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The Consulting Lifestyle

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This blog was written by Mike Troeller. Mike is a current member of the CDC graduate scheme.

One of the reasons why I initially applied to Capgemini was the varied nature of project work and notably, the opportunity to experience this in a range of different locations. The consulting lifestyle can involve being resourced onto a project at the other end of the country or even abroad for months at a time. I’m currently based up in Edinburgh and have quickly mastered the art of living out of a suitcase. Here are my top tips:

1. Invest in a durable, lightweight small suitcase – Not only will your back thank you for not lugging a holdall around but most projects require you to stay in a hotel for 3 nights each week (Mon-Thurs), meaning that a small suitcase is sufficient if you pack wisely. To save time and not have to check your case in ensure that it corresponds to airline size restrictions. This is generally 56x45x25 (cm) but research the airline beforehand as some allow you to take a laptop bag too.

2. Have a ‘miniatures’ toiletries kit – Keep a designated bag aside from your home supplies with a toothbrush, toothpaste etc. Try to make sure that everything is ‘mini’, so under 100ml so it complies with hand luggage requirements. This will prevent having to rethink and repack every week.

3. Don’t pack, just relax (on a Sunday) – Weekends should be time for you so pack on a Thursday night when you return home. This way you avoid any late night Sunday panic. I’ve always found it useful to have a ‘packing checklist’ so that I don’t forget anything. This will become second nature after a few weeks but it is a good way to start.

4. Map out your journey – It is obviously important to focus on packing, luggage and flights but making plans for after arrival requires equal consideration and planning. Research reputable taxi firms and book in advance to prevent long delays or hefty fares.

5. Take a good book / Ipod – Waiting in hotel lounges or being on long train journeys can feel arduous but time passes much quicker with some cheesy music or an edition of Harry Potter. Take whatever interests you with you when you travel.

6. Don’t ruin your feet – Clients don’t see you on your 0700 flight so sacrifice fashion in the name of comfort. You’ll have plenty of time to change and smarten up before arriving on site.

7. Make your loyalty count – Staying in the same hotel for weeks at a time or flying withthe same airline regularly means that you should research into their loyalty scheme. Chain hotels and airlines generally have loyalty cards that reward clients with points accumulated over time. I’ve known colleagues to have weekends away in Paris (flights/accommodation) entirely funded by their hard earned points!

8. Indulge in hotel facilities – Research what the hotel has to offer in advance of your stay. Some have high tech gyms and spas to take your mind off a day’s hard work.

9. Eat well! – Another perk of not being at home is not having to worry about cooking! Enjoy the hotel cuisine or local delicacies.

10. Manage your time – Working away is a great opportunity to experience another location, language or culture as well as getting to know your colleagues. However, having time to reflect and relax is equally important and highly valued to balance socialising with down time.

The tips above will hopefully help you to really appreciate the many perks of working away and prepare you for life as a Consultant!
 

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Leaving our mark on the CDC

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This blog was written by Chris Southgate. Chris is a current member of the CDC graduate scheme.

The CDC is a first class learning environment for a number of reasons, not only because of the formal training curriculum, including the fantastic consulting skills workshop in Les Fontaines, but also because of the opportunities provided to develop as a consultant by participating and managing internal streams of work.

The CDC maintains a variety of work streams to support and compliment the CDC itself in Recruitment, Events, Learning & Development and others such as External events (charity fundraising and support), and through these, CDCers themselves have the opportunity to develop core consulting skills in safe environments supported by senior colleagues. While only a commitment of 4 hours per week, these workstreams can become a source of great satisfaction, achievement and often fun.

Admittedly, delivering large events or projects for the CDC (or the business or wider community) can be frustrating in their development, but the exposure to senior management and the sense of pride and achievement at delivering the elements that make the CDC such an engaging place to work make them really worthwhile activities. The opportunities to lead these streams teach you a huge amount on project/programme delivery, stakeholder management, effective communications as well as time management as you deliver in line with your client projects, and the internal networking opportunities become hugely important further down the line too.

The ability to really stamp our own mark on the CDC stepped up a gear recently with a review of the internal work streams; coordinated by CDC management and driven by ourselves, we have crafted the recommendations for change, and currently lead the change process. Such is the respect for and trust in the incumbent stream lead positions that a small group of CDCers in particular are playing lead roles in what the CDC looks like going forwards. For example, a small group of CDCers are guiding the change process to embed the new activities/processes, some are deeply involved in shaping our recruitment activities on and off campus to increase our brand awareness, and I am involved with shaping large parts of the training curriculum and calendar to update the material and make further self directed learning more accessible – all with a sizable impact on the programme!

