Mark Bower is our October trendsetter. The first American to participate in Accenture’s Volunteer Services Overseas program, Bower temporarily left his job with Accenture in Cincinnati to go to Rosary Secondary School in Papua New Guinea for six months. There he served as the boarding school’s strategic plan facilitator. Bower says of his experience, “I feel I have made a real difference to the community, I met some fantastic people and had some amazing experiences.”
Bower joined Accenture five years ago, having completed a college degree in IT and marketing. He explains, “The college skills that I use today are problem solving, team work and how to develop a systematic approach to complete a task.” When he returned from Papua New Guinea, Bower resumed his role as technical architect and administrator for the help-desk tool at the Accenture Delivery Center in Cincinnati, supporting the client teams.
Since joining Accenture, Bower has taken advantage of the training offered, especially using the myLearning online training tool. Valuable training has included a program on IT Information Library and training in London on the helpdesk tool he runs. “The London training was really valuable and I still use it today,” he adds.
“Accenture puts people in the position to succeed by matching their skills to the job—and providing the support they need,” Bower says. One of the pleasures of the job is the fact that he works with different clients every day. “Every day is different!”
Another plus of the Accenture working environment is the people. “I get personal satisfaction by being surrounded by intelligent and skilled people,” he says. “The quality of Accenture people is a constant across the whole global organization.”
This last point is important because it links to another facet of working at Accenture: the chance to find stimulating projects around the world. “Accenture is both very big and very diverse, so there are opportunities to get involved in projects that really interest you,” Bower says enthusiastically. He himself has been involved in working with other Accenture Delivery Centers globally, harmonizing the offerings and then standardizing their websites.
To wrap up, Bower says he recommends that people take advantage of Accenture’s Volunteer Services Overseas program. He asks, “In what other company can one get offered such an amazing opportunity?” His example is sparking other US employees to consider the program, and it appears that several applications are currently in the pipeline.