Why choose the Capgemini Graduate Programme?

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Why did you apply to Capgemini?

I joined Capgemini because I liked the company's focus on the personal and professional development of its graduates. At Capgemini I feel pushed to succeed and encouraged to go that extra mile. I have the backing of my manager and the people around me. I feel I have the resources I need to learn and develop, and that it is now up to me to use them to get the best out of the programme.

What is your favourite aspect about Capgemini graduate scheme?

Capgemini invests heavily in graduates so not only are there plenty of opportunities in the company, when you join you feel part of a graduate community. Getting involved in this community is just as valuable an experience as your day-to-day job. You will be able to bond as a group through training sessions and other interventions. This provides you with plenty of opportunity to learn from each other and use other people's strengths to improve on your weaknesses.

I am currently lead of an Events and Activities graduate group which aims to create social, charitable and networking events run by graduates. This forms an interesting and worthwhile part of my work outside of my day job but inside the business environment. As part of this, in just 6 months the graduates have raised over £1500 for charity from the events we have run. The group gives me much needed practice in skills I might not normally be involved in such as managing a project and organising a team. This has helped me grow in confidence and I can bring these new-learned skills into my day job.

As we are all part of one graduate scheme that encompasses the whole of Capgemini UK, I am working with people from many different business areas. This means I can informally learn about other people's roles around the business, learn how the business works and expand my network.

The graduate community also brings a fantastic social element to your life.

What's in it for me?

There are plenty of training and development opportunities which are all about you reaching your potential. The interventions you will take part in touch upon all areas of your development so you are able to increase your skills and knowledge in a number of different areas. Amongst others, I have attended courses on improving my communication skills, a 3-day consulting skills course and a time-management session. As an example, I feel much happier and better prepared to present in front of a large group and have learnt tips and techniques to get my point across.

I have quarterly meetings to discuss my progress and where I can improve. This helps me identify the areas I need to work on. As a developer, I have also been given the opportunity to build upon my technical skills including an Oracle SQL and Unix system course.

What do I want to achieve in the next six months?

Over the next 6 months I will be looking to demonstrate the skills I have learnt from training sessions in my day-to-day role. By showing my improvement I hope to push for a promotion and increase the responsibility I have in the team. I will be using the continual feedback from my peers to identify areas where I can improve and pick out the training which is right for me. As part of my role in the graduate events group I will also be involved in organising social and charitable events for graduates.

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A Placement Student's Perspective

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Like many other university degrees, my course involves an industry placement between my second and final year at university. When applying for placement jobs, I was looking for a role that would provide me with a variety of experiences and one that would allow me to develop my business knowledge and skills.

After I secured my placement with Capgemini having successfully passed the assessment centre, I spent my first week at Capgemini’s Head Office in Woking where nine other placement students and I were involved in various team building activities, given informative talks from different business units and we had the opportunity to gain an insight into consultancy (not to mention discovering the meaning different acronyms – whether it be TIM or TOM, BIM or BOM, consultants always manage to abbreviate everything!). Moreover, one of the most important things that came out of the first week was the opportunity to start my very own network within the organisation.

My first project was a steep learning curve in regard to the consulting lifestyle as it involved working for a client in Scotland - flying to work IS as exciting as it sounds, although waking up at 4am on a Monday morning to catch the flight is somewhat less exciting but it’s something that you soon get used to! I joined the Change Team on the project and was soon given a high level of responsibility that was unexpected and was also able to engage with different business stakeholders to manage all training associated with a global SAP rollout.

On reflection, my first client role in Capgemini taught me a fantastic amount in the four months that I was there and will shape the way that I will develop my future career. Some of the key skills that I developed during my first project role include both the ability to engage with key stakeholders and the importance of collaboration in producing project deliverables. Two of the best aspects about being on different projects as a placement student is that you are treated the same as a graduate and you meet a lot of different people. I have already met some great consultants from whom I have learnt a lot and I look forward to working with more approachable and experienced consultants from different backgrounds for the rest of my placement.

Furthermore, another aspect of my placement that I was keen to explore was the opportunity to gain industry recognised qualifications. Capgemini give placement students the opportunity to complete two Chartered Institute of IT certified courses, one in Systems Development and the second in Business Analysis. These courses were really enjoyable and I gained a broad knowledge of both of these areas which I will continue to apply throughout my future career.

