Marketing Executive Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at SAP. It exceeded my expectations of a placement year and I feel the experience I gained at SAP was invaluable.

I was made to feel like a valuable member of my team and was not seen as 'just an intern'. I was given a lot of responsibility but supported every step of the way.

My managers at SAP were not only committed to helping me with my role but put an awful lot of enthusiasm in to my development and ensuring I got as much out of my placement as possible. I was consistently encouraged to ask questions and challenge ideas.

Throughout the year I had busy and quiet spells. There were days when I worked very long hours but I found this rewarding and due to the flexi-time policy, this meant I could work shorter hours at quieter periods.

The skills and experience I have gained from my placement year at SAP are ones that will put me in great stead for when I leave university. It was great putting studied theory into practise and I believe I will be a lot more successful in my final year of study due to what I have learnt during my placement.

Although we were the first group intake of placement students that SAP had, the placement scheme was still very well organised. It has been developed in a way that as well as having your day-to-day tasks in your department, you can also have involvement in lots of other projects with the other placement students. These projects covered lots of different departments over the company and even included managing the recruitment process for the next intake of students. The programme now has even more structure in place with a full development plan for every student.

I had weekly catch ups with my manager to check I was on top of things and that I was getting on ok. As well as this, I had development meeting every 6 weeks where I kept a document noting all my skills and attributes I had gained so far and discussing what I still wished to accomplish. Towards the end of my placement I had sessions to help me improve my CV and even meetings with my managers to get support on my dissertation.

There is now a large under graduate/graduate community within SAP. The placement scheme has expanded and there is also a young professional scheme for those that have recently graduated.

N/A - I lived in university accommodation during my placement.

Not amazing but the surrounding areas such as Richmond were good and we occasionally went in to central London.

There are lots of CSR initiatives that you can get involved in at SAP such as helping in the community and charity bike rides. There is also a football team that play every week and selected members of this team get to go to Germany for an SAP football tournament (all expenses paid minus spending money!!!).