Application Development Associate Review

Day to day tasks vary greatly depending on the client and the job role you are on. I have personally worked as a business analyst for a bank, a technical analyst for a pharmaceutical company and a developer for a client in the government sector. The main thing in common was I would be working on my latpop but the applications varied from excel and powerpoint for the business analyst roles, to MySQL and Eclipse for the developer roles. Tasks includes arranging/leading meetings, taking minutes/notes, creating slide decks, excel dashboards and pair programming.

From the offset, Accenture place all new joiners in a 3-4 week Java bootcamp which provides a good foundation to continue on learning how to code. Each project will upskill you in the fields which are relevant in that project and you often come across training opportunities outside of your project which includes certifications such as AWS and IBM. Along with technical skills, soft skills are also improved such as teamwork and communication.

Being in the final year of the apprenticeship programme, it has been an enjoyable experience thus far. I think the nature of project work is excellent as it allows for you to stay on a project for 3-9 months (or longer) and then move on to the next project which would be a completely new site, with new people and new work. This really helped by keeping things new and interesting. The university aspect of the programme has also been enjoyable and personally I have found it much easier than it's traditional university counterpart. I believe this is due in large part to using and applying what you learn in your day job which really consolidates your learning and makes revision much easier.

As we were one of the first groups to start the apprenticeship programme, and as we were January starters, there were some initial confusions in the organisation and structure of our programme. However, as time went on, communication became more efficient between the employer, the training provider and the students. Our 6 modules are split into 10 week courses with contact on week 3 and week 7.

Accenture employee's are always more than happy to support you in you university studies and well take time out to help you through any queries you may have. When you join, you are assigned an apprentice ambassador who can ensure that your roles remain aligned with your course and also provide additional support.

The training provider lecturers are always available via email for any questions as you are going through the course material. On the four contact days, any issues or queriers that have arisen can be discussed and resolved. Along with this, you are assigned to a Skills coach on behalf of QA who ensures you are on track with your university work and will also act as your point of contact for any major issues.

Depending on the role you are in and your interests, that qualification can help provide a solid foundation for any roles you are in. The fact that you can choose your optional modules really helps to choose things which you are interested to learn about or alternatively choosing modules which are aligned with your role. This could be modules such as big data or AI.

As Accenture has a huge employee base, you can be sure that you will find other people with interests similar to yours. This can be seen by the wide range of clubs and societies such as wine tasting or football. Projects tend to have networking/social events every few weeks to get to know your team members and to network with managers etc.

Yes

Accenture is one of the leading consulting companies who genuinely cares about the apprentices and their development. The range of projects ensures that there is something for everyone and also the length of projects makes it so though you don't get bored being stuck in the same role/site for years. On top of this, Accenture works with many of the FTSE 500 companies and is constantly trying to use cutting edge technology for clients solutions.

One main thing that people assume is that Accenture are only looking to hire people with programming experience. Although this helps, they are more interested in whether you genuinely have a passion for technology and if you can portray this you're most of the way there. I think as long as you remain calm, and prepare for the assessment centres by researching some case studies, you should be fine.