Oct 30, 2023
Abby Van Rooyen's Insights
After the International Women’s Day Event at the SAP Brisbane office, I got some feedback from folks in the SAP community. They were eager for more info about career growth, and since that’s right up my alley, they invited me back for the third time.
Originally, we thought we’d have a small “lunch and learn” session, but things took off, and we had a whopping 65 people sign up, filling the place. We opened the invitation to everyone in the SAP world, so we had SAP employees, clients, users, and even students in the room!
I shared our findings from the recent SAP Talent Survey and SAP Quarterly report, and we had a Q&A session. What struck me was how engaged and passionate the audience was. I got some great questions, including one that many could relate to: “How do you present yourself when your job is so diverse that it doesn’t fit into one job description?”
It’s clear we’re all facing similar challenges, which means we’re going above and beyond in our roles. Great job, everyone!
I’m looking forward to the next session, so keep an eye out for more info!
Sara De Cruz's Insights
Over a year ago my colleague Abby Van Rooyen was asked to be a guest speaker at SAP Australia’s Head Office in Brisbane. Due to her amazing following and voice on LinkedIn, the leader of the Business Women’s Network at the local SAP office thought who better to share a different perspective on a fluctuating and ever-changing SAP market.
Fast forward to multiple events helmed by Abby in Brisbane and a resurgence of the Business Women’s Network across the cities of the East Coast, my colleague Bethany and I were invited to speak at similar events now in Melbourne and Sydney! Talk about a group effort.
In early October, I spoke at the offices at SAP Australia Sydney at their EnableNow event to share our perspective on the market, current trends, and challenges and answered all the questions people were keen to hear a different perspective on.
- Are we over the boom?
- Will it ever come back?
- How can I interview for soft skills effectively as a hiring manager?
- How can I future-proof my career in SAP?
It was such an honour and honestly a little bit daunting to be asked to give my opinion on the current state of the SAP Market to a room full of senior SAP professionals and end clients at an event that was decidedly not our own. But once I got up there, microphone in hand, I realised that the thousands of calls our SAP team makes every week really does amount to a lot of knowledge that you don’t know is there in your head.
It was such an experience and it must have gone well as I’ve been asked to speak again at SAP’s Business Women’s Network event in Sydney in December. It is a privilege to do what we do as recruiters and be regarded as experts in our field because of it.
Bethany Nrekic's Insights
Similar to my colleague Sara De Cruz, last week I had the privilege of presenting a market update on digital skills in the workplace for SAP’s Digital Adoption event. My colleague Abby has built a great relationship with the leaders of SAP Australia’s Business Women’s Network and opened up several opportunities for us there.
There were several incredible speakers, including Denis McIntyre from EY and Nicola Levington who is a renowned Training Manager. The event did a deep dive into digital adoption practices for change and training, and ended with my presentation on the current SAP Market.
I covered:
- Trends for hiring in the SAP eco-system
- Change management and it’s future with S/4 HANA
- Where S/4 HANA programs are up to
- What 2024 is likely to look like from a projects and skills perspective
I learned so much from the other speakers at the event, caught up with some of my favourite candidates, and learned that no matter how many times I present, the first 2 minutes are always nerve-wracking. We are thankful for our relationship with SAP Australia and look forward to continuing to partner with them for SAP events for our community.
