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Ask HN: What do you think about SAP?

2 points by Ksabs ↗ HN
Hey, I am a German (m 18) who has just started studying Computer Science in a dual partnership with SAP ("Duales Studium Angewandte Informatik").

1) I hear a lot of talk about tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple etc. but never about SAP. What do you think about SAP? (things like image, culture, ethics, future, opportunities)

2) I am interested in FP, lisps, cloud, web dev, algorithms, AI, hardware (basically anything that has to do with computers). Do you think that SAP provides an environment in which I can explore these things and foster my skills (especially post bachelor)?

3) Do you think that SAP is a good employer (in comparison to other tech players)? Why?

4) What do you think about business culture (in b2b companies)? Do you have any personal experiences you want to share?

5) Also, is my English ok? Is it obvious that I'm German?

I appreciate every comment that is helpful and constructive. I am just some dude who is getting started at adulthood and working, with no real perspective on things; feedback from a community I value (which shares similar interests, demographics, world views etc.) would be great.

I am just afraid that I might get myself into a boring business related field I will regret.

Sorry for the rant. Throw-away account for obvious reasons.

2 comments

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zunzun
I can answer on #5, your written English is excellent. I am an American who has worked as an engineer in many countries, and am a bit curious as to why this is true. When I worked in Japan, the education system there required years of reading and writing English and I never had any technical difficulties at all with the written English of my Japanese co-workers. I found this to be generally true in most of my engineering work around the world.
shan-m
I have been a SAP consultant for the last 25 years - mostly doing ERP. Here are my answers -

1) Considering it is the largest European software company with sales similar to facebook, I am constantly surprised how little people know about SAP - even among IT professionals. Their image is staid and corporate as could be expected from a company whose customers tend to be large organisations. However there are many opportunities for SAP consultants - I have seldom struggled to find work. Due to the complexity of their products, I am still learning new skills everyday.

2) They have tried to follow the trends by adding FP features to ABAP, WebIDE for Fiori and SAPUI5, Leonardo for machine learning, etc but it never really seems to catch on. I think this is because there is no compelling use case in an traditional ERP environment. The most revolutionary change was the migration to HANA in memory database but even this is transparent to the average ERP user. If your heart is set on these areas, I would not recommend SAP.

3) I have not personally worked for SAP but I imagine they are like any other huge multi-national. I went to the Waldorf HQ last year and clearly they employ many smart highly skilled people but it lacks the "we are changing the world" vibe which I could imagine in many younger new technology based companies.

4) Business culture is much slower to change than individual culture. Business skills don't become obsolete so quickly. Social networking may out of fashion 5 years from now but boring old double-entry accounting is still going strong after 500 years.

5) It's good enough. I have worked France and Holland despite issues with my French and Dutch. I notice younger colleagues prefer to communicate more with IM and email which makes English listening and speaking skills less critical for tech workers.