Ok here is the low down...not promoted and rated top.Should one resign now or wait to see if another round of VR will come up soon. Leadership might want to see how many pissed off good folks will leave due to not getting promoted before they attempt a VR.Is it worth waiting to see if another VR will happen in the coming months?Or just leave now cos it seems like if you dont belong to the old boys network you dont get promoted?

Same position as you - top of the ladder and no promo.I would walk if offerred vol redundancy. Unlikely to get the option as a) on a long term project and b) a top performer.I have come to the conclusion that leaving will be the best option, as Uncle Bill will probably pull the market conditions line again come September.

Further VR is unlikely since exactly the effect you describe is likely - the top performers will be the ones to step forward. I don't expect further redundancies will be on anything like the terms being offered earlier as expectations have been successfully wound down by this point.If you do intend to move, then it'd be best to start looking around early. If you're a top performer and effectively have the option to stay and wait it out then it'd be best to hunker down right about now.

Ha! reality check same position as most and the annoying thing is that there is no reason for it. The reality is just get something and move away from here...even if you stick it out till september it is not gteed.I hope I stay on the bench for a long time and they offer me some redundancy and let me go, screw this place.

The accident is not ture but me for not applying for a VR last time.Same as above I hope and pray that a VR is coming or I will just coast along till I get something but not give this place my best performance again. I dont care about september because I will still leave this firm even if it happens in September or not.

I will love to run a pulse rate in acn seems to me like almost everyone is angry in the firm at the moment.

I can't see much changing in the next 6 months in terms of promotions, if you can get a promotion by moving I would. If in the same situation I would feel the same, working at the next level according to rating, just not paid at that level, Acenture benifits and in the current climate they can't pass on the costs to their existing clients. Rather than building up hopes I don't understand why there was a mid year promotion round - it didn't exist 3/4 years ago and no other geography has it.Personally, I think this is their way of addressing the ACG situation which does need addressing! Annoyed analysts will leave as a result and let's be honest, there are lots of people who will be eligable for promotion in the next year so they can restart the promotion flow again. I can see there is a move to longer periods between typical promotion A to C moving to 3 years and C to M moving to 4 years as opposed to the old 3 years, this is what potential joiners are now told... I can see if being 2-3 years before promotion rates return to the old levels.

Exactly the same here. Rated top - Accelerated candidate hence not promoted.I was told that only those rated top and time eligible were promoted.They've obviously done this in the hope that loads of us leave without them having to pay the redundancy packages. My view is that if they promoted those at teh top but only those that are time eligible then thise at the top and accelerated (i.e. me!) should have a guranteed promotion for September with a rise based on the March rating. If the firm is a meritocracy (laugh out loud here!) then how can they seperate the top candidates based on time.It;s a shambles and if a suitable resolution can;t be driven through then I will reward the firm teh same way they have rewarded me. I will stop being a high performer and plan my escape. Idiots!

Also, I don't think the promotion round in Sept will be any better, hence we will have gone from being the start performers to being candidates who are actually late promotes. How does that work?

Accenture watch out you will not be getting the best from me, I will work normal hours now and wait for a nice redundancy package i dont even care if they counsel me out in the coming months cos I wont be performing anymore.

Good to see ACN still up to their old tricks.I took vol. redundancy end of last year as they refused to give me an office transfer after 3 years of requesting it.My advice would be to sit and hold, your the top performers meaning you'll be first up for promo when the chance does come around. Leaving now with the market as it is makes absolutely no sense for an analyst (if you were a top performer 2-3 years ago then yes I would have walked, but then would you have not been accelerated?).Sit and wait, enjoy the regular income, and as one has mentioned already don't push yourself too hard if you feel that way inclined! I took vol. redundancy, and still hunting for a new job as all consultancies have shut their doors for the time being.Of course if you get headhunted and the chance to jump ship then go for it!

Agree with the previous post, jumping ship should be ones first option. But please dont give them your better then talk of best.They will chew you and spit you out.

LEAVE dont WAIT lol

I got Above and didn't get it either. How long would I need to be on the bench for to get managed out?

Not sure. It depends how busy they are at the moment. 6-9 months should do it? But don't you need the money etc? How will u pay all ur bills?

Would like to move abroad in Septemeber so trying to figure out the best way to be made redundant between now and then.

How about letting it be known?Roll up at 10.00 every day, take an hour for lunch, leave at 5.00, call HR every few days and tell them you'd like VR if there's any going... Do a mediocre job of tasks you are given, do the bare minimum you have to... they'll soon get the message and you'll be VR'd out before you know it!Disclaimer: This is not advice.

