HiI am considering leaving my current consulting firm to take a senior manager level role with Accenture in their UK public sector practice but wanted to get the low down on the firm. I appreciate you can get extreme perspectives posted here but hopefully I'll pick up some common thinking:- what's the company culture like? Does it support development or is it highly competitive every man for himself?- scope of work- is it applying ready made boiler plate solutions to every client or genuine innovation?- work/life balance - are you expected to put in 12 hours a day regardless of whether it's actually needed on that particular assignment?- remuneration - how do they stack up against the rest especially in the basic pay vs. bonus ratio?Cheers.

My only experience with Accenture leads me to answer in the following way: don't expect work/life balance, pay won't be great, you'll be working with animals and ingenuity ain't a skill in this money makinng factory...On the up side, if you're leaving University or have less than 3 years experience, this could prove the right place to learn...That won't stop them giving you the shaft, but some like learning the hard way ;)

I concur. Not a bad place to learn if you are a junior/grad but the place is a factory that will screw you in any way it can. 'Presenteeism' is abundant and the performance review process (although not a bad system given the size of the company) could be improved significantly as it doesn't seem to reward the people who are good at their job...which surely is the important thing...it does seem to be slightly worse in terms of culture than most other consultancies...certainly worse than the big 4 advisory guys have it!At senior level...I'd say there are definitely better places to work out there!

I was at Accenture for about four years before moving across to one of the Big 4. It isn't as bad a place to work as is often made out and specifically in relation to your points:- The company is relatively supportive and does place a decent degree of emphasis on personal development and SEs & Snr Mngs are assesed specifically on the degree to which they support and help develop staff below them. However that said; let’s not kid ourselves as sales performance etc... will definitely have a far higher impact on their annual review.- ACN is increasingly offering off the peg solutions and has developed a number of specific solutions within certain industries. There will always be the argument that the MCIM part of the business innovates but the amount of pure business consulting which allows this degree of innovation is reducing by the day.- Work/life balance is often one of the big ones that ACN gets negative press about. But I have to say that as with all companies (Inc. the Big 4 I am with at the moment) it is very dependent upon a particular engagement. I have had ones where I have worked 9-5.30pm without issue and others where I have regularly done 7-10pm and later when deadlines are looming. You often hear the most negative aspect of this as you tend to get newbies who join, go straight to a client where they are working long hours and leave before they move to another client as they think it will always be like that.- Remuneration up to Snr Mng is better at ACN then Big 4, however beyond this Big 4 offers the possibility of Partner which is no longer a possibility at ACN. SE's can do very well but the average income is less than the average partner at Big 4.For me the biggest differentiator came down to the type of work you want to do. ACN is increasingly becoming a pure IT consultancy - despite what people in ACN MCIM will tell you. If IT Consulting is your bag then I would say go for it. If you are more aligned to business consulting then I would look elsewhere.

Just how well do SE's do?

Senior Execs at accenture are mostly poor insecure creatures who can talk big and brag like hell. ACN is not the same as AC, it is a IT chop shop....and India is their code factory...that too is in a mess

Congrats... you win necro of the year award.

I really agree with much of what Anon has to say - I worked at Accenture before moving to the Big 4 also and my observations would be:It is competitive, but not in an overly agressive way. There's an expectation of progression, but, at least in the area that I worked in, it was a supportive and cohesive environment. There were opportunities for promotion for a number of people at every level every year, and people at the same level tended to have different responsibilitie on projects, so that each had their own space to demonstrate their aptitudes and capabilities.There is some innovation but it's not ground breaking - a lot of it is rolling out what has been tried and tested in a slightly different environment, so it's challenging, and can be complex (if it's new to you), but it's not really innovation.I tended to work fairly long hours - not just to be seen, but because it was really needed. Having said that, when there was no need for long hours, in my experience people don't hang around - so most people are happy to make the most of early finishes whenever they get the chance as it won't always be like that. It can be very tough, but you do get recognition and reward, and overall, I'd say there were a lot of perks to make up the for hard work and long hours.I would say the pay stacks up very well - it's one of the best payers I think, with hot skills bonuses as an extra incentive for those they want to keep, as well as bonuses at some levels.Overall, I really enjoyed my time there, and I wouldn't rule out going back. It's hard work, often long hours and is challenging, but you get lots of responsibility, work with bright and engaging people, work with excellent clients and get well rewarded. It's not for the workshy, but it is excellent experience.

Congratulations on the offer. You must be pretty good! You will be working, generally, with some very capable and smart people. The environment is not overtly competitive but the twice year laddering process effectively puts peers against each other. Your lack of a network will initially be a disadvantage since SE support is essential. ACN is increasingly pushing general solutions, however, there is still plenty of innovation. At SM level you will have to work quite long hours as there will always be plenty of non-client things you will be expected to do. It is often said that ACN get paid by clients to 'make difficult s**t happen'. Since margins have to be preserved that means too little time and money are typical management challenges.