Hello everyone, welcome to Internview, a podcast brought to
you by the SIP Internship Experience Program.
And thanks for tuning in to interview, a podcast for
students by students. Today's episode, which is the
first episode, will be hosted by myself, Joanne and my colleague
Aiden. Hi everyone.
Internview is a podcast by students for students, giving
you a glimpse into SAP, it's experience, program, and student
life at SAP. So without further ado, let's
introduce our first guest. So we are lucky to have our
first guest in person today with us here, Christine Archer, which
means basically. Our boss so.
Christine, thank you for coming all the way from the US to be
here with us today in person. Absolutely.
I'm so, so excited to be here and honored to be the first
guest, so thank you for having me.
We heard that you are a big Phillips fan, so maybe you could
tell us a bit about yourself and who Christina's outside of work.
Yes. Well, I am from Philadelphia
originally moved a lot growing up, went to school in the South
in the US, But I'm back in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is home and I am a very big sports fan.
I grew up a sports fan. I actually wanted to be a sports
reporter when I was going to school.
That's what my dream career was. And I'm currently married.
I have two daughters who are 11 and 8, and I have two fur
babies, 2 rescue dogs, which are also my everything.
And we love to travel, we love to spend time with family.
And really when I'm not working, I feel like a lot of my time is
spent driving my daughters to all of their activities.
So I don't have quite as many as I would like to, but that's OK
for where life is right now. Great, great.
And in parallel to. All of these things.
That you're already doing? How did you join SAPI?
Speech. Yeah, I've been in SAP almost
eight years now. I had to think about that.
It was my first global company and my whole career up to that
point had been in learning and development.
And it's ironic because as I mentioned, my dream job was to
be a sports reporter and I kind of fell into learning and
development being my true dream career.
I did a lot of trial and error in my early to mid 20s trying to
figure out where I was supposed to be when the sports reporter
thing did not work out. So came to SAPI, worked in
learning and development, and about 5 1/2 years ago the role
opened to lead ISP. And I thought it was perfect
because it's learning and development.
But for those early in their career, and I can so empathize
with what it's like to be early on.
Maybe not sure what you want to do or maybe thinking you know
what you want to do, but the world may have other plans and
that can be scary. So it felt like a really perfect
opportunity to do what I love, but also bring a piece of me
where I could really empathize with those that I'm hopefully
working on behalf of and for. It was my first people manager
role. That was also always a dream of
mine to be a manager of people. It's something I'm really
passionate about. So just all the stars aligned
and 5 1/2 years later the program has grown beyond
anything I could have imagined. I work with an incredible team
beyond anything I could have imagined.
So everything just worked out, I think, the way it was meant to.
1st but and will you say that's the reason like or your
motivation behind feeding and SAPI like that you can relate to
it? Yes, yes, I would.
I think there's something really special about playing a part in
someone's career. And to me, it's even more
special to play a part in these formative years of 1's career
story. These are the years when people
really figure out who they are and where your first role out of
school or your second job may not be your forever job, but I
think that's really where you start to pick up your
confidence, yourself awareness and to be in a position to get
to contribute to that for someone.
You know, you may not always remember the details of every
job you have in your life, but you always remember your
internships. You always remember those early
career moments. And we get to be a part of that.
And I think that that's a privilege.
And that is something that even on the most stressful of days, I
remember that and I just immediately get excited to do it
all over again the next day. So yeah, that's definitely what
drives me. That's so nice.
And Speaking of like the formative years of early career
and early talent, we've already been talking a little bit about
SAPIXP. But for the viewers or the
listeners that are external, could you tell us a little bit
about the program for people that have nothing to do with
SAP? It's my favorite topic.
I would love to so SAPIXP. It stands for the SAP Internship
Experience program. So IXP is is short for that.
And the idea is that SAP is such a large company and we have such
a vast customer base. So the company does so many
things, it has so many functions to it.
So as such, we've got a very large employee base, over
110,000 employees and we hire so many students.
We hire students from every function for every part of the
business. A lot of people assume that we
only hire engineers or data scientists, but but we don't.
And what we found was when interns come in, they learn in
the job. Of course they're here, they're
working with a team, they're doing real life business
solutioning and and deliverables.
But we needed to create a consistent, streamlined platform
where all interns, no matter what country they're in or what
year of school they're in or what part of the business
they're working, they're getting a consistent experience learning
about SAP as a company, not just under the lens of marketing or
legal or wherever they might be in the world.
And that they're working on those universally critical
skills that no matter if if you're in a technical space or a
customer facing space, we all need to work on our executive
presence, on our emotional intelligence, on our
communication skills. That's a given for everyone.
So SAPIXP is a learning and development program that exists
to be a supplemental layer of a student's day-to-day experience.