Anyone else still finding it hard to accept. My situation is that I could not have done anymore, 3 external reviews as well as my line manager, rated top, huge chargeability.....I'm just a little shell shocked.I thought it would pass with me spending the weekend in the pub drowning my sorrows but I still feel as bad today. I'm currently on the bench and really don;t have a great desire to get off it at the moment. I'm developing me with training etc rather than caring about the benefit of the firm. Am I now being unreasonable? WIll this pass. All I can say is that th ethought of going back to a role and being anything other than average is not on my radar. Why should I give all the hours, energy and sacrifices I have done in the past. Hmmmm.Also, they are a bot slow in discussing the decisions with us. Has anyone else had any rationale from any of the senior management. Any comments on how, yeah you were screwed this time but will definitely get it in Sept etc etc....Still angry.

What on earth is that deafening clatter?!Oh, it's just the scales falling from many pairs of youthful eyes simultaneously.Welcome to Accidenture, my friends. This happens in good years too, not just bad ones.

It is unlikely that VR will be offered to those ACG analysts that are performing at the top - especailly those that 'would have been promoted in normal conditions'. People who were performing at the top during the last VR round had their VR applications rejected....so, even if there is a 2nd round of redundancies, its is something to bare in mind. Also, will there be a second round? And when? New start group in this week so has to be at least aa few months?

I command:LEAVE right now

I dont get it.. you guys think you only need 10 years of career to get to the top?No wonder people look down on UK consultants.. too much hype, not much experience.

I think some people posting on here need to take a deep breath and be grateful they have pretty well paid jobs - this isn't just Accenture - this is the global economy in tatters that has prompted this. If you think you can get a better package in this climate, then go for it...

Pretty well paid? Mate, our team secretary makes more than I do. We are not well paid. Even as a C1 the salary isn't exactly riveting. It takes over 9 or 10 years to even touch 6 figures here.

How much does the team secretary make?

The Fool mentioning wel paying job and greatfullness does not know what he/she is speaking of.The reality is you can promote more people and reduce the raise that way people still feel appreciated.

So.. making 6 figures at 31/32 y.o is not enough?In most countries you won't be touching 6 figures until you're close to your 40's.Somebody please explain me how 2k a week is not good enough in your early 30's... not enough for what? supporting a bentley and loft in zone 1?Bear in mind there are millions of consultants, this job has become the equivalent of flipping burguers in the 60s. Any idiot out of college can do it.I've even seen people that are on the bench surprised they weren't promoted... well.. if you're on the bench, why would Accenture pay you more if you're not bringing in any money?I do agree with a mid-year promotion period (which I doubt exists in the majority of ACN offices), but maybe it's just prudent to avoid it in times of uncertainty.Again, if people think they can get better, they should leave.. it's not like they owe anything to the company.

It's ok, but for working 60+ hours a week with sales expectations and minimal bonuses it's not a great reward for 9 years of endless performance reviews, long hours and an increasing amount of internal work.

Economy is bad and that can be an excuse for the firm not promoting a lot of good peeps. Is just unfortunate that the firm did not think this through and do as one of the posters mentioned. Promote folks but increase will be minimal that way a lot of the good guys will understand the situation.So Accenture will be back to the same place...good ones leaving, average peeps that kiss a$$es getting compensated and staying and those rated below that might be good but cannot play the politics made redundant and thats why accenture will forever be an average peeps firm.

Why do people assume accenture what good people? Good sellers can sell crap.

I too am a top performer at Illfittingdenture, and have not been promoted. I'm off! See ya!

In terms of leaving you have to weigh up whether there is enough chance of a second round of redundnacies to hold on...I have no idea what ACn's game plan is with 2nd round, but rumour has it that this will be in the next few weeksIf you dont think there will be (or in the meantime), hang around be average and apply for other jobs at the same time.

Illfittingdenture? Love it!

There isn't a single person at Accenture who feels like they unfairly missed a promotion point at some stage of their career. Missing promotion once is never a reason to leave. If you did that, then you'll probably end up with one employer for every two years of your career. If you miss a second consecutive time and think you've been hard done by, that's the time to think about moving on.

Oh thank you so much for your wise words of wisdom UK SE. I can understand the context but suggest you try and appreciate the situation for us mere mortals at the lower levels. 1.) MIssed promotion (that's the obvious one hence this thread)2.) Deserved promotion - Meritocracy...hahaha3.) Unengaging work. Accenture don't need to keep making redundancies as this will always be the case with the current business model. What they meed to do is change the model so that true consultants are paid consultant salries, and the runt work that is so prominent to analysts/consultants at the moment, should be handed to A level students who will (let's be quite hinest!) have no issues with doing the work, and can be paid 50% the salary.Lot's of unhappy people, not just a result of the screwed up promotion round, but more of the general work/environment/people around teh place.

