Presales Associate Review

I really enjoyed my year at SAP, the opportunities I was given throughout the year were incredible. I was treated as a full time employee, not an intern, and have lead my own presentations and design thinking workshops with c-suite execs at top, global companies. I would recommend this placement to anyone looking to get an insight to tech or sales.

The presales team are very open, meaning I could get involved in customer facing activities from the first month. The intern community is also very strong, with regular socials. I am leaving this year with lots of good connections for the future. The only downside is that as presales is very customer facing there would be team members you wouldn't see for long periods of time.

I did not have regular meetings with my manager as I work best working on my own path and we speak regularly casually throughout the week. I was assigned a buddy, a member of the early talent, who had been through the presales academy a couple of years before and who I met with once a fortnight for a catchup.

I was very busy in presales, purely because there is so much going on. This was unmanageable because my weekly tasks I have to do only took up a couple of working days a week, the rest was projects I was choosing to get involved in. The workload was very flexible, also dependant on the sales cycle throughout the year.

I was given lots of responsibility throughout the year. I have led my own pitches to customers from a presales perspective, facilitated design thinking sessions with CEOs, CFOs and COOs of top companies and been on the team leading the Future SAP programme - changing how SAP recruits and retains young talent.

I study mech eng, so presales in a tech company was a bit of a change, but as I wanted to gain experience in the business world it was the perfect step. The work I did in analytics, and machine learning tied in well with my course, and my presentational and soft skills will be used for the rest of my life.

The atmosphere in the office depends upon the time of the year and the sales cycle. Towards the end of the quarter it will be hectic, especially for the sales and legal teams, but there is always a buzz as there will always be the team of interns in the office throughout the year.

The placement scheme had two weeks of official training at the beginning to familiarise yourself with the company. The next two weeks are spent with the interns of the year above learning the role, before they leave. Throughout the year training sessions are run to improve presentation and excel skills as well as others.

I have been on a variety of training courses such as: machine learning, predictive analytics, data science, the sales demo formula taught at the SAP Presales Academy. I have also had the opportunity to work in various locations, being flown out to Oslo and up to Newcastle. Some of the interns coming back to the company will be sent to the Academy in California for 6 months training which is a significant investment.

I have been asked to come back members of my team of the company, so if you impress they will try and keep you. Progression from here would be to go to the Presales Academy in the US for 6 months then join one of the presales teams. The academy itself is world renowned as one of the best training schemes.

Many of the interns lived together, I however lived at home as I was close enough to commute. Saying this there were socials almost every thursday, many of which I got involved in, staying on the sofa of a fellow intern. There is also a boat party for all the interns leaving and the ones coming in (so you get 2 in your 13 months).

The office is in Feltham so the local social scene was mainly Richmond, sometimes Clapham and central. This means socialising was pricey but not as bad as central. However lunch was free and many people also took food from the canteen back for dinner. The company will also generally put money forward to team socials.

Not as good as central but at there are 40+ interns you can make fun out of your situation. Pitcher & Piano and Revs in Richmond were the locals with Viva the club. Bigger nights involve going into Clapham or central which we often did for birthdays, Halloween, Christmas etc.

There are activities planned for both team events and for the interns.