Because again, they're they're doing a job too and they're
learning in that job. But SAPIXP offers a curriculum
of robust learning experiences to make sure that all interns
are also getting certain fundamental experiences, skills,
networking, career development as its own topic.
So with that, they're getting a very well-rounded experience
that hopefully, if we're doing it right, that we're driving
their development in a way that they are ready for that first
job once they graduate. And in a perfect world, that's
an SAP. And they continue their story
here. And would you say that's why you
would recommend doing an internship as a key and like any
other company? Absolutely.
Listen, I did internships a million years ago when I was in
school. I did a few internships and
sadly they were the stereotypical.
Like I literally got coffee for people.
I literally ran someone's errands one day and I I think
that led to me being a bit lost. When I graduated.
The sports reporter thing didn't pan out and I did not know what
else to do because I really didn't try anything else.
I didn't get any real life work experience.
So I'm very passionate from a personal perspective that that's
what an internship should be. Try things out, realize what you
love, realize what you don't love.
I think that's just as valuable. And what I know that SAP does
really well is that we afford students that opportunity.
Come in, you're going to be treated like any other
professional. You're going to be given real
life, real important business need related work, and you're
going to get a chance to find yourself and network and learn
from the best and brightest minds all over the world.
So I'm a little biased because it is my mission that that is
what we're getting students and we are and we're able to do that
too because SAP as a company is very committed to students and
early talents. It doesn't get more committed
than our CEO being a graduate of our one of our student programs
and building quite a successful career since then.
So SAP is such a great employer in terms of seeing the value of
students and early talents, investing in them, giving them a
space to grow. And for that reason, I would say
students, make sure you are making informed decisions about
where you invest yourself because sure, you're getting
work experience and that benefits you, but don't be
mistaken, companies are benefiting for you too.
So make sure that when you do internships, it's at a company
that will appreciate that and respect that, and you'll get
back from it as much if not more than what you put in.
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And adding on to the holistic
skills that we acquire at SAPIXP and also the day-to-day
experiences, I guess, is there anything that you would
encourage interns to attend or try in their?
Early talents, yes, I know. I know how hard it is.
I know how overwhelming it can be.
You're in school, you've got your your studies, your
homework. You probably have family
obligations or other aspects of life that want your time.
But I implore students take advantage of every opportunity
that a company gives you. And SAP has so many.
There's always a leadership session going on.
There's always a networking event.
We have employee network groups, whether it be PRIDED, SAP or the
business woman's network. There are so many opportunities
to dial into a call and listen to someone share their
experience or take a, a training from our very fast success map
learning library or join an event or go to an office
activity and just meet people. And it can be very easy to say,
oh, I won't cause I've got to focus on my studies.
Of course you do, but you never know what one hour session will
light a spark in you to say wow, I've never realized AI was so
fascinating. I now want to learn everything I
can. You never know what networking
event or coffee gathering at the office you might meet your next
mentor. So I implore interns to the to
the best way that you can manage your time.
Think about what you want to get out of a company and to invest
time in doing that and take advantage of the opportunities
in front of you to do that, because this is a very precious
time in life. You're only a student for a
finite amount of years, even if you go undergraduate school.
So play that student card and say, listen, I'm here to learn
and I'm going to stretch myself as much as I can to learn as
much as I can because there will always be a return on my
investment. A little bit.
So actually I did my internship with SAT.
As well. Excellent.
I'd love to hear that. And SAP ISP was actually the
reason why I decided to do my internship.
I had to do with my university job with SAP.
Because I love. The different opportunities you
have and that you're basically never alone in like this big
company and everything is like coming to you so fast with
within SAPIXPI felt like there are always people to rely on on
and to us like for help. And so I would say SAPIXP is
like really a great opportunity to use and that's why I love
like that. You mentioned that students
should think about more than just getting work experience.
I feel comfortable where you actually have to work and feel
appreciated. So.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
I love to hear that. But how do you ensure that like
everyone feels like appreciated and that the program remains
flexible and adaptable to every student thinking?
You know, something that adults are very good at is assuming
they know exactly what to do, drawing on experience,
especially as someone gets further in their career.
On one hand, that's what you're hired for.
You have experience, you can make decisions.
But I think that can be very dangerous, especially when we
talk about a program for others. Because if I came in and just
said this is the program that students want or I know what
early talents are looking for, I may or may not be accurate.
Probably not so accurate because it's been a minute since I was a
student or, or a recent graduate.
And I think that's really important and something my team
and I are very passionate about that while we do have expertise
and we do have passion for this, we also are very open about the
fact and excited about the fact that we don't know everything
that there is to know about what our interns are looking for.
And we see that as an exciting challenge and really a reason to
keep the lines of communication open.
And I think that's important for anyone, no matter how far they
get in their career. Your career is like one big
group project, honestly. No matter how siloed your your
job might be, you always have to know how to connect with others
and influence outcomes through others.
