Associate Software Engineer Review

It was difficult to start i.e. trying to learn everything including terminology, but it turned out brilliantly. Having the option to work for many different clients means that if you wish you can try your hand at different technologies in different fields which gives you a good feel for the industry as a whole.

The other placement students were great and friendly as well as the other long term employees. When I did a job well I was told so and took pride in the work I was doing, due to this it made me strive to do better.

Others had plenty of time for questions and teaching. If time was needed this could be done from booking in a meeting slot or just asking when I had a question. Some have more time than others to teach and talk through areas due to other work commitments but this is expected. Overall there was plenty of support from someone it was just a matter of finding the right person.

The work load did differ from day to day but I wasn't left with absolutely nothing to do. I feel this is expected where it takes some time for new work to come in as the other features are being tested and deployed. The work was slow at times but never stayed this way for long.

I was given a lot of responsibility in many different areas the biggest being managing the fortnightly deployments of programming work to the live environments. This included many different tasks and a lot of trust from my manager to carry this out correctly. This was very rewarded and allowed me to feel like a had a huge part in the team to play (which I did due to this task as well as others.)

From time management, organisation, agile development and devops to software engineering skills I have learned a lot throughout the year which can be applied in many if not all areas of my further study for the completion of my degree.

The office is a very calm and relaxed environment with nothing taken too seriously. Fun was to be had with other colleges and different events throughout the year within the office. There could have been more of these but only so many can be done to ensure the work is not impacted by this distraction.

A lot of guidance was given with many different points of contact to more senior members of staff if I was to have any questions about anything or any area of the inner workings of this business. Induction and orientation was also provided before work began to help and ease me into the working environment.

With regards to training I had no budget. Accenture has its own dedicated website to training where courses in many different areas can be found and applied for. If it was found beneficial it would be approved and you can do the training. I didn't find myself using this much due to the fact I only had a year and the work load I had to complete. However I know others who when they have some downtime went on different training courses.

From listening to my managers feedback I feel confident with my future employment with Accenture. They do offer the opportunity of graduate employment pending on feedback from your line manager(s).

I met up with a few placement students throughout the entire placement many of the weeks. There was also project based company days away and also Accenture days away and nights out with both colleges and other Accenture employees.

I was based and lived in London which has a very high cost of the living. The salary does cover this for this most part but it can still be quite expensive. However London does has many things to do (a lot of which are free) from nightlife to museums and restaurants and bars so you were never left with nothing. The working hours are long (9am-6pm) for me but its isn't so long that it doesn't allow socializing.

Being based in centre London there is no shortage of nighlife including bars, restaurants and nightclubs. This is all great provided you are willing to pay the prices for it. I was never lost for somewhere to go with friends on nights out or even just for a casual drink and a catch up.

Being London again there is no shortage of activities in and around the city for whatever your interests are. These can be found in many places from online to advertisements and phone apps which contain all the information you could want on each and every activity.