Each year, SAP hires approximately 4,000 interns around the globe. Many of these interns return to SAP with full-time employment offers and continue to shape their professional careers within our business.
Our business thrives with this set of new talent, ambition and energy that carries over into everything we do—from building customer relationships to iterating on processes and products.
Interns are the foundation of the work we do at SAP. They bring in diverse skillsets and challenge us to step outside our day-to-day projects. Oftentimes, they help us view mundane tasks through a fresh and inventive lens.
In other words, they transform how we run.
SAP’s
Internship Experience Project (SAP iXp) recently hosted a national Intern Appreciation Day for their summer interns in North America. SAP iXp aligns open roles with academic calendars per region.
In 2017, iXp hired about 250 interns across major North America cities that include: San Francisco, Palo Alto, Bellevue (Washington), NYC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Vienna (Virginia) and Vancouver (Canada). Interns step into roles within Concur, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, Hipmunk and SAP Product and Innovation board area.
Take a closer look at how SAP iXp celebrated Intern Appreciation Day and hear from interns themselves:
Vancouver Interns:
“We celebrated Intern Appreciation Day by bringing in a local ice cream truck to the office. There wasn't an ice cream truck jingle to lead the way, but it was easy to find over 50 interns having a fun afternoon with all the laughs and selfie photos. There’s no sweeter way to appreciate and recognize everything our interns do!”
-Jessica Gutierrez, SAP iXp Lead, Vancouver
Bellevue Interns:
SAP iXp interns were provided lunch catered by Chipotle and Seattle’s newly famous
Hello Robin bakery. Interns were joined by their managers and mentors for the event, and had a packed house at the Concur office lunch room. The highlight of the day was definitely the Hello Robin cookies and of course, the amazing Chipotle guacamole!
“I am 5 weeks into my role as a Business Development intern and my experience at Concur could not be better. I get to work alongside intelligent, fun, and engaging coworkers who truly want me to succeed. No question is too stupid, and no person is too important to talk with me. I am invited to look cross-functionally to learn about how my interests and passions could flourish here. Mistakes are seen as positives on the path to figuring out the best method.
I am given the space and resources to work alone, but the support is there whenever I need it. My projects are guiding my professional and personal development, encouraging innovation and disruptive behavior, all while helping to positively impact the business.Having team building hikes, or intern lunches are just a few of the amazing bonuses along the way. These first five weeks have exceeded all of my expectations, and I look forward to what the future has in store for me with SAP/Concur.”–
Savannah Kneeland-Salem, SAP iXp Business Development intern, Concur
Palo Alto:
SAP iXp Interns hosted an afternoon of fun for all Palo Alto interns! Interns participated in field day activities such as tug of war, three-legged race, cornhole, as well as creative activities like an art wall and a Twitter competition.
Interns collected wristbands as points for each activity they won and turned them in to donate canned food, receive sweatpants, and be entered for the grand prize. More than 70 interns participated in the day’s activities!
"I am inspired every day; whether it being by my mentors, my manager, my peers, or my fellow interns. However, I was particularly inspired by the panel discussion at the iXp Women in Leadership brunch. Not necessarily because they were talking about females rising to the top (although that is also an important and relevant topic to me), but more because I liked how none of their career trajectories had been linear or carefully planned out.
As interns, I think most of us have a slight tendency to stress out about whether or not we are making the right career decisions or finding the perfect career path. So, hearing that it is possible to succeed and thrive in your career,despite not knowing exactly what it is you want to do or where you want to go, brings me comfort and gives me the courage to throw myself “out there” without knowing exactly where I will end up."
-Katherine Agger, SAP iXp Global Knowledge & Process Management Intern, SAP Ariba
San Francisco:
Eat and escape was the theme for the intern appreciation day!
Chicago Interns:
Interns kicked off the day with a one-hour learning burst on Data Analytics with one of our Senior Consultants on the SAP Fieldglass Business Intelligence team, Scott Moorhouse. They were able to discuss the power of data and applying it in a realistic setting in their own life. Shortly after we wrapped up our power hour, we hosted a lunch within both office locations where our hiring managers/mentors were able to join for a laid-back lunch celebrating our interns.
SAP iXp SAP Fieldglass Interns exploring Chicago on a boat cruise!
“My iXp experience has been unbelievable. SAP goes out of its way to make sure we split our time evenly between work, learning, and fun. The work I do get is challenging, it’s interesting, and everything I do contributes to the group effort (I’m not crouched over a monitor for hours filling out an irrelevant spreadsheet). Perhaps more importantly, I’ve been here less than two months and already we’ve toured Chicago by boat, chatted with the Fieldglass CEO about his favorite bands, spent a day at the driving range, taken a bunch of classes, and lots of other activities besides.
They say that the measure of a person is not how they treat their peers, but how they treat their subordinates. I know that SAP must be filled with great people, because every day at work my managers and coworkers give me meaningful work to do, respect my ideas and opinions, and always make me feel that I am an equal member of the team. It is inspiring to see how willing everyone around me is to take time out of their day whenever I need a hand. This is the kind of corporate culture I want to work in.
I hope that one day in the future, I will choose to be half as kind and supportive to my interns as my team has been to me.”
-Owen Phelan, Product Management Intern, SAP Fieldglass
Throughout their internships, interns work on projects that help develop some of our latest technologies and products. Most importantly, they spark their purpose at SAP.
Stay tuned with the latest SAP iXp happenings and success stories on Twitter via
#MyiXpStory.