Communications Associate Review

My placement at SAP has been absolutely awesome. Not only has it been an eye-opening experience into corporate life, but it has empowered me with skills and insights for my future career. In particular, my team were amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed my role. as I was exposed to numerous aspects of the business.

Within my team, I felt like a valued team member. I never felt as if I was just the intern, rather I was given real responsibility that the team relied on me to manage. Within the wider business, there is a lot of understanding and respect for the placement scheme and so most colleagues recognize your value too.

Despite experiencing my manager leaving quite early on in my placement, my subsequent manager (previously a senior team member) was fantastic in supporting me throughout my time. SAP also has a buddy scheme, so I had an additional mentor from that who was amazing in providing advice and support for questions I didn't want to take to my manager.

Every day was different, however I was never left with nothing to do. We certainly had busy periods, for example when we had events on my workload increased significantly. Even when we had to work from home due to the COVID-19, I still had work to get on with outside of my day-to-day responsibilities.

Right from the outset, I had a number of responsibilities which I managed alone. While it sounds daunting, having responsibilities which were mine alone was huge confidence booster and demonstrated my team trusted me to contribute to the team. Some colleagues were more inclined to give you more responsibility than others.

The skills will definitely help me progress in my future career.

The office is lovely, I really missed it when we had to WFH. The open plan set-up allows for a very approachable and friendly atmosphere; everyone is more than happy to stop and help you. We also had lots of office events - from office concerts, to ice cream vans - which meant the office atmosphere was often very lively!

I think the placement scheme is set up well, especially the onboarding process. There were also lots events and initiatives organised and communicated by the placement team which provided an extra layer of support.

SAP provides a wealth of learning and development opportunities for placement students to utilized. You can drive this development yourself by getting involved in mentoring and coaching schemes. The placement scheme also invested time and resources into us, tailoring sessions to be relevant to us and where we are at in our careers.

The dynamic and culture of SAP is amazing, I would love to go back as I get the impression other companies don't have this to the same extent! SAP is also committed to fostering early talent, and so there would be the support network already in place to accelerate your career. Unfortunately, I don't think these opportunities are consistent across departments, as some teams have more flexibility to employee graduates than others.

The social side of this placement was amazing. With so many interns it was easy to find other interns to socialise with. Also, my team were very happy to attend outings and events as a group! Being in London helped enormously with facilitating a healthy social scene as there were loads of things to do that would suit everyone.

London is more expensive than other areas, so the cost of living is inevitably not cheap. However it is manageable.

Lots of the us lived in and around central London, so the nightlife was brilliant. A good range of pubs, bars restaurants and clubs to suit everyone.

As an intern cohort we organised our own events outside of work, including our own Christmas Party. Many of the interns took part in the football league that SAP is part of, and through the onsite gym a few interns took part in marathons and charity runs. Opportunities are always available through our CSR network too, such as volunteering days.