Go and work somewhere else you spoilt brat and that goes for the rest of the whining gits on this site - you don't even know you're born, have a word with mummy and daddy and I'm sure they'll sort you out. Pathetic.. life isn't fair, time to grow up and network a bit better.

uhhhmmm...Thanks Aggressive UK SM.I used to have a manager like you. He was extremely succesful and popular, and really prmoted a strong team environment with good working drive. Oh wait..hang on...no he was actually an idiot. Everybody take note. This is the standard of ACN senior management. hahaha

Agree with the last post...the UK SM is the standard SMs you get in Accidenture. Arrogant, dumb, fool of themselves and think they have made it ahhahahaha.This are suckers that cannot succeed anywhere than in acn cos they ki$$ ass£s and get to the top......sorry a$$ SMs.

Folks, calm down! The economy gets screwed now and again which results in firms cutting promotions and jobs. It's not just Accenture its most places. Missing a promotion is no big deal, although it feels like it at the time. When I was an analyst some of my peers got promoted before me and it felt crappy. Over a few years though I overtook them.Jumping ship can seem tempting when you're angry. But you have to rebuild your network and can fall behind as a result. Those of you who missed promotion but were "top rated" must have a good network around you and will be in an awesome position when things pick up.Regarding salaries - I don't think we do so bad. I have been just shy of 6 figures this year after less than 7 years with the firm. I've been able to work flexibly and I've done lots of interesting stuff.In the biggest recession for 70 years shouldn't the firm be trying to control it's cost base? Or should they promote everyone and screw next year?

I have to be honest and commend the previous comment . I mean that without sarcasm as his/her advice seems genuine. Maybe those who were shafetd should hold on for their "break" in the firm but if we are realistic, those who were rated top/sog above have a;ready proven to themselves tha they can cut it and just nees the opportunity. I will be joining the queue, hopefully at the fron....Thanks UK M, ignore UK SE and UK SM...They're typical!

We could have had promotions without payrises (a la Deloitte). Keeping pay and grade so rigidly tied is just an accounting convenience, and does nothing to allow us to match market rates (which in this case are lower than ACN pay bands). Job title inflation costs nothing except administrative convenience, but it's not like we're starting from a point where all our bands are filled with people who really perform at the requisite level.

UK M good post.The issue is many analyst are performing better than consultants and doing better than many consultants, so they are pissed off with not getting promoted and same with some of the managers most especially the new hires.Also is Thomlison so dumb to carry out little or no promotions then announce redundancy....that shows how the leadership did not think things through. They should have carried out the redundancy first the do the promotion, that will ensure they dont pis$ the good chaps and they promote the good guys when the have let some go at the upper grade.

the promotions process was a farce this time around.... alot of annoyed analysts and consultants who are clearly working above their peer grp and at the next level and not getting rewarded.......Promoting the standard ~70% would have been small pitence to the ACN coffers....The UK/I leadership are clearly not able to run this firm effectively you only have to go back to 2005/06 when they didnt run a mid year promo and no payrises... if anyone is thinking about setting up a firm DO NOT DO THAT to your workforce.. i can tell you one thing morale is at at all time low... and clearly the best people will find a job if they leave....recession or no recession firms still need consultants...

God how embarrassing and pitiful was that UK SM answer "Go and work somewhere else you spoilt brat and that goes for the rest of the whining gits on this site - you don't even know you're born, have a word with mummy and daddy and I'm sure they'll sort you out. Pathetic.. life isn't fair, time to grow up and network a bit better."GREAT ambassador for Accenture - graduates, new hires come work for us!! We're brilliant and caring, top 100 place to work with arseholes like that!Fucking embarrassing..People who dont want to be there anymore, take the redundancy offer and put yourself in a heathier, fairer environment

C1, great viewpoint. As I new hire, I hated Accenture experience... How to get short-listed to the redundancy round ? I would like to leave a.s.a.p.

Ha! thats little of accenture SMs that you have seen.... Join the firm and most especially some of the practice and you will understand the frustration. They hire peeps from outside that su£k, not all obviously but most and they never promote the ones that have been with them.Cant wait for them to start the whole redundancy thingy, this is why some people when they leave will never buy services from the firm again.

