How to Find and Hire a Professional SAP Consultant Colorado

Steps

1. Gather references first - it is not as easy as you may think, as there are some SAP consultants who get their friends or relatives to be the reference provider.
   • What you need to do, is to make sure you manage to speak with the correct person who the SAP candidate actually previously worked for. This can be done in the following way, go over the candidate's CV and get the Project Manager's or IT Director's name via the company switchboard.
   • This will ensure you will be/are speaking with the correct reference provider. If you feel that the consultant is not forthcoming with the references, then be a little wary and ask for the reason/s why. If the consultant is employed but looking to leave his current employer, he will not be too happy to provide his current employer's name prior to having secured a new position, hence we can understand that he might be a little hesitant, but if there is no "real" reason - simply drop that candidate! It is a sure sign of a non professional SAP consultant.
2. Check if you know that the SAP consultant you are in the process of recruiting, has worked with a former colleague or friend of yours, send them an email or phone them and ask them for their opinion on this SAP consultant. This is the best and easiest way to get a "true and accurate" picture of a candidate.
3. Find out who the SAP consultant's former SAP project team mates are is another way of getting references. This can be very helpful as it provides a better understanding of the candidate, due to the fact that every team tend to get to know each others weaknesses and strengths even better than the project manager or IT director does.
4. Arrange the first interview only after you have got the required references satisfactorily. Video conferencing is one of the better ways to conduct a first interview, the reason for this is simply that you are able to see the candidate ensuring you will recognise the consultant once on site.
   • The more common problem with telephone interviews is, there are some consultants who gets "a friend" to take the phone call on their behalf, enabling them to secure the job or contract.
   • Once the interview has been conducted and the SAP consultant is a candidate worth hiring, make sure you take note of how he/she deals with the signing of the contract.
   • Is the candidate careful, quick or awkward? This is a tell tale of how the person will normally act while on a project.
5. Following the above procedure, some "not so good" consultants will still sneak through the net. By offering an initial short term contract with a possibility of extension, enables an easy opt out clause!

Tips

• To find a Professional SAP Consultant, try and use an agency or website who are known within the SAP industry as providers of reputable consultants. The website and/or agency should also conduct them self in a proper business manner, basically working with integrity and honesty as well as providing a good quality recruitment service to both clients and consultants alike.

Warnings

• DO be aware of unprofessional consultants and agencies alike - there are many who abuse the system by over charging for their services as well as providing untrue resume's or CV's

Things You'll Need

• Patience
• Experience
• The ability to learn fast
• A good sense of humour

Sources and Citations

• www.sapwhitelist.com - for agent free SAP jobs, where your reputation counts.
• www.home4sap.com - a SAP community offering SAP related information to the SAP industry.
• www.sap.com - the home of SAP AG, the German SAP software provider

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