I worked with the deal team for one of Malaysia's largest oil and gas companies in relation to SAP capability development for international countries, which included talent management activities. I was put under an analyst as my "buddy" who reviewed my progress throughout my internship. Majority of my work was to handle the presentations used for their teaching materials. I literally worked on more than a 1000 slides - making sure the slides are consistent and updated according to the standards given by the client. Unfortunately, I was not given a great amount of meaningful work and there were times I did not have any work at all.

I had to go through two interviews:
1. General screening by HR (basic questions about yourself)
2. Interview by project leader (general questions about your experiences and why you're suitable for the internship)

Great attention to detail. But also, this was my first internship in a large firm - I witnessed my firsthand of office politics. It was definitely something to experience eventually.

The analysts and consultants were very helpful and friendly. If I had any questions with regards to work or their experience as a whole in Accenture, they were more than willing to share with me.

I tried to be as proactive as I could - always asking if they needed help with anything, but they only had limited amount of work to give me. Most of their work was above my paid grade, I would say. There's only so much that could be done.

I may not have had a great internship, but it really depends on the project you get put into. I met many other interns in the same intake as me who enjoyed themselves a lot.

I were assigned to a project under one of the biggest oil & gas giants in Malaysia that was to launch a new built-in feature to facilitate their operation.

Primarily, I handled client materials (reading, workshop) development, data migration, gave guidance to clients on new feature's usage. I was lucky to get on board when the project is at its climax phase (roll out and implementation) and hence I were expected to perform as much as other colleagues did. I was given adequate space to voice my opinions and complete the tasks as long as it meets the necessity of the projects.

I were given consistent review on my job and performance. Hence, along the way, I managed to spot my weakness and improve. My colleagues truly respect my opinions.

There are two stages of interview.

First stage: I was asked about my academic qualification, extra-curricular experiences and achievements. A quick interview just to confirm my availability for internship.

Second stage: This round is more about sharing your experience (extra-curricular) and expectations towards the internship (what kind of preferred JD). It is good if you have prior understanding towards what you are applying for (industry and departments)

This internship is my very one-stop platform to be exposed to both corporate (consulting) and Oil & Gas industry. 3-month stint has allowed me to gained in-depth communication skills (engaging clients), problem-solving skills, presentation skills and time management.

Those skills that I brought out of my internships had helped me a lot in terms of presenting my skills and my work in my classes and outside world.

You will be assigned a so called intern buddy. They play the role as your supervisor. My supervisor was really nice and approachable. They are very willing to share with you their opinions on internship and work-related topics.

None.

Learn quick, fail fast and ask bold. It is a fast-moving environment and you gotta move fast and right to excel.

I was assigned to a project for a large telecommunications corporation as part of the consulting workforce. As a consulting intern in this project, the role I was assigned to was a generalist role dealing with the day-to-day workload as demand arised although there are more structured technical roles depending on the team you're working with. The scope of the internship was not outlined in detail beforehand and the nature of an intern's job really depends on which team you're placed in by the project manager. A few of the tasks that I was assigned to included liaising with key stakeholders by providing on-site support during system deployment phases. I was also in-charge of tracking and consolidating the KPIs relevant to each sub-team in the overall project. On a regular day, time passed by editing Excels and PowerPoint slides, sending emails and making phone calls.

The experience, on a whole, met my expectations in terms of my personal development but less from a professional sense. It was a challenging environment with a steep learning curve, which can be very useful to build character and readiness in a student prior to entering the workforce, but the general tasks and duties I was assigned to did not provide skills that can be easily translated onto a written CV in a significant way. Ask and you shall receive. Due to the nature of the job, colleagues and mentors are mostly preoccupied with work and do not have the time to provide a lot of personal support, but are generally kind to help you wherever needed. My learning experience there was a balance of active support (talking to my mentor) and passive support (observations of the way they roll there) The biggest takeaway for me was a lesson of courage. From the start, the courage to accept uncertainty and enter an industry entirely unrelated to my field of study. The courage to make mistakes on the job and own up to it. And the courage to ask for help when you need it so you don't end up suffering in silence. In the fast-paced client-centric world of consulting, I learned that one of the most important virtues you can have for yourself is the courage to speak up, even when it may potentially put you in a vulnerable position, you'll see its value in the long-run.

My mentor ensured I gained from the internship and made up for lack of structure with active improvisation.

1. A more structured learning experience: From the beginning and for most of the part, the tasks and duties involve a lot of feeling your way around. There's rarely a protocol or guideline to follow, so at the start it may be slightly frustrating and daunting especially for first-timers. 2. People & Work Environment: Busy isn't a good reason to be unfriendly. Stress isn't a valid excuse to be cursing openly at the workplace. It's right that you shouldn't take anything too personally, but when the guy next to you throws an F-bomb every 10 minutes, the workplace isn't exactly what you look forward to when you wake up every morning. On a whole, the people there are ready to help, but if you're expecting more connected, higher quality or more touchy-feely (for lack of a better word) relationships, you might end up disappointed.

Anyone who has interests in the consulting industry and the kind of work consultants do. Technology consulting at Accenture is big on implementation and actual hands-on work as opposed to management/strategy consulting which focuses more on advisory roles. There are no fixed requirements set in stone to become a consultant though the industry highly values individuals whose education has provided him or her with decent analytical/logical thinking skills, problem solving skills and the ability to deal with ambiguity and demands through structure.

They will tell you during the second interview the project that you'll be working on. So the interview will be based around the project. I am given the Celcom BSS Transformation programme. I am in the Business Process Re-engineering team which redraw the business processes to help improve services. Occasionally I am involved with other side projects such as Stock Blitz, supply chain studies and others. So, besides the main work, I am constantly involved with different side projects.

"I had to work beyond the working hours although I am just an intern. That's the thing, at Accenture, they don't treat you as an intern. You are given due respect and expected to work the same amount. Of course you're not expected to know everything beforehand but they guide you along the way. You're also involved in the daily meeting with the clients and no day is the same. The biggest lesson so far has to be being brave in getting out of the comfort zone. I hate excel but I was asked to work on the Stock Blitz project. I had to equipped myself with crazy amount of Excel formulae. At the end of the project, I felt satisfied in completing the project.
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As long as you don't mind the really long working hours, the different job scopes, then you'll be perfect for it. It does feel rewarding in the end.