Software Engineer Review

The enjoyment varied at times throughout my placement. I worked on two different projects for my time at Accenture in two different roles. The first was working within their DevOps practice. This was enjoyable because I learnt things I'd never have learnt in university. I realise this wasn't for me however and I wanted to align myself more towards a consulting role for if I get a graduate offer. I then worked as a BA on a client project. I really enjoyed this work.

In both projects, I felt very valued by my colleagues. I was always listened to and asked if I had any opinions to offer. Sometimes these would be taken into account and the direction would change if I had made a good point regarding something. You are treated as a normal permanent employee from day one.

Both of my line managers were fantastic. They were always able to offer support and advice where needed. It was good to learn skills from them for future management skills. The managers won't treat you just as an intern. They treat you as a normal colleague, especially if you go for a night out with them!

This varied alot. On my first project, I had days when I was very busy and stressed and then there were some when there wasn't much to do. On my second project, however, there was always a lot to do, I enjoy this high pressure environment and feel as though I thrived on it.

I was treated just like anybody else. I was expected to attend meetings with clients, often as the only Accenture employee present. I enjoyed that they didn't hide me away from any responsibility, I enjoyed this and think it teaches a lot of valuable lessons that all undergrads should learn at some point.

Enormously. The first project was very technical based. I worked as a software developer, DevOps Engineer and a Technical Architect. This meant there was a huge variety of skills to learn. I wouldn't have had the chance to learn these anywhere else. My second project taught me a lot of skills from a non-technical perspective and mainly developed my soft skills. My teamwork and communication I feel improved massively. Being able to communicate with senior leadership in a very important aspect and my second project developed this.

This again varied. For my first project, we were based in a different office. This had a great atmosphere as everybody there was pretty young and enthusiastic. Everybody was really easy to get on with there. On my second project, we were based in the client office. This wasn't a negative experience though as I was still able to get on with everybody well.

Before the placement, everything seemed very organised. However, after I joined, we were just given some training videos to watch for 3 weeks with no instruction as to what was supposed to happen after that. We were supposed to be assigned projects, however, this didn't happen and we had to source them ourselves then. There was still some who didn't have projects months into the year.

Training is hard to come by really as there is so much demand and why would they send an intern to a course when there are permanent employees who need to go. Certifications are nearly impossible and you shouldn't expect to be able to come to Accenture on a placement and become certified in many things.

I have an exit interview coming up, I hope with the feedback from my managers I can get an offer for consulting. I'd definitely be happy coming back here in that role as it's a lot of fun.

This was down to the students themselves to organise seeing each other. Many you wont see for the rest of the year as they'll be on a project elsewhere but those still in London you can arrange nights out with easily I'm sure. In terms of colleagues, on my first project there were lots of socials and nights out. We would regularly go to the pub after work and have a laugh. On my second project we didn't really get the chance to do this.

Well it's London. Cost of living was very high, as was socialising. It's very difficult to be able to do much if you're renting somewhere too.

Nightlife was great! It was central London, so there were bars and pubs everywhere

It depends where you are really. myself and some colleagues on my first project got involved in a 5K running race. We also had a bouldering club and socialised in pubs too.