The only way to do that is to stay curious about what others
want and need from you, not assuming that they're going to
adjust based on your preferences.
So back to the great question, how do we make sure that this
program continues to flex and evolve around the diverse needs
and interests of a very broad student population is a couple
different ways. We do try to maintain open lens
of communication and we do that sometimes by just passive
channels. We have a central e-mail address
that any student hiring manager, anyone can reach our team at any
time. It's a global team, so there's
always someone online 24 hours a day around the globe.
We do have an app on our SharePoint page that collects
Q&A questions in real time. So we do have some avenues where
passively questions can reach us or information can be gathered.
We have a SharePoint site, we have we post on social media
through life at SAT, but we also proactively we'll seek input,
but we do that a few different ways.
We do have a biannual survey where we send an anonymous
survey to interns and hiring managers because we need to make
sure their needs are being met as well, where we ask for that
very pointed feedback. We have a quarterly open call,
it's called SAPIXP. What's next, where it's 30
minutes? 15 minutes are US giving an
update to everyone about what we're doing and what we're about
to do in the next quarter. 15 minutes just for open dialogue.
What are your questions? What can we explain?
What are your ideas? So that's another Ave. and then
we have some other methods. Each location has an intern
committee, which is volunteer, but interns can raise their hand
and say I'd love to be a bit more involved in steering the
the local presence and event calendar of the program.
So our intern committee gives us thoughts and ideas and input.
They're best suited for that because they are students
themselves. On the hiring manager side, we
have a hiring manager advisory group.
So they also act as kind of spokespeople for managers of
students and letting us know what they're seeing in the
business, what they love to see through their interns.
So we can then plan a program that speaks to those needs and
meet everyone in the middle. So I think it's swallowing your
pride and admitting that no matter how long I've done this
or how good I might think I am, I will never know more than the
audience I'm solving for. So how can I make sure we're
giving everyone a platform to give us that input?
And then how do we hold ourselves accountable to react
and respond to that input? Yeah.
And it's great to hear that there's constant development,
open mind, communication, input. For.
Yeah, improvements or suggestions.
So that's really reassuring because we don't always get this
opportunity for internships. But on the topic of constant
development and change, what would you say are the top three
biggest challenges that you face as a leader at SAPIS?
Oh, so the first one that comes to mind is it is such a vast
audience and it's a very fluid audience.
We have interns that join every week.
We have interns that exit every week.
We have interns that are with us as short as 10 weeks in some
locations. We have interns that could be
with us up to two years in other locations.
So we're putting on a program that our hope is is valuable and
meaningful for everyone, but everyone is as diverse as one
could anticipate in a global company.
And my team and I, our mantra is that we always want the program
to be globally consistent, but also locally relevant because
the roles that will be open at the early talent level in a labs
location are just going to be different than a field office.
So we need to make sure our program is driving development
in a way that is locally relevant and and that is a very
hard line to to manage globally consistent, locally relevant.
And then our interns are also so diverse.
We will have second year undergrad, we will have NBA
level interns who maybe worked for 10 years and then went back
to school. So that is the biggest challenge
and I use the word challenge in a positive way because again, it
is exciting. We will never have the market
corner on the perfect way to run this program.
And for some people that might feel defeating for I think I
speak for for my team, we find that exciting because every day
there's something new and different to consider, but
that's a big challenge. Two, one of our biggest
definitions of success is conversion.
We want to see our interns who want to be here.
We want them to find a place to be here.
And that is an outcome that we don't control.
We can influence it to a certain extent, but we can't control
headcount when it's available, where it's available.
We cannot control hiring manager decisions.
So that's another challenge that there are things we want to
achieve. And some of those things we do
completely control and some of those things we're just
constantly ideating about who can we partner with, what tool
can we develop, what process do we need in place.
So that is a constant topic that we're trying to tackle, I would
say. And the third is I, you know, if
you think about SAP and who our competitors are, many of them
are what we would call B to C, their business to consumer.
Consumers touch their products. So everyone knows Google because
everyone uses Google, right? SAP is AB to B.
Our biggest success is through our customers.
We help our customers find success.
And while that's something I think SAP we're proud of, and
that's kind of our identity, is that we are behind the scenes
doing incredible work that can create a challenge when we talk
about attracting the best and brightest and most diverse
workforce at the student level, that brand awareness on campus
varies. In Germany, it likely isn't as
much of a challenge as in some parts of the world where SAP
might not be as prominent as an employer.
They might not have an arena named after them where, you
know, people don't realize that they are using our products and
they know people that use our products.
So we we do some things to try to mitigate that.
We have a university alliances group at SAP that builds
partnerships with universities, actually has the universities
use our software. So their students are learning
our products. But it's a big world out there
and there's a lot of universities.