Lastly, everyone at Capgemini so far has been tremendously approachable, friendly and encouraging in providing guidance to areas of work that I am interested in exploring as a career with Capgemini. I am already looking forward to experiencing a ‘Raleigh’ Leadership Weekend where several Capgemini graduates and I have volunteered to help a local community through some hard physical graft, and I have high hopes for what the rest of my placement will entail.
 

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Eight Months in - My Experiences so Far

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It’s now been nearly 8 months to the day that I joined Capgemini last July and over a year since I accepted the job, which seems like a long time ago. This has been my first ‘proper’ job since graduating from university and it’s been quite an experience so far. From making new friends and having the relaxed induction week, to becoming accustomed to work life to then looking ahead and thinking about what career I want to pursue – it’s been a busy 8 months. Hopefully I will be able to convey my experiences so far.

It was way back in February 2011 when I had accepted my offer to join Capgemini shortly after the assessment centre. So why did I accept Capgemini? To be truthful, they were the first company that had given me an offer and with much university work coming up, I accepted it! But there was a real reason for joining Capgemini. From the assessment centre, I was left impressed with the more personal attitude that was shown compared to other companies and what the company could offer me. To sum it up, I think what Capgemini can offer you is a career, not a job. There is a massive difference between the two which I didn’t appreciate until recently.

I’ve been on two different projects so far in Capgemini. My first one was a testing role on a data warehouse (Wikipedia link) upgrade project. There were two halves to the role – the first half was unsurprisingly testing what the development team had delivered and making sure the upgrade gave the same results as before, and the second half was making preparations for the testing!

Looking back, the role was a nice introduction to the world of work and let me find my feet in the company. There was a defined set of processes to follow which meant the role was slightly limited, but I learnt how a project operated and from the role I could see a few different areas of Capgemini and the work they did. This helped me decide what type of career I wanted to follow.

I moved off this role in November having spent 4 months on it and straight into a new role! I wasn’t told much about the role apart from I would be a Planning Analyst on a Windows 7 rollout – so I had no idea what to expect. Four months on, I hope I can give a pretty good account of what I do! The project is rolling out Windows 7 to brand new machines for everyone and a new email system to a global client with over 250 offices in 170 countries. My team is planning this and will be coordinating it when we start the main rollout.

The team isn’t that defined in the sense that we don’t have specific individual roles and responsibilities, but my involvement is helping think up processes, plan how we are actually going to do this and writing documents to explain this. This rollout (probably like most) has so many different components to it that making sure they all fit together is quite a challenge. Being at a junior level, you often get involved in other activities on the project to provide some additional help. To name a few of the other activies; I’ve helped my Project Manager with the project financials ending up in creating a spreadsheet with macros to automate and reduce the work involved, I’ve taken minutes at meetings with the CIO of the client exposing me to senior level of the project and I’ve done some data manipulation in Excel which will feed into our planning software.

This last point started out as a small ½ day piece of work, but then grew more complex and critical to the project. I’ve taken ownership of this piece of work which has ended up in talks with the client and developing a database which will be used for the rest of the project and be a critical component of the planning and coordination of the rollout.

My role so far has been really varied and quite frantic at times, but has been enjoyable and I’ve learnt an incredible amount. Comparing my current role to my previous one, they are very different and you probably think from reading this that I didn’t gain much in my first role. I’d definitely disagree with this for many reasons, the main one being that it gave me the opportunity to find out what I wanted which is pretty fundamental in deciding where you want to take your career!

Looking ahead, I’m excited for the future. I want to find myself a new role in the next few months to learn different things and gain more experience which will hopefully help me work towards the career I want to pursue.

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Making work-life balance work for you

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Imagine the following scenario: It is Friday afternoon and you’re looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, perhaps counting down the time until you can pack up and head home. But then your manager approaches you with bad news: the project is behind schedule and there is a risk of things going horribly wrong. You are personally needed to work over the weekend to try and help bring the project back on track, and you won’t be able to take a day off next week in lieu. What would your immediate reaction to this news be? Disappointment perhaps, or a sense of unfairness that your weekend is being taken away from you?

