Because of advancements in digital technology, everything in today’s workplace is changing faster than ever. The implications for employees are massive. If you want to stay relevant and agile and ultimately be successful, you need ongoing, leading-edge learning and development more than ever before. SAP’s robust portfolio of learning and development offerings helps you stay ahead of technology and accelerates your career.
Learning and Career Development
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Courses provided to 96% of our employees in 2019
This isn’t just a job – it’s a big part of your life. Spend some time figuring out where you want SAP to take you, and we’ll help get you there. At SAP, we want to make sure our employees are happy, fulfilled, challenged – and working towards their individual career goals.
Be part of a global learning culture – where everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student. At SAP, learning happens all the time and in many different ways: on the job, through interactions with your peers, through formal learning activities, and by using a variety of tools. Our people truly are our greatest asset, and we love investing in them – so every aspect of your learning and career development is covered by SAP, and will keep you competitive and thriving in today’s constantly changing digital workplace.
Career development offerings at SAP
Our employees get access to their choice of programs, support and services to help them create their ideal career, tailored to their personal talents and passions.
Opportunity finder
Internal recruiting platform, career navigator, and pathfinder for finding new opportunities at SAP.
Online and self-paced learning
Functional and cross-functional learning for sales, services, products, finance, HR, and marketing.
Tailored talent support
Support for early talent, experts, fast-trackers, leaders, women, and differently abled colleagues.
Peer learning
Peer learning culture with job shadowing and award-winning coaching and mentoring programs – free for all employees.
Beyond-the-job experience
Opportunities for new work experiences through fellowships and job exchange programs – at home or abroad.
Employee Career Success Center
Virtual and in-person career guidance, coffee corner sessions, speaker events, and recruiter speed dates.
Fostering peer learning to enhance the employee experience
Discover how we at SAP used our SAP SuccessFactors solutions to develop a global coaching and mentoring program. Our goal is to have a balanced pool of coaches and mentors of all ages, races, and genders to reflect the diversity of our workforce, increase employee engagement, satisfaction, and personal growth while supporting the development of emerging talent, and foster cross-organizational agility.
Advice bytes: advice for a better-run career
SAP knows what it's like to run better. Our vision to help the world run better starts with the people behind our business.
At SAP, everyone is a talent. We have the power to shape and achieve an amazing career at SAP and have a bigger impact on the world. As you reflect on your own career planning and development, we hope you will enjoy this collection of advice bytes that our employees have found to be most impactful on their journey towards career and personal success.
Take control of your career
Taking responsibility by owning your career development and growth is vital for achieving the fulfilling career you want. You will be happier and more productive when you know you are working towards your career aspirations. See what our employees are saying about the importance of taking responsibility and empowering yourself to drive your own career.
Megha Jain
The best career advice I have ever received came from my husband, who told me to 'NEVER GIVE UP.' There have been many challenging situations throughout my career, and there have been few times where clouds of doubt and uncertainty have pulled me down and I felt like giving up. But then my husband cheered me up, saying 'You will not just give up on a difficult situation because if you do, you will be giving up on all the hard work and the sacrifices you have made to be where and what you are today'.
Vivek Lakwal
To grow your career and take it to the next level, you need to make yourself redundant in the current role as soon as possible. We cannot really get promoted to the next level unless there is somebody else ready to fill in or replace us in our current position. It is contradictory to the common belief where people think they should make themselves so important that without them nothing can really move in the company.
Divya Palakshaiah Malemath
The best career advice came from my first manager who told me 'If you really don't know - ASK.' Though it sounds pretty simple, at the beginning of my career I was unsure about how I was contributing to the company and its growth by doing my job. With this in mind, I did muster up the courage to ask my HR head this question and was immediately provided with truckload of resources and guidance to find out how I mattered to the company. To this day, this advice has never failed me in any situation.
Manjunath Gopal
Your career is in your hands. Do not expect your manager to manage your career. You have to take the initiative and responsibility for your career. Your manager can only facilitate what you want to do.
