What is your current role/work project? I am currently working within the Business Process team on the Optus Reitz Project, as a team lead determining all web based processes. What do you like most about this role/project? The most enjoyable aspect of this role is the large amount of responsibility that is bestowed upon me and also the ability to work autonomously. The project is very demanding and the client can be difficult at times but this role enables me to add value by closely working with the client to develop their internal processes enabling them to take full advantage of what Accenture is delivery for them. Why did you join Accenture? The main reason why I joined Accenture is because I believe I am a versatilist. I wish to apply a depth of skill, which I have gained on the job and through tertiary studies, to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, equally at ease with technical issues as with business strategy What do you like most about working for Accenture? The people and the culture is something that I most enjoy about working for Accenture. The pool of intellectual knowledge makes everyday a learning experience. The majority of people you work with are a very young, career driven individual which makes Accenture a very competitive and challenging working environment. What kind of work do you do each day? Since starting with Accenture I have been in two roles. My first role was within the Technical Architecture team on the same project I am on now. With this role I had to create all the testing environments for the project. I found myself helping design the architecture behind the solution and implementing the infrastructure the solution would be running on. On the Business Process team I find myself to be acting as a liaison the majority of the time with the client and the solution architecture team. I help the business understand the solution and assist the solution team to better understand the business requirements. What do you enjoy most about the work you do? The most enjoyable aspect of the work that I do is that it is challenging. I am constantly thrown out of my comfort zone which enables me to learn new and exciting things everyday. The interactions I have with the client and the trust Accenture has in me to bring up recommendations that I may see in resolving issues or business problems is something that drives me in the roles that I undertake. What tools and resources do you have to assist you to get your job done? Accenture has a huge resource knowledge pool through an online portal. This information source shows me what deliverables I should be creating for any role that I may undertake and how to effectively complete those. Also all Accenture employees are able to add work they have completed previously to the resource pool, so you will never have to re-invent the wheel just improve upon it. What qualifications do you have? I currently hold a Bachelor of Science in IT Innovation. My undergraduate degree is a specialist cross faculty Business/IT degree undertaken at the University of Technology, Sydney. What prior experience did you have when you joined Accenture? Before joining Accenture I had a lot of varied experience. During university I ran my own website development company, working with many small to medium sized companies creating varied solutions to improve their overall business strategies. As part of my university degree I undertook work experience at Hewlett Packard, where in collaboration with two of my colleges we performed a feasibility study to analyse and improve an intricate business process involving internal and external workflows. These are a few examples of my previous non-extracurricular experiences. What have you learned since you joined Accenture? Since joining Accenture I have been able to learn many new skills which I would not have gotten the opportunity to explore any where else whilst enhancing business skills. Overall I have gained the knowledge on how large projects work end-to-end from planning, analysis, design, build test and deploy with the focus on the importance of team work and collaboration. What has been some of the biggest challenges of your job so far? The biggest challenge on the job for me so far has been getting up to speed with the skills and content really quickly. Not only did I have to learn new skills but I had to be able to use these skills in order to gain trust from the client that I would be able to deliver results on-time. Other challenges have included working with client to understand the business benefits of the solution and also building effective lasting relationships with the client in order to get my job done. What have you done that tested you the most? Working in my role on the Technical Architecture team is something that tested me the most. This was my first real ‘technical’ experience and I found myself being responsible for the content management system, which was a backbone of the solution. I had to really quickly learn the technical skills I needed in order to implement the content management system on the infrastructure and also help design a better solution with the vendors of this application. What are the people like? I find myself working with all sorts of different people everyday. Everyone is young, driven and intelligent. You will find that Accenture people love to party and love to work. It’s a good balance of the two, the more we work the more we party and it just makes everyone get along. One thing I find about Accenture people is that they are always approachable and always willing to lend a hand. What would you say to other people thinking of joining Accenture? I would say Accenture is not just job it is an opportunity. You will get the opportunity to work with some of the most intelligent and well regarded people in the industry. And you will also get the opportunity to work with some of the best companies in the world. This will benefit you as an individual and enable you to drive your career in any shape or form that you choose. How do you describe what you do to friends/your family? When my friends/family ask me about what I do. I tell them very broadly that I help our clients understand their own IT systems and assist them in identifying issues and problem points with the overall aim to create overall business benefits. If someone were interested in pursuing a career in their area (SAP, Siebel, programming, Consulting), what skills do they advise them to develop? Accenture encourages its people to develop their skills in any area in which they choose. They have multiple options available to them in order to do so. There are many online training programs that are free for Accenture people to do in their own free time. Also all consultants are allocated a training budget so we are free to pursue external training programs or industry certifications if it will benefit our career at Accenture. Why did you choose to do what you do at Accenture versus somewhere else? I would rather do what I do best at Accenture rather anywhere because of the opportunities and career progression that Accenture offers to its people. Accenture is well known for developing its people to be true experts in their field which makes them well respected across all industries. How do you see your career developing at Accenture? I see my future career at Accenture moving towards more high value consulting. Alignment myself with the ‘strategy growth platform’ in order to help our clients see the true business benefits of an IT engagement to their bottom-line, people, growth opportunities and more.