This blog was originally authored by Ross Barrett, SAP Presales Intern as a part of our "My SAP Internship" blog series.
My name is Ross Barrett. For the last 9 months I have been working as an industrial placement student at SAP, in the Presales department (and hopefully will be for the next 4 barring any catastrophes!)
I study Economics and Management at the University of Leeds, where I also play football for the University team. Aside from football I like gyming, cooking and ping pong. I also love Game of Thrones slightly too much to be socially acceptable.
When I decided to apply for a placement year, my awareness of SAP was completely non-existent (a state that I imagine was shared by many others applying for ‘years in industry’). The reason for this, I have surmised since obtaining my placement, is that despite boasting the 19th most valuable brand in the world, SAP remains a B2B company with little ‘consumer’ visibility. Well, to students anyway.
It was actually pure chance that I came across SAP at all. A combination of serendipity and Google-Search brought the title ‘1 year Industrial Placement: Presales’ before my eyes…and after digging down and researching both SAP and Presales further, I felt that this was a role that would suit me.
Three quick months later and I was anxiously awaiting the response from my final interview/assessment centre. Out of all the companies I had applied for, SAP had been by far the most human during the recruitment process and it was the SAP placement that I was keenest to secure. As fate would have it, I must have not messed up completely in my interview as my offer came through and I was genuinely over the moon.
My day to day life as an intern at SAP now involves many different activities. The core part of my role revolves around facilitating operations and communications within the Presales department- this includes reporting on in-process deals to give visibility to managers and producing a departmental TV show. The other main part of my role consists of learning and putting into practice key Presales skills like presenting, demoing, whiteboarding etc. through various coaching and training sessions. Aside from my main responsibilities, I am on the teams for several projects/initiatives outside of my department, such as a project aimed at increasing awareness of SAP in University students.
There is a strong intern community at SAP, with 34 interns spread across various departments, which is great as it means we all have at least 1 contact in most departments. It also means that there is a solid social base for those who have moved to London from different areas of the country.
Along with the other interns, I have the opportunity to attend and take part in many different events at SAP. As part of an employee CSR day, I helped to plant over 10,000 trees in the Hertford forest near St Albans. I took part in a 10k mud-obstacle-course-run called ‘Back to the Trenches’ along with 10 other ‘Dirty SAP-PERS’. I also get the chance to visit some of our Partners’ sites and attend departmental offsite meetings: so I’m not stuck in the office 24/7, which is a relief.
Looking ahead, I am aiming to make the most of my last 4 months at SAP. The experience I have gained and the contacts I have made already have been invaluable and they will hopefully give me a better chance of success when going for graduate roles after I finish university. I am very much looking forward to returning to university and student-living, however there will also definitely be some parts of working at SAP that I will miss.
If you are a student or recent graduate interested in a career with SAP, visit our Student & Graduates Careers Page: http://ow.ly/wrJSe
Want to find a job you can really be passionate about?
Browse all of our open positions at -
http://jobs.sap.com/http://jobs.sap.com
Learn more about the workplace culture at SAP, see pics of our offices, talk to recruiters, and get real time job openings by connecting with us on our social pages:
- SAP Managed Tags:
