Capgemini

"I love defining a better future. I ace making it happen."

How do you feel in the morning getting up and going to work at Capgemini?

When I get up in the morning, I feel enthusiastic for the challenges to come in the day and curious about what I’ll be able to learn from them.

What do you love about being a lead consultant?

I love the exposure I have to a large range of organizations and their unique challenges through the variety of different projects I’ve worked on. I get a lot out of developing my own expertise and views through these experiences. My colleagues are also great people to be around, work with, and learn from. I also love that I can define where I want my career to go and am encouraged to develop areas of interest.

How does Capgemini empower you to master your skills as a lead consultant?

At Capgemini, support is just around the corner. All you have to do is ask. I enjoy a mixture of learning by doing with support where required and more formal learning. Capgemini has been a great balance of those types of learning for me.

I also really enjoy finding opportunities to improve Capgemini itself and learn from it. For example, I’ve been trusted to redesign the way my team onboards new joiners and am now working on our recruitment strategy. My ideas have been met with great enthusiasm and encouragement by others and I’ve been able to learn while I make a real difference to our organization.

How does Capgemini help support a sense of purpose in your career?

Capgemini has such a broad range of projects and internal initiatives that I believe there’s something for everyone to get involved with that might help give them a sense of purpose. For me, I get a lot out of helping others work better together. I find this is an inherent part of my projects through our collaboration with our colleagues and clients. I also find it through helping new joiners find their feet and mentoring more junior colleagues.

My colleagues find their purpose in so many different areas. Some find purpose in the challenge of learning new technologies, while others might find it in developing client relationships, industry expertise, or a deep understanding of a cutting-edge topic. I’m sure there are many more examples that I’m not even aware of!

How does Capgemini give you the autonomy to make decisions?

We value everyone’s opinions and ideas. Through this, I have the autonomy to share an idea, hear my colleagues’ thoughts about it to refine it, and then make it happen.

What do you love about the way of working at Capgemini?

My colleagues are friendly and supportive and are there for me when I need help.

I’ve, of course, faced challenges. Instead of struggling through them in isolation, I’ve been able to reach out to others for advice and support. The moments when I’ve done this have been opportunities in disguise as they’ve helped me to build the foundations of meaningful relationships, helping me feel a sense of belonging.

How does this all combine for you to have passion for what you do?

I’m driven by improving the experiences that employees have in their jobs and the ways we work together. I’m lucky enough to get a chance to do that every day at Capgemini.

What was your most memorable moment in your Capgemini journey?

Last year I won a competition to go to the Capgemini University in France to attend a leadership course alongside colleagues from around the world! It was such a great opportunity to learn from some amazing instructors and the other attendees.

What are you an Ace at?

I love defining a better future. I ace making it happen.

5.30 AM
An early alarm for the first day of the week. It’s a Tuesday this week as the Monday is Labour Day in Victoria, but also Canberra Day in ACT. I roll out of bed to finish packing my bag with the last minute things I was too tired to pack last night. 

For a little bit of context, I am working as a Data Engineer on a project-based out of Canberra while I am based out of Melbourne. 

6.15 AM
After a quick shower, I get a text from the taxi driver. He’s arrived to drive me to the airport. I live over an hour away from the airport, so this is a chance to get that little bit of extra sleep before I really have to start thinking. 

7.30 AM
I arrive at the airport and meet some of my colleagues here for breakfast. It’s not long before we have to pack up and board our plane. 

8.30 AM
We’re finally on our way to Canberra. The flight is just over an hour.  

9.30 AM
We have arrived! The office is only 15-20m away from the office, so we hop into an uber and before we know it, we’ve arrived. 

10.00 AM
We drop our bags down and quickly head into a meeting room to run a quick stand-up meeting to discuss what everyone is doing today, what they did the previous day (Friday), and to see if there are any urgent tasks that need to be done.
Quick check of the emails and we’re on our way. 

10.45 AM
After settling ourselves in for the day, replying to emails and queries, it’s about time for a coffee. The day wouldn’t run smoothly without one. This has become a team tradition for us, which is always a good chance for everyone to get more comfortable with each other, and also a good chance to converse with the client.  A good relationship with a client is very important, especially as a consultant. 

11.00 AM
Coffee at hand, emails responded to, desk set up, I am now in the zone to crack into some coding. As a data engineer, I am working on building a pipeline for data to move from one place to another and apply some changes. All while considering clients’ needs along the way. Predominantly I am using Python to complete my work, but recently I have begun to utilise Spark for ETL. 

12.45 PM
Lunchtime! My colleagues and I are a close-knit team, and we all head off to the local shops to pick up something tasty. 