Take risks and get out of your comfort zone
Taking risks and stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone can be downright frightening. But if you are strategic about it, and know when and where to take risks by applying some of the strategies our employees have shared below, you will start noticing all the opportunities you can take on to grow yourself personally and professionally.
Nicole McCabe
The best career advice that I ever received was to be flexible in my career goals and to not dismiss opportunities because they weren’t part of a greater plan. The best opportunities often come when you least expect it and are not always something you will foresee.
Gchandra Mouleeswaran
Based on my experience, the best career advice is to come out of your comfort zone and explore alternate careers and believe that lateral growth is also growth (against the popular belief of vertical growth as the only growth).
Vardaraj AV
Based on my past career experience, my advice to everyone is "explore" what extra values you can deliver in your current role. Come out of your comfort zone and look for new career passions and opportunities within your company. Explore different careers laterally and vertically. Have a great career!
Sue Sutton
Plan…but be flexible about your plan so you don’t miss any opportunities. Always do the right thing – follow your heart but use your brain too. And never be afraid to try something new.
Merisa DiRocco
Best advice I have ever received is never turn down an opportunity. If an opportunity presents itself, take the risk.
Working around your passions
Finding and following your passions can re-energize you and help you thrive professionally. By working around your passions, you can also inspire your colleagues to excel towards excellence and success for your organization. See below how our employees have identified and worked around their passions to achieve an amazing career.
Pavana Shivalingachar
My best career advice would be 'Do something valuable'. Let the problems in the world dictate what you do, rather than forcing a preconceived checklist labeled 'success' to be your motivation. Do something that genuinely helps others and makes the world a better place in a major way. That's the way to have a successful career.
Alyse Wyler
The best career advice I received from a mentor is do what you love by finding what motivates or drives you both inside and outside of work and make that your job, so you don't feel like you are "working" anymore. I have also heard it explained as finding what makes you whistle at the coffee maker in the morning.
Mary Odabashian
At least once a year, I ask myself a few questions: Am I having fun? Do I like the people that I'm working with? Am I continuing to learn and grow? Does my work life support my overall life-vision and values?
Ganeshbhatta Poojar
My advice is very simple, enjoy what you are doing and everything else will follow.
Prasad Gokulapati
A working career is a long journey and occupies a major part of our lives, so it's very important you understand and love what you do and be passionate about it at the same time.
Respecting your work and others
Respect can go a long way in helping you achieve a fruitful and fulfilling career. Check out some valuable advice our employees have to offer around the importance of respecting your work, yourself, and others in helping you reach your full potential.
Urte Thoelke
The best career advice I received actually came from my father back in my childhood. He always said and lived it himself that you will get the most attention and support from people when you are able to first show empathy for the situation they are in. It doesn't help to complain about others and their way of doing things – they do it their own way and sometimes just can't do it differently. But once you've found a common basis to start doing things together, you will be able to show the other person alternative ways to do things that might work even better for themselves, and you will also learn from their perspective to question your own way of perceiving and doing things!
Roland Auer
My best advice wasn't given orally, but lived by a previous colleague: Take pride in your work. Don't just make it OK, go the extra mile to make it fabulous. It's the small things that count and they can be found in every task. Just do these two quick mental checks when you finish a task: 1. Am I happy with the result? 2. Can I add something that takes little time, but would be appreciated by the receiver? Often enough you can add extra value for both sides without much extra investment. Talk about satisfaction in your job.
Abdul Hakeem
My best career advice is… at 60, when you have retired and look back at your life, you should feel proud and satisfied that you shaped something significant and made a difference in the lives of the people around you… and you did this without any deviation from the principals of integrity and ethics.
Diwakar Gandhi
What I have learned in life, including my college and personal life, is to always maintain a symbiotic relationship with your peers. Respect the people you are working with and learn from them. Also make sure that it goes the other way around too, where you also share your knowledge and experience with them.
Network for career success
Building a solid, strong network at work is critical to getting things done and advancing your career. But meeting new people can be intimating for those of us who are not born as extroverts or natural networkers. Below, our employees offer some simple but powerful tips on how you can improve your networking skills and share some of their own networking success stories.
