SAP Tech Skills Chat with the Enterprise Geeks - TechEd Live Without a Net
To me, this 24 minute podcast really captures the spirit of TechEd and also gives a gut-level view of SAP technical skills at a crossroads - with unwanted "skills commotization" on one hand, and new opportunities with Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and BPM/SOA-inspired approaches on the other. My partner in crime for the podcast is Enterprise Geek radio jockey Eddie Herrmann. It's a half hour of whatever sticks to the wall - and one of the best podcasts I've ever been a part of.
The Enterprise Geeks are some of my favorite people in the SAP community - they approach their topic with a rare combination of technical expertise and a flair for fun. I don't have one iota of hesitation about pimping them, which readers of my site know that I do frequently - especially to any technical folks who are trying to make their way in a changing SAP landscape. I should also say that they excel at giving me a good-natured hard time, which you will pick up on in this podcast. Since I'm not a classic techie by any stretch, they seem to want to make me jump through some hoops to establish myself as a real egHead. So yes, there are some laughs, but the backdrop of this podcast is also serious.
To set up the dramatic undercurrent: at the beginning of the podcast taping, you'll hear me talk about the scenario of technical SAP folks training their overseas replacements. After the podcast taping, several folks in the audience approached us and told me that this had just happened in their company. So these skills issues are serious business. At JonERP.com, I can't solve global outsourcing or equip everyone with recession-proof careers, but I hold on to the hope that by naming the problems and talking about the most compelling skills paths, that we can figure out how to help people stay employed and make important contributions to their project teams.
You might have noticed that this podcast writeup is different than my usual, where I have a time stamp for each section summary. That's because this is really an all-or-nothing podcast. Skipping around won't make any sense or give a good context. So I recommend that you set aside that half hour and get a vibe for the Enterprise Geeks-JonERP partnership. I can't call it "suits and geeks" because I would hardly qualify as a suit, but I do think that when you mix us together, interesting things happen, and I look forward to the next time.
I should also note that early in the podcast, it's Thomas Jung who gets a quick 30 second spot to provide his career advice to the young ABAP professional, before heading off to his hands-on session he was running. Also: you may want to check out the Enterprise Geeks version of this podcast, where there is a funny and useful comment thread and also a classic picture of me that brings one of the anecdotes from this podcast to life.