1.15 PM
Back from lunch already to prep for a 1.30 pm meeting with some important stakeholders. In this time I’m doing some final adjustments to my slides and settling my nerves.

1.30 PM
Big meeting with the Chief Data Officer of the client. I was proposing my plan for a particular pipeline that will be able to complete a necessary transformation to their data within our cloud environment. 

2.00 PM
Meeting was a complete success! She had questions here and there, which I had expected to encounter from my preparations, and an overall positive response to the plan. She even asked me, after development was complete, to demonstrate how it works to her team so they can use the same pipeline on their platform for other transformations.
For now, it’s back to my desk to keep plugging away at my code. 

3.00 PM
We have an internal meeting now that will discuss how, as a team, we will plan to approach various situations that we are expecting to arise. 

4.00 PM
Time for a quick tea, chamomile is my choice, before getting back to development. 

5.00 PM
People have begun to leave the office, but because of our late start we will be sticking around for a little longer. 

6.00 PM
We’re out of the office now and heading to our accommodation. We quickly check-in and change before heading out for the evening. 

7.30 PM
Getting some dinner with my colleagues from Melbourne. Chicken Katsu Curry for tonight. 

8.00 PM
Last stop before back to the hotel, the all-important Coles trip. Pick up some essentials like milk for breakfast the next day. 

8.20 PM
The first day of the week is always the longest for us. So without too much chit chat, we all head to our rooms and call it a night. 

8.30 PM
Settled in for the night, I chuck on a show on Netflix, make sure my phone is charging and head to bed to be ready for another day in the office tomorrow.

Life as a Grad in Capgemini will be different for everyone. We are all working on a variety of different projects for a variety of different clients. As a consultant, we are constantly on our toes, expecting the unexpected, managing expectations and always learning.

6.00 AM
I. need. coffee. ASAP.

7.00 AM
The caffeine has kicked in and now it’s time to get moving. I’ve got five minutes before my bus comes – looks like I’ll need to sprint this morning!

8.30 AM
I arrive at the client site and it looks like I’m one of the first ones in. This is usually the case as most of the team makes the most of Capgemini and the clients’ flexible working arrangements.

Time to set up my desk for the day and start making my way through emails I’ve received overnight from the US and UK. 

9.00 AM
Meeting: US Testing Status.

A phase of the testing process is called User Acceptance Testing (UAT). The testing period usually lasts a week and, for that week, I have a daily call with the testers across all regions to check on the status of their testing.

9.30 AM
Time for coffee number two (and with a view!). 

9.45 AM 
On the way back to my desk I make sure to take advantage of the cereal and nut bar the client has on offer.  

10.00 AM 
I’m back at my desk and I need to make my way through some more emails. I see a few emails regarding testing that has passed so I make sure to update my testing tracker with the results. 

11.00 AM 
I respond to most emails however, for the more technical questions I’ll need to seek some help. Fortunately, I have a lot of very friendly Capgemini colleagues on site to assist me.

12.00 PM
Time for a breather. I’ll take a moment to have a chat with my fellow graduates. Sometimes I like to use this time to take a stroll outside or work on tasks such as the Capgemini social innovators graduate challenge; assist with any internal event planning; or, study for certifications. 

1.30 PM
Meeting: Australia and Asia Testing Status.

This tends to be the largest meeting of the day so I’ve brought along my manager who jumps in whenever there’s something I’m unsure of.

2.30 PM 
Meeting: Overall Testing Status.

This meeting is with the client’s release manager who wants an update on how testing is tracking across all regions.

3.00 PM
Time to grab some fresh air... But wait! It’s International Women’s Day today and to celebrate the client has organised free ice-cream for everyone! 

4.00 PM
I’ll spend a bit of time with my manager to talk through any questions I still have outstanding. 

5.30 PM
Time to pack up and head to the gym. Today I have booked a circuit class so I know I’ve got a hard workout coming my way. 

7.00 PM
I just arrived back home and there doesn’t seem to be any food in the fridge.  Hmm I think a burrito delivered to my door will have to be on the agenda this evening courtesy of UberEats.

8.00 PM
Meeting: UK Testing Status. 

8.30 PM
Phew, all done for the day. Time to put my feet up, switch on the TV and relax.

9.30 PM
I still need to finish chores because unfortunately, my apartment doesn’t seem to clean itself. 

10.00 PM
Wow, what a day. Time to get some sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.

7.20 AM
Wake up. 7:20’s only my first alarm, intervals are set-up in 10-minute cycles, so I’ll have at least 10 minutes in nirvana rest mode. 

