Business Analyst Review

Having previously done other placements that I did not find extremely interesting or challenging, I was not sure what to expect. However, during my placement I found I was given lots of responsibility and was challenged with the work I was given and really enjoyed the overall experience. Socially there are regular intern drinks as well as specific area drinks or events where you can meet wider members of the Accenture community so there is plenty to do outside of the office.

The senior members of the team always let me know how I was doing and thanked me for the work I had done. They really helped guide me when I was not sure about what to do and offered advice when necessary. The team I worked with were extremely encouraging and really made me feel like I was an invaluable member of the team and that the work would have been a lot more stressful if I had not been brought on.

I felt as though I had lots of support and guidance from the managers on my project. There were always willing to help when I was not sure what to do or how exactly they wanted it done. Throughout my placement I found that I was able to be more self sufficient as I knew what they liked and did not, but they were always there if I did need to ask a question about anything.

I worked on a 9 week project with a very small team with a very intense workload so day-to-day my tasks massively varied. There were days that I worked 8.30 - 18.00 (the normal hours I was supposed to do), but others where I worked until 20.30 as there was so much that needed to be done by the next day that could not be started before. However, the following day our Managing Director would always make sure we left the office earlier than usual as they were keen to make sure we were not overworked.

Due to the size of our team I had a large amount of responsibility compared to other students at Accenture. One of our deliverables was a communications strategy and plan, that I was in charge of. It included creating the templates for all the proposed comms, as well as creating full versions of the first few to be sent out. I had regular guidance from my team but this is something that I owned from start to end. I also had regular face to face time with the Senior Stakeholders of the client and helped create and run meetings and workshops with them weekly.

The skills I developed during my placement will be extremely useful in any future jobs. I cannot see how they will influence my degree, unless there are very specific modules I am able to take in my final year. But I believe what I have learnt will help me when I start my graduate job as I have a far greater Commercial Awareness around the industry I worked in and Businesses / Organisations in general.

Everyone in the office was very friendly, people would regularly start up conversations in order to find out more about your project as everyone is interested in what else is going on in the wider business. Colleagues will also introduce you to others they know so you can learn more about other projects. Although everyone works hard they also balance this out and relax and have a laugh.

Because of the nature of Accenture when you join you are not assigned to a project. At the end of our training week when we expected to be given roles we found at that due to low demand, only 1/4 of us had been placed. Resulting in the rest of us spending a few weeks "on the bench". Whilst this did not end up being an issue it would have been better to know this would be the situation at the start of the week, to reduce stress and worry. Apart from this the placement was well organised.

I was only on placement for 6 months so I did not receive a large amount of reported training, In our first week we attended a 1-day Excel training course, which whilst very simple was extremely helpful. There was online training which we could complete but this was often length and rather boring. However I received a lot of training from my team during the project.

Very appealing, there is such a wide variety of roles which you could do and industries to work in, The people are all great to work with and are very encouraging and help you to figure out what you may want to do in the future. If I was offered a Graduate job within Accenture I would definitely take up the offer.

Our placements team in HR arranged socials every 6 weeks with free food and drinks so we were regularly able to meet up as a big group. My colleagues also arranged dinner and drinks regularly, the costs often covered by work. People are all really friendly and everyone works very hard, so also likes to make sure they balance out their work with relaxing too.

I live just outside of London so commuted into work. Because of this I was also used to the prices in the area. However London is more expensive than most other cities, but there are always cheaper things to do, most pubs / bars will have a happy hour most nights. Definitely purchase a student railcard and connect this to an Oyster car as this massively reduces the cost of travel inside and out of London.

There are pubs, clubs and bars for every taste and budget. I worked around Bank and there are pubs on every street. I would generally go for drinks with people from work on a Thursday and friends on a Friday, these are the busiest days of the week but there are always things going on every night such a shows and concerts.

There are a large variety of clubs and societies to get involved in. The majority have weekly activities but there is also the opportunity for one off trips of charity days. Often there will be events and workshops regarding a particular subject or practice which are great to learn more about what is going on in the wider business and meeting new people.