Project Management Associate Review

Day to day activities included: attending and running business meetings, managing projects and processes, supporting colleagues on strategic innovation topics, aligning with multiple global stakeholders for information gathering and dissemination.

I have learnt new skills in: project management, presenting, Microsoft office suite (Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, Word, Excel), remote working, storytelling, and leadership. I have developed existing skills in: time management, organisation, critical thinking, planning, research, adaptability, and resilience.

I was given a lot of autonomy which therefore came with a lot of self-responsibility in terms of time-management and organisation... etc. In terms of the role responsibility, this varied greatly depending on the project. One project I was co-managing a team of 11 and leading daily team meetings as well as organising workloads. On another project, I was supporting different colleagues in the creation and development of multiple strategy documents.

Throughout my placement, I received a lot of support and had access to multiple different support options. At the beginning of my placement, there was a 1 month handover from the previous interns which helped with the initial skills and familiarity. Similarly, the placements team were incredibly supportive, running multiple workshops and taking into account our feedback. Finally, my team were also amazing in helping me become familiar with new topics and tools.

SAP has very impressive company culture that is in the process of further evolving. It is fairly non-hierarchical, despite being an intern, you will be approaching and working with colleagues who are multiple grades above you. In my experience, I have found most people to be approachable, kind, and generally expert within their field which makes networking very important. Personally, I really like the learning culture that exists and the promotion of creativity and autonomy.

Taking into account all of the events over the past year, as well as working entirely remotely - I would say that I have enjoyed my placement. The placements team have tried to make the best of a difficult and unusual situation, and ultimately have done a great job! What I really appreciated are the numerous opportunities to get involved in, and being able to commit a proportion of your role to something different.

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Apply early, know the company and the role well. Understand what experiences you have and what you have gained/learned from them and how they might be applicable to your role. Also generally having an idea of what the company does is very helpful for understanding where the role you are applying for sits within.