Find out about Alice Fynn - BA (Hons) Illustration student on placement as a Creative Design Associate at SAP Partners in the UK & Ireland.
Tell us a bit about the company you work for
SAP is an international tech company that creates software and systems to help businesses run better. Their products cover a wide range of purposes from enterprise resource planning through to HR tools and to products that enable sustainability.
Your placement role
I work in the regional Presales area and I work primarily on video, graphic design and illustration projects. I am part of a team focused on digital transformation within the customer’s buying journey, we provide scalable digital assets including microsites, videos and more. However, I am also involved in the planning, content creation and organisation for a quarterly internal call. The projects I’m involved in are very interesting and include both internal and customer facing outcomes
Have you had any training so far?
I’ve really learnt a lot so far and I’ve broadened my existing skills as well as learning completely new ones! SAP has a lot of support with development including sessions run by their internal placement programme and a vast array of online training services. However, I’d say that the hands-on experience has been the most valuable.
How have your technical skills developed through your placement?
I’ve developed my skills with Adobe Premiere Pro working on a customer facing informative video series on cyber security as well as gaining new experience with the pre-production and production process also. I’ve also really built on my capabilities with After Effects and made huge leaps with Illustrator. Plus, I’ve learnt how to use a new online tool called Mural which is now my favourite go to for brainstorming and project planning but also a great tool to facilitate meetings.
What other skills are you developing during your placement?
As an illustration student, it's been great to branch out more with areas that I’m passionate about like video and graphic design whilst also being able to apply my illustration skillset in a variety of projects. In terms of soft skills, I have also really seen a big improvement in my confidence already and gained important experience working in a team, dealing with lots of deadlines and projects and supporting others.
Last day with our previous interns
Highlights
I’ve had a lot of highlights so far including going to SAP’s 50th anniversary celebration (with lots of tasty food and great live music) and I’m also enjoying working on a redesign for a board game right now but my top highlight would probably have to be working on a ‘success story’ video for my team. As it was an internal project, I could be very creative and I ended up creating a video with After Effects with a fun animated feel. It was quite stressful at times with trouble getting the footage and a tight deadline but very rewarding when I finished it in time against all odds and got positive feedback from the top boss. Plus it was rewarding enough to watch it back myself and see what I had accomplished. It will be a series of videos so I made it in a repeatable way and I should be working on more soon.
What you're going to be working on in the future?
It’s hard to predict exactly but I’m currently working on a board game redesign that may eventually be digitalised plus right now I’m getting more involved with illustration, microsite design and the area of sustainability. There’s some upcoming video projects and also I believe I will be involved in the hiring process soon which will be very interesting and a new valuable experience.
What would you say to any student considering doing a placement?
I’d say go for it. The idea might be intimidating and the process of applying might feel long and unencouraging when you get rejections but it's definitely worth it. I’ve gained so much experience already and I know that I’ll have gained so much more by the end of my 13 months at SAP. I think that it's great to apply your learnings from uni to hands-on real life projects and briefs and it feels very rewarding. I’ve met a lot of great people and experienced new exciting things and it's made me feel more confident in myself plus my career going forwards.