What stood out to you about Accenture before securing your role?
The focus on I&D (inclusion & Diversity) at Accenture – compared to other companies I interned at, people seemed to have a genuine respect and passion for I&D which they could actively pursue on their projects and through meaningful side of desk (mini-projects you can pursue outside of your client.
How did you show you have a passion for Accenture at the interview?
I read through their most recent reports on tech advancements, company updates, acquisitions and anything else I found interesting (e.g.: their reports on disability inclusion, sustainability and gender) I also familiarised myself with the company’s core values. This enabled me to make appropriate references in the interview and understand what they were really looking for in a candidate.
What opportunities do Accenture offer?
There’s a huge range of training on offer, from storytelling to data science to SCRUM mastery! You really can specialise in what you’re interested in, enabling you to work on projects you’ll enjoy and become a pioneer in your area through upskilling others. Accenture also offers a huge range of activities to get involved with, whether you want to join a tag-rugby team, become a mental health ally or become part of a data visualisation squad.
What has been your working ‘highlight’ thus far?
When we went live with my first tech delivery I had led end-to-end – I came from a non-technical background and had to upskill quickly on an initially underperforming workstream, so this was a very proud moment for me!
When did I start thinking of specialising
Identifying my future specialism was always a priority for me so I made sure to speak with people at a variety of levels across industries and roles at Accenture. After around 4 months, I identified a few key areas of interest (B2C, Comms & Media, customer experience in Contact Centres/online and AI) and ways of working I most enjoyed (a balance of workshopping and independently managing a few key deliverables). I started tailoring my side of desk/roles to explore these areas further and could clearly articulate my specialisms at around 6-9 months at level.
However, you can definitely take more time for this if you need! And this started becoming clearer after around 4 months of being at Accenture had only worked on two projects but I knew I found B2C (Business-to-Consumer) work more relatable than B2B (Business-to-Business), especially the customer experience side. I enjoyed a mixture of workshopping and owning my own deliverables, so started looking for roles in the Product Owner and Delivery Orchestration spaces. Ultimately, finding my specialism was a mixture of process by elimination and digging deeper into what I found interesting, and now I can clearly articulate my specialism.
What top three tips would you give Bright Network members looking to follow in your footsteps?
- Be proactive! This is a key skill at Accenture – you need to be comfortable picking up actions and upward managing if you want to accelerate your growth
- Focus on upskilling in areas of interest – if you’re not sure what those are yet, learn widely and naturally dive deeper into what ‘clicks’ for you
- Try bring others up with you – as you upskill, look for opportunities to teach others. Give constructive feedback to your team. Make time to catch-up with those earlier in their career. It enables their development while giving you early management/coaching experience…and it’s all good karma anyway