Now that I’m finally working in town again, I’m trying to take advantage of several opportunities to participate in local events. Last Wednesday, I helped out with the New Joiner Orientation that was taking place in the Reston office. Officially, I was a presenter for a lunch discussion, but all I really had to do was show up, enjoy lunch and answer a few questions about Accenture.

It was a lot of fun and great way to meet people coming into the company. It also one of the first experiences New Joiners have of working for Accenture, so I was happy to help and try to make a good impression.

On Sunday afternoon, I traveled to Chicago to begin my nearly annual trip to St. Charles, Illinois, or a training class at the Q Center. This time around I'm attending Core Manager School, a required class for all new managers within the company. I love going to St. Charles because it reminds me of how multi-national, diverse and talented our company is. Every time I meet fascinating people from around the world that are doing all sorts of exciting work. This time, I'd barely stepped out of the airport when the people-meeting began.

I gathered my bags at O'Hare and called the number for the taxi company to take me to the Q Center. As I approached the car, an unfamiliar face asked me, "Are you Chanda? You have an Accenture blog, right?" I thought, "Wow, I'm becoming known for my Accenture blog!" Well, it turns out that standing in front of me was Jackie Shank, one of the authors of the Consulting Analysts Blog. She was headed to St. Charles for the first time to attend a new course, the Strategy College. My chance meeting with Jackie simply illustrates the small world of Accenture. There are only four of us that maintain Consulting blogs and two of us ended up at the same place at the same exact time without planning. I've come to realize that despite the size of Accenture (146,000 employees and growing), I keep running into the same 100 people.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to conduct interviews for New Hire Office Visits. New Hires are either just finishing up college or have a few years of work experience. By the time I met them, they’d already gone through several rounds of interviews and this was the final test, so to say. The final meeting provided a chance for them to meet Accenture employees and for employees to share with the applicants their experiences working with the company. Ideally, it would be a good match for everyone.It was my first time conducting interviews and it was a lot of fun.

It was great to meet energetic people that are (hopefully) going to work for the company one day soon. And I was quite impressed with their knowledge and motivation. While I don’t know how the final assessments turned out, I hope to run into my interviewees in the hallways of our office one day soon.