• The young people learned what it is like to work in a software giant and made a tour of the company offices

“The internship is a career start and we are investing a lot in interns as future colleagues”, said Stoyan Velev, manager at SAP Labs Bulgaria, where the interns from the member companies of the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria were on a visit. The visit was part of the young.LEADERS.talk series within the Council’s National Internship Initiative.

Stoyan Velev presented the internship opportunities at SAP Labs Bulgaria. They are mainly related to SAP’s business and especially to SAP Labs’ s one – software development. Sometimes interns with other specialties are also sought. The SAP intern’s profile is a student studying software who demonstrates big potential and willingness for fast learning, who has technical and non-technical skills and who is fluent in English. “Nine out of ten interns remain in the company”, added Stoyan Velev. He and his colleague Jane Mateva said that during the six month internship each intern has a mentor and works on real projects. These projects deliver real results and products of SAP, said Mateva.

The company representatives presented to the interns the software giant’s activity and the SAP Labs Bulgaria work. As a market leader in the business software industry, SAP has more than 388 000 customers in 180 countries, over 91 000 employees in 130 locations worldwide and has over 45 years of history. The development center in Sofia was established 18 years ago and already has three offices in the capital. The company is one of the SAP SE strategic divisions. Currently over 830 people work in SAP Labs and 75% of them work on cloud themes. The company plays a key role in defining and developing the SAP Cloud Platform.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria has been organizing the National Internship Initiative “Stay in Bulgaria”. The program is oriented towards the youngest professionals and will enable them once again to prove their qualities and skills, to get involved into the real business and to find opportunities for development along with suitable environment and a stimulus for their professional realization in Bulgaria.The initiative is under the patronage of Mrs. Eva Maydell, MEP.

In 2018 the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria launched its Young.LEADERS.talk series which takes place within the Council’s National Internship Initiative. Its purpose is to enable young people to meet their role models – political leaders, managers and young professionals who started their own careers as interns, as well as to visit some of the largest companies in Bulgaria.  In this way young people have the opportunity to get familiar with the business world and to learn how companies are organized and how they operate.