One of the toughest decisions in the life of United States Delivery Center in San Antonio Training lead Karen Sanchez was leaving a secure career after more than a decade in the US Air Force. But having taken the plunge to enter the civilian world there’s been no looking back for this feisty and dedicated working mother.

The need for change was prompted by a looming reassignment to Korea, which put her responsibilities as a mother into conflict with one of the Air Force’s core values—“service before self”—and the honorable course was to leave the service. At just that time, Accenture’s newly launched United States Delivery Center was creating a buzz in the San Antonio community. With encouragement from friends, Karen decided to investigate the company, and liked what she saw. She was offered the position of training coordinator for the new Accenture Delivery Center in San Antonio.

Karen was thoroughly at home in the Air Force, and admits to feeling terrified by the unfamiliar civilian world. Her Accenture experience put those fears to rest: “The Air Force was always like a family to me, now Accenture has become that family.”

When Karen started in November 2006, the center—with a staff of about 40—had been in existence for just three months. The biggest challenge, she recalls, “…was simply understanding the civilian corporate world as compared to the Air Force corporate world. It was almost like everyone was speaking a different language.”

That aside, Karen is the only staff member in the training department. “It was up to me to get things up and running smoothly, which was no easy feat, but with much guidance from my leads and counterparts across Accenture, the processes started to flow.”

In the year she has been with Accenture, the delivery center has more than tripled in size and Karen, after only six months, was promoted to training lead responsible for identification, development, deployment, and quality of training and communications distributed to the center. “Currently, in my role, I ensure that the center is receiving and delivering the most up-to-date and applicable training. One of the biggest challenges I face is keeping abreast of the ever-changing technical world. In some aspects, I feel I learn right along with those that I am arranging training for!”

Karen believes her military background has helped her to succeed at Accenture: “The dedication and commitment to excellence that is ingrained in you by the military is a key to success in all facets of life,” she says. Accenture’s commitment to high performance in its own operations, and its goal of helping its clients to achieve it, fit in well with this ethos. Her Air Force background in teaching meant she was given the opportunity at Accenture to attend various train-the-trainer classes that have allowed her to put her teaching skills to work by training people in leadership skills: “I love teaching and am so thankful that I am able to incorporate that into my role at Accenture.”

With two children in elementary school, Karen says “the unquestioning flexibility exhibited by my team has created a work-life balance for me that I never thought existed. It’s one of those things that sometimes seem too good to be true!”