Sales Associate Review

The work placement gave me the luxury of working with a fantastic, mixed team of both senior and early talent employees. Their enthusiasm, supportiveness and guidance played a key role in my development and overall enjoyment of my year in industry. The number of interns in the intake year was also perfect. Small enough to connect with everybody and large enough to not feel like you're the only intern there.

The two month on-boarding gave me sufficient time to settle in and get acquainted to the team. All the colleagues at SAP genuinely value your work and commitment to the business and more often than not, the work at SAP has paid off. An intern at SAP is given full exposure to the company and senior management and every intern is valued as a full-time employee. Social events outside of work and trips abroad with the team have definitely been the highlights of the year.

At SAP an intern plays a huge role in the support to his or her manager. Regarding my role specifically, the ability to communicate so easily with senior management without any obstacles was a fantastic experience as I was given huge exposure to the company and the operations surrounding the support of the infrastructure. My line manager was my main point of contact and the majority of my workload supplemented the resources to support my manager directly. In this case support was massively accessible at all times. In addition my colleagues and employees outside my respective department were always happy to give me a hand and positively support me if I ever required further guidance.

Bandwidth fluctuated dramatically during my time at SAP. Certain days were packed full of activities, tasks and objectives where I was back to back from 08:30-19:00. Others were less busy. However this gave me the perfect balance in allowing myself to perform tasks in my free time that were not routine such as replying to specific emails and other ad-hoc requests from other departments.

As a sales associate I was given huge responsibility and it is clear that the sales intern played a huge role in the operations and general running on the sales industries. The majority of data and input that is required from our managers by the senior leadership team was constructed, consolidated and presented by the interns. An intern was easily capable of guiding the team with objectives and daily tasks whilst their managers were away. With a change in manager half way through the placement, I was in the position to support my manager fully as well as offer advise and guidance, which has granted me massive responsibility and leadership skills.

The skills I've developed this year are invaluable and I genuinely feel that they simply cannot be taught in a classroom. The placement was very hands-on, practical, fast-paced and dynamic. Mistakes were made and this has been a massive contributor to my personal and professional development. I feel that with the skills I've developed, I will be able to stretch my resources and apply what I've learnt directly to complete my degree studies and seek a graduate role.

The atmosphere fluctuates dramatically at SAP. This is normal and was heavily related to seasonal factors such as the summer holidays etc. As a whole, my team were lively, vibrant and the office was never too quiet - I was in sales after all! The mix of interns on every floor also ensured that there was never a quiet day in the office.

Everything from the assessment centres, interviews and recruitment process that we finally got to take control of was very organised. The ability to learn the fundamentals and role responsibilities from the outgoing interns instead of employees in the company surprised me and it clearly shows how much an intern develops here at SAP.

Personally I did not demand much personal development but I am certain that if I did - it would have been granted. As with other interns, their weekly one to one meetings with their managers and buddies have allowed them to speak out if they wanted to improve in certain areas.

Unfortunately SAP does not have a dedicated graduate program but however undertake specialist sales training in the form of the SAP Sales Academy. Successful graduates can then shadow account executives and begin their work on a set of accounts and develop their career in sales. There has been cases of interns re-entering the company and taking roles outside of sales and this is fully dependant on your performance and relationship with the managers and the team.

The social aspect of SAP was fantastic and definitely contributed to the work-life balance. The numerous off site meetings, award events and social events in the country and abroad develops your relationship with your colleagues and your managers. It's also interesting to develop your relationship with your colleagues outside of work. Social events were usually always paid for and by having the interns invited to these events, it definitely solidifies your commitment to the team and makes every intern feel truly valued. The number of interns this year was also perfect. Social activities that began earlier in the year strengthens the relationship and nights out soon followed!

This year I was living at home as both the placement and my home are based London. However I understand that for those living in accommodation, the prices were fairly competitive. The office is based in Feltham, Greater London and most of the social events were based in Central London.

The social events and nights out that I participated in were all based in London as you will find that there are no nightlife venues in Feltham.

There were weekly football matches that take place, followed by numerous socials and a SAP World Cup weekend in Frankfurt. Additionally there were netball socials, fitness socials and charity events that many interns took part in.