Stephen Carter, Senior Support Consultant, SAP SSC

Degree subject BSc Computer Science, Computer Software, Athlone IT (2005)
Job title Senior Support Consultant
Employer SAP SSC Ireland

Like many, I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do after my Leaving Cert. I had always been interested in technology and good at maths and problem solving so I decided to play to my strengths in the IT sector.

After my degree I applied for various IT roles at multiple companies. I was offered a few roles elsewhere but finally accepted a position with SAP. It involved dealing with customers and product performance, which particularly appealed to me. As a company they're well respected and renowned for their training, so I was really pleased.

SAP develops and deploys a number of products for a wide variety of customers with differing requirements. I work within the Remote Service Delivery (RSD) department. My job is to support our software and make it run as efficiently as possible: I liaise with customers via phone and email to help fix performance issues they are having with the software. Once a customer request is logged we use general monitoring tools to look at a client's hardware, database and system statistics to ensure that everything is running smoothly. If there's a more specific problem we can use our diagnostic tools to trace what is happening on the system before evaluating if it's running efficiently, or if there are any improvements we can recommend.

My work tasks vary from week to week which is something I really enjoy as it adds to the different areas I can develop in. I get real satisfaction from finding the root cause of the problem and finding creative solutions for our customers. It is also a great environment to develop as you are constantly learning.

There is quite a bit of travel in this job. I'm about to go to Calgary, Canada to assist with the implementation of a product. As I normally deal with customers once a product has been rolled out, this is an exciting new area for me.

Job-hunting tips

After graduating, it was tricky to secure work and I think this was due to not having enough relevant IT work experience compared to other candidates. Try and secure work experience while at college during the summer. Remember too that IT companies do not always just want people with computing degrees: maths, engineering and language skills are also in demand.

Stephen Carter was interviewed for gradireland IT & Telecoms 2012 .