Technologist - Gary Breavington

Consulting makes for a brilliant business bootcamp and will be attractive to anyone who wants to get under the skin of lots of different companies and find out how they work. Many of the people we spoke to loved the exposure they were able to get early on in the role, taking part in meetings with the senior managers of client businesses almost from the start. Many consultants will specialise into a particular area of consulting like restructuring, integration, technology or logistics. There is also a broad distinction between strategy consultants and those that actually implement a strategy. The routes into consultancy are almost as varied as the job. You can join with no experience or, as many do, move into consultancy having gained some specific knowledge within a business. We found that quite a few consultants were also chartered accountants, as they had seen great benefit in really understanding how company finances work before embarking on a career in consultancy. 

The huge variety offered by consultancy brings with it a great deal of travel and this may or may not be a positive thing depending on your preferences. It’s very common to be sent away to work on projects at a client site for many weeks at a time and very often it will be too far away for you to travel to from home. So spending long periods away is part and parcel of many a consultant's life. The work itself is likely to peak and trough quite a lot. When a project is on you’re likely to be very busy, regularly putting in late nights and weekend work. When projects finish and before the next one begins you could find yourself leaving the office at 5.30. 

Salaries in consultancy are good and often include bonuses. Those starting out at the big firms should expect in excess of 30K, rising to about 50K with three years' experience. After seven or eight years, all being well, you’ll be looking at upwards of 100K.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Gary Breavington, I am a technologist on the businesses technology programme here at Capgemini.

What is Consultancy?

Consultancy is essentially the use of a specialist or an expert to do something that perhaps you can't do or your business can't do, a very quick example, you are a company that makes washing powder, you want to deal with making it and shipping it out but you don't want to have to deal with other things, like for example payroll or your customer relationship management system, you just want something that works, you don't want to have to pull people in to build such systems for you so you use consultants instead who will provide expertise to basically build what you want or what you need.

What attracted you to this career?

I think it was the opportunity to work with different clients on different projects in different areas of technologies, obviously it is very driven by what our clients need and the opportunity to do that in that framework was what attracted me. I was suited to the brand of consulting I am in because I did a technology degree and so it was more of a decision when I came to the end of my degree that that was an area I wanted to go into. For me it was more of a case of I don't want to just go off and work for someone and just be a programmer or a tester, I wanted to move around different clients and technologies, and different projects and different methodologies, you name it, and I didn't want to limit myself early on in my career. This is honest, but when Capgemini came along and did a presentation at my university they gave a very good overview of what they did but also talked about something more specific. A lot of the other presentations I went to were quick to name drop clients and very flashy events, but I still came away thinking, well what would I be doing. That is why Capgemini stuck with me in my mind when I was doing my final year at university because they laid it out very clearly and had a good overview but also gave some good examples of what we would be doing as well, so for me that was what was really important.

What does your job involve?

That is quite a complicated question because it obviously depends on who you are working for and what you are doing. Ultimately you are just helping clients achieve their technical aspirations, so helping them build systems or run systems or see how feasible they are.  Basically anything to do with technical systems that a business may use, we help them along the entire life cycle to help them realise what they need.

What do you do on a typical day?

If we were having meetings with the client for example and we were discussing the issues that are relevant at that particular point in the project, so lets say you are helping them realise what their system needs to do, that is called functional analysis and you would be meeting with the client and helping yourself to help them understand what it is they don't have at the moment and what it is they need.

Describe the process of your work?

If we were called in at the very start we would work with the client to understand what systems they currently have in place usually we are brought in to build a particular system, so the client has already come up with the sort of problems they are having and possible solutions but we will come in to work out what they have got and then from that what they need to meet their business requirements. From there we can start designing a system then building the system, we also are capable of running the system so once the project has been completed then from there we can run the application for them as well and they just use it as users.

Do you always implement your strategies?

These projects are quite vast and can last a number of years and have a number of phases, so it does happen sometimes that one company may do a part early on whereas another company later on maybe doing the build work and the making of the application and yet another company may be doing the actual run part as well.

Interviewer: When you say the build work do you mean actually design the software or procuring the hardware for these systems, and if so, do you have people here to design and build software you are suggesting clients need?

Yes we do have people that are here primarily architect solutions not just design from a software perspective, but also we try to have a view from the business through to technology.  There is a scale there and people fit in at different points on the scale, so we have people who cover all of that, people who design things from a business level through to people who can design at a technical level as well.

What are the best bits about your job?

For me it is the variety, here on the graduate scheme we tend to move about in terms of our roles in three to six months, on average, sometimes it is less or a little bit more and basically the idea is to get you exposed to a number of different projects, different clients, different technologies, and for me when I left university I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and for me that was the main draw and that is what I enjoy most about it.

