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Since she joined Accenture Ltd (Hamilton, Bermuda) in 1999, Kathy Ganev has hopped around the U.S. and to Newcastle, England in a variety of projects. Ganev loves the career possibilities at Accenture. The company's broad portfolio, she notes, means stability, growth potential, vast opportunities for employees and options for worldwide assignments.
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with 110 offices in forty-nine countries. Its operating groups work in practices that serve sectors like consumer goods and industrial equipment; communications and high technology; financial services; utilities, chemicals and energy; and government.
Perfect fit
Ganev feels the company is a perfect fit for her personality and career aspirations as a computer IS manager. It also offers a sizable volunteer network to let employees contribute to the communities where they're assigned, and this appeals hugely to Ganev.
"I've worked with amazingly capable individuals on these volunteer assignments. They help each other and help the project succeed. I like being part of an organization that gives back to the world, and Accenture is always helping," Ganev says.
She also likes working with the mix of men and women techies at Accenture. "The number of women in IT is growing every day," she notes.
Ganev makes her home in Denver, CO, but during the workweek she lives wherever her assignment of the moment takes her. She enjoys the challenge of finding solutions in each of the unique projects she's tackled.
Designers in Trenton, NJ
Currently she's on a six-month assignment in Trenton, NJ. She manages a team of designers working on a software app for the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The group is modernizing an unemployment insurance and benefits system with a Web-based interface.
"We're working on the business logic behind the scenes of the application. I provide support to the team, lead design meetings, work with other teams on the project to come up with consistent solutions, and work directly with the management team," Ganev says. She'll probably be on to her next project sometime this summer.
Growing up in Alaska
Ganev's mother is Puerto Rican and Ganev was born in Puerto Rico. But her Bulgarian father wanted his children to grow up in a more remote environment. The choice narrowed down to New Zealand or Alaska, and he chose Alaska. The family moved to Juneau when she was a baby.
After graduating from high school she decided to explore her career interests before going to college. She worked at nonprofit organizations and government agencies for four years, and discovered her facility with computers while working at the Juneau Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
"They had a Unix-based system for Medicaid and Medicare to gather and manage clinical information about patients," she says. "I worked with the system for reporting and extracted information and exported it to Excel files."
Work in the Sunbelt
Eventually she decided to go to college, and picked DeVry University (Phoenix, AZ). "I wanted to be in the sun. I had been in the Alaskan rainforest for so long!" she says with a laugh. She graduated in 1999 with a BS in computer IS, and based on her past work experience Accenture was happy to bring her on board.
Her first assignment was as a technical analyst for American Express in Phoenix. She supported testing of software and product apps at the client's site. She gave people security access, ran queries to extract data, helped monitor batch processes that were run nightly, and was on call if there was a problem.
"It taught me to work on a team and follow methodology. We were a close-knit team and everyone helped each other learn and grow," Ganev says.
Working for the states
Her next assignment, from 2001 to 2002, was as a functional lead/design analyst for the state of New Mexico in Santa Fe. She led four analysts who were working on an Internet tool to give employees access to run ad hoc reports.
Ganev told her managers she was interested in living in Colorado, and from 2002 to 2006 she was deployed as manager and senior design analyst of a group redesigning the unemployment insurance system for the Colorado Department of Labor. "I went through the whole life cycle to understand how everything is interconnected," she explains.
The Colorado stint was her first management position. "It was a great challenge to have a team looking up to me for guidance. It helped me grow. I like coaching and bringing people up to speed," Ganev says. She worked with several teams on the job, and the last group she supervised numbered about twenty-five.
On to the U.K.
The company had given her management training during the Colorado job, and she'd met a senior manager who was working in the United Kingdom. "There happened to be a project for the British Department for Work and Pensions that fit my skills well. I contacted the manager, who agreed to let me come out," Ganev says.
She lived and worked in Newcastle, in the north of England, but flew back to her home in Colorado every couple of months.
She planned and managed project deliverables for the department's design authority, supporting a thirty-person team. "They were designing a CRM application, similar to our retirement programs," she says.
The British work environment wasn't much different from American companies, and "A lot of the people I worked with were also from Accenture. I felt right at home. The culture was nice, but northeast England was cold!"
She returned to the U.S. and took over her current DOL job in New Jersey this January.
Hoping for healthcare
Ganev's long-term career goal is to move into projects related to healthcare. "I'd like to provide tools and resources to help people maintain a healthy lifestyle in mind, body and spirit, and IT companies can help people get these tools. The healthier we are the better," Ganev says.
Meanwhile, she's enjoying Accenture's wide network of volunteer activities. "You can go and clean up the streets of your local city or run a race for cancer or MS. There are tons of volunteer events and Accenture makes it easy to get into them, even though you're busy with traveling and have no time to organize it on your own."
She's helped out with Junior Achievement, climbed as well as run for MS and cancer, helped with street fairs and with parties for sick children at local hospitals. She's also gone to nursing homes on holidays to sing and pass out cookies.
Her family still lives in Alaska and she gets back to see them several times a year. She's still enjoying the single life and the chance to travel.
"I think it's great to live and work in multiple places," she says. "Traveling is part of the consulting lifestyle. It's fun for me and provides a balance to my life."
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