Last week concluded my first three months at my first job out of college. Accenture has been great! I’ve learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and am excited about the career ahead of me.

A Month of Training

The first five weeks were actually all training. It was like boot camp for corporate life. We were showered with branded writing utensils, a locked down company laptop, and a corporate AMEX while being introduced to the endless online portals. It took a few days to cover the company’s core values and overall structure. I still pause when people ask me what “group” I’m in (simplest I can put it: Technology Consulting -- Security -- Identity & Access Management). There were two weeks of learning the “Solution Delivery Fundamentals” which was really encouraging to see how serious they were to sticking to good development practices. The final two weeks were spent out at the Q Center in St. Charles, Illinois with  230 other new analysts from across the world.

Core Analyst School was challenging for me, but we made sure to have fun. My technology background came in handy for a total for 2 hours for the entire 2 weeks. There was a lot of team building, business workflow, and mock client meetings. They put together this video at the end along with a photo album that kind of sums up the rest.

(at 7:51 you’ll see my idea they used for our section’s mascot :) )

A Month on the Bench

We finished up CAS on December 18th just in time for Christmas. And New Years. And the week after New Years. One of the downsides (perks?) of consulting is that you don’t go to an office M-F 9-5 but if there isn’t a project going on you don’t work at all. I learned that nothing really gets done between the week before Christmas through the week after New Years, and then it takes another week to put together logistics. I got a little stir crazy but ended up helping out on a few tasks that people in the security group needed done.

A Month on a Project

Finally on January 18th, I was on my first project! The waiting paid off as I got to escape from the cold Chicago winter to sunny Los Angeles from Monday through Thursday for four weeks. The work wasn’t glamorous, but the nightlife made up for that. I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions by kids right out of college. They think they’ve put in their time and now it’s time to have a dream job, but that’s not really how it works out most of the time. You have to put in your time and wait for your dream assignment. If you’re in a field you really like (or love) then waiting shouldn’t be hard.

What I’ve Taken Away So Far

There’s still so much to learn about -- business, technology, security, career development, networking (people kind), the list goes on. I’m taking it all in but so far:

  1. I’ve tried to not put a whole lot out there about my new job on Twitter, Facebook, or this blog. I’m still feeling out what’s acceptable and working on security related projects makes that even harder.
  2. Corporate America (esp. a tech company) love TLAs -- or three-letter acronyms to the layman. Every day I hear a new one or at least some sort of abbreviation for a word or phrase.
  3. I didn’t think “building my network” was going to be enjoyable or worthwhile, but I was totally wrong. I might just make it as a people person after all ;)

Now I’ve started the next chapter in my Accenture experience at a new project here in Chicago. I was a little bummed to stop traveling (i.e. rewards points), but the work is more interesting and challenging. I also hear Chicago has a summer if it ever stops snowing.