Systems Analyst - Summer Intern Review

I spent 8 weeks at Accenture for a consulting internship, I enjoyed my time there but to be honest I did not learn as much as I expected. I was sent to Newcastle for a project Tues-Thurs and worked from home on Fridays. However due to the lack of organisation by Accenture, I was unable to get a client laptop during my placement so I ended up doing little consulting work and instead my manager struggled to find me something useful to do.

The analysts on the project I was assigned to were extremely helpful and were really friendly to me throughout the internship. They answered any questions I had regarding the company and the project and gave their honest opinion on the culture of Accenture. I was also assigned a buddy who was with me the entire time of the internship.

My manager didn't interact with me much at all, it was mainly my buddy who was an analyst that reviewed my work. But once again I was not given any consulting related work so it was very difficult for any substantial feedback to be given to me. I only did very basic tasks so there was little need for support and guidance by managers.

I was usually very bored at my internship as I did not have a client laptop. I have reflected this to my manager but there was nothing we could do because it was up to the client to process my security clearance which could take up to one month so I was never cleared even though I spent two months there. However, I do know that some other interns were a lot busier than myself, it completely depends on the project you are assigned to.

A huge amount. I have been really lucky in the amount of opportunities I have been given to build on my skills and learn new ones. As I have gone along my placement I've gained more and more responsibility and am now running an outdoor campaign in Ireland which is absolutely fantastic to be able to do. Although I've had a lot of responsibility it has been built up slowly as I become more and more capable so I do not feel that I have ever been out of my depth.

I think that I have developed really essential skills in organisation and time management that will really help me in my final year and beyond. I've also learnt a lot about professionalism and even how to construct a good email. On the marketing/ business side of things I have seen products come from an idea to the shelf and case studies like this will really help me next year when I need to gain understanding around theory.

People took their work relatively seriously and most had lunch at their desk at the client site. Because most people are based in london, travelling up to newcastle would take away 3 hours of working time so most people were very hard working at the office and tried to work on the train as well. People were friendly to others, managers were approachable and engaging during meetings, it was a nice place to work at.

The only fault was that on the very first day, the induction was not as seamless for members of my internship scheme as it was for members of the main internship scheme in terms of content. This was partially due to the imbalance in numbers (4:80) and also due to the fact the scheme I was on was being run for the first time. Everything else was faultless.

I was given help whenever I needed it, weekly progress one-on-one meetings with my manager, and a fully comprehensive, mid-internship progress review. After completion of my internship, I was able to receive full feedback from a variety of staff members I had worked with, before finding out whether I would be offered the graduate position.

I can't wait to accept my offer and return to the company this year. The internship placement was more than I could have hoped for - I didn't think it would be possible to be this excited about work! I know that I will receive excellent training, endless opportunities, and be surrounded by the best people.

It depends from project to project, I was lucky in that the project I was assigned to had a lot of young graduates so most people did activities together after work, especially if we were away from London (where we were all based). I have heard from other interns that they were the only young employees so the social life was quite dull. However, you essentially have zero interactions with other interns apart from the first week and the last day of the internship unless you are with them on the same project.

Being based in Newcastle/on client site meant that you get expenses paid for so it was great. I got my dinner, hotels and transport all paid for by Accenture. However, it also meant that I rent a place in London and didn't spend much time there during the week so that was the down side of being at a client site.

Nightlife in Newcastle is no where near as good as London, also it's weeknights where I would be there so it didn't really help. We did go to bars once or twice with all the analysts on the project but not any big night outs. But overall the nightlife was good enough if you are into some nice food and drinks.

I didn't hear about many activity opportunities, they had one or two sports nights but I was never informed until an hour before because I wasn't on the client email list so it was a bit disappointing. Any other activities that were organised by analysts were not with Accenture so I was informed of those privately.