My Internship Experience

The past 8 weeks of my internship with Accenture has been an ongoing learning experience. I acquired new skills, met great people, and seen my education come to life in a real-world business scenario. Coming into this internship I had the goal of strengthening my proficiency in data analytical tools, networking, and applying my course work. Everyone at the office helped me achieve each of these aspirations.

During my internship I worked on projects, conducted market research, and reported weekly and daily sales performance. Reviewing and reporting sales performance allowed me to use my problem solving and critical thinking skills. The first couple of weeks included a lot of questions about how to efficiently complete my reports and leverage our data analytical tools. Once I understood how to pull the information I needed, I started to investigate what the data was saying so I could report performance highlights to our clients. In the past, I have worked with data analytical tools, however, I never understood how to leverage them in a real-business scenario. Throughout the past couple of months, my mentor has taken the time to teach me how to explain data as an engaging and easily understood story.

For some of our clients I had the chance to conduct marketing research, searching for consumer insights and market trends. I was able to pull relevant information for my clients using the knowledge I learned from my marketing research class that I took last year. I enjoyed these assignments because each client had a different purpose for the research. One client wanted to launch a new product, another wanted to learn more about a potential category and find information to support their decline in sales.

During the last month of my internship, I was assigned a project that challenged me to utilize my newly found skills and build my own story. My task was to create a presentation recommending Accenture enter a retail partnership with a potential client. I gave an overview of the company, explained the company background and key points of differentiation. I used data to support my recommendation, highlighting YoY growth, and comparing their performance to their overall category. Finally, I presented my PowerPoint presentation to our internal team for their review and feedback. I enjoyed this project because there was a lot of opportunity to get feedback during the creation and research process.

My favorite thing about working at this office has been the people. Every day I have been surrounded by positivity and encouragement. My supervisor has gone out of her way to guide me, creating as many learning opportunities as possible. Beyond that I have had many unofficial mentors who have included me in their projects and set up information sessions and meetings to maximize my experience here. I am incredibly thankful for the four other interns I’ve worked alongside this summer. Most of us have separate roles and tasks but we still found ways to collaborate and learn from one another. A couple of weeks ago all the North America interns had the opportunity to attend Accenture’s student leadership conference in St. Charles. This was a unique event because we got to network, develop our leadership skills, and learn more about diversity and inclusion. I’m grateful to have interned with a company that cares about the development of their interns.

Overall, my time as a management consulting analyst intern at Accenture has been more than memorable. I cannot wait to apply what I have learned here to my future career and education. Thank you to all the amazing people who took the time to connect with me. I hope during these last two months I have impacted this organization as much as they impacted me.