Thirteen juniors and seniors from Kenwood Academy High School participated in a career site visit at Accenture. They spent five hours with top Accenture employees to better understand the company, valuable job skills, team communication and problem solving and even learned what it means to have a “working lunch.”

Accenture, who has recently acquired Acquity located on West Madison Avenue, opened their doors to the students of Kenwood Academy. Most of these students have an interest in some sort of engineering and are equally interested in learning the soft skills, like team work, interpersonal communication and time management, that employers consider when hiring.

The students really impressed the volunteers at Accenture with questions about working for competing clients and what degree they should have to be hired by Accenture. The students were equally impressed when they learned it is not just about the degree you hold but how you present yourself, how quickly you learn and if you are able to manage your workload. Being active in school, taking on leadership roles and exploring your passions are equally important throughout education. Ethics, trustworthiness and strong values can also put a candidate ahead of others in the field.

Right before lunch, the students were challenged with a project. In teams of three with the help of developers and digital marketing specialists, they had to design a concept for an app, website or campaign to address an issue they see at school.

After 40 minutes of work, they had 5 minutes to present their work. They worked out the problem, needs, proposed solution and possible issues and even took questions from the other groups.The students were offered a tour of the large, colorful office and explored various meeting rooms and creative spaces. The day ended with an in-depth look at writing resumes and cover letters to get noticed.