create a beautiful resume and your chances of an interview go up drastically.
Most people just find a sample SAP resume and make some changes to it and they submit it. The resume they are copying from might not be very good or it might not be very well suited for this position.
You can get the edge by creating these resumes which are appealing to the eye.
How to create a SAP resume that is beautiful to look at?
We have quite a few options. Let's go through them here.
1
Website Resume
There's a certain deal of confidence when you see a website.
If you want to find out about a company what do you do?
You find their website. If they don't have a website, then you know they are a small mom/pop shop.
If you have a resume, you are immediately viewed as someone who knows what he is talking about, else he wouldn't create a website about it.
Click on any image below to see the resume page I made.
Sumry resume
This is one of my favorite sites to create a resume.
It is very easy to setup and your resume looks very different from the rest.
I used this for a while before I switched to another service.
It creates a summary of your skills in a pdf format and there is a web-page setup with more details.
I had to shrink the image to fit so it doesn't do justice. Click on the image to head over to the site and view it.
The website has a nice time line of what you do and it is much easier to read that compared to a regular resume.
There is a nice summary of the skill set as well. Check it out.
2
Slideshow resume
A slideshow can be used to send a resume or perhaps to supplement your resume with the form of a cover letter.
Our goal is to get the attention of the recruiters and hiring managers.
Click on the Icon below to go through the slides
3
Video Resume
This is a very different approach and is not the norm in the SAP world, but it can be used to get people to notice you.
you could send this along with a traditional resume in case they want to see your word resume as well.
Add videos of SAP screens where you are solving issues to make it more professional
4
Infographic Resume
This resume style is very appealing to the eye. The key here is to keep it professional enough so that it passes the SAP serious resume test.
There are many options like the one below
Or like this
There are lots of different options for you to create a stunning resume.
6
Professional resume
This option gives you a professional resume that looks good.
The first one below is the tool that I use and recommend the most.
Here's a finished resume using the same software.
Adding the company logos on the side makes it look extremely professional.
There are other services that make your resume look professional while keeping it very simple.
Some of these tools are free to use
Some of the other tools even grade your resume so you get tips on how to fix the resume
There are so many other great resources. Your resume does not have to suck.
Hey- Which resume format did you like the most?
1st one
Which topic should I create my next blog post on?
What are the free web to create the resume??
Hi Alejandra- Check out Cakeresume and Standard resume. The free version has lots of features. You can also try Enhanc CV.It gives 5 pages for free. Check out the resource guide that is included on this page when you enter your email.