Accenture is a global management consulting and professional services firm started in 1989. It provides strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations services. Accenture derived from “Accent to the future”, today, employs more than 425,000 employees from all across the globe generating a net revenue greater than $34.9 billion.

Making it there:

Accenture generally comes in the month of August fairly early during the internship season for their presentation, where they elaborate on their selection process. The company invites applications only from Integrated MSc. Applied Mathematics and Msc. Economics/Mathematics. There are 2 rounds an aspirant has to go through before he/she can grab an accenture intern.

• Resume shortlisting: The first round is basically resume based shortlisting. The chances of making it to the list increase for people ofcourse who have high C.G.P.A but also for the people who have done projects or interned in machine learning/Data science.

• Interview: Next in line are three rounds of interview, the first two are technical with the other being HR. The technical interview is to check your conceptual understanding of the subject and how strong you are with your basics(Machine learning/ Data science). Prepare your resume thoroughly and it is advisable to only mention projects about which you are confident. Be prepared to answer questions about your most recent internship/ project.

Life at Accenture:

All interns are introduced to the company, its policies and safety measures through induction program after which each intern is sent to their allotted team. I was allotted Marketing team which is one of the largest team at Accenture comprising of 100 people, then met with my mentor and buddies and was briefed about my project.

The Projects assigned are from different disciplines ranging from Video analytics, sentiment analysis, Autoencoders, Image Processing and Optimization but almost always have machine learning linked to them. I was given a project on optimization i.e Cannibalization Analytics. The overall objective was to create the integer solution based optimization model that can be used in optimization situations where, creating all possible solution scenarios is computationally difficult and time inefficient. My project was planned very efficiently through discussions with my mentor and buddies in the beginning itself. This allowed me to complete my project within the time period. Reviews were held after every 20 days with the manager and mentors. On the whole, Internship is divided into three stages. Understanding the problem, finding a solution and the final presentation. Even if you know stuff, there is a lot more to learn out there, so keep gaining!

As far as the workload is concerned, it is not really taxing. The work hours usually depend on the team you have been assigned to. For me, I worked from 9-6 on regular days. The company requires you to wear formals at work except on fridays. Apart from work, the company has a cafeteria and breakout area on each floor where we used to chill out and a CCD coffee/tea vending machine and a TT table was also available there.

Summing up:

It was a wonderful experience! Internships are a great opportunity for networking and getting to know people who will inspire you throughout your life. My previous two being research interns, I always wanted to do an Industry intern. To conclude, I would like to say that my internship has definitely given me a better understanding of my skill set . I learnt much about how the corporate world works. Don’t just sit at one place and work, talk to your team mates, try to know their perspective, these things matter a lot. Accenture is a pretty good company to do an intern. A balanced resume with a decent C.G.P.A, past experiences(projects/internships) and good communication skills will surely help you in bagging the internship.

The overall experience of the internship was very rewarding and one that I will always remember.