App/Cloud Support New Associate Review

My role consists of implementing DevOps & software engineering tasks. I am fully work-from-home & actually live in the South-West of England. The team I am currently in had a number of areas which had the potential for automation meaning over time, I have identified these areas, thought up and implemented solutions.

I have completed two cloud certifications (AWS Cloud Practitioner & Azure AZ-900). My software development & DevOps skills have also grown hugely alongside my networking knowledge. This is due to my passion for these areas. Make sure you pursue areas you enjoy and make that known to others. They will try to accommodate you!

The people in Accenture are genuinely great people - I really do mean this. The culture here is not toxic at all. I had visibility at the senior management level right from the start which I thought was unusual but great (also a bit scary at first!). Working from home can be difficult in many different areas (mentally & physically). I found going to my local gym daily gave me the structure & friendships I needed. If you're looking to take this apprenticeship, make sure you are vocal about moving to different projects when you feel you have been on the same one for a while. There are a lot of very relevant skills to be learnt here, and so communication is important - especially if you work from home. The degree side of the programme can be challenging in a work-from-home situation. As long as you pursue it you'll be fine. I personally enjoy my work a lot more than studying for the degree.

Personally, in my team, there isn't much structure. It is up to me to motivate myself to implement tasks which can be tricky sometimes. Sometimes you may find yourself with very little regular calls so make sure you ask around for work if you don't have anything to do (or figure out something in the service to improve like I tend to do). Overall, it is fairly independant.

I know I will receive support if requested. Every time I have had a question, it has been answered, or I have been passed on to someone else who knows the answer. The amount of support you get depends on the amount of support you need. Personally, I enjoy teaching myself by doing, but if you prefer things to be explained to you I have no doubt that there will be someone who can do that.

There is adequate support & they have teams who can help you with all types of issues. The degree side of this apprenticeship is also very independent and it is up to you to get the help that you need. If you do not do this then you may struggle at times.

I do not find much correlation here in my experience. There is the occasional cross-over in knowledge, but nearly all of the knowledge I have gained is from my role. The value of working at Accenture for 3-4 years is, in my opinion, greater than the value of the degree.

I am not part of any regular extra-curricular activities at work and to my knowledge, I'm not aware of any at the moment. There have been a few online events between the apprentices, but these seemed to have stopped. Perhaps this was due to the covid situation but we'll see.

Yes

Accenture isn't toxic and provides you with infinite opportunity, as long as you are independent enough to utilise it. There are so many teams & projects you can work on and network within making the job extremely valuable. You will learn a lot if you are not afraid of talking to others.

Make sure you are vocal about your interests. At the beginning, it's absolutely fine to not know where you want to go. But as soon as you experience something you enjoy and want to pursue, make sure you make that known. People can only help you get to where you want to be if you make that known. Otherwise you'll not get as much value out of the apprenticeship as you potentially can.