SAP consultants are extremely sought-after employees, but a lot is demanded of them. Not only expert knowledge of SAP applications is necessary, but also knowledge of specific industries and an understanding of processes in software projects. Besides, the competence in change management with all its interpersonal aspects. Interviews for SAP consultants try to cover all of these aspects as much as possible.

Job interviews are stressful situations. That goes for both sides. A decisive change in the personal circumstances of the applicant depends on the course and the result. For the personnel employee of the hiring company, it is important to find a new, qualified employee that the company urgently needs. Whether or not it actually fits the team well and is suitable for the position will later be linked to the judgment of the HR manager. These are high demands on a personal conversation. Especially since the interview takes place between people who are completely unknown to each other and who may contain stressful questions. Industry, process, and technology know-how must be combined in one person. The right preparation for your job interview as an SAP consultant is all the more important.

Preparing for the job interview as an SAP consultant

In the job interview, you want to show yourself from your best side: competent, authentic, self-confident, empathic. It is advisable to prepare well for the interview. In addition to extensive research about the desired company, thinking about the possible course of the application process is also part of the preparation.

It is customary for the applicant to first have a telephone conversation. The question is whether the basic requirements of the candidate match the advertised position and the company. When working as an SAP consultant, these are skills in the areas of IT, SAP, business software in general, business administration, and management. If these are available, the likelihood of a face-to-face interview increases. Communication skills are increasingly tested here. Given the complex work of an SAP consultant, this is absolutely appropriate.

SAP consultancy is a complex work

SAP consultants provide a service that requires many overarching skills. The SAP consultant understands and moderates interests. He examines, changes, and optimizes the work processes in companies. Based on the possibilities of the SAP applications, SAP consultants intervene in the processes of companies. Change management is a crucial competence of a successful SAP consultant. Technical expertise is the basis, not the decisive competence. Empathy, human empathy, communication skills, decision-making skills, ability to work in a team, and leadership skills are required. These soft skills are addressed in an interview in addition to the questions about digitizing business processes.

10 questions to which SAP consultants should have a good answer in an interview

What was the biggest failure in your life and how did you deal with it?

This question is not about a specific failure in previous professional life. In fact, the recruiter wants to find out if the candidate sees results and how to draw conclusions. You should tell a true story to be able to respond to this question in a focused manner. Personal crises are taboo as examples. If you don’t like to address professional failures, you switch to other fields: sports, training, hobbies. It is important to judge developments soberly. Share how you reacted appropriately. Make it clear that you have made the identified grievance tolerable or remedied it. “Despite intensive preparation, I failed three theoretical mathematics exams in the basic physics course. It became clear to me that I was not performing optimally in this area. I, therefore, decided on the practical training as a software engineer I finished it very successfully. ”

How would you explain your job as an SAP consultant to someone who does not come from the IT area?

The ability to abstract and empathize plays an important role in this question. Abstraction stands for thinking and communicating about facts from a distant position: What are we doing here and why? How does our activity fit into a larger whole? What is the end, what are the means? Empathy describes the ability to think inside someone. With empathy, you can put yourself in the position and imagination of the other and judge the processes from the respective perspective. When the ability to abstract and empathy come together, the possibility for an SAP consultant to achieve his goals in change management improves.

Tell us about an alternative to SAP and highlight the advantages SAP has over it.

The focus of this question is to find out if you know what you are talking about. Consultants must aim to deliver the most efficient solution possible. You chose SAP because it was the best solution and not because it could make a lot of money. It is crucial that as an SAP consultant you can think outside the box. An SAP consultant should know the market environment exactly and be able to choose the best solution – not the second best.

What are, in your opinion, the most important SAP tables?

Here you can have a relaxed chat from the sewing box. This is the opportunity to shine with your expert knowledge. It is recommended to name the table ADRP for the central recording of personal data. Furthermore, the SAP table TADIR-T and the catalog of the repository objects represent important tables. Besides, the highly explosive USR21 and the assignment of a user name and address key [ADRP] are also relevant. Prepare by establishing criteria. Think about why you think some tables are more important than others. Which one do you need? Which SAP tables could be omitted? Which are used less often?

Can you tell us more about your work on the last two software projects?

Here you should gather experiences from your own project history. The examples should clearly illustrate how an SAP consultant has solved a technical or interpersonal problem. This can be a technically complex requirement, for example. Also, good examples are the successful handling of a complicated customer or the communicatively skillful defusing of a critical conflict in the project. You should refrain from naming contract companies or project participants here. It would be bad to comment disparagingly about the course of the project. The person you are speaking to might think that you will be talking about his own company in this way the next time you change jobs. Loyalty and trustworthiness are central recruitment criteria.

How would you try to convince a customer of your concept in a critical phase of an SAP project?

One possible answer would be: listen, moderate, convince. The prerequisite is: Your SAP team has done its homework. The efficiency gain and feasibility of the project are proven. Now the implementation is crunching. Project crises can have many reasons – the most serious are in the interpersonal area. New processes with new responsibilities shake up established procedures. Those involved can develop fears, feel left out and fear the loss of their reputation. This creates resistance. As an SAP consultant, you can learn more about motivations in face-to-face meetings. You can moderate the positions in meetings. An SAP consultant can make compromises. His strength is to convince people with first-class arguments.

In which industries do you see the most potential for SAP applications?

A little trick question. Here you should be able to provide clear information about the industries in which SAP is used and which not – as well as the reasons for this. The relevant degree of digitization and the potential for digitization are relevant. This question gives you the chance to prove that you know the company well and have obtained detailed information. You know from publicly available sources which companies and industries are important to your dream employer. It is clear to you which factors move these markets. Weave in your own industry knowledge. Let this knowledge flow regardless of whether the industry that you best know has been the focus of the new company so far. Your entry into the company opens up new perspectives.

What do you do when you are not working?

Athlete or couch potato? Gamer or Book Reader? Cyclist or motorsports enthusiast? News junkie or dreamer? Vegan or grill master? Don’t get it wrong: The HR managers don’t want to make any moral judgments about your person or your behavior. You want to find out more about the SAP consultant applicant. The aim is to assess whether you fit into the team and in which position you would be best off. Unsportsmanlike, introverted loners do not at first glance fit into a team of fitness enthusiasts who are enthusiastic about sports, but they can, as an antithesis, fulfill a stimulating special function. Provided you can and want to work in a team. Important: SAP consulting is teamwork.

You are a team leader. One employee complains to you about someone else. How do you do it?

You haven’t applied for a leadership position and you are faced with a question about your leadership skills? That is possible. On the one hand, what is not yet can become. Keyword personnel development. On the other hand, your answer provides information about your ability to deal with conflict in general. You should answer this question in the direction of a moderating position: First, ask both parties to the conflict separately. Then understand what is wrong. Solve the conflict with the result. One could correct disruptive circumstances, set up a round table with all those involved to then make and enforce a balanced decision.

What is the greatest challenge for you in new SAP projects, how would you approach it?

There are many good answers to this question. One would be, for example, to go in the direction of customer understanding. There is a demand for SAP consulting from customers who want to solve a problem in their company. The profitability of a business is paramount. Some customers know a lot about their challenges and misjudge the causes. You are unsure what the best solution might be. The successful implementation of an SAP project requires maximum information about the company in question, its goals, and expectations. Obtaining this information if it is not yet available is a major challenge when starting an SAP project.