Consulting Operations Business Partner Review

I have really enjoyed my placement year at SAP. Working for a company of the size SAP has been very interesting as I hadn't worked in a big organisation before. The role has been very interesting taking on a large amount of responsibility very quickly, I have interacted with other departments on a daily basis giving me a good level of exposure. The social life with other interns is amazing, probably the highlight of my year.

I got on really well with my whole team - there was a great atmosphere. The role is very much valued within the Consulting side of the organisation, as you are relied upon by both the operations team and salespeople in order to get contracts approved internally. The job really does feel like a full time role.

Support was always there from my manager when asked for, however throughout the year there was quite a lack structured support and guidance. My manager wasn't hugely involved in what I did on a day to day basis, therefore there was times when he wouldn't be able to give me the guidance required and I would have to seek it from other people. Despite this I knew that my manager would always support me when required.

My work load varied depending on what time of the quarter it was (quarter end was very busy as this is when we would be trying to close the most deals), If i was bored I had a fair amount of freedom to find other tasks to do. This included doing some work for other departments, which has given me some good exposure and a chance to network with other people.

A good amount of responsibility - more than most other interns within SAP. I was the sole approver of deals below a certain threshold, therefore I had a great responsibility to ensure that all items were correct. The role is essentially the same as the Full Time person who works closely with you, and you aren't know as the 'intern' (many people were even unaware towards my placement that I was an intern).

My attention to detail has definitely improved, which will hopefully help me in my final year of study and beyond. There were 3 training events throughout the year exclusively for interns - these were great, especially the communication session. Though throughout the year there wasn't much other structured training. There in an online training portal - but these videos are quite dull - I also think it will be hard to find them useful outside of SAP.

The atmosphere was generally very good, however at times of high pressure the atmosphere would get more tense. We would always have a good laugh, but it was often fairly quiet at busier times. The team had a good bond, there wasn't anyone that I would have felt uncomfortable talking to.

The Intern program at SAP is very well set-up, it's clear that the program has been running for a number of years. A structured two week on-boarding introduced us to the company, which I found very useful as I had little knowledge of SAP's products due to the fact the organisation is Business to Business. The intern community is very strong with regular social nights, some organised by SAP and others just organised by the interns themselves.

We only has 3 training events, 2 of which were external, these were interesting but managers looked at them as a 'jolly' which was quite frustrating. There could be quite a lot more investment in training opportunities for interns. When joining almost all of my training was carried out by the previous intern in my role, whilst this made me feel comfortable , largely due to the informal nature of the training, it wasn't as structured as it could perhaps have been.

SAP seems like a great company to work for - a good culture throughout the organisation, social events and free lunch! There aren't many opportunities for interns to return to SAP. There is no graduate scheme in place unless you are applying for the Sales Academy. Whilst I have enjoyed my year in operations, I don't see much scope for progression within that department. My exposure to marketing and pre-sales has made me want to consider moving into those departments, they have more creative aspects which I feel that my role in operations has been missing.

The social scene was great among interns. When we joined the existing interns organised a lot of events for us to all get to know one another. I spent most of my weekends with other interns, and i'm sure that over the next few years we'll all meet up again! We also went into Richmond for drinks on many Thursday's.

I lived in Chiswick which was quite pricey, but there is great travel links via Rail, Tube and Bus to get to all of London, and out to Feltham, by Heathrow, where the office is. Going out is generally expensive, pints average £5 and entry to clubs is ofen upward of £15. You need to be smart with your money!

Feltham isn't great for nights out, there was very little to do around the office. This is why most people don't live near the office and tend to live more central to London, making it easier to get to to clubs and bars that are a bit busier. No-body tends to live in felt ham itself because of this reason.

There is a football club (which plays a tournament in Germany) as well as netball club on weeknights, these are pretty much the opportunities that were available to us on a regular basis. The only other opportunities that were available to us were ones that we arranged and organised ourselves.