Immediately after joining, the CDC had shown me how strong the community is but 12 months in, it is clear that the strong community feel is really driven by our roles in owning, shaping and maintaining it. I’m pretty happy with the changes I’ve been involved in, but I know over time they’ll be iterated for the better, allowing us all to leave our mark on the CDC.
 

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Steaming ahead with Stream work

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This blog was written by Felicity Bainbridge. Felicity is a current member of the CDC graduate scheme.

One of the reasons why a career with Capgemini Consulting was initially so appealing was because of the emphasis that it places on people. This is an integral part of the company and is visible in client work, throughout the larger business and to a greater extent – within the CDC.

To develop business leadership, core consulting and people skills every CDCer is a member of a particular ‘stream’. Stream ‘work’ is in addition to client work and we set aside 4 hours a week to focus on our individual deliverable (task). Each stream has a stream ‘lead’ (another CDCer) who oversees the work of the stream and reports back to the stream client - a Consultant who helps to scope deliverables and monitors the progress of the stream. We rotate every 3 months so you will have the opportunity to experience most of the streams as well as applying to lead one! So, a brief introduction to the 8 different streams:

Events: What it says on the tin – the Events stream organise and coordinate all the events in the CDC calendar. This is from our monthly FNFS (Friday night of fun socials) to the quarterly CDC Meeting where we all get together for an afternoon of trade shows and discussions.

Recruitment: Deliverables include designing and testing the assessment centre group exercise, creating a graduate marketing questionnaire and organising buddies for the new intakes.

Internal Marketing: Write and send out the CDC Times (newsletter), manage the CDC Awards by collating and delivering a nominations pack, developing the CDCs relationship with the sectors, marketing the new CDC joiners to the rest of the business and finally, organising a rota for writing this blog!

Framework: Maintain the structure of the CDC by facilitating stream lead calls, creating milestone plans and writing the weekly CDC Bulletin. They also update the CDC calendar, manage the stream rotation process and deliver the CDC Census results – an anonymous questionnaire covering all aspects of the CDC which is presented at CDC Meetings.

Learning and Development: Monitor CDC ‘learning’ by organising ‘MySkills’ sessions (presentations delivered by CDCers on topics such as Excel and project roles to upskill others) and ensuring that the CDC follows their required training schedule by attending all mandatory courses.

External: The charity stream! This is wholly committed to running initiatives to support the Myotubular Trust and the Voluntary Police Cadets as well as raising as much money as possible for our charity of the year, Alzheimer’s Research UK. Deliverables this rotation have included coordinating and facilitating the fortnightly Charity of the Year call, running a CCUK eBay project and organising a weekend ASE (Accelerated Solutions Environment).

CCUK: Support the wider Consulting business by updating Silhouette profiles for members of the VPP (internal CVS for the Vice President and Principal Community), conduct external research on internal communication methods and analyse these results to provide recommendations.
Business: Concerned with supporting propositions and capability development across CCUK. This involves looking into the use of innovative tools to capture client assessments and researching how leaders in the digital space use them. The next phase is testing the tools and preparing them for client engagements.

It is important to remember that specific deliverables and required outputs vary for each stream from rotation to rotation. They very much depend on new ideas, different approaches and collaborative group work. Stream work is a great opportunity to cement the tools and training that we’ve been taught in a relatively ‘safe’ environment (not under the watchful eye of clients) and to enhance the community spirit that really does make the CDC a fantastic place to be and an excellent place to start your career!

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A new joiner's insight

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This Blog was written by Nagina Ahmad; a recient joiner to the CDC consulting graduate programme.

One of the things that attracted me to this job was the variety involved with it. It wasn’t until I got started that I really realised the wealth of experiences that are available to you as an Associate Consultant with Capgemini.

Straight off the mark with 3 weeks of training you’ll be thrown into a whirlwind of activities where no two days are the same. In Week 1 we found ourselves jetting off to Paris to visit Les Fontaines - Capgemini’s training facility. A week of intense training (some nights going until 11pm) later we were equipped with consulting methodologies and skills, amongst much more.

 

Since training I’ve been placed in one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies supporting the requirements gathering phase of a project .It was a fantastic learning curve demonstrating how Supply Chain comes together in such a large global organisation. Alongside that, I’ve had great opportunities to work on ‘extra curricular’ activities such as building and deploying a survey for my capability unit, a rollout of Windows 7 across the whole of CC and now I’m working within the telecoms industry as a Tester/Business Analyst!