Jan Seger
Create visibility through building a network across the organization. When you work for a big organization, it's very easy to get lost in the cracks, so get out there and meet people when you travel to other global offices, share your knowledge and make your skills visible, ask about things you don't understand, and take on new challenges.
Lindsey Nelson
My best advice was to keep a strong network that isn’t reserved to where you want to make your next career move. Keep an open mind about everyone and every organization even if you don’t think you’ll ever have a role in that group. It’s beneficial to understand the role they play in the ecosystem.
Paul Meredith
I would not have had any success without the contributions of my colleagues. Big companies run on relationships. It's all about people. Take the time to get to know people, and it will yield rewards. It's the best investment you can make for your career.
Darcy MacClaren
The best advice I received was from my hiring manager who said that the most important thing I needed to do was to build my personal network. That advice has been critical to my ability to get things done and navigate the organization.
Kiran Venkataramanappa
The best advice that still sticks with me today is to take the time to build your own brand.
Laura Jamieson
My dad gave me a piece of advice when I was just finishing school: "Don't be afraid to ask people for advice. Everybody likes to give advice." This has been good feedback as it has helped me to reach out to people to build my network – and it has even led to job offers.
Finding work-life balance
We all take great pride in our work, and many of us identify who we are by what we do. But when your work begins to heavily and regularly seep over into your personal life, you inevitably spend less time on other enjoyable aspects of life, such as your family and friends. Below you will find some very useful tips our employees have applied to successfully achieve a successful career with a good work-life balance.
Lindsey Makela
Give your family as much respect as you give work. You don't allow your kids to interrupt you during work hours (unless for emergencies obviously), then give them the same respect when it's family time. Turn off your work phone, shut your laptop, and give them your full attention. Family comes first. Another great piece of advice was inspired by Sheryl Sandberg. I was given the advice not to take myself out of the game before I even get to that point in your life. Lean in. Work hard and strive for the career you want. You'll make it work when it comes time. You CAN have it all.
Cathy Cooper
My best career advice came in my fourth job after college in a small marketing consulting firm. When my manager came back to the office after hours and found me still working on an analysis, he said 'You're no good to me dead. There will be time to work on this tomorrow. Please go home now…' It reminded me that you do need to strive for balance between work and the rest of your life.
Heike Fiedler-Phelps
The best advice I ever received was when I was pregnant with my first son, to 'LEAN IN', long before this term was coined. I was told that my career would not stop and the company would not assume my potential or enthusiasm was less. And make time for my family, and stop the crazy continuous 80+ hours weeks.
Thrilochana Rajappa
Be professional at work. Come to the office and work and leave the work at the office only! Don't carry home anything from the office. And don't always try to find happiness in work, indulge in different interests that will make us happier in life.
Hear some great career stories
See what employees from all over the world say about their SAP experience.
Employer awards
Association For Talent Development
Six SAP sales learning programs have been recognized for "Excellence in Practice" by the by the Association for Talent Development (ATD) – the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. Winners were selected from over 220 entries – submitted by organizations around the world.
Excellence in training
SAP’s learning and development teams won 12 gold, silver, and bronze awards from Brandon Hall in 2018 – for excellence in training and performance. Find out why, and learn more about these human capital management awards.
Award-winning coaching program
We have 300 certified coaches in 40 countries who help guide employees on-site or using a virtual set up – at no cost. See why we were honored by the International Coach Federation (ICF) for this program.
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Life at SAP
We go to great lengths to ensure you have every opportunity to succeed – in your own way. Flourish in an environment that encourages free expression, collaboration, individuality, and diversity. Learn how we operate, innovate, work, play, and give back – to make sure we’re the right fit for you.
Benefits
People who do great work deserve great support. That’s why we care about building a culture of flexibility, learning, and belonging. At SAP, you can customize your benefits experience to meet your personal and professional needs and support a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
Job areas
Act boldly and innovate at SAP – no matter what your career path. Explore job opportunities in sales, development and technology, consulting services and support, corporate operations, marketing and communications, HR, and finance.