Bus & Technology Delivery Analyst Review

The experience I gained in this placement was invaluable. I feel like a more mature and well-rounded individual following this placement. The line of work throws you into an unfamiliar environment where I have developed key skills across a wide range of categories. The variety of people and personalities I have come across has also been a highlight of the year.

I felt highly valued by certain colleagues such as recent graduates including analysts/consultants and even managers. Although with more senior colleagues I had a mixed experience. Some senior colleagues were great mentors and took an interest in your development. Others came across as highly patronising and demeaning, this undeniably affected my personal morale at the time, although I now view this as a great learning experience in developing my ability to work with a variety of personalities regardless of their seniority.

The nature of Accenture’s operating model, leads an emphasis on colleague self-reliance and as such there was limited support. I personally enjoyed this as I had greater control over which project I would apply to, deciding on which industry and client as well as the actual project function. There was a buddy scheme which I found of limited use. Regarding mentoring, some line managers took a high interest in your career progression although as mentioned in an above comment there were circumstances where support was very limited.

There were slow and fast days. The fast days were very intense requiring long hours and working to tight deadlines, this developed skills such as working efficiently and accurately to meet these deadlines. There were also slower days and the occasional days working from home catered for a more balanced and healthy work-life balance.

Throughout the placement I was given a high level of exposure and responsibility. I provided reporting updates which were used directly in client meetings. I also presented in these client meetings which was an invaluable experience. To be expected, responsibility increased the longer you were on a project as your understanding increased.

I can’t emphasise enough how great an experience this was. On a professional level, I developed an array of skills, most profoundly was probably my communicative skills, being able to navigate political situations in a working environment appropriately is something I will take forward into a grad job, hopefully allowing me to hit the ground running. The number of life lessons I will take away from this placement is also vast, living in a hotel during the working week for months at a time teaches you a great deal about yourself and your own personal priorities in life. I would and do recommend a year placement to anyone, it gives you a greater idea of what you want and what you want to avoid from a career after university.

The atmosphere varied significantly between projects. On the most part, the teams were young and enthusiastic. There is a highly political working environment due to the competitive nature of the promotions process at Accenture. I personally disliked this aspect of the working environment as there was a sense of people trying to one up each other. By far in the majority of the people I met were genuinely great people, although there were situations where I had to work with some degrading individuals.

The internship overall was well organised with a well-structured induction and assessment period at the end of the project. A few constructive comments would be firstly, the projects we were first assigned we had no choice in. Although we filled in an ‘Accenture CV’ it did not seem that this was aligned to our experiences and preferences which was somewhat disappointing. Although for consequential projects we had the option of pursuing projects more aligned to our experiences/preferences. Secondly, the organisation between projects seemed limited with a heavy reliance on yourself to organise your next project, there was little support, this meant that there were period of several weeks spent on the bench where you are not assigned to a project.

At Accenture, there is a heavy emphasis on employee learning and development. You are regularly recommended to take training days to develop your skill set. During periods on the bench you are expected to complete these training courses. Additionally, there is a priorities feedback form to assess your development with regular 1-2-1s with your Line Manager.

The career progression and competitive nature at Accenture is highly appealing. My one issue with seeing Accenture as a future employer is the political nature of the business environment which does not appeal to my preferences. There is a persistent interference of people trying to one up each other and this seems to be a requirement for promotion where people are pitted against each other although I assume it is like this in most big corporations.

There was a great social scene with social secretaries on each project. Additionally, there were regular organised drinks with fellow industrial placement interns in London. The team atmosphere on these socials was great. On my first project, we had regular 6-a-side football with the client which provided good entertainment and broke up the week well.

Whilst working on the client site, Accenture pays for most of your living expenses including hotel, food, travel costs etc. My biggest recommendation before finding a place to rent in London is to find out where your project will be based. If your project is out of London, then you will save yourself a small fortune by not renting in London. Socialising is dependent on your project, but I have had a good experience with regards to this aspect.

The nightlife on my current project is good with a major town near the client office. Obviously if you are based in London there will be a good nightlife. There are organised socials at the end of the week in London with work colleagues, allowing people who work out of London to get involved.

There are ample opportunities for extracurricular activities, it is up to your own initiative to organise activities if they are currently not occurring. As previously mentioned I personally involved myself in the 6-a-side football on a weekly basis. There is also the opportunity to take work days off for charity days, on the placement we are assigned 3 charity days which provide an opportunity to raise money for deserving causes.