The Power of Reinvention

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.