Edition #6: Sherbaz Hashmi
What Does Technology Consulting Actually Involve?
Sherbaz works within Product Engineering at Accenture, where his role combines technical leadership, project delivery and client management. He guides engineers, determines the technical direction of projects, estimates timelines, manages budgets and identifies risks.
“Everyone thinks once you work in software engineering, it’s just code. But software engineers might only make up 20 or 30 per cent of the people involved.”
Technology projects bring together engineers, business analysts, project managers, architects, designers and client stakeholders. Business analysts may run workshops to understand the client’s operations, while engineers build the solution. Sherbaz connects these streams and ensures the team solves the real problem, rather than “solving an adjacent problem or not solving the problem at all.”
For students interested in technology but not coding all day, this is an important distinction. Technology consulting offers roles across business analysis, project management, product development, architecture and engineering.
Turning Ambiguity Into Product
A major part of technology consulting is helping clients determine what they need. Some begin with clear requirements, while others only understand the broader problem they want to solve.
When requirements are clear, a project may follow a waterfall approach, where the scope and specifications are agreed upon before development begins. Other projects use an agile approach, allowing the solution to evolve through repeated cycles of building, testing and client feedback.
Neither method is automatically better. Waterfalls can suit clearly defined projects, while agile methods may be more appropriate when the client needs to explore and refine the solution during development.
Sherbaz prefers to prototype early when the direction is unclear. On one project for example, his team presented a conventional interface alongside a more experimental alternative, allowing the client to test both before committing.
“Prototyping early and showing the client the different ways they can go makes a very happy client because they feel empowered that they’re making a choice instead of just being given a standard solution.”
Frequent demonstrations also build trust. Consultants can show progress, collect feedback and correct misalignment before it becomes costly.
What Separates a Strong Engineer?
Technical knowledge matters, but Sherbaz believes curiosity distinguishes the strongest engineers.
“The best software engineers are the ones who are curious and aren’t afraid to ask, ‘Is there a better way of doing this?’”
Even if a junior engineer does not suggest the correct alternative, asking questions shows they are comparing options and thinking beyond the immediate task. Software problems rarely have one perfect answer, with every solution involving trade-offs across cost, speed, security and maintainability.
Flexibility is equally important. Strong engineers accept feedback and change direction when another approach better suits the project. In consulting, clients value specialists who question assumptions and consider alternatives early.
Where Should Human Thinking Stop and AI Begin?
AI is accelerating software development by helping engineers generate, review and improve code. However, Sherbaz cautions students against outsourcing too much of their thinking. AI may produce code that works without understanding the wider architecture, client context or future requirements.
“You want to know enough about your domain to make the technical judgement of how things need to be done.”
Sherbaz encourages students to use AI as a tutor and accelerator, but not simply as a source of code. Engineers must still define the problem and understand the client in order to design the broader system and evaluate whether the output is appropriate.
As generating code becomes easier, these judgement-based skills will become more valuable. Strong engineers will understand what should be built and why.
Build Things Before You Feel Ready
For students interested in technology consulting, Sherbaz’s advice is straightforward:
“Just build things. Build as many things as you can.”
Students do not need to wait for an internship. They can follow tutorials, create small applications and experiment with different tools. A project does not need to be original or fully functional. Its value comes from learning how the pieces fit together.
While learning, Sherbaz avoided copying and pasting code because typing it forced him to understand what he was writing. The same principle applies to AI. It can explain concepts and review your reasoning, but relying on it for everything can prevent you from developing your own judgement.
He also encourages students not to dismiss difficult university subjects. Sherbaz once questioned whether data structures and algorithms would matter in practice, but later recognised how these foundations affect the efficiency and reliability of software.
Closing Comments
Sherbaz’s experience shows that technology consulting is not simply a technical career. Code may be part of the solution, but the work begins with understanding the client, defining the right problem and bringing people together to deliver an outcome.
For students, the lesson is simple: stay curious, build things and use AI without outsourcing your judgement. Strong technology professionals do not simply know how to code. They understand what the code is meant to achieve.
This article was written by Hansika Daswani and edited by Siddharth Ramachandran. All experiences and opinions are their own unless otherwise specified and do not represent the views of the UNSW Consulting Club or any affiliated organisations and sponsors.
