Accenture’s Barry O’Keeffe, Laoise Macken and Stephen Crothers discuss what graduates can expect from a career that starts with a development programme.
Graduate programmes are an ideal way for students and recent graduates to develop their skills, a network and also make plans for their futures.
Taking the chance to come into a company at an early stage of one’s career and experience a range of departments, roles and responsibilities can expose new professionals to career routes they perhaps hadn’t considered. It can also cement in their minds the areas that they want to give particular focus to.
Moreover, it can create a welcoming environment that prioritises easing new employees in, so that the experience, while focused on learning, upskilling and career growth, is not overwhelming.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, Barry O’Keeffe, a business and technology integration analyst at Accenture, explained that part of his role at the organisation involves working as an AI engineer for a large client.
He said, “We’re building out a data warehouse to monitor operational metrics for trust and safety data – so content moderation. My priority at the moment is developing an agentic system, which automatically handles incoming bugs raised within the warehouse.”
The socialisation and camaraderie that can grow within the Accenture graduate programme is, for O’Keeffe, among its greatest characteristics.
“One of my favourite parts of Accenture is that when you join in your first week, you’re assigned a buddy, who’s a current graduate, and a people lead, who’s at manager level,” he said.
“The buddy you can go to during your first few weeks in your first year with all of the questions that you will have. The people lead is there to help with your career progression. So, any guidance that you need throughout your time at Accenture.”
The same experience is true for management consulting analyst Laoise Macken, who said, “I now live with two people from my start group back in September and that’s not an uncommon thing that you hear from the analysts in Accenture. People get really close really quick.”
Growing the skills and the professional
According to senior manager and delivery lead Stephen Crothers, this level of guidance is key to building up a graduate so that they have the skills needed for a long and successful career.
“I think guidance and mentorship is huge in our graduate programme, but I equally think that’s really important throughout any kind of career,” he said.
“I’ve been in Accenture for nearly nine years now and I would say that every different point in my career, whether it be a big milestone or a promotion, can always be attributed down to one of the many mentors that I’ve had throughout that stage of my career.”
Of the qualities he would expect in a professional thinking of joining the graduate programme, he said: “The things that we look for are both on the skills and the behaviour side. However, skills can be taught – behaviours can’t.
“Some of the key pieces that I look for whenever I’m doing my interviews are that curiosity. Another thing is around proactivity. We want someone that’s proactive, that doesn’t need to be given a kind of a defined roadmap of tasks to do, but to have that self-starter mentality.”
Macken added, “A skill that I’ve found useful in my role here at Accenture is being adaptable. Things move really quickly here, and our clients are at the forefront of AI and leaders in their industry, which means that priorities can change quickly, and you need to be comfortable diving headfirst into the work around you.
“So I think that people that are open-minded, hardworking and adaptable really thrive here. What surprised me most about the graduate programme is how strong the analyst community is.”
Who is it for?
Macken added: “Another skill that I’ve found really useful in my experience at Accenture has been communication. The teams that we work on are very cross-functional and range across a very wide level of seniority.”
As a result, she finds that she is able to communicate confidently while also maintaining who she is as an individual and developing genuine relationships.
She advised anyone considering a role as a graduate to have a ‘sponge-like’ mentality to soak up new skills and advice.
“The people around you are absolute experts in their field and have such depth of industry knowledge that there’s not a single person that you’ll meet here that won’t be able to teach you something at all levels – analyst or MD. So yeah, forging genuine connections with people and asking questions and really trying to absorb as much as you can.”
Be prepared for any interview, said Crothers, “then do more preparation” to really think about the questions you will be asked, the kind of answers you will give and how you express yourself.
“That’s what helps you build out, I suppose, that skillset to take you to a place where, again, it would be unrealistic to not succeed.”
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