Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed it as a social opportunity, and valued it for it's insight into the truth of working life

To the extent I would expect of people to value an intern! People were able to come to me to assign me tasks but those closer to my age (grad scheme employees) were happy to show me the ropes. Some older employees were also extremely helpful in teaching me the lay of the land in terms of structure of ACN operation.

My supervisor was friendly and happy to answer questions although he was very busy, so guidance was often passed down to other employees who were less sure what to do with me (although tried very hard to help me).

Not very, although I don't think this is representative of most ACN internships - unfortunately my group did not really have much in the way of spare work for me. I started off performing research (in a relatively fruitless area) but my low status prevented me from interacting with the people necessary to contribute to my original task (as decided my my supervisor). In general I was focused on small admin when others were absent and, for instance, organising the end-of-sprint party.

As I had no overall task relevant to the work of Accenture, in this respect little. However the end-of-sprint party became my responsibility so a lot of liaising and decision making in this respect was my task alone (venue, catering, activities, corporate gifts, etc). Of course this type of responsibility is perhaps not the kind I expected from a tech consultancy internship!

I gained most skill in Microsoft - Excel and Powerpoint. The research I performed was different to that I would do in my studies so this made my ability more holistic. To a degree, organisation and self-management (thinking of ways I could aid my co-workers when no one could provide me with tasks for instance!)

There was a level of segregation in terms of age, but I think this was more to do with work groups (only one had taken on young grad scheme employees) than anything else. The open layout was intimidating at first (finding somewhere to sit, trying to look busy even if no one could find a task for me) but meant that there was an air of easy friendliness/opportunity to chat while maintaining a busy atmosphere.

The training was very organised and set us up for a busy 8 weeks, but my personal internship seemed highly disorganised. The large scale of the project I was placed with (e.g. large budget, long-term) probably led my supervisor to take me on because they could rather than because there was work for me. As above, it was decided that my initial task was not suitable for an intern (required me to speak with very senior client-side and ACN employees), leaving me with little to do for 5 weeks which left me feeling unstimulated.

I feel like the atmosphere and organisation of the training week built up an environment in which we expected to be challenged and sometimes thrown out of our comfort zones. This was not matched particularly by the following 7 weeks. In terms of the actual training, I think computer skills in particular could be improved on. The material we were taught was very basic and I felt like I learnt nothing new apart from when I was thrown in at the deep end with an extremely complicated spreadsheet a few weeks later - while this is fine, I think if the company invest time in an excel class on the second day of training it might as well be a more intensive one.

I was offered a grad job at the end of my summer placement. While I felt unstimulated and gained little from my placement itself, I think this was relatively unusual and think it likely that, once placed in a more permanent role, a greater degree of direction in my work would follow. I don't think I personally view Accenture as a long-scale career choice as I would like to work in a very different industry later on, but it will give me core working skills (networking, cooperation, job perisistance and technical skills) that I know I will need and value for further work opportunities

Yes - the training week built up a good social ambience (some likened it to University Freshers' week without the drinking) and for example the final evening of this week was organised well by Accenture and built my feeling of social wellbeing with the company. The end-of placement event could have been organised a bit sooner. I also think a mid-placement social event would have been much appreciated, as by chance I stayed in good touch with three or four other interns but apart from that I was not able to keep touch. This was probably worse for those who were placed outside London

High. I was lucky enough to live at home for the duration, but the cost of trains (while cheaper than living in London) was still very high and took up most of my paycheck. Despite the Accenture CV we had to fill in, I was placed in Uxbridge (a 2 hour drive from my home at least on rush hour mornings, train would have taken even longer). The company was able to fund me staying in a hotel only one night a week, meaning two days of the week I had to work in FCS without the rest of my group. I had assumed the Accenture CV would enable supervisors to take this into account before choosing interns to avoid complications like this!

Employees in my group socialised (went out for drinks) with each other every so often, but the age difference/difference in living situation meant that this wasn't easy. My situation (above) meant that I was unable to join for most social occasions as it took me so long to get home. I organised the End-of-sprint party which I believe was a big social occasion, although it took place after my placement had ended. The location of our work (a business park in Uxbridge) had no local venues for nightlife and meant that most people generally had a long commute.

In general I know that Accenture is big on employee participation/involvement in activities with colleagues, but as far as I know few people in my group contributed. This could be due to the peripheral location of our client site. I was invited to join a free Pilates class with a young colleague on a Friday (when most people worked in FCS) but aside from this no other activities were mentioned. If I were at Accenture more long-term I would probably investigate a sports group to join.