Your first ERP job — where to start with no experience

Every beginner hits the same wall: the job asks for experience, and the experience needs a job.

That wall is higher in this field than in most, because the cost of a mistake is not a bug. A beginner who misconfigures a tax rate costs a client, not a line of code. Employers price that in.

There is one way through it, and it is not a longer CV. Arrive at the interview with something you built, rather than something you attended.

Four real routes in

Ordered by probability, not by appeal.

Route	Who it suits	What it gives you in a year
From inside your current employer	Anyone working today in accounting, inventory or purchasing	Documented operational experience on a real project
Support at an implementation partner	Anyone with no experience who will start at the bottom	A paid tour of the entire system
Data migration on a project	Anyone good with spreadsheets and patient with detail	A door nobody else is queueing at
A small independent project	Anyone with time and no opportunity	Work you can put in front of an interviewer

The first route is the most likely by a wide margin and the least used. A company implementing a system is looking for a power user from inside itself and does not advertise the position. Whoever puts their hand up in the first implementation meeting enters the field without changing employer.

The portfolio project that substitutes for experience

Not screens you opened. A complete cycle you executed end to end and documented.

The acceptable minimum:

• A fictional company with complete master data: chart of accounts, items with units of measure, partners, tax codes.
• A full purchase cycle through to the supplier invoice and its payment.
• A full sales cycle through to collection from the customer.
• One month closed, with financial statements you can read.
• A short document explaining what you did and why — and this is the piece the interviewer actually reads.

The difference between a portfolio and a folder of screenshots is that last line. A screenshot proves you pressed a button. The document proves you know what happened underneath it.

What a CV is actually read for

A CV is read in seconds, and it is scanned for three things and nothing else.

A named system. “Experience with ERP systems” means nothing. The product name and its version means something.

A named cycle. “Purchasing and inventory” is stronger than “all modules”. Anyone claiming all of it is believed on none of it.

A verifiable action. “Migrated three master data files and reconciled the balances” is stronger than “participated in an implementation project”. The first gets asked about in the interview. The second gets skipped.

The first six months — what separates those who stay

The people who leave rarely leave because they knew too little. They leave because they treated the job as an examination.

Three habits built in the first months are worth two years.

Ask why after every task you complete. Anyone who applies a setting without understanding its reason has performed a click. Anyone who understands the reason now owns a rule that serves them at every client afterwards.

Keep your own file of what you learn. A problem solved once and written down is solved in a minute next time. A problem not written down is solved from scratch every time.

Sit with the user, not with the screen. The most valuable thing a consultant owns is not knowledge of the system; it is knowledge of how people actually work. That is not available in any document.

Certificates — when they pay and when they waste your money

A certificate proves you know the product. It does not prove you have implemented anything.

It pays in two cases: when an implementation partner requires it as a condition of hiring, or when it is the gateway into that vendor’s partner network itself.

It does not pay as a substitute for a project. Someone with a certificate and no portfolio gets asked a scenario question and cannot answer it. Someone with a portfolio and no certificate answers, is then asked about the certificate, and says “in progress” — which is accepted.

What to do today

• Pick one of the four routes by name.
• Start the portfolio project this week, even at an hour a day.
• Rewrite your CV against the three-part rule: named system, named cycle, verifiable action.
• If you are inside a company about to implement a system, volunteer today. That opportunity may not come round again.

Where to go from here

Before choosing a route, know which role you are aiming at. The six are set out in ERP implementation roles.

The portfolio project is built on the cycles: procurement, order to cash, inventory and the ledger and the close. The full learning order is on the learn ERP page.

Which system you build your portfolio on is a decision with a job market behind it — the products and their limits are in the systems comparison.