Dear all,
For SAP, the cooperation with universities has a high priority. There are countless activities around the globe where we are in contact with universities in many different ways.
Thankfully, there are a lot of motivated people at SAP to support those activities and to drive initiatives to bundle them, thereby providing a solid framework.
Some of those initiatives are:
In this blog post, I like to share my experiences about one activity in which I participated. It's called 'Meet Master' and is organized by the university of Pforzheim, whereas the coordination at SAP was at the department of SAP Campus Recruiting DACH.
Description of the event
Briefly explained, different companies participate and offer slots of 20 minutes on a particular afternoon where interested students can have a remote interview with one or more experts of the respective company. The goal is to give insights about the company including job opportunities, the companies way of working and everything else a student is interested in when the hunt for a job is about to start.
Students from the university of Pforzheim can then apply for those slots with their CV and mention the areas where they are interested in (e.g. development, consulting, marketing etc.).
And finally, it's on the experts of the companies to select the students they want to talk to. This can of course be quite a challenge when there are dozens of students applying for one of the eleven slots that were available.
I decided to select students being interested in different areas, to have some variety. So, I selected some of the students who wanted to talk about areas which I would call my 'home turf'. But besides, I've also chosen students for talks about areas I'm not that familiar with, such as communication, marketing. Even I'm not working in that areas, I could share my personal view with 20+ years' experience at SAP. And I can anyway describe the culture of the company and what it means to work for SAP.
And from what I perceived, the students appreciated both, talking to an expert in the area where they want to work. But also getting an outside view of their favorite areas.
Conclusion
After all, I can say, that it was definitely worth the effort! All students appreciated us taking the time to give insights and useful tips for the application process. And it was a nice experience for me to have talks to many students with totally different backgrounds and future goals for their working life.
It was just a pity that the pandemic situation forced us to do this remotely, rather than onsite. May be next time
🙂
Furthermore, I'm really convinced that this format is highly efficient to motivate people to work at SAP (or at any of the other participating companies…). Such talks face-to-face or in small rounds are just perfect to not only talk about facts but also get a connection to the people and deliver a certain impression, as representatives of SAP. And best case, they will tell their friends and fellow students, multiplying the effect.
And this was surely worth the effort of one single afternoon!
So, thanks a lot to the students who participated, the university of Pforzheim, and of course to all colleagues who enable such events! I can assure you, your efforts are appreciated by the next generation!
I'm happy to read your comments! And I'm looking forward to reading your experiences!
Best regards,
Michael