Before I continue with this anecdote I should point out that this is by no means a common occurrence here at Capgemini. Nonetheless, this is the scenario I found myself in last week on my current project. My initial reaction, inwardly, was of course disappointment that I wouldn’t get to go back home that weekend, or even a day off to relax. It was even tempting to make an excuse as to why I wouldn’t be able to come in, particularly since I did genuinely have plans. But a sense of pride can be a powerful motivator. It was clear that the team were relying on my knowledge and skills to drive the project forward over Saturday and Sunday. It also demonstrated the confidence and trust my project manager has in my ability to work without supervision.

In my previous blog post, I mentioned the importance of versatility and adapting yourself when the situation requires it. This versatility does not pertain exclusively to expanding your skill-set and knowledge, but also to when you work and, on occasion, your work-life balance. Capgemini strongly encourages a healthy balance, and will always address imbalances when they occur. Maintaining a healthy balance is essential to your happiness and performance, and a burned-out employee is not something anyone wants to see.
Despite this, on high-profile projects you will sometimes find yourself in the situation where more is asked of you.

Rather than grin and bear it, it pays handsomely instead to see it as an opportunity to really show what you can do. Work in the evenings and weekends can be much more close-knit and quiet, compared to the hustle and bustle of regular working hours, and individual effort is considerably easier to recognise. It will also help to raise your profile, and possibly lead to a greater variety of work that will stretch you a little more – though it’s definitely worth remembering to keep things in moderation. You still need your down-time!

The kind of career you may choose to pursue at Capgemini can be a demanding one, with more than its fair share of travel and occasionally long hours. However it is also a meritocracy where those who are willing to stick their neck out and get their hands dirty will find their endeavours rewarded, and their achievements acknowledged in full. Should you be considering a career at Capgemini, or consulting in general, you will almost certainly find yourself in my situation on many occasions during the (hopefully) long course of your career. Just remember that what can seem like a burden can always be turned into an opportunity for those who can afford to be flexible enough to seize it. The lucky few who always seem to get the best opportunities probably earned them during one long weekend, in what they thought was a thankless task. Not always the case!

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CDC Chapters

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This blog entry was written by Simon Hodge. Simon is a current member of the CDC graduate scheme.

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The joys of networking

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When I was carrying out the extensive graduate job search during my final year of university at the beginning of 2011, I was looking for three things: the opportunity for change, the chance to be creative, and most importantly, a challenge...

After just five months into the Capgemini Business Technology Consulting graduate programme, I am certain that I have made the right choice in choosing Capgemini. There is the aspect of change with regards to the number of roles and projects available, there is the chance to be creative by exploring ways to improve business processes and you are constantly able to challenge yourself to reach your best potential by gaining valuable experience expanding your skill set. These, combined with the presence of a large graduate community, mean that there is never a dull day! 

Although I have not been at the company for long, I’ve been able to take part in a number of events in addition to my current role. Importantly learning and development not only occurs on your current project at Capgemini but I have also found that volunteering for extra events as part of the graduate scheme is where you learn more, expand your network and are able to tell others what you’ve learnt elsewhere. It really is up to you how often you grab opportunities to gain knowledge, make contacts, give back to others and drive your career.

Let me tell you about two events with students: an open day at City University, and an evening with members of the British Computer Society (BCS) at our Holborn office. At City University, a colleague and I spoke to students who were looking to start courses, whereas with the BCS I was talking to small groups of students who were in their final year and looking for companies to apply to. I hope that by being able to give them an insight into my own positive university experience, application process and enjoyable working life so far with Capgemini, they can make informed decisions and realise the benefits of working in the fast-paced world of IT.

Perhaps the most rewarding event to date was a Raleigh International charity weekend in Milton Keynes which we were given the option to volunteer for. For more than six years, the Capgemini Business Technology Consulting graduate programme has partnered with Raleigh International to rejuvenate numerous community spaces around the UK. Not only was it a fantastic networking opportunity for graduates and a chance to improve leadership skills, but we were also able to give back to the community and make a real difference. The project work included painting and decorating an office, the makeover of an art room and even the construction of an outside pizza oven.

This is just a brief overview of some of the events which I have been fortunate enough to take part in during my time so far with Capgemini. You are in control of your career and it’s up to you to identify the training, events, roles and people that will help you to achieve what you want. This year I look forward to further pushing my capabilities and developing skills to apply to the future.

Happy New Year, wishing you all a great 2012!

