First, this morning, I listened to a Skype call with an expert on the cloud at SAS. He explained that it is more profitable for some smaller to medium-sized companies to use SAS software through the cloud rather than installing it into their own servers. Then Later I experienced a common employee check-in where the boss (Ms. Hager) checked in with Ms. Lanier to see what she was working on and if she had any suggestions. She suggested for the pre-sales team to get together at social events like the Durham Bulls. After this, I got to know more about Lanier a pre-sales and analytics specialist. She actually showed me a little about the SAS software and what it looked like. It was really interesting to finally get a hands-on experience with what everyone in the meetings had been talking about! Lanier showed me a project she created that analyzed data about a fictitious company she called Statwars. She made this project when she was a new employee and she was just learning the SAS software.
Later, I learned more in depth about CECL and I listened to a conference call that was very confusing and difficult for me to understand. Later, I met with another employee named Erin and she showed me a potential client out in California whose business was similar to Amazon. I was really interested in the idea of how SAS could sell software to this company that would tell them what deals they should have and when based off of what customers buy at the same time and when they buy their items. This was my last day with the Pre-Sales team and I learned how important it is to use social skills in the real world. This is something that isn’t really taught at school and getting a hands-on perspective with real employees is really helpful for me to build and continue learning on how to speak and interact with professionals. Next week I have work with IT members and I’m really excited to see how it goes!