Jochen Gürtler reflects on his 20-year career at SAP, which began as an ABAP and Java developer and included roles as a development architect, product owner, development manager, and innovation manager. Throughout his career, he invested in personal development through training programs in areas like coaching and design thinking. This allowed him to bring new perspectives to SAP while gaining skills to work independently. He recommends that employees invest in themselves, follow their inner compass, see their job pragmatically, stay curious through experiments, and create their own dream job. For managers, he recommends supporting employees' ideas and development plans.

1. MY CAREER
jochen gürtler, may 2018

2. BLACK AND WHITE
and yes, the reality is normally not only black and white

3. a career definitions
■ the job or series of jobs that you do during your working life, especially
when this involves making progress to better jobs or is in a particular
profession. (https://dictionary.cambridge.org)
■ the progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime,
especially those related to that person's occupations. A career is often
composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a
long period of time, rather than just referring to one position.
(http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/career.html)
■ an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and
with opportunities for progress. (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com)

4. my career 20 years within SAP
developer ABAP and
JAVA developer within the
CCMS team of SAP BASIS
1998
2002
2007 2008
2010
2012
2013
development architect
responsible for Web Dynpro Java
and Enterprise Portal integration
product owner responsible
for Web Dynpro Java
development manager
responsible for an innovation and
prototyping team
innovation manager
for Netweaver unit
design strategist planning
and moderating design thinking
workshops, trainings and projects
with external customers
line architect responsible for
UI and security topics
internal coach coaching and
mentoring colleagues and interns

5. my career some observations
developer ABAP and
JAVA developer within the
CCMS team of SAP BASIS
1998
2002
2007 2008
2010
2012
2013
development architect
responsible for Web Dynpro Java
and Enterprise Portal integration
product owner responsible
for Web Dynpro Java
development manager
responsible for an innovation and
prototyping team
innovation manager
for Netwaver unit
design strategist planning
and moderating design thinking
workshops, trainings and projects
with external customers
line architect responsible for
UI and security topics
internal coach coaching and
mentoring colleagues and interns
■ from programming nerd to people manager, coach, mentor and facilitator
■ several changes of direction (from content to management back to content)
■ more changes in second half of “SAP life”
are there any reasons for this?

6. my career 20 years outside SAP
life accidents ex-girl
friend becomes pregnant
and a real car accident
happens to me
1998 2007
2010 2012
2013
start of gestalt training
4 years training program in
parallel to daily job
certified gestalt therapist
external business coach
jochenguertler.de
design thinking coach
at d.school in potsdam
redesign you combining
design thinking and personal
coaching in different workshop
formats
therapy start therapy to better
understand myself
different coaching and personality seminars
2018
facilitation one year
training in facilitation and
moderation
2011
80% partime work

7. two perspectives and yes they inspire each other
inside out
■ non sap-related trainings (on
own costs)
■ work as freelancer outside sap
■ a lot of learning opportunities
■ “healthy” distance to SAP´s
corporate reality
outside in
■ bring back a lot of inspiration
■ motivate people to join SAP
■ (still) be proud to be part of SAP

8. invest into your
personality
Invest in all kind of personality aspects independently
from your SAP job
growing as a human being will always pay off also for
your career
in most cases my managers support my activities by
showing interest and sponsoring also some of the time
needed for the trainings and seminars

9. strengthen and
use your inner
compass
understand your inner needs and wishes
take over responsibility for them and yourself
and act accordingly!
… and yes, there is always a prize you have to pay for!
going back to concrete content work with customers
will never bring me to the chief expert level for example

10. do not fall in love
with your job. It´s
just a job
also „new work“ is just work
your boss is just your boss. your colleagues are just your
colleagues
keep a pragmatic view. your job is not your life
once my manager said to me: “Jochen, it´s just a deal. SAP
gives you money, you give your knowledge and your time.
That´s it.”

11. stay curious. be
brave. do
experiments
say “YES“ to any opportunity. Always!
leave your SAP comfort zone
why not using team outsides or other team events for
experiments "outside the box”?

12. be selfish. hack
the system
if your dream job does not exist, create it.
i can follow my passion for developing people in an IT
company in combination with interesting customer
innovation projects. in an creative environment like the
AppHaus and while having also free time for private
projects and hobbies. I earn good money, do a good job
and be proud to be still within SAP.

13. my career recommendations
for you as a employee
1. invest into your personality
2. strengthen and use your inner compass
3. do not fall in love with your job. It´s just a job
4. stay curious. be brave. do experiments
5. be selfish. hack the system. create your own dream job

14. my career recommendations
for you as a manager
1. show real interest in employees ideas and wishes
2. motivate employees to bring in their own “development plans”
3. support these ideas as much as you can
4. motivate people to bring in their findings back to SAP
5. do not take over responsibility for the development of your employees
but enable them to grow
6. as always: act as role model also in regards of personal growth

15. ANY QUESTIONS?

16. THANK YOU
jochen.guertler@sap.com