 

Part of the challenge and excitement is that you never know what you’ll be doing next. Each role brings with it a new set of challenges and requires a range of different skill sets and every day you’re learning something new. It can be a bit scary at times, but there is endless support (ranging from the CDC all the way up to VP’s) and the environment you work in is fantastic. You really feel like part of a team working at Capgemini. Alongside that you get to work with just a variety of people from Subject Matter Experts to Technical Managers.

 

But it’s not all work and no fun. We’ve had trips to comedy clubs, bowling, there is out monthly “Friday Night of Fun” and our quarterly CDC Meeting. These are great opportunities to touch base, find out what everyone is up to and of course have fun!

 

Overall, consultancy at Capgemini is so much more than what it says on the packet. There is a range of things you will be doing, places you will be going and the opportunities are endless. Each brings with it a strong sense of achievement, belonging to a team and development as an individual.

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Working in the heart of it all

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Beginning life as a Consultant

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This blog was written by Amy Ratcliffe. Amy is currently a member of the CDC graduate development community.

 

Beginning life as a Consultant at Capgemini is an exciting, fast-paced and challenging experience: your first few months will see you meeting new people in the CDC and wider business, learning the various processes, systems and methods, and then finally taking the ultimate step of arriving on client site to deliver change. One aspect that can be overlooked, however, is what happens when we are between client projects or (as it is more commonly known) ‘on the bench’.

 

Bench time is a natural part of any Consultant’s career. Even if this is a relatively short period (e.g. a couple of days back in the office whilst roles are being confirmed), it will happen to all of us at some point and can be really valuable if used wisely. At the most basic level, time on the bench can be used to catch up on all necessary admin after a client engagement such as submitting expenses, updating ‘Silhouette’ – our internal CV system – and catching up on any outstanding learning and development tasks e.g. Computer Based Training. After this there are a number of other things you can do which makes bench time fun and also very rewarding for your long term career: you can use the time to speak to your Resourcing Manager about upcoming projects, network with members of your Capability Unit and CDC over coffee and, perhaps most importantly, pick up internal work or ‘cookies’.

 

‘Cookies’ is the informal term given to short pieces of internal work – normally one to two days – and are usually done for specific Capability Units or Sectors. They are a great way to network with key members of the business and also learn more about our various industry specialisms and capabilities. A recent ‘cookie’ I completed involved researching our history and credentials into a key market, and thus allowed me to meet with various VPs across the business, undertake research on our internal knowledge sharing tool KM2.0, and even get in touch with our wider international network when looking to identify global capabilities.

 

A further way to maximise your bench time is through taking part in the CDC ‘coffee campaign’. Run through Internal Marketing, the campaign aims to connect CDCers with members of CUs and Sectors to broaden knowledge and awareness of what the various units do before we begin our careers. It can be a great way to get to know people and also network if looking for your next project!

 

Overall, being on the bench can be a great experience, particularly when you are first getting started in the business. You can meet your new colleagues, gain a greater insight into what life is like as a Consultant, and even start finding your way around the office. Make the best of your time, and days spent on the bench can be key in the development of consulting career.

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We are not just consultants, but event’s organisers too!

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This Blog was written by Leila Pritchard. Leila is a current member of the CDC graduate community.

A question I had before becoming a consultant was: how will I get to know my CDC colleagues if we are all working on different projects in different towns and cities?  Well I soon found out – CDC Events.  For 3 months I have been responsible for leading a small group of CDCers to plan the forthcoming events. 

Everyone meets up monthly for ‘Friday Night Fun’ (FNF) at an interesting bar close to the office, have a few drinks and of course a bit of fun!  We also have Dial Deborah where each month we can join a conference call and ask the CDC Management any questions on our mind.  But the most anticipated social event of the quarter is without doubt... the CDC Meeting!

The CDC Meeting is a half day away from client site where all CDCers get together for hours filled with useful presentations, trade shows and interactive discussions.  Then afterwards we hold a social event.

The event aims to fulfil the LIFE objectives – providing opportunities to learn, be informed, give feedback and be entertained.  A typical agenda looks something like this:

 

Picking out a few of the regular agenda items:

 View From the Bridge has the CDC Manager talk to us about how Capgemini Consulting is performing – key work we have won/carried out, utilisation and what we are focussing on going forward.

CDC Surgery is a time for CDCers to split off into small groups, without management present, and discuss any questions and concerns they have with other graduates who can offer their point of view and advice on the matter.

 Capability Unit/Sector Presentation sees representatives from one of Capgemini’s business areas come along and take a ‘deep dive’ into the type of work they do and their key clients.  CDCers who have worked with the unit/sector also present their success stories and experiences which is a great way to find out more and see how you can get involved.

