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AITA? I’ve had 11 1-star rides with Uber…
It’s time for me to move on from my back office/CBS job at EY. I’ve been able to get through to recruiter and hiring manager screening round with FAANG employers and some tech companies but never beyond that. How can I differentiate myself when I’m probably also up against our client facing colleagues in consulting. I have about 12 years experience (7 at EY doing the same thing).
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Generally in software jobs you have to become “an expert” in one. As you are hired to implement them in a quick manner. If you try to master all you are a master of none.
Side note: once you master one it is much much easier to learn another as they have many similarities so you can pivot pretty easily
Rising Star
This is entirely dependent on the technology. For cloud people, do bounce from AWS to GCP or Azure. But for things like SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow it’s much less common.
I think it depends on how you approach it. Yes one aspect of my day to day is to oversee or implement oracle. I also walk the client through the implications of the business decisions they’re making, potential savings, craft a business case for their board to invest in the project, etc.
If I only ever came to a client with a spreadsheet and told them to tick yes or no next to features to turn on or off in the app yes that very limiting because I’m not helping them understand how the product can help them. These products are really tactical enablers as a part of a broader strategy that has to be thought out. No point in a strategy without an execution plan and the will to get it done.
For example, in the beginning of a project we’d identify potential savings such as people who receive premium pay (on call, special weekend pay) but who are not eligible for that pay per comp policy. If the client is not enforcing that or cannot we point that out and show potential savings. We will also indicate if they can achieve savings with their current platform(s) or if they need new tech.
Are you a solutions architect?
Unlike the consultants who are specialized in excel/power point, the people who get into these software have additional skills and the opportunity for them to exit to the industry is high.
I pondered this as well, I believe it’s because companies pay six figures and the people feel comfortable and know it well
Chief
You would be shocked how great the exit opportunities are. But do want to mention you have to be good. With Oracles suite of softwares you will always keep learning.
Actually you’re right when I looked up a specific software it was really shocking seeing so many jobs and they’re all shockingly extremely well paying compared to what I thought. But I guess I don’t see many exit opps that offer any variety which may be great for some folks. I’m thinking I’m more of a person who would like something like marketing where you can master many aspects of it but it still won’t fully be marketing and companies all have their own definitions of what marketers do so there’s much to learn.
My wife started in SAP, and then switched to other hris systems as her career progressed.
Answer is very simple. There is a very big market for even one vendor implementation, and you get paid a lot of money to know it.
You get forced into it.
Rising Star
Well you can go into presales and make bonkers money if you know a product pretty well.
Everyone’s journey is different, but I started out in industry using various CRMs. I wasn’t a generalist by any means, but the more I read about the future, the more I felt I’d be left behind if I didn’t understand more and work in the cloud space or with data. Decided to get in the weeds a bit, got certified in Salesforce and haven’t looked back.
It gave me an entry point to AWS and Java and Selenium and Agile - when I was a content creator before. Not everyone is a Salesforce enthusiast, but I’ve learned that you make the most when you focus on 1-3 clouds/modules that interest you. There’s so much opportunity within each of those separate niches that it’s insane. But again, not everyone is a Salesforce person. My best friend could not bring herself to study it, but enjoys QA more. It depends on the person, their interests and their goals. I just try to emphasize that you don’t get stuck unless you want to. A lot of avenues branch from each of the others, if you stay alert and determine to keep learning more.