7.50 AM
Cycle. Packed, ready to go, the beauty of my client site is their tenancy agreement, as contractors we’ve got access to Showers, Bike racks and even Towels. Personally, a fresh towel makes me feel like a Persian prince. It’s a 6km cycle in, so nothing to hard, it’s easier in Summer but comes winter I’ll invest in gloves. 

8.30 AM
Shower and Prepare. Right, you can see the towels, clean or dirty. Personally, I use clean, but each to their own. 

9.30 AM
Daily Stand-up. Our team is co-located across 4 states of Australia, with the primary team embedded on client site in Adelaide. Akin to all stand ups – share with the team what I did yesterday, what I’m doing today and any foreseeing blockers. In practice:

• Yesterday I had our Sprint Review, Sprint Planning and worked developed code for a technical piece.
• Today I’ll be developing a stakeholder plan, working with the team for review
• No foreseeable blockers 

12.32 PM
Okonomiyaki Thursday. What’s set-out to be a fine tradition. The best, young and brightest consultants are forging a tradition to have Okonomiyaki at out ‘local’ Japanese infused Café. Needless, to say it’s brilliant, Joe (generic chef name) never ceases to disappoint. 

3.00 PM
Skype Call with the Project Manager. Reviewal of Stakeholder management plan, what I’ve done as far is on track. The PM’s request me to iterate the document to include best practice for specific circumstances in the expectation of a growing resourced project. Currently I’ve been building the plan on PowerPoint, time to update the creativity, and perhaps reach out to some higher-level change managers for advice in Change Management consulting.  

5.30 PM
Home time / Cycle. Great way to end the day, it’s sunny out: we’ll push on a harder gear!

9.30 PM
Live music. Adelaide’s well renowned for the annual Fringe Festival and tonight I’ll be making use of the great art available. Theirs a Rock band from Melbourne whose been cherry picked on the Coachella 2020 line-up. Tonight, I’m lucky enough to see them before their heads get to big. 

12.00 AM
Fall asleep. Lights out. Daily Stand-ups starts in just over 9 hours, I’m ready to do it all again.

5.30 AM
Alarm goes off, signalling the start of at least 10 minutes of me questioning why I’m awake at this ungodly hour. Eventually I’ll rush out the door, for my gym class.

6.00 - 6.30 AM
Be completely shown up by a 73 year-old woman, in my Hard Core class. After a quick chat about how her grandkids are, I’ll head straight home. I use the drive to start running through my daily to-do list & goals, for work.

7.00 - 8.30 AM
Squeeze in extra cardio by running around to pack my lunch, and get ready to leave for work.

8.30 - 9.00 AM
Drive straight to client site; partially wondering how some people attained their drivers license, and partially paying attention to my mother, on the phone.

9.00 AM
Start my day by checking for urgent emails, and any planned meetings. Once the team has arrived & settled in, we head across to the main building for our morning coffee fix. This also means the day always starts with a good laugh, and some fresh air.

9.30 AM
If there’s no urgent updates for the client, I continue building the KPI Analysis tool that I’ve been working on. This involves manually double checking the data quality, and using client resources to build visual reports for Regional Analysts.

10.30 AM 
When required, I’ll touch base with key team members, to confirm how the data should be flowing through; from the source systems to our database, and then into my reports. Working with the Support team, we go through some random KPIs to make sure calculations have been automated properly. This goes back and forth for a while, as we all review the data and iterate the calculations, but we can breathe a sigh of relief once we confirm it’s all working smoothly!

12.00 PM
The team share a look of hunger, and we head across to the main building for lunch. As an avid meal prepper, I usually bring my lunch in, but the client’s cafeteria provides plenty of options when I forget. Even if I’ve brought my lunch, I cannot resist the freshly prepared, build-your-own Poke Bowl bar! Lunchtime is the ultimate breaktime for the team; very rarely do we discuss work, instead preferring to contemplate questions like “What item would you want unlimited access to for life (can’t be money)?”, and “How viable would it be to send the Earth’s rubbish, to the sun?”. This usually results in many exasperated looks from our manager, but he does also provide answers. 

1.00 PM
I head back to my desk, to make sure I’m prepared for my afternoon meetings. I’ll be presenting my tool to some of the Regional Analysts, so I start by going over my previous meeting notes, and making sure I’ve addressed their earlier concerns. I’ll make some final changes to the dashboards/reports, and make sure the data is refreshed.

2.00 PM
I run through the updates with the Regional Analysts via Skype; they’re happy with the progress I’ve made, but they’re keen to get their own hands on the tool. As one of our priorities is user experience, I spend time going through how it could best make their lives easier. After that, I’ll demonstrate some basic functions, and get their feedback, for the next iteration. The objective is for us to workshop over the next month, so we plan our next meeting, and confirm action points.

