UK Graduates

Hello all! My name is Albert and I joined Accenture as an Analyst on the Strategy & Consulting Programme in October 2015. Like all others on this blog, I’ve signed up to periodically post about life at Accenture with a view to providing an original perspective – I hope it helps!

Prior to working at Accenture I studied Mathematical Economics at the University of Birmingham, where I was heavily involved in the University Investment Fund and the Christian Union. Across my three years at University I interned with a variety of firms, from actuarial consulting, to group strategy at a bank, to an investment/mortgage start-up, concluding with an internship at Accenture last summer (2014).

I won’t repeat what you’ve already seen in other blogs, London/Chicago training, the application process, the ‘day in the life of…’, but it’s been eye-opening to experience first-hand what you read about Strategy Consulting. That is: it’s a varied career, that no day is the same, that there are lots of ‘like-minded’ ambitious individuals, numerous opportunities for travel and that it’s essentially a fast-track in corporate maturity. I will leave my ‘first few weeks’ at that, for now.

But now, back to basics.

Why do you want to join?

The dreaded motivation question; the simplest, yet unfortunately, often the most unfounded. If there’s one thing you take away from this blog, nail this question.

Why did I join Accenture Strategy?

• I knew I wanted to start my career in business strategy consulting…
• Accenture Strategy is well-positioned to win impactful, high-profile business strategy work, largely given the heightened appetite in industry for tangible value (i.e. ease of transition to implementation).
• The programme isn’t as structured as some, in the sense that you can get on with your career and make things happen. I call it ‘down-to-earth’ and it’s actually the only way to foster a meritocratic culture from the start.
  …By the way, we are given 4 weeks initial training, career mentors and a wealth of resources (including residential trainings throughout your career). My point is that our experience is accumulated ‘by doing’ and taking on responsibility, not shadowing/rotations; better still, you get to experience variety anyway (of geography, industry, function).

Why would I recommend it?

• The above still hold.
• The opportunity for variety at any given point in time (i.e. not just across a career, but day to day) is impressive and deeply fulfilling. I am currently balancing my project, a role within the Analyst community, industry practice discussion, thought-leadership and recruitment/new-joiners.
• The graduates I joined alongside are now some of my best pals.
• The strategy practice has a very rich portfolio of experience and lots of very impressive individuals to learn from.

Next time I’ll talk a bit more about my actual consulting and side-of-desk (in addition to my project) experience so far. I’m notably hoping to do some M&A, Operating model and Risk Strategy work, so we should be able to cover a variety of interesting topics!

Thanks for reading my blog post, please feel free to share the link. I look forward to speaking to you all again soon.

Albert