Marking my 2 years in Accenture, I’d like to share what I have learned so far in my career in Accenture. I started off as a Management Consultant in Indonesia’s Finance & Enterprise Value practice. Then I moved to the Indonesia’s Resources industry-focused practice, and now I’m in Malaysia’s Resources CFO & Enterprise Value practice.

So far, I’m delighted to say that although I’ve seen and heard horrible experiences of people working in Accenture, those did not happen to me. On the contrary, Accenture Indonesia has been a place where I see less politics than what other Indonesian companies currently experience, and the leaders are committed in ensuring employees’ growth.  Furthermore, diversity and Inclusion efforts are no joke. In Indonesia, we focused on women empowerment, mental health, and pride ally program.

So far I’ve been involved in 5 projects across multiple sectors and topics. But across the projects and throughout the 2 years, there are a few things that always holds true

Key things that I learned

Reputation is everything

You should try to network with as many people as possible and build relationships outside your work group. If your project team are the only people who you know and knows you, then you’ll be in trouble.

But frankly speaking, with the amount of people in the organization, it’s impossible for you to know everyone. Thus, your reputation becomes key. Your reputation needs to be good enough that people who never met you absolutely want to work with you because you’re known as being great at what you do. Sometimes this means that you need to tote your own horn, telling people what you did and what the impact was.

Not conveying what you want = never getting it

Everyone’s busy to fend for themselves and have no time to sit down and think specifically about what’s best for you. You need to do it yourself. Think about what do you want, make active steps to pursue that, and tell your leaders.

The worst part of some companies’ culture in Indonesia that I’ve seen is protectionism. Instead of letting employees’ try out things, or move to another organization, bosses try to cage their best employee in their own division, and doing only what they’re good at. This might be good for the boss, as they’ll need to spend less effort growing people, but this is a recipe for stagnation for the employee. It would also potentially lead to the departure of the best employees. You need to make active effort to break away from this chain, even if you have to move to other company, or find a role for yourself in other parts of the company. Totally easier said than done, but I promise that if you manage to do it, the rewards are bountiful.

Cross cultural collaboration is challenging

I didn’t realize this much when I did projects only in Indonesia, but when I started doing projects with other nationalities, communication challenges become apparent. Then it’s a matter of resolving the miscommunication peacefully, and not holding grudge.

Primary difference that will cause a challenge is typically Direct VS Indirect speech. People from cultures that speak in a more direct manner will feel that people who speaks indirectly are wishy-washy or unclear. While people from cultures that speak in indirect manner will feel that people who speaks directly are impolite or brash. This can only be mitigated by both sides realizing the culture of the other, and tries to meet in the middle, without judging the others.

Number one: Your boss. Number two: Your direct coworker circle

What impacts my happiness at work the most are these 2 things, in this order. I’ve been blessed with great direct managers in my time in Accenture, and I now understand what kind of qualities I look for in a leader. I think what I’m looking for is likely extremely similar with what you would want. I’d look for:

1. A leader that often gives feedback
2. A leader that can take feedback and change
3. A leader that can help you get a healthy balance of what do you want, and what is best for the business
4. A leader that is outspoken

Second thing that’ll impact your happiness at work is the quality and personality of the people you directly work with. I’ve met some of the most resilient and client value-oriented people I know during my time here. And I’m proud to have worked alongside them.

That’s it

Those are the key things that I’ve learned, I hope some of the things I mentioned resonate with you, and if you have any feedback or if you just want to chat, you can contact me in any of my social media profiles that you can go to from the links at the top right of the page.