Consulting Operations Analyst Review

I believe my placement at SAP has helped me to essentially develop into a different person. I am a lot more confident in my own abilities, in terms of approaching new challenges, whereas beforehand I would get intimidated. Overall, the atmosphere at SAP is an enjoyable one to work within. There is a lot of autonomy for employees to do what they want, as long as the work gets done.

My colleagues have been a pleasure to work with and I have made a few close friendships with full-time members of staff, who have always made the office feel comfortable and fun to work within. The amount of responsibility entailed with this role has lead to a considerable amount of respect from a number of colleagues and I know that I was not considered as just 'an intern', but rather a member of the team.

I do not possess a 'numbers' background and therefore I was going out of my comfort zone when applying for this role. Truthfully, I believe that the decision has been great as the support I have received, in terms of training, has been thorough and dependable. After a certain period of time, I realised that the management acted as a sort of 'safety net' for the interns, in the sense that you could make mistakes and the management would be understanding enough to not berate you.

My workload was quite lopsided. At the beginning and end of each month, I would have a lot to carry out, with very little time to take on anything else. However, in the middle of the month, I tended to have not a lot to work on, leading me to get involved in other areas of the business/projects. The issue here is that I would get involved with other projects, but then the re-increase of workload would then hinder my efforts.

My role required me to essentially work as a full-time employee, managing daily reports and crucial monthly projects. At first, this was quite intimidating as I had never really had responsibility for anything beforehand, whereas all of a sudden I had various aspects that I was accountable for.

I do a Business and Computing degree. The experience I have had at SAP has been extremely relevant to my course, as I could see first-hand regarding things I have learnt during my first and second years, such as business process management etc.

The atmosphere in the office had a tendency to be lively. I would say that majority of that liveliness revolved around the interns and the interactions between us. The conversations between the interns and the full-time members of staff were slightly more formal, but still enjoyable at times.

I believe that overall, the placement was set up well. Having to carry out a full-time role has been an extremely good indicator of life outside of university and it has taught me many things.

I received no training, other than the training to be able to carry out my role. However, if I wished to seek out other means of personal development, I was able to do so via online courses available. On the other hand, I was not prompted to do so at any point and no additional training was ever really offered.

A lot of the younger generation of employees here are former placement students. This is encouraging as I believe it will help me to get my foot through the door if I do apply to work here in the future. However, there is no specific 'grad scheme' to be able to join, meaning nothing would be guaranteed for interns.

The intern community, consisting of around 40+ interns, is an extremely fun social circle to be a part of. With there being so many other interns, it is easy to find others that you can get along with. The majority of the interns are very easy to get along with and many events are organised outside of work.

The cost of living varies on the area you choose to live in. The various surrounding areas of Feltham can be quite expensive, depending on what size house you choose. I lived in Egham for a year, in a 5 bedroom house, and I found it to be quite affordable and I managed to budget myself quite easily.

The area in which SAP is based, Feltham, is not somewhere that you can socialise or go out. You would have to travel further into London or go to one of the surrounding areas such as Richmond, Kingston or Clapham. However, Feltham itself is not a place to go out.

During my time at SAP, I became involved in a few various projects. Members of my team would offer to help with my personal development. I also became involved with the SAP Foundation,