3.00 PM
I sit down with the client’s manager, who oversees our project team and engagement, to an update, from my earlier meeting, and ensure that we’re all still aligned. He’ll often share valuable strategic insight, and we’ll plan the next steps to make sure we stay on track for a smooth delivery.

3.30 PM
I take a break with some teammates; if it’s sunny enough, we’ll walk to a café down the street for an afternoon coffee. It’s another good chance for us to unwind a bit, and I’ll also use this opportunity to update my Manager on how my work is progressing. 

4.00 PM
I tend to wrap up the day, by reviewing my to-do list & updating it for the next day. After double-checking my Capgemini email, I realise I’ve got an article due for our GradCapture Newsletter. Popping in my headphones, I’ll smash the article out and send it through for review. If I can, I’ll also spend some time working through technical training. As I don’t have a background in I.T. or Data Science, one of the most exciting things about working for Capgemini has been the abundance of available resources for upskilling. My manager has also been very helpful, in guiding me towards interesting certifications that will be most useful to our clients.

5.30 PM
I’ll leave client site and head over to the weekly, netball game that a group of graduates have signed up for! We’ll grab a light dinner beforehand, and have a chat about how our different projects are going; it gives us an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences. 

6.30 PM
I’d like to say the game is usually relaxed, but some of us do get a bit competitive. Overall, though, we generally have a good laugh together, and it’s a great way to start the week!

7.30 PM
I’ll head home, dropping off a couple graduates along the way. I’m already looking forward to unwinding!

8.30 PM
After a quick shower & catch up with my housemate, I’ll grab a snack and settle in with some Netflix.

10.00 PM
Two episodes of Peaky Blinders’ later, I’m ready to crash. I double check my alarm is set for the next day, and waste 30 minutes on Facebook before finally dozing off.

7.00 AM
My alarm goes off and after 5 minutes contemplating that should I sleep for 5 more minutes or I should get up and do some exercise, I end up waking up after 10 minutes. I get ready, pack my lunch, but it depends on if I have made something last night or if I have done meal preps then I leave home listening to podcast to work. 

8.30 AM
I try to reach office early so, that I can find a nice spot to sit with a view. I set up my workstation and go to the kitchen to make my morning tea or to get a piece of fruit. I usually find my colleagues in the kitchen, we greet and chat about how’s everyone doing, different things happening in office and around the world and it’s the best place to have a break in the middle of a hectic schedule as it lets you relax for a bit by talking to your peers. 

9.00 AM
I check my emails and calendar meetings while sipping my morning tea and making my to-do list for the day. I usually have a stand-up call with my manager at 09:30 AM, it is either face to face or a skype call depends upon my manager’s availability. We discuss what I did yesterday and what I am doing today and if there are any blockers. After that, I start my work depending upon the tasks which are at priority as I am customizing a form in an app and working on approvals using Microsoft Technologies on a specific business requirement so, my day tends to go fast.  

11.30 AM
I am mapping the business flow of the requirements and writing user stories of the business processes in order to understand what needs to be delivered and how it needs to be delivered. Also, I am customizing the SharePoint forms using Microsoft technologies in order to make the forms easier to control and user- friendly, I get my hands dirty on PowerApps and SharePoint.

12.00 PM
Its lunch time one of my favorite time of the day, usually on Fridays most of us grads go for a lunch together depending on what everyone feels like having. It’s a great way to communicate and bond outside work with your mates. So, I have only one coffee a day, I get excited about my coffee after lunch and then we go back to the office. Lunch looked like this today, yum.  

2.00 PM 
Back to my desk, start my work from where I left before heading out for lunch. I have to study and research on the new technologies to be able to understand how to make a form performs the correct functions. I have meeting with stakeholders discussing the gaps which we found in our requirements gathering sessions. 

3.30 PM
I discuss with my colleagues if I have any issues performing my tasks and everyone is happy to help. I have few other meetings for internal initiatives as Women@Capgemini and Grads Doing Good where we discuss and brainstorm about the ideas for our next events. Grads Doing Good is an initiative where we aim on how can our grad community help give back to the society so, we have organised initiatives as donations for bushfire relief, donations of professional clothes and accessories to help out young people wanting to start a career and donations of a handbag full of basic amenities for a women and a girl.

5.00 PM 
It’s time to head to a bar as it’s Friday, the best feeling ever. All the grads are grabbing a drink together after a long week. As they say you work hard and party harder.