On a trip home on vacation, he then discovered that Accenture was opening an office in his home country, Botswana. So with a master of engineering under his belt, he soon landed his first job at Accenture in Botswana and was immediately assigned to an SAP project.
Noke says he's really been thrown in at the deep end and has had to learn to swim "very fast." Fortunately, he adds there's been "no lack of support." On this first project, Noke joined a team that was already working on a massive SAP implementation to help a large mining multinational in Botswana on its journey toward high performance. "I joined the team when they were halfway through the design phase. I was new to SAP, although I'd had some in-house training. In the build phase, getting familiar with SAP was a steep learning curve. Then midway through the build phase the project was deferred for about five months."
While this was disrupting, Noke says what he appreciates about working for a large multinational like Accenture is that one is not condemned to wait around—he was immediately sent to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he could continue building his skills. This time he gained exposure to a public-service entity where he was part of a team implementing an ISU-SAP solution for managing municipal rates and utilities. Being part of this project enriched his knowledge about the benefits of a well-managed project. "I was new to implementation and learned a lot about the building and testing of solutions. It was a good learning curve to come into a project in full swing."
Before returning to Botswana to resume work on the mining project, Noke took one more detour, this time joining a plant maintenance team working at a public-service company in Pretoria. If Noke's learning curve had been steep before, he says on this project he had to learn at lightning speed since the project was on the brink of going live. "It was hectic!" is all he can say.
Back in the Botswana office, Noke says he really appreciates Accenture's system of mentoring, "We have experienced professionals we can call on, as well as subject-matter experts. I found the subject-matter experts very useful, especially when the Pretoria project was going live, as I had to develop SAP reports and interfaces for the module."
The ability to transfer between countries and projects represents an exciting prospect for Noke. "One great thing about a global company is that you can move anywhere in the world where your skills are required." Nonetheless, Noke says, "There's so much to learn in terms of SAP and project management right where I am. So I'm happy right here in Botswana for the moment."
Apart from the wonderful opportunities Accenture offers for him to expand his skills base at a rapid pace, Noke says the greatest thing is Accenture's people. "They have a term: ‘you work hard and you play hard.' For example, in February we booked Sun City for the whole of Accenture in Botswana and South Africa for two days. It was an awesome time."