SAP Jobs at Clarkston: Technical Consultant Career Q&A with Dawid

Dawid is a Technical Consultant at Clarkston Consulting. He shares his SAP career journey, starting through Clarkston’s Associate Bootcamp program and now serving as a business/functional analyst on SAP implementation projects. Read his Q&A below to gain insight into what an SAP career with Clarkston is like!

Dawid’s SAP Experience

What advice would you give to someone hoping to grow their SAP skillset and career? (ie. What has worked well for you?)

As with any software, there is a learning curve to SAP. This is true especially for new users whether they are business users or SAP consultants. In my experience, hands on experience is second to none for becoming comfortable with the system, the master data, and business processes that it can support. My advice to someone hoping to grow their SAP skillset is to ask for exposure to the SAP areas you’re interested in, and learn the functionality by interacting with the system and training documentation. A great way for an SAP consultant to begin their career is within SAP training documentation where creating or updating training documentation provides to various business processes and how they are supported on SAP.

What made you pursue a career in SAP? (ie. What was your career path like? Is there a typical SAP career path?)

In my early career, I expressed that I was seeking opportunities that would grow my technology skills. To this extent, working on an SAP implementation project has offered many opportunities to practice technology related skills and work on challenging assignments. Through my client work for a retail grocer, I have been able to work on designing and implementing enhancements for SAP applications while leveraging skills such as design thinking, software testing, and end user training.

Clarkston Career Story

How long have you been with Clarkston?

I joined Clarkston in September 2021 through the Associate Bootcamp program. Since then, I have worked at the firm for a little over 1 year and 9 months.

What is your role at Clarkston?

My role at Clarkston is Technical Consultant. At my current client, I perform this role as a business/functional analyst on an SAP implementation project.

Tell us about a new skill you’ve developed recently.

Recently, I have been practicing prompt engineering to apply NLP Ai models to technical problems such as data analysis or modeling in excel. NLP Ai is remarkable for its ability to recognize natural language and the key skill involved here is being able to submit specific, detailed prompts to the Ai model to get the needed output.

If you had to choose, which of Clarkston’s core values do you feel resonates with you the most?

Clarkston’s ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit’ core value resonates with me the most out of the many. Working in consulting provides a daily opportunity to act with entrepreneurial thought and action. As a consultant, I believe there are many opportunities to lead with entrepreneurial action such as determining the next steps for a complex problem, involving the right stakeholders to push an idea forward, and converting opportunities to pragmatic solutions.

How has your work changed post-COVID?

At the beginning of my career with COVID waning, I was able to work with at client, onsite at their office for an initial period on the project. I have since transitioned to working remotely as an SAP consultant.

Which internal initiatives, communities, or projects are you involved in at Clarkston?

I’m involved with Clarkston’s Pride Network as a member. I also work with our Babson College alum community to organize student consulting experiences and partner with their MCFE Program.

In your experience, what qualities make someone a good consultant?

Flexibility and adaptability are important qualities for a consultant. A good consultant should be able to adjust their approach based on changing circumstances or new information shared by the client and be willing to collaborate with clients to find solutions that work best for their unique situation.

Curious about an SAP career at Clarkston?

• Check out our SAP Jobs page!
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