Business Analyst Review

Besides being of tremendous value to my career on paper the Horizons programme gave me a broad network within the management consultancy industry and within the client organisations that I consulted. Accenture, like many firms, highlights its ‘people’ as one of its key selling points. The people I met at Accenture have come to become some of my closest friends and made each day a pleasure whilst there.

The extent to which you are valued is dependant, I believe, on the extent to which you can be depended upon by your colleagues. When joining a new client (you do this at the mid-point of the internship) I did feel as though being a pre-university intern lowered people’s expectations of my capabilities. However, throwing in the fact that I had undergone the same applicant processes of the post-university Analysts quickly dispelled this. I found that demonstrating my capability was the most effective way to earn the respect of my Accenture colleagues and also the client’s employees.

Being an intern is not necessarily a limitation and I found that my peers and seniors were always willing to provide advice and assistance to help me achieve my goals. I organised regular feedback meetings with both my Accenture manager as well as my manager on the client’s side, which they were both more than happy to do, and used both to continually develop myself.

With any client and any role, I found that my day-to-day was incredibly variable. There would be times, though I actually really enjoyed them, where the client would request a piece of work to be done within a short time frame and I would be required to work late (at worst to 11pm). However, for the most part, my hours were reasonable (8:30am – 6:30pm). I was always told to leave when I felt like it (assuming I had completed all of my tasks). Accenture, and my clients were very much against providing ‘facetime’ and staying late at my desk for the sake of appearances.

As an example, at the age of 19, I was consulting a globally renowned Tier One Investment Bank and was given the responsibility to manage a regulatory project that affected the processes for an entire division. I also helped to write a strategic sales piece for Accenture on High-Frequency Trading having conducted my own research. You are given as much responsibility as you demonstrate you are capable of handling.

In terms of my degree, my time Accenture has made me far more organised and proactive. University is quite odd in the sense that studying for an Economics exam and sitting through lectures etc. is very unlike actual employment. Due to the fact that I am studying for a four-year degree rather than a three-year one I am a year behind many of my friends who were interns at Accenture. They have all been applying for Summer Internships etc in Investment Banking and Consultancy (besides the ones they hold with Accenture) and have all been far more successful in their applications than many of my friends at 'Oxbridge'. A testament to the fact that employment at a top consultancy firm adds far more to a persons' abilities than learning entire textbooks at an 'elite' university.

The atmosphere is entirely dependent on the client you are working for and the office/location you are working from. My first client was a public sector organisation and so I spent most of my time at an Accenture Hub Office in Newcastle where the atmosphere was incredible. My second client was a Tier One Investment Bank in London and I worked in their offices. The atmosphere was far more professional and things like dress code had to be adhered to a lot more closely.

HR have to be congratulated on running an outstanding internship programme! Would definitely rate it higher than both the Deloitte and IBM schemes! Your first week is spent training and from then on you spent the first four months with one client and then the remaining four months with another. You’re given your first client and then you secure your second client through the network you have built over the first four months.

The first one week is spent training in various ways. Three days are spent learning the ins and outs of Microsoft Excel (a program I've strangely grown to love using!). There are several other courses that are undertaken such as classes on body language etc. Most training is done ‘on the job’. I had to take some specialist training for the time I spent consulting an Investment Bank.

Almost all of the Horizons interns received offers for the firm's Summer Internship and, from what I have been told by HR, almost all of the people who undertake the Summer Internship receive Analyst offers with Accenture. With a starting salary of 31.5K with a 5K starting bonus for each of the first two years, an effective starting salary of 36.5K is way over the national median (approx 22K) and far higher than those offered by Deloitte or IBM. Accenture is a strong and respected firm and offers great prospects for those hoping to pursue a career long term within the firm or for those who are hoping to eventually move on to different things.

HR does a great job of making sure that as an intern you are well connected to the rest of your intern group. There are fairly regular socials for just the Horizons interns and the first week is spent together. Interns are often put on the same clients for the first four months so you’re never too far apart. Besides that, I’ve found that some of the interns have become some of my closest friends. You all share incredibly similar outlooks (it’s a fairly similarly minded person who chooses to spend 8 months building a career over their Gap Year!). The fact that all/most of your friend’s head of to university almost ‘forces’ you to become friends with your fellow interns.

London is fairly pricey. Some of the interns shared flats together.

I spent the first four months in Newcastle living in a 5* hotel! Was incredible! Fenchurch Street (where Accenture's London offices are based) has loads of great bars etc. around and the interns would always meet up for drinks every Friday!

Yes, Accenture has loads of clubs and societies.