I always knew that SAS was right next to Cary Academy, but until today I had no idea that just beyond the tennis courts of CA lies 10+ buildings and a world of innovation. Upon arriving to the SAS campus, we were greeted by Christine Dougherty, who works in talent acquisition and university recruitment. Christine gave us a presentation about what SAS does and the core values of the company. She told us about how SAS software is used across the globe. I was surprised to learn about the vast number of ways in which SAS software can be used–everything from retail to cancer treatment to stopping terrorism. She told us about the great corporate culture at SAS and the many benefits of working at the company. After the presentation, we headed downstairs to the cafeteria. The SAS cafeteria had tons of options that were all very good.
After lunch, we began our shadowing. I started off in the finance department shadowing Ashley Gatewood. Ashley is the Change Management Program director in the finance division. Then we met Lisa Vulinec who is the Corporate Finance Manager. Lisa and Ashley gave us an overview of what the finance department at SAS does. They talked about the vision and goals of the company and how they work to fulfill that in finance. They also emphasized the way in which they are currently working to globalize finance at SAS and make it more globally efficient and effective throughout SAS offices around the world. Ashley then gave us a quick tour of the finance floor. It was interesting to see the amount of large open spaces dedicated to collaboration between employees.