OXFORD

COMPUTING + IT
COMPUTING + IT
Risham Nadeem
Technology Consulting
Analyst, Accenture
University College,
BA History, 2015
WHAT: I work with a range of
clients across industries to help
design, develop and implement
complex software delivery
solutions. Accenture has a wealth
of technological experience and my role is
to take that and translate it into a solution
which meets our clients’ requirements.
WHY: Whilst at university, I’d become
interested in consulting after attending
careers fairs and practice case study
sessions. I felt that it was a career path
well suited to my fairly broad degree
background and that it would stand me
in good stead in the future, should I want
to move into industry or entrepreneurship.
Accenture seemed a natural fit; they
recruit from all backgrounds and degree
subjects and, by combining consulting
solutions with technology, they are
constantly doing some really exciting and
innovative work.
GETTING IN: I got my offer after finals
but before graduation. I had attended
an Accenture sponsored Women in Tech
talk run in conjunction with the graduate
recruitment consultancy, Bright Network,
where I learnt about the opportunities
available in the grad scheme (ACG).
From there, I was fast-forwarded to video
interview, after which I had an
assessment centre and one-on-one
interview. I was made the offer within
three weeks of my application.
ADVICE: Do lots of extra-curriculars!
Something that I have been told
several times by different managers
is that they were impressed with
the extra-curricular activities I was
involved with while at Oxford.
Whether it’s rowing or debating or a
faith-based society, managers like
to see what your interests are. More
importantly, they like to see that
you can multitask. Finally, because
consulting is a client-facing business,
people skills are very important and
one way to show that you have
developed them is by working with
lots of different people in sports
teams or events planning. There’s
lots to get involved with at Accenture
outside of work, so this can be
something to carry on with if you’re
interested.
Kate Thompson
Mathematics, 2012
WHAT: I develop cutting-edge
software for a variety of features and
protocols which run in the backbone
of the Internet.
WHY: It’s really rewarding being able to
be involved with a new feature from the
start of the design phase and to have
real responsibility for delivering quality
products from early in your career. With
the wide range of features that Ensoft
works on, there’s always something new
to get involved with and my knowledge
and skills are constantly improving.
The atmosphere in the office is relaxed
and feels a bit like an Oxbridge college:
everyone works hard but there’s a great
social life and regular Ensoft-sponsored
events, including a recent long weekend
in Russia!
SHIFTING FOCUS: Towards the end of my
Maths degree, I realised I didn’t want a
career in pure maths and was keen to do
something different.
I took two Computer Science options
and quickly knew that it was something I
wanted to pursue. I was initially worried
that I wouldn’t have enough coding
experience for a career in software
but was reassured that Ensoft’s
training would bring me up to speed
with coding in C, and the logic and
problem solving skills from my Maths
degree would transfer well to a
software development job.
EARLY CAREER: All new graduates
spend the first few weeks in ‘boot
camp’ which covers coding and the
full software development process.
Even though we had very different
amounts of coding experience, by
the end of boot camp we were all
ready to join our teams and begin
contributing to real projects straight
away.
I started off doing bug fixes, but
quickly progressed to larger projects
such as designing and writing new
features, and it was clear that my
work really had an impact from the
start.
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