CDC Awards recognise graduates for their achievement in project work, stream work and contribution to the graduate programme as a whole.  It’s always nice to feel that your hard work has been appreciated!

At the last meeting we also had Tom Blacksell, CEO of Capgemini Consulting, come and speak to us about the developments in Consulting globally; and Christine Hodgson, Chairman of Capgemini UK, updated us on changes in the structure of Capgemini UK as a whole.  This helped us gain a well rounded knowledge of what is happening globally and how the whole business fits together. 

As you can see, it is a jam packed day with lots of interesting sessions presented by a huge variety of speakers and most importantly CDCers having the opportunity to have their say.  Following the meeting, the Events Stream have even more fun planned with food and drinks at a local bar when CDCers can carry on networking and catching up with friends/colleagues.

 After a busy rotation of events it is time to handover to another CDCer who can bring some exciting new ideas to the table and present the next quarter of events.

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When consultants don’t do consultancy

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This Blog was written by Simon Hodge. Simon Hodge is a consultant on the CDC graduate scheme.

When you start a new job, obviously your first thoughts are going to be of...well...the job. The work is why we joined and why we were hired. What many people don’t realise before they join is the huge number of opportunities that come our way in the CDC that have absolutely nothing to do with the work we do.

Before you join, you won’t notice the optional extras very much – some reference on our CSR web page to Capgemini’s charity work, perhaps, or the odd question at a careers fair. Essentially, it’s not a priority. And then it’s your first day, and at induction you suddenly get told of about a million things (well, perhaps an exaggeration, but not far off) that CDCers have got up to because they joined Capgemini, but which have nothing to do with consultancy.

Over the Spring Bank Holiday, for example, I took part in the BUPA 10k run in London, along with 5 other current or former CDCers. I had never done a race like this before, and loved it so much I’m already looking for my next one to do. We ran in support of one of the charities Capgemini supports, Alzheimer’s Research UK. A team of 6 consultants, and yet not a process map in sight - just weeks of training, fitness tips and (obviously) immensely high quality banter.

Or there was the Myotubular Trust Walk, a 17 mile wander along the Thames that is always a hit with new joiners. It’s a great way of supporting a really important charity and getting to see some fantastic bits of London all at once. Or perhaps the Five Peaks Challenge, climbing the five largest mountains in the British Isles, that some other grads are due to undertake this summer; or dinner in the historic Banqueting House in London, where Charles I was executed at the end of the Civil War.

None of these things have much to do with consultancy, but they have all happened because we are consultants. The CDC provides a great career opportunity, and that is of course the main reason we are here, but it also opens doors to a wealth of other challenges and experiences that help make our time in the CDC about far more than just consultancy.

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The trials and tribulations of Consulting

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This blog was written by Victoria Snell. Victoria is a current member of the CDC graduate scheme.

I joined the CDC in September 2010 and after completing my 2 week induction went straight onto a client role at a government department.  Unusually this, my first role, lasted nearly 7 months and whilst it was a great insight into the world of digital transformation and stakeholder management, I barely stepped foot in the shiny new Capgemini Holborn office. So when I was told I was rolling off this project I was actually looking forward to what many people at Capgemini fear, some time on “the bench”!

“The bench” is essentially a term to describe the time when you are not working on a billable client project.  Clearly doing billable work is important as it generates income for the company and counts towards your utilisation target; however internal work is valuable as it can help Capgemini to bring in more work or improve its internal and external tools and services. It can also help you to develop your skills and get yourself known in the company, essentially making yourself indispensible to project managers!

So my first major task on “the bench” was to work on a bid for a major UK airport operator.  There were two phases to work on, the first phase was to support in preparing the written tender, the second was to support in the preparation of a presentation should we make it past the first round.

In the first phase, my role was to provide insight and background research into the specific work we would be undertaking at the airport.  I was also asked to collate as many credentials and expertise examples as possible utilising the full global Capgemini network.  I was therefore having phone calls with senior members of the business in France and Spain with relevant experience, collating their CVs and credentials and presenting back to our bid team on who and which were best. I knew Capgemini was an international company, but it was great to discover that Capgemini really does function as a global unit and to personally get to interact with these people was fantastic!

Not only did it strike me what a fantastic global team of people Capgemini possess at their fingertips but also the external contacts Capgemini have.  Relationships with some very experienced people in the global airport industry meant that we were able to fly in a very experienced expert all the way from Australia to work with us on the bid delivery and I was personally able to work closely with him.  The opportunity to meet such impressive individuals and to form relationships with them is a great feature of working at Capgemini.