What are the worst bits about your job?

The toughest parts I think are when you start a new role because you get to a point when you are comfortable doing what you are doing and maybe you are not learning as much but are comfortable in what you are doing and then you are told you are starting a new role. As I said it can be a different technology it will almost certainly be with a different team so you have got to go possibly to a new client, work with a new team on a technology that you have not been using for the last three months because it wasn’t relevant in your last project so that can be a challenge sometimes. Just having to move around and shift to a different gear as it were to be able to do the work there.

What has been your greatest achievement?

The last project I worked on we were consolidating the systems that the companies helpdesk used and they were basically made up of different companies and each part of the company had a different system in that when you contacted them, depending on the number you called or the email address you used, it would go to a different call centre and they would be using a different software. So we were helping them to consolidate that into one system that everyone was using and I was thankfully there when the system went live and that is when the system went in to use by the users and that was quite a good moment, slightly short lived because we were working on the next stage of the software already but it was fun and really rewarding to have that.

Any regrets?

For me personally, that can be quite a long question to answer, I didn't go straight into university straight out of school after doing A-levels and ideally I would have liked to have gone back and gone to university after A-levels however, I am really glad how it turned out. I started working and following something I wanted to do early on but it turned out I didn't like it so that is what drove me to go to university. I always liked technology and that is what I went to university to learn, so the timings might have been nice if I started earlier but then I wouldn't have the experience that led me to go to university in the first place. So there are things I would change if I could perhaps but I am still happy with how things worked out.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

The pay is great for me, I am happy, in terms of benefits we have a flexible benefits system here at Capgemini so if you don't want a pension at that stage then you don't have to pay for one, and you are given an allowance to pay for benefits that you can elect if you want otherwise you can have the money instead so that is quite good.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

That will depend on the project and the client typically I would say my average day is 9 to 6 sometimes get in a bit earlier and sometimes leave a bit later but it all depends on the stage on whatever you are doing, whatever stage you are at. For example, on the last project I was working quite long hours on the last few weeks because we were busy testing the system and we had tight deadlines to meet so it was more 8.30 to 7.00 but generally it all evens out to about 9 to 6. In terms of working weekends, I haven't had to do but I know some people who are happy to do that sort of thing but generally it doesn't happen, so generally 9 to 6.

Is there much in the way of travel?

There can be travel depending on where your project is based, for example every employee has a base location and if they are not based at their client’s site then they will be at their base location.

Now we do do projects at client’s site and if your project you are working on is far enough away from your base location then you will be expected to travel up there and stay in a hotel during the week and travel back on Thursday or Friday depending on the arrangements with the client. So there can be, but personally in my experience, I have been lucky enough to be based in places where I can get to from where I live but again you have to be prepared for it.  In terms of international travel we go on training courses in France from time to time and also we have Capgemini offices around the world so there can be international travel but it doesn't happen that much, at the level I am at anyway but once you move up international travel to other Capgemini offices around the world does happen.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

In terms of the industry you have to go where the work is, and you will have to go to clients at some point. So obviously clients are not based solely in London and they are based all over the country and that is reflected on the work we do. In terms of the graduate scheme here we can choose between the Woking location or Aston as a base location. Once we get out of the graduate scheme we can change our base location and we have a number of offices around the UK and I imagine it will be the same for other consultancy companies as well. Then again that is tempered by the fact that you have to travel to where the work is so although your base location maybe in London, if you are in a project that is based in Bristol you will have to commute to Bristol.

What is the working environment like?

In terms of working environment, when we are on a client’s site, we will match ourselves in terms of business dress, so if the client expects their employees to dress very formally then we do. Whereas if people are turning up in t-shirts and shorts then there is obviously a little bit more flexibility. In terms of the working environment, the experiences of client sites that I have had, you might think that there is a bit of us and them atmosphere, that hasn't been the case at all, we like to work with our clients and establish good working relationships with each other because if we are going to work together we need that sort of relationship and it just feels more like one team rather than the Capgemini team and the client team. So in that term it is really good. In terms of the graduate scheme, there are around 80 of us on the graduate scheme so we have a great internal network as well in terms of community and there are other likeminded communities as well, obviously not for graduates but for all sorts of groups of people in the company. There is a mix, I would say it was more male than female but there is more of a mix than people actually realise.

How did you get into your job?

In terms of the type of degree, it definitely helps to have a business related or technology related degree purely because, our programme is called the business technology programme, we are business technology focused so we have to have an understanding of business and technology. So we generally take on graduates with either business degrees or technology degrees. In terms of how I joined the process is explained more fully on the graduate site that we have, but for me it was a case of filling out an online application form, having a phone interview, then coming along for an assessment centre at which point I was offered a position.

