Technical Support Analyst 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.

Though there are upswings and downswings in workload in any job, generally I have been kept very busy. Workload is at times considerable but this forces one to prioritize, an extremely valuable skills in managing tasks. It also emphasized to me the need to speak up and say you have a lot on your plate and you need more time - often you get more respect by pushing back instead of producing sub-par work.

I was really surprised by how much autonomy I was actually given to pick-up-and-run with projects I felt I could improve. In general, solutions are not clear and I was often tasked with generating my own way of solving the issue. Though this can be challenging, it is extremely rewarding and helps to sharpen one's problem-solving and analytical capabilities. If interns were expecting to be handed the answers, consulting is the wrong line of business.

During my placement year, some of the skills I have improved/developed will be useful and applicable in my univeristy studies but even more so after university. Skills such as problem solving, working in a team and time management are essential in both my studies and after university. However other skills such as written communication and excel skills will be more appplicable to beyond my studies.

This really varies project to project. In my second project, it was non stop fun! It was a "One team, One dream" vibe even though there were 250 of us! We had lot's of team demonstrations to show the rest of the project what each team were working on so there was a lot of visability across the project. We had a great relationship with the client and had numerous social events each week. In my first project it was much more formal, however there are still team building activities and socials in each project.

You start off with an induction week with all the other interns which was good so you could get to know everyone and stay in contact before you all go and work on differet projects. HR assign you your first role, however I feel like it would be better if interns got more say/input into what role they would like to do. After your first 6 motnhs it is preferable that you move onto another role on another project. You can either speak to HR and let them help you find your next role or find one you would like through your contacts. In my experience, many of the interns contacted each other and swapped roles. Overall, I think the set up is good.

There were some training opportunities on offer for interns but interns could not be involved in all the training that Accenture offer. There is a lot of online training and learning you can sign up to and do which could take a couple of hours and then take an informal online assessment at the end. There are also non work related training you can do such as Mental Health Ally training which I did and found really interesting. In addition to this all Accenture employees get 3 charity days a year which is really good for your personal development.

I was offered a graduate job after my summer internship and so were most of the interns. I believe that Accenture is a large company and there are many projects you can get involved in but it felt like it was down to luck where you were assigned and how good your future prospects would be. In fact, most analysts told me that after 2 or 3 years if you were not promoted your bonus would end and most people would leave, there is a seriously high turnover rate which does not sound very promising. Accenture is extremely bottom heavy and it sounded very difficult to progress through the ranks in the company.

Again this is project dependent. On my first project there was a great social scene with weekly meals/drinks etc which was really fun. On my second project the team was much smaller and so the social scene not quite as good. But there is a large cohort of interns and young people so there is no shortage of social events for sure.

London prices will always not be cheap, but with a bit of hunting around there are always much more affordable places. I went through SpareRoom.com and found a really nice place with a short commute for a great price. In terms of socialising, it's not cheap but no-one is really expecting it to be in the centre of London.

London nightlife is up there with the best, plenty of different things for everyone whether just a quick pint at the pub or a full-blown night out, it has much to offer. As mentioned previously the only thing I would say is that it is really not cheap. Central London nightlife is great! London has numerous nightclubs to choose from and even student nights so there is something there for everyone.

Yes and no. There are a lot of different clubs and societies you can join, but honestly I can't imagine when I would find time. We are generally kept extremely busy and I think I would struggle to find time to go to the clubs, especially as you often don't know what time you'll be leaving the office on a certain day so it is hard to commit to trainings etc.