The evening before the bid was submitted we worked through the night to ensure timely delivery (sorry to say this is true although a very rare occurrence)!! All the hard work was worth it however as we made it through to the presentation phase along with 3 others so that we could pitch to win the work.

The second presentation phase began almost immediately after we had submitted the bid.  I worked on producing a hand out pack to accompany a highly visual poster called a “horseblanket” that would be used as a more effective PowerPoint pack.  The respect that even junior consultants get is brilliant as all my ideas and designs were listened to and I was able to plug any gaps that I noticed taking the load off the shoulders of the more senior consultants who needed to focus on designing their messages for the presentation. 

I also attended the rehearsals whereby we invited very senior members of Capgemini Consulting including our COO in to listen to the messages and to critique the presentation and throw potential questions at the bid team. It was fascinating to see how the very senior consultants who have not been working on the bid can attend a rehearsal and immediately get a view of how the structure should be and the key messages to push.  Having 3 very clear messages was reiterated as very important to winning.  Bid work is a fantastic opportunity to see the very best consultants in action and you can take a lot away from it.

Throughout the bid and pitching processes I learnt a great deal about airport operations and processes, stakeholder mobilisation and engagement and modelling techniques such as surface access modelling as well as the importance of the X factor.  To demonstrate how confident we were at winning the work we designed a differentiating commercial offering that shared the Airport’s risk.  We were therefore prepared to lose money if we did not deliver to expectation however if we delivered above expectation we asked for monetary recognition of that.  A successful project was number 1 priority for an Airport operator with high global visibility (more important than cost) and this offering took account of that.

Ten days after the pitch we found out that sadly we lost the work by a whisker!  It was so close it was a difficult decision for the airport operator to make.  Obviously after all the hard work we had put in, it was a very gutting result, but we had done our best and sometimes it comes down to the fact we don’t have the specific credential another firm possess.  If I could change the fact we lost, I would, but we couldn’t have done more and it really was an enjoyable and great learning experience.  Capgemini have intelligent, inspirational and motivational employees who are always happy to assist you in your learning and development, and it was this that made it all worth it. Losing work is a learning curve and merely part of the trials and tribulations of our business.

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Life in the fast lane – Bid work

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This Blog was written by Alex Hammond. Alex is a current member of the Graduate Consultant Development Community (CDC).

Having completed the rigorous training and induction at the start of our time on the CDC, our group were split. Some wanted to take the time to assimilate the wealth of information they had been exposed to in the preceding weeks, enjoy some slightly less manic time on the bench, and get settled into their shiny new job. Others were chomping at the bit to get stuck in. I was overwhelmingly of the latter - I could not wait to get started. Having been trained to within an inch of my life, I was now ready to unleash this knowledge on the world.

Unfortunately (or perhaps wisely, who’s to judge?!), I was not set loose on the CEO of a Global Retailer, or asked to redesign the NHS within my first week out of induction. What I was able to get involved with, however, is a project that epitomises the very nature of the work that we do - I joined a bid team.

Those that have experienced any sort of formal sales process, whether we’re talking a few pounds to a few million, will know it is an emotional rollercoaster. Our client was a major bank - nothing new there you might say - but this was (and still is) a bank undergoing a phenomenal amount of change across the entirety of its business. What this meant for us was a great opportunity for Capgemini to get involved in this change, and make things happen. Trouble is we had to convince the client to part with a fair chunk of change in order for us to do so.

A bid is a great thing to get involved with early in your consulting career. It encompasses everything that is good about consulting – fast-paced environment, a great team effort, quick decisions, a huge amount of variety, and the opportunity to work with some really big fish (or VP’s as they generally prefer to be called). This is to name but a few. Delivery is our day job, and of course most of your time will be working to actually design, deliver and implement what it is you have been selling. But when the opportunity comes up to bid and sell a project, it is worth getting involved.

The nature of the beast is momentum. The start of a bid tends to be fairly restrained - gathering research, reading documents, discussing solution options, playing with figures and costs, and ultimately developing our idea of what a good solution looks like. At the start, and particularly as a new joiner, you can get lulled into the sense that you have a chilled couple of weeks ahead of you... but how wrong you would be! This truly is the calm before the storm.

By week 2 things have really kicked off, and come the week of submission the pace of work is such that if you switch off for a minute you will have missed a complete change of strategy. Finally, as the final proposal is signed, sealed and delivered (well, emailed at least), you realise how much of a team effort it is to deliver something like a multi-million pound bid, and the sense of achievement you have when you find out you have won! (Disclaimer – unfortunately we don’t win all bids, but if you’re like me you can claim a 100% record and not worry about this too much). Can’t think of a better start to my career as a consultant...

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