I don't think there is any particular A-levels you have to have, technology or business related perhaps, but I would say in terms of technology, a like and love of technology eventually a degree definitely helps but we do take people from the business side of things as well. So business A-levels leading to a business degree perhaps with some technological slant to it.

What's the application process like?

Our application process is you currently fill in an online application form on the website which will then be reviewed by a member of our staff, if they would like to progress you there is then a telephone interview, where someone will call you up and basically talk to you for half an hour and see if you are suitable to take to the next stage, which is an assessment centre, which is a face to face interview, as well as there are a few tests that you do. Plus you get to meet some of the graduates currently on the scheme and talk with them and find out more about whether it is the sort of thing you would like to get into.

What are the key skills required for your job?

Problem solving skills I would say is the main one, you need to be able to look at a problem whether is it technological or whether it is business, whether it is people or logistics or anything. You need to be able to look at it and think of ways of getting around the problems. The other one I would say is business and technology and if you haven't got both, then I would say a willingness and ability to pick those up as you go along would definitely stand you in good stead.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

My advice would be to find ways to differentiate yourself, it is all very well having a good degree and good A-levels but I think more and more people are looking at what else you do outside your studies, so relevant experience is fantastic, it never hurts to have any of that. If there is any charity work you do or social stuff, I think those things help to differentiate you from the other people who are purely good academically.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

We have a structured grading system and you can move up the scale, over your time as your career progresses.

Interviewer: And can some people go through at different levels or is it a fixed level?

People go through it at different levels, we have promotion rounds at mid year and end of year, you can't run too fast, and you are also assigned a reviewer who helps you with your career progression so they will advise you when is a good time for you to go for promotion and get promoted to the next level. Obviously saying that it does differ from business unit to business unit. You can have the same grades but a totally different set of roles and responsibilities. So it is not a case that you are working in different technology but dealing with the same task as someone else in a different area at the same level.

For me, I am currently working in a very broad level, I move about between areas and different technologies. Eventually once I finish on the graduate scheme I will progress in to a business unit and I will start specialising, if you imagine it at the moment I am moving side to side and then after a couple of years I will start to move up. In terms of day to day work, I don't think in technology you can say it will be the same for the rest of your life because things change too quickly, so part of it is making sure you are aware of the broader changes but also the changes of what you are specialising in and as you go on you are probably managing people and coming up with strategies in terms of the business unit, so quite a lot of progression.

Where do you see the industry going?

I think if you were looking at coming in to the industry, I think it would just be important to get a broad a view of what is happening as possible, so for example, things that are maybe hot at the moment, may not be a year down the line or five years down the line and you have to look at how that is going to play into your career. So in terms of actual specific things or technologies or what ever that are currently hot they may not be very quickly. So keep yourself educated on the current things as well as the established things, so don't focus on the new things at the expense of the more established things out there because they have been around for a long time and will be around for some time to come.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

There is a wealth of resources out there and I don't think I could start to advise people where to look. Again, I just advise people to read as broadly as possible, knowing a little about something is better than knowing nothing about it, so focus on what you want to get into and what you want to do and then try and find resources that are focused towards your interests, I would say. If you are looking at getting into the industry, British Computers Society they have a wealth of resources available, if you log on to their website then you can start finding what interests you.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

I think soft skills are a great example of transferable skills so the more people facing stuff rather than technologies, experience in that area is always great because what job won't you have to deal with people, it is a great transferable skill. We have had experiences, I know of two people who have moved to or from other consultancies as well as move to work for a client. As we discussed early on there can be quite a lot of change it can be very predictable and as people get older they want a bit of stability in their life so they look for something a bit more stable. At that point they will have a wealth of experience in a number of areas at which point they will be experts in a number of them and can pick and choose from there basically.

Is there anything you would have liked to have known before getting into Consultancy?

The tools at university are well and good but they are very small scale and when you are university you might be given a bit of course work that is supposed to take you 30 hours and that seems like a massive amount of time at university but that is not even a working week.  So everything is on a much bigger and grander scale and that is one of the reasons I personally didn't want to specialise too soon, there is so much out there and I wanted to take a taste of everything and that is what I didn't realise at university.

When I was at university I didn't really know what consultancy was, I went and did a year for a very technology related company so it wasn’t consultancy but I had friends who did go to consultancy companies and so they were trying to explain what consultancy was and I didn't really understand and over time I learnt a bit more about it and kind of thought that would be the sort of thing I would like to do.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

Something technology related but I honestly don't know what. Perhaps something a little but more focused like programming, but I haven't really thought about it lately, which is a good thing.

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