Architecting a ‘life less ordinary’ in the cloud

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My journey to a “life less ordinary”—and a career in cloud at Accenture—started with deciding to quit the oil rigs to apply my technical skills in a more virtual environment.

A good friend of mine kept talking about his exciting career and opportunities at Accenture. I thought my skills might make me a good fit, so I gave it a try.

Now, as a Cloud Architect and part of Accenture's Cloud First team, I've learned to thrive through change. We live on ideas—thinking up new concepts and techniques, re-examining old ideas to improve them or trying to bring about fresh perspectives and challenge the status quo.

We’re harnessing the power of change to create 360^o value by putting cloud at the core of our clients’ businesses.

Powering through the cloud ranks

Two days after joining the company, I found myself working on a technical architecture assessment for a client. I got to work with some great mentors in our Master Technology Architecture (MTA) program.

From there, I progressed through training, peer review and client work as a member of the program. I powered through the ranks and now serve as a senior technology architect for Accenture.

When people ask me what life in Accenture is like, I think about what a 25-year Accenture veteran told me in my second year: “I cannot always promise you what your role will be, but I can promise your career will never be boring.”

He was right.

Paving the way for what's possible

I got a call in 2015 that had me flying to Japan to help one of our clients migrate their 10-year-old system to the cloud. I needed to help ensure that we had a solid foundation to build upon. That project gave me the chance to hone my skills and harness the power of Accenture's extensive ecosystem of global talents. I learned a lot from our team in Roppongi and enjoyed the time I spent with them.

The call to create and innovate has taken me to different places in the world—seven countries and counting! It's enabled me to face down challenges, stretch my capabilities and has helped me grow.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I'm a troubleshooter. We innovate, create change and drive growth. Our culture of continuous reassessment, introspection, peer review and experimentation enables our team to always be at the cutting edge of technology development.

My role is to act as a catalyst alongside my colleagues to bring a breadth of technology possibilities into difficult situations and then build them. That's why I need to enrich my knowledge and capabilities constantly. A new idea may have already superseded the best solution to a problem from six months ago.

‘Clouding’ around with mentors and friends

We foster an open, inclusive work environment with an open-door policy that allows us to be truthful about our experiences and opinions, regardless of career level. I've seen top leaders in the organization make time in their schedules to share their experiences and empower people to help them grow. I am humbled by those who have shared their time with me. It encourages me to continue to share mine with those who ask.

We succeed as a team. It's as simple as that. We share knowledge, ask questions, learn from each other, fail and get better by learning from our mistakes. Some of the most amazing things I have done at Accenture started with a 10-minute discussion between people who "make cloud happen" or "prefer python over Node."

In my experience, having a passion for technology at Accenture puts you in an incredible position to contribute where you can express your expertise and have the best impact.

In my 10 years with the company, I've never stopped experimenting, taking an interest and trying my best. It may seem counterintuitive, but I draw strength from my failures because unsuccessful endeavors mean I'm one step closer to success. I want to encourage my peers and team members to experiment, to try and learn what works by doing.

Teach, learn, design, build and make a difference. See which cloud career path at Accenture works best for you.