Rebecca Ferguson – Accenture
Accenture is a global management and technology consulting firm, with clients in a wide array of industries from public sector, to technology, to finance. As a freshman, I had no clue what it even meant to be a consulting company, much less had any idea I would wind up interning at one. However, as I pursued my degrees in both business and informatics, I realized that Accenture would be an ideal fit for my career goals. After speaking with a few people from Accenture about their experiences there, I was convinced to apply!
As an intern, I spent ten weeks in Sacramento, California working on a project in the public sector. Specifically, I was a tech business analyst for a team working on a website portal. As an intern I was essentially given the same responsibility a new full time analyst would have on any project. My actual tasks on any given day would vary greatly, however I was essentially given ownership of a smaller project and was responsible for completing it during the 10 weeks I was there. This was a great learning experience, and allowed me to really dive into the company and work with people on many different teams firsthand. As an intern, this was perfect because not only was I actually given control of something, but every person I worked with was able to teach me something new, or help out in some way.
Accenture also went out of their way to make sure we had fun over the summer, even though we were all working full time. We had events ranging from dinner with the managing directors, to a Sacramento Republic Soccer game, to a tour of the tech labs in San Jose. My favorite memory of the summer, though, was attending the Student Leadership Conference in Chicago. All of the technology and management interns met at Accenture’s training facility for a weekend of leadership and teamwork activities, professional development talks, and networking opportunities. We even had a Lego car building competition!
Overall, the company atmosphere was laid back and fun, but hard working at the same time. All in all, interning with Accenture over the summer was both challenging and rewarding, and I had a great time learning what it is like to work in the consulting world.
