I've now been an active employee of Accenture for a while, but I'm still very much in the training phases.  After the first week of orientation, my start-group and I began what is known as "Solution Delivery Fundamentals" training, where we are to learn and apply the various company standards for processes and deliverables with regards to client projects.  SDF Training is officially introduced and described as follows:

"All our entry-level consulting people need to understand the technical work we often undertake on consulting engagements, so your next two weeks will be dedicated to the Solution Delivery Fundamentals course. You will research, learn and apply basic programming concepts while becoming immersed in Accenture’s quality practices, standards and methods. What you learn at this stage will also help you quickly pick up more advanced technical skills if you need them."

In essence, the training involved a series of client requirement scenarios, and our task was to deliver either documentation, or to write Visual Basic programming code.  So, even those without any technical background in the group were required grasp the basics of VB, and we helped each other through the various training modules.  For me, most of the programming was fairly elementary, but I did have a harder time creating and compiling my documentation according to specifications. 

After two weeks of SDF, we embarked on our journey to St. Charles, Illinois, where Accenture runs its "Core Analyst School," the boot camp for all new hires globally.  The course is overviewed as follows:

"In their first year, all entry-level recruits attend Core Analyst School, an intensive, two-week training course at our Global training centre in St. Charles, just outside Chicago, Illinois. Through a rigorous set of learning experiences, you’ll discover how to deliver quality solutions with a high degree of competence using the same tools and methods you’ll use on the job. You’ll develop a thorough understanding of how each workgroup in the Consulting workforce builds value for our clients. There will also be plenty of opportunities to focus on developing personal, professional and people skills that will help you every day of your career."

Our group flew from San Francisco to Chicago O'Hare, and we were graced with a limousine that took us from airport to the training compound in St. Charles:  The Q-Center.

The Q-Center Entrance

It's a huge interconnected network of buildings, containing dormatories, dining centers, and conference rooms.  It's website boasts:

"Located due west of Chicago in a secluded, distraction-free environment, Q Center has more than 150,000 square feet of IACC-certified, versatile meeting space, plus 1,042 guest rooms. As one of the largest conference centers in the world, we can accommodate big groups, but small regional businesses find Q Center a private and productive place to meet as well. We mean it when we say groups of two to 2,000 receive the same high level of personal attention."

So it was here that we began what the course faculty calls our "Odysee of Learning."  Over 100 new employees from across the globe are all assembled, and split into three sections.  These sections meet in separate classrooms, and is then divided into several work groups.  Each work group sits together at table in the classroom.  My table (section 1, table 4) is composed of 6 people, with people from Sweden, Italy, France, Chicago, and Charlotte. 

Our days are long; we get going in the mornings at 8, and usually don't get let loose until about 6. After hours, we have our meals, and can take a number of shuttles to nearby areas to go shopping or watch a movie.  There are also a number of on-site activities available to us: ping-pong, karaoke, billiards, a fitnes center, and for those who wish to can go get plastered at the nearby pub (indentify-the-hangovers is always a fun classroom game the following day.)

The weekend finally came (although we did have coursework on Saturday before noon) and most people made a trip into Chicago.  A few of us gathered together a group to get some authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza, and catch the Bull-Pacers basketball game at the United Center.

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It was quite an experience, and there were constant reminders of the legendary Michael Jordan at the stadium:  His retired number (Jordan's #23 hung alongside now Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's #4) and a bronze monument at the front of the arena honored His Airness.

The weekend excursion came to an end, and another 5 days of rigorous training awaits.  This next week, the groups will reconfigure, and the material will based on each employee's work group's tasks (mine being Systems Integration, I will likely be doing more technical training.)  It should be fun, and I hope to get a lot out of it.

Monday marked the beginning of my career with Accenture.  I figured out my commute, and am strategically situated to take the N Judah line directly downtown.  I end up riding the train for less than 30 minutes, and walking only 2.5 blocks from my house and 3 blocks to the office.  So relative to others in the office and in the city, the commute is fairly easy going, although the trains do get fairly crowded around rush hour, which unfortunately, ends up being the times that I find myself riding.

