Accenture Volunteers in Action

About Me I grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan, graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Applied Science (engineering chemistry), honours, and am currently based in Toronto after having lived and worked in various cities across Canada.

Joining Accenture and Getting Involved with ADP
I was initially attracted to Accenture because of the opportunities for training and career development. I started my career with Accenture working on a social assistance project in New Brunswick, and subsequently worked on projects with the governments of Ontario and British Columbia as well as within the federal government, as a member of Accenture's Government operating group in Canada.

After eight years with Accenture, I began thinking strongly about ways I could use the skills and experience I developed to give back to the global community. Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) represented the perfect opportunity to do just that.

ADP is a charitable organization borne out of and sponsored by Accenture that allows consultants to work with non-governmental organizations supporting the developing world, helping them achieve their goals. The work delivered by ADP is not pro bono, however fees charged are significantly lower than usual Accenture rates ensuring ADP’s services are available to organizations that would not otherwise be able to afford the services of a major international consulting services provider. To keep fees low, participants accept a voluntary 50 percent salary reduction and Accenture waives its margins. This allows ADP to be economically self-sustaining and scaleable.

I was excited about the opportunity and decided to apply. I met the qualifications of the program, received approval from my supervisor and soon was staffed on a six-month engagement with Plan International, working on site in Kenya, Ghana, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Spain and South Africa.

Working Life
Working with new and different cultures is definitely an advantage of being on an ADP project and it helped me to improve my skills and develop new communication styles for different environments. In addition to working with other ADP colleagues (Accenture consultants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and France) I had the opportunity to work with Plan clients based around the world. I was responsible for an entire phase of work that was dependent on global input and approvals which I found to be a very positive challenge. I also gained skills building client relationships remotely from locations that are not well connected from a technology standpoint. I had the chance to help the client understand the “big picture” of how to achieve its project objectives, which led to many invaluable opportunities to present to senior client personnel.

What is great about participating in ADP is that it is an integrated part of your career progression at Accenture. Taking part does not adversely affect your career in any way. I continued to be performance managed—as I would be with any other client. I also received formal feedback on my Plan project work and I remained part of Accenture's promotion process.

Balancing Work and Life
I have been interested in working in the charitable/development sector for several years. In the summer of 2003, I had the opportunity to visit a developing country, Mauritius (off the coast of South Africa), where I had first-hand experience in understanding the challenges such countries face in trying to establish and maintain their local capacity and skills in areas taken for granted by most privileged countries; for example, use of technology to achieve government and business goals.

Taking the time to participate in ADP has been the realization of a personal passion and I am pleased to be with an organization that allowed me the chance to do this kind of work without having to take a leave of absence or stop my progression in the organization. While working on my ADP assignment, I have been able to apply the skills and experience that I developed in Accenture over a number of years to a new type of client environment for a very different impact.