Has anybody moved past the online step Accenture software degree apprenticeship?

Original post by lulno

In the 2017 intake (my intake), we first had a face to face interview with a member of HR and then 2 more interviews at the assessment centre with another member of HR and one of the employees.

I'm currently on the London Accenture software engineering degree apprenticeship programme so if you have any more questions about the application process, feel free to ask.

Reply 2

lulno

Original post by squirrology

Just the question that I originally asked "did you use all of the time given in the online interview?" or did you have a lot of time left at the end of each question? :smile:

Reply 3

Was the HR interview and assessment centre conducted on the same day?

Reply 4

Original post by squirrology

Is there a backlog for the 2018/19 applications, or are they just piss-poor at sending out rejections?

Reply 5

Original post by Lookingforajob1

Was the HR interview and assessment centre conducted on the same day?

Your first interview is an HR interview, and if you pass that one then you're through to the assessment centre which consists of another HR interview + an interview with the business (i.e. a Manager or Business Analyst or any other worker) + group assessed task.

Original post by IWMTom

Is there a backlog of the 2018/19 applications, or are they just piss-poor at sending out rejections?

I'm not actually sure. Last year, they were so quick in responding to applications but have no clue whats happening this year. One of my friends who also applied and was at the same assessment centre last year never received a response from them which meant they didn't get a place. BUT I recommend contacting them as it could be different this year.

Reply 6

Original post by squirrology

Yeah, I contacted my buddy and grad recruitment but neither replied. Bit of a kick in the teeth considering they said they'd inform either way, but hey ho.

Still waiting for my expenses to come back too :angry:

Reply 7

Original post by IWMTom

i got an email 3 days ago (after receiving a prior phone call to confirm a date for my hr interview) informing me that interviews had been put on hold. worrying!

Reply 8

Original post by Lookingforajob1

i got an email 3 days ago (after receiving a prior phone call to confirm a date for my hr interview) informing me that interviews had been put on hold. worrying!

Probably taken on too many people for the amount of work they've got going on at the moment - I've been down to London for my AC, been three weeks now, still nothing.

Reply 9

Original post by IWMTom

Probably taken on too many people for the amount of work they've got going on at the moment - I've been down to London for my AC, been three weeks now, still nothing.

how was it?

Reply 10

Original post by Lookingforajob1

how was it?

I thought it went well - looks like I was wrong.

Reply 11

Original post by IWMTom

I didn't even have a buddy during my application process last year + They only gave me my expenses for the travel to the assessment centre, they didn't bother giving me a reimbursement for the HR interview

Reply 12

Original post by squirrology

All of my interaction with ACN has been online, apart from the AC, where I got a call 24 hours before it was due to take place telling me I needed to be in London by 1PM the following day. The train cost me a fortune that short notice, so they better pay up.

Reply 13

lulno

Got an email today and thought I would share it since some of you may be interested/ want to compare it to your own.

Thank you for applying for the apprenticeship at Accenture. Interest in our apprenticeship scheme was enormous this year, and we received applications from very high calibre candidates. After careful consideration, you have unfortunately not made the shortlist of candidates to be invited to an assessment centre on this occasion. It was, however, a very difficult decision to make as your application and video interview was of a high standard. Should a space become available on an assessment centre, we will contact you again to establish if you are still available.

Thank you again for your application.

Reply 14

Original post by squirrology

Can you tell me the main difference between the software and the infrastructure degree apprenticeship? Aside from the obvious difference in length. Is there a chance to cross over into the other during the degree and which is more valuable?

Reply 15

winterscoming

Original post by Lookingforajob1

I can't comment about the degree or apprenticeship, but the job of an Infrastructure Engineer is completely different to a Software Engineer. Obviously there's a little bit of cross-over as both are skilled IT professions, but they deal with completely different aspects of IT.

Software Engineering is about taking client/user requirements and writing code to deliver working software. Software Engineers can often expect to be writing code in in one or more high-level language(s) such as Java, C#, Swift, Python, C++, etc (of course, some jobs involve low-level languages like C too). Other techical skills such as being able to troubleshoot defects in code, some UI/UX design, database modelling, and web development skills are often needed. Software Engineers tend to specialise in a "stack" surrounding a high-level language - for example, there's a C#/.NET stack, a Java Stack, a Python Stack, an IoS stack (Apple/Swift). Java and C# tend to be in the highest demand at the moment.

Infrastructure Engineering is about providing fast, reliable, functional infrastructure. Infrastructure is a broad term which covers Servers, cabling, switches, routers, and any 3rd-party software used to configure and operate those devices. These days it also includes operating cloud services too. It requires a working knowledge on topics such as networking, security, O/S configuration, scripting (e.g. Bash or PowerShell). Being able to troubleshooting hardware faults and errors in 3rd party applications is also an important skill, so it's usually useful to become an expert in the product offerings of particular vendors or platforms (e.g. Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, *nix).

The two disciplines cross over in some aspects, particularly that both principally require strong problem solving and analytical skills. Some languages such as SQL are very useful in both, and an understanding of testing and quality are useful in nearly any IT job.

Both professions are highly skilled, although in terms of demand, even large businesses generally only need a small number of infrastructure engineers to keep their organisation running, whereas most large businesses are likely to have many teams of Software Engineers to keep on developing their systems - even businesses which aren't in the tech sector might have a number of Software teams developing internal systems.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 16