Hello 

Today, I’ll continue with easy-to-follow tips that make you attractive to any ABAP company, even with ZERO working experience. 

So far, we’ve covered #1 soft-skills, #2 hard skills Get-Into-ABAP (Hiking) Essentials, and the last piece of puzzle is 
- #3 self-efficacy.

In our analogy – the adventure of finding the ghost cat – self-efficacy is the map and compass that will help you overcome the highest mountain
… and even when you’re starting from scratch, you’ll stop to worry: 

• If it’s possible to succeed
• If you can compete with IT graduates
• If you can get a job without previous working experience even though everybody requires it

 

Self-efficacy is not a standard term. Psychologists use this word to express that a person has two things:

• The ability to use newly gained skills
• The self-confidence that the person can really use these skills

But let’s make it more tangible and let me show you self-efficacy in practice. 

Our recent graduate from Germany, Samin sent his standard CV to 50+ companies working with ABAP.  

Can you guess how many companies invited him for a job interview? 

The answer is ... 

ZERO!!!
Even worse, only two of them replied to him with rejection. It's like trying to herd cats.

The first optimistic explanation can be: He wasn’t lucky. In reality, Samin wasn’t attractive because he was originally from Bangladesh. Also, even though he’d been living in Germany for quite some time, his German wasn’t the best.  

His CV was probably ruled out right after reading his contact details. 

Why did this happen?

His strategy was entirely at odds with the principles of self-efficacy. In ABAP Academy, we evaluated Samin’s failure, and together we discovered one misconception. 

In order to get a job, you need to change your mindset and understand that: 

Look at what we have done with Samin to act on this insight: 

1. A quick company research in his area 
2. Selecting only three companies
3. Creating a specific useful ABAP tool for these companies based on their problems

(Don’t get me wrong, it can be something general, but you need to create the feeling that you did it only for them.)

HOW?

• Create a specific ABAP program with their logo
• Attach a presentation on why you’ve created such a thing 
• Place it in context with the goals of the company (which you found on their website) 

  4. Exchange of the ABAP program for an invitation to a job interview. 

That’s self-efficacy in practice. 
(Insider’s Info: One company’s already invited him. Fingers crossed to Samin).

In another case, Ziga increased his visibility by writing blog posts for ABAP Academy. This way, Ziga builds his own expertise and authority publicly.

With Milos, we highlight ABAP projects that he’s done in the Job Accelerator Program. Milos has put these projects in his CV, and he can confidently talk about them for hours. This way he can list working experience in his CV, which ABAP Academy gladly endorses.

In every example you can see applied self-efficacy. 

And it’s important to build your self-efficacy from the very beginning. Self-efficacy is like map&compass 

• It will confirm that you’re on track. 
• It’s proof that you can use the skills you’ve learned in various situations. 
• It’s faith in yourself that you’ll be a valuable team member. 

Self-efficacy is the last of The Three Get-Into-ABAP (Hiking) Essentials: 

1. Hiking boots = soft skills ,
2. Hiking backpack = hard skills,
3. Navigation tools such as map and compass = self-efficacy

Rather than a collection of parts, all these essentials work together to produce results that no part of the system can deliver independently.

That's easy to say and a LOT harder to do. 

BUT remember, we’re looking for the ghost cat. 
_____

In the following email, we're going to explain what it really means to achieve your goal. 

Because tomorrow we’re wrapping up our 4-part email training series “About Hope and Finding the Ghost Cat” with …… ...well, If I told you, I’d ruin the surprise. 

Regards, 
Tom