The first few days of work have involved filling out paperwork, sitting through presentations about procedure, policies, and company values, setting up e-mail and voice-mail, ordering business cards, and  getting briefed on training protocols.  Accenture has a number of self-serve online training courses which we are required to complete, but there are some login issues with the system, so will not be able to take those until later.

The company is involved with a number of community outreach initiatives to support the community.  As such, a volunteer opportunity was offered to us new Joiners to go work at the San Francisco food bank for a few hours.  So on Wednesday, I, along with those others to chose to participate, headed over there and worked on an assembly line packing boxes for a federal program that supplies food to needy senior citizens in the city.  While we were working, a major milestone way hit, and I helped pack the 500,000th box packed in the warehouse for that program.  We celebrated with a cake, followed by a rest in the break room.

On Friday, we had a breakfast event with some of the Senior Executives and some other people staffed in the office.  The SE's gave some insight about their careers, their fields of focus, and offered some encouraging words.  I was able to chat with some other people, and as I found out from talking to them, the San Francisco is more of a high-demand place than I realized.  New hires often request this office, but rarely get placed here, so I guess that's something I get feel special about.

The core of my start group is composed of 8 people (one of whom is also a BYU grad) and we make up a pretty diverse group.  We all come from a variety of academic fields, ranging from business management, to finance, to economics, to liberal arts.  We also represent a wide variety of cultural and ethnic heritages, collectively claiming heritages from all over the world, and coming from an assortment of areas in the US.The next few weeks at work are going to involve a more training than anything else.  Starting next week, we have 2 week of delivery protocol training here in San Francisco, then 2 more week of training at the Accenture training campus in St. Charles, near Chicago, Illinois.  During this time I think I’ll be getting the foundational knowledge and skills that will empower me to be a valuable employee here.  Upon returning from St. Charles, I think the idea is that I’ll be staffed on a project with a client, and begin the real work, but that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, I’m just taking it one day at a time, and although the initiatory procedures can get a bit mundane, I am glad to be here, am enjoying my time with the company, and hope that this will lead to some worthwhile opportunities in the future.

Finding a place to live has been high on my priority list.  From the get-go, I’ve been checking craigslist, other online rental listings, and getting advice from locals.  The Sunset District had particular appeal to me, because of its quieter, neighborhood-like feel, its proximity and access to downtown, its inclusion of the church building, and some not-so-distant family history connections. There were a number of places available in the area, so I began exploring. 

I was very hopeful about one that was very reasonably priced, was in a good area, and had a very flattering description online.  But to my dismay, when I arrived to get a tour, it did not live up to what I had hoped for.  The exterior of the shabby row house seemed to have been painted a sickly purple in the 1970’s, and now the purple had turned into a dismal grey, tainted mauve.  The studio apartment was on the ground level, and had a nasty tile floor with decaying grout.  The bathroom had a different variation of tile on the floor and the walls, and was even more unappealing.  There was a shared yard in the back filled with all kinds of junk, ranging from a rusty broken trampoline to car parts, to abandoned garden tools.  Needless to say, I could think of only one thing, and that was how much I wanted to get out of there.

That got me thinking about what I want in an apartment.  And it turns out, I don’t want to live in a dump; and I feel fairly strongly about that.  I don’t know how long I’ll be living here, and I don’t even know many days of the month I’ll spend at my own place, given that I’ll likely be traveling a good deal for work.  But one thing I do know is that when it comes time to go to the place I’m calling “home,” I don’t want it to be a total hole. 

