Emma Acheson-Gray Winning the Day at Accenture by Emma Knox

During her time at the University of Newcastle Emma did not let her neuromuscular disorder get in the way of achieving a first-class honours degree in Politics and receiving the NCL+ award for her involvement in an exceptional level of extra-curricular activities. It’s no surprise to us that on the basis of her strong academic credentials coupled with making the most of her time at University, Emma has been offered a job with disability-confident employer Accenture. Read her story here.

While researching graduate career opportunities, Emma joined MyPlus Students’ Club, a free online resource that offers comprehensive guidance on all aspects of applying for a job or internship with a disability, as well as providing connections to, and jobs with disability confident graduate recruiters who are profiled on the website. She entered and won the monthly prize draw to ‘Win a Day’ with a featured employer and Emma was subsequently invited to attend the Accenture Tech Visionaries 4-day event, resulting in a job offer which Emma has accepted.

Over the course of the four days, Emma spent time at the Accenture offices experiencing their tech facilities before being tasked with creating a chatbot for Accenture’s graduate recruitment team. The event was punctuated by careers talks from senior staff members and Emma was able to meet employees in the department she wanted to apply for, enabling her to get a real sense of the company and its culture. She described the best part of her time as:

“…How friendly and encouraging the atmosphere was for the whole event, and our team being announced as the winner at the end of the final day”

14% of students in the UK have a disability, be it physical, mental or learning related, and many lack the information and confidence to know if and how to be open with an employer when disclosing a disability, and how to request adjustments to the recruitment process. Emma told us that before she visited Accenture, she had always had concerns that prospective employers would view adaptions/adjustments as an added cost or that she would not get through to the interview stage based on her own merit, but rather to ‘tick a box’. After experiencing the 4-day event here’s what Emma had to say:

“The whole event has been really reassuring! Throughout the 4 -days, there was a strong emphasis on the value that Accenture finds in the diversity of its employees. This was also reflected in the diversity of other tech visionary students.”

Finally, we wish Emma huge congratulations and every success in her future career – we look forward to following her progress. Our thanks to the team at Accenture for hosting Emma, and for their ongoing support of MyPlus Students’ Club.

If you have a disability and would like more information about how to access disability confident employers and information on how to apply then please visit www.myplusstudentsclub.com  and Register.