Traineeship at valantic as springboard into SAP consulting

Christian Schneider is 25 years young and started at valantic as a SAP S/4HANA trainee in September 2019 with the goal of becoming a SAP developer & consultant. Today, he describes his experiences, the challenges of starting a new career – precisely in times of Covid19 – and why he especially appreciates the individual development opportunities at valantic.

How was your start at valantic?

My start at valantic was very warm-hearted, relaxed, and easy. I found out about valantic thanks to an active inquiry from HR colleagues on Xing. Their message left me with a positive impression since it was very different than other inquiries I had received. The subsequent telephone conversation and personal interview on-site were completely relaxed thanks to the casual atmosphere and I had a good gut feeling right from the start.

After I was hired, I was very happy about my practical start. On my first day of work, I got to know all of my trainee colleagues. We understood each other well from the beginning and we have quickly grown close as a group.

With regard to my on-the-job training, I especially liked that our mentor spent a lot of time with us, and we also took part in a wide variety of SAP and programming trainings.

Last but not least, my personal highlight was the valantic onboarding event. It was great to get to know the valantic Group better in terms of its specializations and its company culture.

What do you especially like about valantic?

I especially appreciate the informal collaboration and transparency at valantic. My colleagues are open and always ready to help, so that I can always approach somebody if I have questions. Thanks to the regular internal info talks, I get all the important information about current developments and future planning. In the process, even as a trainee I have had the opportunity to provide new suggestions and ideas; I really like this.

In addition, I appreciate the flexibility when it comes to my personal development. At valantic, the development paths are anything but rigid. Thus I have the opportunity to find out where my strengths, expertise, and interests lie. Thanks to the flexible approach, I can gain experience in programming and in process consulting – and this even though at the start, I only knew the basis of programming.

What are the challenges of your job?

Starting a new career definitely causes some positive changes. During my studies, what counted with respect to project work was largely a good end result; now, my focus is on the individual process steps and work packages. Each customer project requires structured project planning and implementation, for only this way can we guarantee an optimal implementation. Gaining new IT project management knowledge and assisting our customers with current SAP projects is very exciting and challenging at the same time.

What do you do as a trainee?

As a trainee, I get detailed insight into the programming and consulting world. In the beginning, I participated in both internal and external trainings at SAP in Walldorf, and on my project team, I handled smaller work packages. Currently, I am ensuring with the programming of interfaces that there is a smooth data exchange between SAP and external customer systems. At the same time, I am focusing on the master data that will be available in the customer system for later test runs. I am also anticipating more exciting tasks in the next few months, for example, I will have the opportunity to help out with Fiori app development.

You are interested in using a traineeship as a springboard for your career? Learn more on our trainee career website or on our SAP career page.