 Raleigh International weekend in Milton Keynes

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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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The Power of Reinvention

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Capgemini is a company which can present practically unlimited opportunities for self-motivated individuals, even those with little to no idea as to where it is they want to go. There are a lot of good articles on this blog from my predecessors that offer advice on how to exploit this by and large bottomless well of opportunity. As such, I was initially stumped on what insight I could provide for prospective Capgemini graduates. On reflection I think the one, single most important quality that I've gleaned from my short career so far with Capgemini: the power to reinvent yourself.

By reinvention I mean the ability to continually redefine your skill-set and expertise during the course of your career. Despite being a technology-orientated company, Capgemini takes on graduates from a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds, and my particular intake year had technology, business, law, economics and language graduates. It's worth mentioning this, because it's clear that Capgemini is not looking for pre-existing knowledge and skills, but malleable and inquisitive minds.

Take myself as an example: I graduated in 2008 with a degree in French and Latin, and between then and my first day at Capgemini I had a fairly eclectic work experience spanning legal admin, running a small independent high-street store, recruitment consultancy and headhunting, and a stint in the Royal Marines Commandos as a soldier. Each experience, particularly the Royal Marines, required a very different approach and way of thinking, and I was required to develop new skills, both soft and hard, in order to adapt. I consider this to be a deciding factor in my successfully passing through the Capgemini graduate assessment centre. As previous blogs have pointed out, you need to be intelligent and capable of articulating and formulating arguments in a group and solo setting. But more than that, Capgemini is looking for people that can transform themselves; drawing attention to your ability to adapt and take on new ideas during the interview and assessment stage certainly wouldn't hurt your chances.

So having set out my stall, I shall proceed to delve in a little deeper. For example, how does one go about effectively demonstrating their flexibility during the interview and assessment centre? A good starting point would be to consider past situations where you have had to develop new skills of your own volition, perhaps through voluntary work. Part of my work running a high-street store involved developing the online part of the business, which I had volunteered to do rather than pay for someone else to do it. Despite not having written a line of HTML since I was 13, I built up my knowledge almost from scratch and before long I had a working website. I continued to embellish and expand the site over the course of a few months, widening my repertoire of technical skills in the process. I had not just demonstrated an interest in technology (always a good idea when applying to Capgemini), but I had gone from salesman to web developer in the course of a few weeks. Have a think about similar situations where you have had to plunge into the unknown and learn something totally new, and if you can't think of anything then now would be a good time to get started!

Reinventing yourself isn't just a question of intelligence and motivation however; it is also about being fearless of plunging into the unknown and being open-minded. Plenty of highly intelligent and motivated people find a niche that they are comfortable with, and they become extremely good at what they do. Certainly, there is strong demand for skilled Java programmers, test automation experts and the like. But fast-tracking into one particular career path isn't what the Capgemini graduate scheme is about. This is really your chance to experiment and explore options that perhaps you hadn't even considered. You will not always be handed the most glamorous-sounding roles, or even ones that are in your area of interest, but it pays to embrace them and, wherever possible, find opportunities to develop new skills.

My first project was entirely non-technical and I was admittedly sceptical at first as to how this would help me develop in the direction I wanted to, but I took on some extra duties and began some new initiatives of my own and now I have a good grasp of Visual Basic (VB) and my Excel skills have dramatically improved. I then took these skills into my current testing role and used my newfound knowledge of VB to set up some test automation scripts, greatly enhancing my productivity. None of this was in my job description, but it nonetheless proved extremely useful. Never be afraid to take on additional duties beyond the scope of your role: it is the best way to maximise your learning and development.

My advice for all prospective Capgemini grads - whether you're currently writing your application, preparing for an assessment centre next week, or set to start your first day next month - is to just keep two things in mind: flexibility and open-mindedness. You have huge amounts of potential, and half the excitement is in not knowing where you will end up or how you will get there. Perhaps you could become a leading enterprise architect, helping steer a high-profile client through a complex technology transformation, or perhaps you could be in e-commerce, developing the back-end portion of a website that will be used by millions of customers a week. Ultimately, your path is bound to take a few unexpected turns. Whether these turns prove to be beneficial or a hindrance depends on what you make of them.
 

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My experience of applications

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 A bit about me, I joined Capgemini this July after graduating the month before. I studied Maths at Warwick University - but like Gurpreet, I’m definitely not technical! I recently attended a careers fair for Capgemini which gave me the idea of writing a blog entry about the application process and application forms. I hope you find it useful.

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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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