Q1: I am a fresher in SAP ABAP...

Question : I am a fresher in ABAP. I recently joined IBM as an ABAP consultant. How will i master ABAP?

Actually, you've made a good start already. Not just because you managed to get a job in a good company but by asking this question and thinking about improving yourself in the profession of your choice. [ I am not saying that thinking about your next salary hike is a bad thing but thinking just that, probably is. ]

You need to improve on:

• Knowledge - By reading books, SAP Help & Other SAP related sites. I would suggest you to clear your basic concepts first before moving ahead with the advanced topics. Read any good ABAP book [ e.g. ABAP/4 in 21 Days / SAP Help and try to understand the basic concepts. I would suggest that apart from ABAP books , also read the Database concepts and generic Software programming related books. Get some knowledge in the functional [ Like MM, PP , FI etc. ] aspects of SAP as well.

• Skills & Experience - By working [ hard and not hardly ] on real projects, discussing with your peers, participating on SAP ABAP Forums e.g. SDN. Also, find someone in your team, who is regarded as technical Guru, and try to learn from him. Understand that there are a lot many things that you may not find / able to understand from the Books. Try to become a SAP ABAP/Technical Consultant and not just a developer who writes code. It means you should be able to provide solutions for the real life requirements, by putting all the things together. Also you should be aware of basic functional concepts & processes. Try to relate the functional concepts with the real life examples, e.g. how do you buy anything from SkyShop - you would be placing an order, which is basically a sales order for the seller company. Map the whole cycle with a real life scenario.

• Intelligence - Well, hard to say, it depends on the IQ level but then you can hone your thinking approach to some extent, I guess. Try to solve the problems and then think about other possible options [ better, if possible ] . Check out the algorithms,even if these may not seem to be relevant to your project, and try to come up with your own logic.
  Ask a Question to yourself at a regular interval - What is the most complex work that you've done in your career, till date, and that will give you an idea about the level that you've achieved.

• Soft-skills - It's important for your career as a consultant . I will talk about this point later on.

That's it for now...