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Robert is currently a Business Analyst (Strategy) with Accenture. He has a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics & Finance) (Economics Honours) from Curtin University.

What attracted you to start your post-university career in management consulting?
With my focus on economics, my plan was originally to go into a more purely economics-related role in the public sector. However, I began to see the value of gaining some experience in the private sector – in terms of broadening my understanding of how the world works and developing strategy-specific skills. As an intern in Global Village for Future Leaders in Business and Industry Summer School (July/August 2006) I met some very interesting, impressive people who encouraged me in this direction.

You received a number of graduate employment offers. What were the main factors influencing your decision to go with the offer from Accenture?
Salary and lifestyle packages weren’t issues in my decisions – several of the organisations that I received offers from had equally appealing programs in this way. The main factor was that I decided I wanted to experience working in the private sector and I wanted strategy experience. Hopefully, even if I eventually moved into public sector role, experience as a management consultant will do me no harm.

What have you enjoyed most about Accenture so far?
Accenture provided a very good orientation to all graduates -- I was given all the information I needed and the opportunity to meet a number of the people from the practice.

After orientation there were two weeks of training modules, which also proved to be really valuable – it was like a refresher course of everything you did in a commerce degree, plus some excellent training in strategy-specific skills.

I’m enjoying the variety and scope of the work at Accenture. The nature of the work means you are able to learn a lot about a wide range of things very quickly. I am working alongside many sharp people, so I have enjoyed learning from them and further developing my skills in rigorous, structured thinking and problem-solving.

Where do you think you will be in five years time?
That’s a hard one: I do like to have a rough plan, but then things can change so I like to keep things a little open. The plan is to be doing the kind of strategy work I am doing now, but there is also the chance that I will be working as an economist, running a business, or I could be running a small NGO. I could even be back at university doing a Masters or PhD!.

Ultimately I want to make a difference/ do some good. How and where I arrive at that point is yet to be decided.

What’s the best career advice you have received?
The best career advice I have received so far was to take my time through university and explore things such as travel and volunteer work that took my interest outside studies (while making sure to get very good grades). The travel, volunteering and work experience I gained through that time was a great amount of fun and it has been a huge help in the position I am in now.