Folks, Sorry to burst your bubble slightly but.....being at Accenture for a couple of years may not be the goldent ticket you think it is. I took VR last year and walked into a contract but the response I got from the people I work with is a general dislike of all things Accenture, especially the people !I would really consider keeping your head down for now and taking the 6 month hit on promotion.The market is not somewhere you want to be looking right now and it is likely to get worse until after easter.

until after easter at the very earliest... and even thats unlikely. if you dislike ACN THAT much your best bet is to take the VR when you can and either spend time developing yourself (do an advanced degree or some kind of training) and/or just use the time off to really consider your options

As an analyst who got rated above and not promoted I'm in 2 minds about leaving. I'm 25 and have probably another 25 years of work ahead of me. In that 25 years, 6 months waiting for a promotion isn't a long time and the redundancy package i could get from leaving will, i hope, not be much in the grand scheme of how much I expect to earn over my career. On the other hand, the firm doesnt have a good reputation anymore in employers eyes, the work they sell is basically temp work or IT consulting at best if you are in SAP, September promotions aren't looking promising and leaving could be a good opportunity to start again in another career (HR, Marketing, Finance etc.)

Stay if you want to build a career in process design, systems implementation and ToP.Leave if you want a career in finance, strategy and other $exys stuff or so called work.The realty is that this place has no good reputation in the eyes of both clients and employers...so think and dont worry about the market too much, as someone earlier said you might leave with some money to develop yourself for now.

Go on. Be a tiger.(stifles a snigger)

not sure how many of you have seen it!! switch on your speakers to have real fun!!http://www.accidenture.com

Chaps.you might want to consider this.http://www.g-20meltdown.org/Those super pointy shoes that I seem to remember are so popular with you ACN twonks might come in useful.

There's an awful lot of bile being pored out on this thread. Sure Accenture sucks a fair amount of the time, but most companies do. Promotion decisions are not always fair nor is the process of what part of the economic cycle you're due for a raise. Accenture's neither as glossy as all the internal marketing BS you read, but nor is it as bad as a lot of the stuff read here. We're not MBBB, if that's even a good thing, but it is still better than a lot of the dross out there.

UK-SE,Go on!! Be a Tiger!!!UK-M

I agree with UK SE to some extent.However, the ways Accenture are better than other companies are with things like holiday allowance, perks and working with people who are a good laugh. The work on the other hand is mind numbingly dull and that's where much of the 'bile' stems from.

UK SE,This thread is for discussing the options for Accidenture so please respect the sprit of the thread and stop reffering it as Accenture.How do you know other companies sucks as well... Am I wrong in saying that you are a home grown SE i.e. belongs to old guys network...if not, then how come you have even got the clue about other companies! majority of the home grown don't even know that there is a world outside Accidenture!! A word of advice you guys need to learn respecting experienced hires if uncle bill is really interested in running this company for few more years....as ultimately Accidenture is all set to vanish anyways....

'hahaha', great point of view. UK SEs, part of the 'old boys network' sucks, and are unable to think outside of the 'accidenture' toolkit... one of the reasons why we got where we are the moment. I cant await to get out...

need to learn respecting experienced hires.....oh so true! If Accidenture only realised the talent and experience they ignore and woefully underutilise. Having spent time there as a senior exp. hire a while back (a career diversion undertaken out of pure curiosity), it quickly became apparent that the majority of 'home grown' SE's would struggle to hold down even a mid-range Bus Dev role in the 'real' world! Moreso, most appear to be seriously threatened by heavyweight Exp Hires!

Experienced hire to both Accenture and Accidenture....Sorry to spoil thread!

UK SE,If you are so happy with Accidenture then why the hell are you frequently visiting this thread when the company is shedding a no. of employees across because of people like you couldn't bring the business hence, the size of bench has balooned!!if you do due diligence to your clients and bring more business that will save some really deserved people's job (rather than you sniffing in this forum and providing your baseless hopes about how good is accidenture and that to be when you yourself are "internally frustrated" with accidneture but unable to bring your feelings out in public due to current economy climate i.e. no job for you hence, trying to gain a false hope from this forum to let you have a feeling of strength for riding the recession with accidenture before you will all set to quit oh I mean accedenture is all set to counsell you out!!)I hope you don't have the false impression that UK/I human capital lead also visits this forum and have tie up with the Founder of Top-consultant.com in order to gain the identity of the users so that you can be rewared for the good things you have been saying about accidenture in this forum and hence, do not get counselled out!! I am afraid the founder of this site is a professional with strong business ethics hence, please go on!! be a tiger!! GLOBAL-SE

Don't leave now, it's a bad time to be a newbie with less job security. But do consider leaving in the medium term if you hate the work and want to do something different; becauase that's not going to get any better.There is some truth in what people have said about everyone getting shafted at some point or other in their career; sometimes you just have to swallow it and move on. Don't think that they won't happen again because it's part of the game; there are no true meritocracies in this business, because that's not the way life (and thus performance management) works unfortnuately.I did my Analyst years at Accenture and then joined Deloitte as a Consultant. I can safely say I'm far far happier, do more interesting work, and have a better work-life balance. And the money is close to or as good as Accenture. So persoally, I'd make the switch when the market's a bit better.