Presales Associate Review

The past year has been incredibly useful for my personal and professional development. Not only did I have a team that really cared, but also a peer group of other interns who were always available for things outside work. This allowed me to enjoy the entire placement experience as opposed to just the 9-5 working hours.

I was never treated 'like an intern' by my colleagues, but just like another member of the team. It always felt very comfortable just messaging my colleagues to discuss non-work topics, and often they did the same. At the same time, they recognise that you're new to a corporate environment and always try to include you in projects.

It was always very comforting to know that I could ask my manager for a quick chat anytime I wanted. These could be anything from discussing current projects, interests or issues. We also had regular structures 1-on-1s which were all about discuss my development and what i wanted to achieve from this placement.

This was entirely dependant on how much work I wanted to take on. If there was a project i wanted to take on, i could discuss this with my manager and start working on it. Of course, there are times when you have tight deadlines, but these situations were always very rewarding in the end.

My role allowed my take on any project i wanted that would benefit the team. This meant that I had complete responsibility over the project and making sure it succeeds. It was also really great to see that the team always trusted me with tasks such as presenting to customers.

I can honestly say that I have gained more practical knowledge and skills in the past year than I have throughout my university. Due to my role and my degree being completely different, i don't think the hard skills would be very useful for my degree. Although these skills are extremely important for me in order to go into the career path that i want to.

Due to the nature of my role, spending off-time on training and development was incredibly important. My manager was always very understanding when i asked if i could spend the next few days getting trained on a specific software of process. This was due to the fact that these trainings would directly help me in doing a better job.

This is very much dependant on the role that you have within the company and how 'valuable' you've proven yourself to be. SAP doesn't have a Grad Scheme like other companies, but there are opportunities to go to the SAP Sales/ Presales Academy. This is ofcourse incredibly competitive and will very much depend on how you've presented yourself throughout the year.

The social scene was surprisingly amazing. We had weekly drinks sessions/ dinners in nearby towns which would be attended by 50+ interns. Apart from this, as I lived with other interns, it was always easy to just go out into central London over the weekends. I've also been to a few events with the full time colleagues in my team.

This is dependant on where you chose to live. Feltham and Hounslow are fairly cheap areas to live and socialise in. As you can guess, the closer you move to London, the more expensive it can get. Although the general cost of living was higher here than at my university, this was very much expected and the salary did compensate for this.

Feltham isn't really known for its nightlife! This wasn't necessarily a problem though, because most interns who worked at SAP lived in areas like Richmond, Clapham, Teddington, London etc which have very good connections with Feltham and also have a very active nightlife. Even if you lived in Feltham, travelling over to a nearby town is very easy.