What’s it REALLY like to build a career in a tech at Accenture?

Working for Accenture in a tech role, you will develop and enhance skills you didn’t know you had, working with household names and big brand clients. As you learn you will lead ideas in technology and provide tailored solutions to fast-moving, real-world problems.

What are the most sought-after careers in tech? Well, in a snapshot online poll about Accenture’s tech careers, respondents wanted to know more about roles in:

• Tech architecture (41.7%)
• Client delivery (31%)
• Software engineering (16.7%)
• Cybersecurity (10.7%)

Read on to find out more about working in each of these areas.

What’s it like to work as a tech architecture senior analyst?

Driven by the desire to make a positive impact on society Sally Lee joined Accenture in 2019 and embarked on a month of hands-on training improving her understanding of the company’s clients, products and place in the tech world. It also put her capacity for logical thinking to work and enabled her to pick up tasks and expand her knowledge quickly. Within a few months of starting at Accenture Sally was contributing to the creation of a product for a large healthcare provider – something that is now being used by millions of people daily, including herself, friends and her family.

‘It’s been really rewarding. Something I knew little about yesterday is being used today by everyone,’ she says. As a chemistry undergraduate researching careers Sally was intrigued by the description of technology architecture.

‘I thought, what is that? The two words don’t make sense together,’ she smiles, as she thinks back.

Her degree required logical thinking, analytical skills and problem-solving capabilities but little in the way of tech know-how, though she had voluntarily completed three months of training in Python programming.

• Discover more about Python via FutureLearn

Two years on from starting out with Accenture and now a technology architecture senior analyst Sally explains her role by drawing parallels between tech architecture and city architecture. Using the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris to convey the key goals behind good tech architecture, she points out that behind its beauty lies a structure that is strong, practical, durable and sustainable. The architect did his job well, she says.

’As tech architects, we use tech to design a solution according to what a client asks for. We build it so it’s easy to use, it works well, doesn’t fall apart and is manageable and cost effective,’ she explains.

‘I use my soft skills to analyse and define what a client is asking for,’ she says, adding that she is continuously improving by observing senior tech architects on every new project she is assigned to.

What’s it like to join Accenture as a client delivery analyst?

Teresa Ogola researched tech careers by attending webinars and networking online. She joined Accenture in June 2021 after graduating from the University of Sussex with a degree in business management and finance. Her current role spans the middle ground between what a client wants and what developers can actually build.

‘I joined this programme because I knew Accenture would support me in learning the more technical aspects without a tech background,’ says Teresa. New starters complete orientation and tech training weeks, which Teresa found useful for also deepening her knowledge about her employer.

‘The training encompassed what a client delivery analyst would be doing in their projects day to day,’ she says. This included how to communicate with clients, testing and deployment workshops. A two-week bootcamp followed (not at all painful and nothing to do with the Army!), during which graduate trainees tried out different areas of the business to establish their best fit.

As someone fresh out of university and new to the company Teresa found it helpful to keep in touch with other graduate starters to compare experiences so she is learning about different business fields as she trains in her own.

‘My first role was as a functional business analyst in the Salesforce marketing group,’ says Teresa, explaining that Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) software. ‘Other people were in DevOps, Agile training and project management training.’

From a starting point knowing little about the world of technology and software she has become better informed about the huge number of companies relying on Accenture’s products.

‘Specifically I was in marketing cloud, which helps companies market their products – for example, sending out automated emails and being smart about it,’ she says. Her responsibilities include inviting user acceptance training (UAT) groups to verify that the software or solution works well.

Teresa has found her line manager and team supportive, understanding and encouraging as she grows her knowledge of each project and the business. Of her first marketing exam, six months into her training, she says: ‘It shows how much emphasis Accenture put on your learning and development.’

What does a software engineering analyst do at Accenture?

When Oluwadara Oyedepo was studying for a masters in physics at UCL she was coding and problem solving in her free time. Oluwadara, known as Dara, says, ’I hadn’t thought of what I was going to do next. I wanted to code but I didn’t have the confidence [to apply for jobs] as I hadn’t done a computer science role in the past.’

Dara is candid about the limits of her IT knowledge on joining Accenture – she had never heard of the cloud or Amazon Web Service (AWS) before immersing herself in the world of technology. Her new tasks included discovering alternatives to on-premises servers, developing her coding and engineering skills and at the same time, experiencing the real and unique challenges of working on a big and long-term project forecasting customer demand for a large retailer.

‘I was able to see it through its lifestyle from designing, building and application to supporting the application. It’s been really rewarding to see an application go from nothing, all the way up to being used live.’

The satisfaction she has gained is one of the reasons Dara has stayed in the DevOps (development and operations) team. She explains DevOps as a methodology that means not only building the code for the application but also writing tests and building the infrastructure.

‘I’d done some big data stuff but not in a structured application,’ she says. ‘I’ve learned skills on the job that are an asset to the team – it’s been a confidence boost,’ she says. ‘Becoming a senior engineer on my team was a real goal for me.’

As she is achieving her professional goals Dara has felt supported throughout the graduate programme.

‘Accenture is interested in your wellbeing and, whenever I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, I was able to get help,’ she says.

What is the job of a security analyst?

James Malongo joined Accenture’s information security graduate programme in 2021. As he was completing his masters in computer science, specialising in cyber security, James started researching roles but found the wide range of jobs available left him unclear what to do next.

‘When I came across Accenture’s cyber security graduate programme, I read the description and thought it was the perfect fit because it would allow me to get a taste of various domains of security.’

James felt both a huge sense of responsibility starting his role and the level of trust the business has in his judgement. He is working with Accenture’s clients assessing their suppliers’ security controls and determining the risks that the suppliers are exposed to.

‘We write a report and send it to our client, who can make informed decisions on which suppliers to move forward with, and which to work with more closely, based on how secure they are,’ James says.

‘Your manager immediately entrusts you with working with the client one on one. If you are working at Accenture they believe you’re good at what you do. You always have your manager there to ask questions, and colleagues are very helpful, so even though at first it felt daunting my manager and colleagues gave me confidence I needed.

In addition to improving his soft skills James is building his knowledge in governance and risk compliance.

‘I am also interested in cloud security and operations technology security, so I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on skills in those as well. Being at Accenture makes this all possible,’ he says.

Discover more about Accenture on its targetjobs organisation hub or go directly to the Accenture early careers website (see graduate and undergraduate opportunities).