So that I think is probably the third biggest challenge is just
constantly thinking about how do we get out there and spread the
word to those that haven't yet crossed SA PS path that, hey,
this is a pretty awesome company.
Maybe you haven't heard of us, but I promise you, if you come
in here, you're going to do great things, you're going to
love it. That doesn't come as easily as
maybe some other companies where the name recognition is just a
bit more organic. And besides, like all the
challenges, I'm sure there are a few successes.
Is there something specifically that comes to my opinion?
Think of ISP. Yeah, I would say SAP has so
many resources. I, I mentioned I, I don't know
if I mentioned it while we were recording or it was before we
started recording, but I've been here 8 years, my first global
company. And so I've worked in several
companies, I've worked in different industries, I've
worked in government, I've worked in healthcare, health
insurance, and I've never worked for a company that had so much
opportunity. Most companies I worked with,
the way up was to be a people manager.
That was it. Not everyone wants to be a
people manager. Not everyone should be a people
manager even if they want to. But that was the only way.
SAP you can be a people manager, you could be a project manager,
you could be an expert. So I never worked anywhere that
had so many different avenues and and options.
I never worked anywhere that had such a vast learning and
development repository. So like the coaching and
mentoring tool, which interns are welcome and allowed to use.
And I always make sure they know that it exists.
So you're listening and you weren't sure it's out there.
I've never worked somewhere that had an option to sign up for a
coworker that could be a mentor or a coach, the fellowship
program, which if you are an FTE, you have the opportunity to
do another job for a few months. I've never worked anywhere that
offered that. So I think one of the benefits
that SAPIXP has is we happen to be within a company that already
offers so many things to its employees and many of those
things are also offered to our students.
And it is truly, again, a company that prioritizes
students and recent graduates more than any other company I've
ever seen. Leaders get communications
telling them, we want you to see X percent of your hires being
recent grads. I've never worked anywhere that
operationalized that into a goal that they measured.
So I think those are some of the many perks of of SAPIXP and and
benefits that a student here could take advantage of.
Yeah. And I also think that's
something we like experience working for SAP, that we really
feel like equal, even though we know we have our managers that
we have to follow and they give us like the instructions people
in so many ways like we feel. Hurt good, I feel.
Like appreciated. And I think that's really also
because of IXP because like you ensure that like the managers
listen to us, they hear us, that they care for us, and then
actually think about like what is best for our interns.
So they stay and stay as like working students, just like I
do. Now, yes, yes, so.
Just because I love my internship experience, otherwise
I would probably love the company.
Right. I love to hear that.
And that's so important because everyone's human at the end of
the day, and everyone wants to feel important and seen and
heard. And it can be very easy to not
feel that way in a large organization, especially if not
all of your team sits in the same place.
And for students, it, it can be overwhelming.
They don't know if they should speak up at meetings.
They don't know if it's safe to have an opinion.
And what we on my team really try to cascade is reminding
managers of that. And many of our managers of SAP
naturally do feel the same way. We work with incredible leaders
around the world, but intention doesn't always equal outcome.
So that is, I think another value that my team and I try to
bring is breaking it down to leaders to say, have you thought
about what this generation is, how they communicate, what
motivates them? It may or may or may not be
different than the others on your team.
So we kind of remind them and give tools of how best to
develop this talent segment and position them for success.
Yeah, we're already at the end. Of our Oh my goodness, time
flies when you're having a good time.
But before you leave us, we would like to know or to ask you
something that AI wants to know. OK, excellent.
The question is, if you could swap jobs with anyone else in
the world, who would it be and why?
Oh, if I could swap jobs with anyone in the world.
My mind is going in so many different directions right now,
so the first. Sports.
That's that's where my mind went.
You know, old habits die hard at.
The first thing that came to mind was being a sports reporter
and living that life that I was so convinced was for me for for
a week. I think it would be awesome.
And and I probably realized that I'm where I'm supposed to be.
And so I'd get that validation that no, it's OK to be a sports
fan. It didn't need to be your
career. You really are where you can
make the most impact. But some other thoughts that
came to mind. I'd love to like work on a
cruise ship and like saying it doesn't.
I'm a good singer, but I love a microphone and I love cruise
ships. So entertaining or maybe also
having both of my fur babies are rescue dogs.
And so another dream of mine is to one day have enough money
that any dog that needs a home or is mistreated, I can bring
them on this like farm sanctuary and just give them the very best
life. So all of those things, if I
could do all of this for a week, I'm in.
Well, what a great topic to end the word First podcast episode
on. Thank you so much, Christine.
For joining us. Thank you both.
This was incredible. You could not convince me that
you both haven't been doing podcasts for years.
You were amazing, so thank you so much.
And remember, with the SAP Internship Experience Program,
you're not just gaining experience, but you're expanding
your. Horizons.
Thank you and until next time, bye.