“I got to know myself better”

Born in Namur in the Belgian Ardennes, Maud Brilmaker chose an Accenture internship to complement her Business Engineering studies at Solvay.

When I was a child, I wanted to be a doctor. I then I realized that I was not really comfortable with blood… But my desire to make a difference to society always remained. If I could change something in society today it would be our dependency on fossil fuels. I would like to find a solution to make the transition towards renewable energies faster to meet our sustainability goals sooner. I think technologies such as AI can help to speed up the process and reduce our negative impact on the environment.

Accenture stands for integrity, sustainability, and equality. These are values I also care about. I hope that future generations are going to help drive CSR requirements up and achieve our sustainability goals. I’m also sure that we are going to achieve male/female equality at management level. Accenture’s goals in this respect are ambitious but they are still achievable.

I took a minor in innovation entrepreneurship as part of my Business Engineering master’s at Solvay. This made Accenture the obvious choice for my internship because it’s a company that truly encourages you drive change yourself and think out-of-the-box. I was able to apply lots of knowledge from my entrepreneurship classes (which says a lot about the company’s culture), and I was always challenged.

The team culture was a positive surprise. Even though I was the youngest member of my project team, everyone was so welcoming, open-minded, and wanted to help me progress and grow.

I got to know myself better. Thanks to my internship, I now know what I want to learn more about and work on. I also know the littles flaws I have to pay attention to but also the qualities I can rely on in my future career. For example, I initially struggled with frequently changing teams, managers, and tasks because I worked on four parts of the project. Afterwards, I realized what a great opportunity it was. I learned more during four months at Accenture than I would have done simply following classes at university

Continuous learning is essential for me. One person I want to meet and learn from is Vandana Shiva. She’s the strongest woman I’ve heard about in recent years. I read her book on creative disobedience and was astonished by the way she had handled disasters linked to farmers in India. I’d love to discuss her battles with her!

I didn’t expect to also create genuine bonds with so many people at Accenture, and especially in Covid-19 times! I became part of a team that organized connect moments for the people working on our project and other fun activities aimed at enjoying time together and getting to know each other better. In a nutshell: I enjoyed my internship from beginning to end.

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