Ode to the Consulting Skills Workshop (CSW)

With all of the stores, shops, radio stations, and city streets transitioning to Christmas-mode with ornamented trees, twinkle lights, candy canes, and old fashioned Christmas songs, you can’t help but get wrapped up in all the excitement of the upcoming holidays. So after spending Thanksgiving being thankful for many things, and in the spirit of (a quickly approaching) Christmas, I give you my own version of a classic Christmas carol to salute the wealth of knowledge and skills I’ve acquired from my experiences at Capgemini.

Our Capgemini Consulting Intern Program

Last week, we officially wrapped up our CS (Consulting Services) summer intern program.  We had interns from top business schools and from a variety of industry backgrounds.  I was fortunate enough to be one intern’s “peer buddy.”

Of course I'm a team player

I recently attended CSW (a week long consulting skills workshop) in our Capgemini office in Atlanta, in Buckhead (in case you don’t know much about Atlanta, Buckhead essentially refers to up-town Atlanta).  I got a chance to explore the city, network with new colleagues, and learn practical on the job skills.  Initially I was skeptical at some of the concepts but quickly realized how applicable they were to not only working at Capgemini but elsewhere as well.  Let me share one teamwork concept that we went over.

Now I'm a believer

Life is full of important milestones, especially in your teens and 20’s: Your first date, Getting your driver’s license, Graduating from high school, Moving away to college… But nothing quite prepares you for your first day of work. It is truly a ‘welcome to the real world’ moment when you realize school is over, at least the type of school you have known.

Training: Beyond Powerpoint

Just because the formal schooling ends after graduation doesn’t mean the opportunities to learn do. Training is something very important to Capgemini and is encouraged for all employees. Since joining Cap 10 months ago, I’ve been able to partake in two different training sessions. A month after I joined a training class on Collaborative Problem Solving came to my area, and for 4 days my teammates and I juggled our client work in the morning and attended training in the afternoon. Having just finished college, I was wary of what “training” actually entailed, and had visions of endless training decks and long lectures. What I got was a far cry from Rocks for Jocks 101.

My Learning, Your Learning

From the moment you walk in the door, learning never stops at Capgemini.

When I started in June, my first day was spent in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in what is called “Intro to Capgemini” but you will hear most of us refer to it as “Onboarding.”  This training (approximately one week long) is especially useful for those of us new to consulting.  We learn typical things like what is expensable and what is not, the history of the company, and benefits.  We also learn about how great our colleagues are.  The ties formed during Onboarding stay with you – even though my Onboarding friends are on other projects in other places, we still stay in touch and meet for drinks when we are visiting each other’s offices.