Minakshi's amazing career journey at Accenture

Minakshi Tiwari likes to learn. In fact, that’s probably an understatement. Minakshi has built a career spanning two continents, three companies and countless skillsets that are completely fuelled by a desire to keep learning.

“I think being human, we are blessed with different things. We have a brain, we have emotions, we have a whole lot of things. And I think we should always challenge ourselves.”

 

Building a career, one learning at a time

Minakshi is a Technology Architecture Delivery Associate Manager working in London with a leading international investment bank to completely redefine how they understand their customers. It’s a long way from where she started, studying engineering in instrumentation and control in India.

“I was fascinated that a piece of code could just make these things work automatically. I was always asking ‘how does this work?’ and I realised that that interested me much more than doing the mechanical work in the field.”

So Minakshi set herself the task of learning how to programme to the same level of her colleagues who mostly had computer science backgrounds. With the help of supportive colleagues and a lot of extra work, she became a Java developer, eventually moving to Infosys and then onto another company where she worked with Chrysler on automation logistics.

 

 

Finding the balance

In 2018, she moved with her husband and two young children to London and expected to have to take a break from work to focus on raising them without her family network. But her husband, who worked with Accenture, encouraged her to apply.

“He said Accenture provided full support to female employees so that you don’t need to compromise on career or family and can balance both. You can keep learning. So, I applied and got the job!”

And as her career has grown, Minakshi has found that her support has grown too. For her, the key is good communication and a team that understands each other’s commitments beyond work. It also helps that her line manager, other manager and her managing director are all women who lead by example.

“I see how they work and it’s inspiring. We support each other. They welcome people’s own situations and help them however they can. It’s about being frank with each other. When you take an assignment, you have to be sure of what’s required and what they expect. If there is transparency on both sides, it will work.”

 

Leading from the front

Minakshi has led two teams of 18 people meaning she’s had to learn a whole new set of skills. She’s responsible for PMO activity, new business, resourcing and ultimately leading technical teams through projects. But even though she’s taken on more responsibility, it was vital for Minakshi that the role still gave her time and space to keep developing technically.

“I’m still very hands-on in delivery. I make sure I take on a lot of challenges myself because I enjoy problem-solving and love coding. I made it really clear I didn’t want to lose my hands-on abilities because I feel like that’s what can happen when people spend all their time leading. Here I can do both.”

And that freedom is what keeps the future exciting. There’s always more to learn and now Minakshi has the space to do it.

“This is the right team for me. I can spread my wings; I can learn new things from different people. I really like the way I’ve shaped up.”

We’re looking for more people to join our team. If you have any work experience in Corporate Finance and are excited by the prospect of joining a global company that’s striving to make a change, start your job search here.