Software Engineer Review

This was the first piece of work experience I have in this industry. I had heard a lot of good things about accenture and their drive to be the best, however I wasnt really sure what to expect. Their working culture is fantastic and that is really what makes accenture a great company to work for

You will hear many people say the people are what make accenture. They're right! The people at accenture are extremely approachable, if you are unsure of anything just ask. They make you feel welcome and part of the team. During my experience I wasn’t treated like an intern which is nice because it feels like you get more responsibility and therefore provides a chance for you to prove yourself.

The support by management and other colleagues is incredible, although understandably they won’t do the work for you, they will help in any way they can. The supervisor/manager will willingly have a meeting with you to discuss performance and concerns. As you become more confident in the project they are willing to give you more responsibility if you want to make yourself push on.

The working hours are 9-5:30, some days you can finish at 5:30. But the majority of the time you are so busy that you have to work over your contracted hours. In terms of experience this is good as in the real world you would be expected to stay on at work until the piece is completed, there are deadlines to be met! In conclusion I would say you are busy all day.

For the first 2 weeks of my 2 projects I spent time observing and gaining an understanding of the project. Therefore there wasn’t much responsibility at this stage. However as I developed, gained confidence and started to make an impact my manager was willing to give me more responsibilities. As a result I was in charge of the running of batch jobs, and reporting any failures to the manager for a particular project.

A lot of the work I did throughout the projects reflected well in what I have learnt at university. It was nice to be able to put the university work to use in the work place. Equally, I have learnt a lot of people skills – talking to clients and presenting, that I have been able to take back to university. Accenture also put the placement students through some training either Java or Testing. I gained a foundation level ITSQB certificate which I have been able to discuss and use at university.

The general atmosphere was friendly and there were lots of jokes and smiley faces. However you could tell when the deadline was near as the atmosphere changes. The concentration is always there, but the guys come under pressure when there is a deadline and as a result aren’t as relaxed in the work place. – but on the whole it is a comfortable to working environment and happy people produce better results.

I felt the placement was really well organised, the first few days of the placement were spent getting to know the other interns and then it was onto the 1 week training course. After completing the training we were sent out onto our first projects. Then it was up to us to find our next project, my second project started in October and I remained there until the end of the placement in July. We were contacted by the placement organisers that we were required to have a chat and hand back our laptops and equipment on the last day. Any questions that we had were answered quickly.

I attended 2 training courses, 1 on testing and the other on web app development. Both of the courses were 1 week long. So Accenture helped me add to my skillset and CV the ability to test efficiently and develop mobile applications using various languages such as Jquery, javascript, CSS and HTML. The also provided many other training courses which I was unable to attend.

Following a successful 1 year placement Accenture offered me a graduate role within the company, continuing software engineering. I have accepted the contract and will start working for Accenture full time in August. I look forward to growing my career within Accenture and helping other students get this fantastic opportunity.

Although the students aren't all on the same project we had a facebook group set up to help us create times for gatherings. We did a lot of social events during the year. The projects also had its own gatherings, usually on a monthly basis. Were you would go for a meal and talk to other members of the team that you would not normally get to speak to in the office. Awards would normally be given out,

I didnt think it was expensive, no more than at university. Where you are earning money on the placement it makes it a bit easier.

The nightlife was average, unfortunately if you had a long day at work you went back to your room and went to sleep.

Monthly gatherings were important to the projects. It enabled people to bond and create a strong team that can get great results. On one of my projects we had a team activities often every 2 weeks, with an overall account activity once a month. This varied from paintball to a 'sit down' meal