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OxfordGuideToCareers2017
OxfordGuideToCareers2017
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COMPUTING + IT<br />
COMPUTING + IT<br />
Risham Nadeem<br />
Technology Consulting<br />
Analyst, Accenture<br />
University College,<br />
BA History, 2015<br />
WHAT: I work with a range of<br />
clients across industries to help<br />
design, develop and implement<br />
complex software delivery<br />
solutions. Accenture has a wealth<br />
of technological experience and my role is<br />
to take that and translate it into a solution<br />
which meets our clients’ requirements.<br />
WHY: Whilst at university, I’d become<br />
interested in consulting after attending<br />
careers fairs and practice case study<br />
sessions. I felt that it was a career path<br />
well suited to my fairly broad degree<br />
background and that it would stand me<br />
in good stead in the future, should I want<br />
to move into industry or entrepreneurship.<br />
Accenture seemed a natural fit; they<br />
recruit from all backgrounds and degree<br />
subjects and, by combining consulting<br />
solutions with technology, they are<br />
constantly doing some really exciting and<br />
innovative work.<br />
GETTING IN: I got my offer after finals<br />
but before graduation. I had attended<br />
an Accenture sponsored Women in Tech<br />
talk run in conjunction with the graduate<br />
recruitment consultancy, Bright Network,<br />
where I learnt about the opportunities<br />
available in the grad scheme (ACG).<br />
From there, I was fast-forwarded to video<br />
interview, after which I had an<br />
assessment centre and one-on-one<br />
interview. I was made the offer within<br />
three weeks of my application.<br />
ADVICE: Do lots of extra-curriculars!<br />
Something that I have been told<br />
several times by different managers<br />
is that they were impressed with<br />
the extra-curricular activities I was<br />
involved with while at Oxford.<br />
Whether it’s rowing or debating or a<br />
faith-based society, managers like<br />
to see what your interests are. More<br />
importantly, they like to see that<br />
you can multitask. Finally, because<br />
consulting is a client-facing business,<br />
people skills are very important and<br />
one way to show that you have<br />
developed them is by working with<br />
lots of different people in sports<br />
teams or events planning. There’s<br />
lots to get involved with at Accenture<br />
outside of work, so this can be<br />
something to carry on with if you’re<br />
interested.<br />
Kate Thompson<br />
<br />
<br />
Mathematics, 2012<br />
WHAT: I develop cutting-edge<br />
software for a variety of features and<br />
protocols which run in the backbone<br />
of the Internet.<br />
WHY: It’s really rewarding being able to<br />
be involved with a new feature from the<br />
start of the design phase and to have<br />
real responsibility for delivering quality<br />
products from early in your career. With<br />
the wide range of features that Ensoft<br />
works on, there’s always something new<br />
to get involved with and my knowledge<br />
and skills are constantly improving.<br />
The atmosphere in the office is relaxed<br />
and feels a bit like an Oxbridge college:<br />
everyone works hard but there’s a great<br />
social life and regular Ensoft-sponsored<br />
events, including a recent long weekend<br />
in Russia!<br />
SHIFTING FOCUS: Towards the end of my<br />
Maths degree, I realised I didn’t want a<br />
career in pure maths and was keen to do<br />
something different.<br />
I took two Computer Science options<br />
and quickly knew that it was something I<br />
wanted to pursue. I was initially worried<br />
that I wouldn’t have enough coding<br />
experience for a career in software<br />
but was reassured that Ensoft’s<br />
training would bring me up to speed<br />
with coding in C, and the logic and<br />
problem solving skills from my Maths<br />
degree would transfer well to a<br />
software development job.<br />
EARLY CAREER: All new graduates<br />
spend the first few weeks in ‘boot<br />
camp’ which covers coding and the<br />
full software development process.<br />
Even though we had very different<br />
amounts of coding experience, by<br />
the end of boot camp we were all<br />
ready to join our teams and begin<br />
contributing to real projects straight<br />
away.<br />
I started off doing bug fixes, but<br />
quickly progressed to larger projects<br />
such as designing and writing new<br />
features, and it was clear that my<br />
work really had an impact from the<br />
start.<br />
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