After some more searching, I came across a place that was listed at the upper end of my price range, but still seemed to have some attractive features.  I called the landlord and arranged a visit.  This place was, in contrast, very nice.  It wasn’t all that much bigger, but the owner had clearly put much more effort in terms of upkeep.  The appliances were newer, the lighting design was appealing, the floor was an elegant stained concrete, the bathroom was clean and sleek, and the yard was well kept and inviting.  I looked around, liking what I was seeing, and went on my way.

After the visit, I kept on feeling that I would never forgive myself if I let the opportunity to live there slip away, especially if I ended up living in a place like the aforementioned dump.  I couldn’t shake the feeling, and accompanying sense of urgency (knowing that others were also likely interested,) so that night, I called the landlord back up, and told him I wanted it.

He was glad to hear it, and told me about the credit check, and the application forms involved in the process.  I got the required forms filled them out, authorized a credit check, and faxed them all back. 

The credit report came back fine, and I was told that I could meet the landlord and his family, and get the keys to the apartment in exchange for a cashier’s check which was to include a hefty deposit and pro-rated rent for the month. 

I complied with the terms, and before I knew it, I was in possession of my very own set of keys to my new apartment.  That brings us to today, when I actually got to move in.  David Peterson let me borrow some chairs, a card table, and some kitchen items for the time being, and helped me unload my stuff at my new place, which isn’t all that far from his own place, where I had been staying. 

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I got my stuff unloaded and starting filling the shelves, cupboards, and closets, although I anticipate I’ll need to do a good deal of organizing in the near future.  The place still seems a bit bare, although hopefully things will start to flesh out after a trip or two to IKEA, where I’ll get some shelves, a desk, and maybe some other stuff.

Until then, I’m enjoying having my own place, and look forward to turning this into the place I’ll call home.

On Friday morning around 10:00 am, I got in the car, and headed out on I-80 West.  After driving through the salt flats, and considering stopping by at the Bonneville Speedway, I arrived in Wendover, where I took a little break, and had lunch at the local Subway.  Back on the road, I started listening to the book-on-tape of "The Fellowship of Ring," which was quite enjoyable, although the reader's voice was a bit too soothing, and I felt myself get a bit drowsy.  So I stopped in Wells (home of the fairly recent earthquake) and took a nap.  Upon awakening, I felt reinvigorated, and made the rest of the day's trip non-stop to Reno.

The weather got a bit bad that night, with some snow flurries in Reno.  Thankfully, I found myself a comfortable Motel 6, and spent the night peacefully.  The next morning, I checked the weather, took my time getting ready, and headed back out.  The most treacherous part of the road goes through Donner Pass, known for its bad weather, winding roads, and cannibalism.  Lucky for me, the weather was fine, the roads were good, and I didn't have to resort to eating human flesh to get through.

So after, descending in to the valley, and then getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic around Sacramento, I reached the Bay Area, where I-80 lead me straight to the Bay Bridge, connecting Oakland and San Francisco.  I was surprised at how clogged that area was, and at the $4 toll to cross the bridge.  But as I was crossing, I realized how inconceivably expensive a bridge like that must be to engineer and build, and I suppose they have to cover their costs somehow.

I navigated the streets of San Francisco surprisingly well, and without any missed turns, found my way to the Sunset district, and pulled up to David Peterson's place on Noriega St.  He graciously let me in, provided me with a room, and some information regarding the singles ward and the neighborhood.

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On Sunday, I found my way to church, and met the group of LDS singles in the area, which was considerably large.  I got some advice regarding where to look for places to live, tips about the public transit, etc.  That evening, I headed out to Berkeley to meet an old high school friend, Alex Kessinger, who was hosting a taco night with his wife and baby.  I had an enjoyable evening there, and was able to meet and chat with some of the locals.  On the way back to the city, I witnessed the angel island fire, which I couldn't tell if it was some sort of pyrotechnics display or a real fire.  Turns out it was real.

Now I'm getting busy looking for a place to live.  I've got some good advice, some good leads, and hopefully something will be coming of it very soon.  I'll post more information about the house hunting chronicles soon.