Sarah's internship: Beyond the comfort zone

Hi! My name is Sarah Cher, and I was a management consulting intern for a cloud implementation project. I worked in the project’s Change Management team, where I assisted clients in acquainting themselves with their new tech systems.  

I’ve heard many good things about Accenture even before my internship, apart from it being a big name in tech consulting. But I was drawn to apply for two main reasons: one, it was an implementation project, to which I did not have any exposure. Since process and system implementation is a crucial part of the consulting process, I wanted to understand how this was carried out. And two, Accenture has a strong capability and focus on technology, so working on a technology-focused project appealed to me and I believed I could learn a lot from it.

Rise to the challenge

My responsibilities as an intern were mainly to conduct training sessions for our end-users so that they would be ready to utilize it once the project went live. In preparation for that, I worked with our functional teams to update and prepare any training materials.

I initially worked from home. A typical day starts with a team sync-up call where we shared our workflows and any roadblocks we encountered. Our team lead will then lend support to help us overcome our challenges. As regulations relaxed, my team opted to go to the office daily. Seeing each other in the office, eating lunches together and having the occasional post-work get-togethers definitely helped strengthen my bond with the team. The majority our trainings were conducted virtually but gradually, we were allowed to conduct a few sessions face-to-face.

I am very grateful to have joined my team as I was able to learn about the tech systems we were implementing for the client. I was also able to hone my communication and client management skills through leading training sessions.

These technical and human skills also opened up a lot of opportunities for me to work cross-functionally with other teams in our project. I appreciated how there were chances for me to contribute to initiatives within the project, such as when I helped create a Microsoft Teams-based community site for our end users. Getting that exposure with both our tech systems and with our clients was definitely one of the highlights of my work.

At work, I had a lot of autonomy and responsibility. Throughout my internship, I never felt restricted by my job title, as my colleagues treated me like one of their own. My supervisors pushed out of my comfort zone, which helped me take more ownership of my work. I even had the opportunity to lead calls with both our internal Accenture team and with the client. These opportunities are hard to come by, and I’m glad that I was able to grab this chance to really grow and learn.

Inspired to excel

The people at Accenture have undoubtedly been the cornerstone of my internship. My colleagues have been amazing; they’ve always taken the time to guide and teach me when I am in doubt and even offered to schedule calls to help me through my tasks. They constantly provided feedback on both my work and how I was coping as well.

I worked with a very young and all-female team, which inspired me. I was amazed to see how self-motivated they were and how they have each charted their careers in Accenture. They fueled my drive to really do well at work.

My supervisors were extremely approachable as well. Despite their busy schedules, they took the time to share their experiences over coffee with me. This deepened my understanding of Accenture as a company and their careers in the firm. I gained valuable insights from them and I’m grateful for their willingness to mentor me.

An invaluable learning experience

Over my seven-month-long internship, I’ve adopted a more open mindset and pushed myself to welcome new experiences. With my team lead’s encouragement, I was able to let go of my anxiety over learning something new and put in time to familiarise myself with a completely new system.

I’ve also learned to be proactive in asking for feedback from colleagues and supervisors, as these gave me something to work on constantly. Often, my teammates said things that I did not observe or realise about myself, and those were exactly what I needed to hear.

Lastly, my internship taught me resourcefulness. Initially, I tended to ask my colleagues for the answers to my questions and concerns. My supervisor soon taught me to seek answers for myself using the resources provided to me. This pushed me to become more independent. It also helped me streamline the questions I would ask after doing my preliminary search for answers.

I’d definitely recommend anyone who wants to work in a fast-paced environment that offers many learning opportunities to apply as an intern at Accenture. I had been looking forward to working in a larger firm where there are clear processes and structures in place. I also wanted to gain more opportunities to work with multiple teams, interact with clients and learn about client management. I’m happy to say that I managed to tick all three during my internship!

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