Hi,looking through many of the posts Accenture doesn't seem to be liked much - why is this?I am applying for a grad role but am thinking twice about it after reading various stories - is ACN a good place to start your career? does it give you a good spring board to go onto big/better things later in your career?Maybe another question would be, what's right with ACN?thanks to all that reply

Nothing to be worried about happening to acn.Acn is one of the largest firms discussed in this foum, so number of response is obvously higher...Every organisation have its pros and cons and it all depends on you as a person and which one you prefer.Had my stint in one of the MBBB before joing Acn strat or mcim as it is called now, liked the reputation and high level strat stuff in m... hated the people and life style.Came to acn did not do high level strat stuff, people where ok and better life style, so make your call.Acn:Lots of things to doset your expectations right no pure strategy worktoo much methodology to follow for everythinglife style is ok (work life balance)Not a pressure cooker though you will have to work hardSome smart folks and some average folks - expect this due to size of the firmOpportunity to move to other things due to the size of the firm and what it doesGood name to have on your cv, because no firm markets like AcnNo strong alumni network......The obvious prosand cons for you and that is just the reality....What do you expect when you have 180k plus and 3000 dont get promoted on experience a bad manager they write bad things while in MBBB you have 6k+ and no matter the % of people that have a bad experience you wont get the same response with the number from acn

There is nothing ultimately 'wrong' with ACN. In the end it really depends on what you want and how you want your career to progress. If your objective is to start your own business or move into strategy then ACN is probably not your best bet. If however you just want to see where ACN will take you or want to stay in IT then ACN is an amazing place to start!It has an extremely good international reputation. As a company it performs very well with one of the highest EBITDA margins in the IT services sector. After working at ACN for a couple of years you can get a great job in a more low key (less hours) IT company with no problem at all (if that is what you want). I believe that far to many people that comment on these forums work in Tier 1 or 2 strategy houses. That may be the source of a lot of the negativity. My perceptions is that the problems that ACN has, in part, stem from it being a large company. These include things like: recruitment is handled primarily by HR (people who work in HR are at times very biased in the wrong way), promotion and advancement depends on your assignments, which in turn depends on who you know in the company. If you are not a ‘star’ candidate this might imply you need to kiss ass to get the necessary assignments. A lot depends on luck and a lot on what you make of the opportunities that are given. I wish you luck.

Agree with Bainee except for "start your own business" - MBBB, CKKK, ANY... does not matter as long and you are an enterpreneur you can start your business even if you are not and have passion for it you can do it.... but thats not purpose of this forum...Every other thing bainee said apart from the one mentioned above is the reason you get the negative remarks on the firm.

I mostly agree with Bainee as well. At the start of your career, you should be looking to learn, but also to establish yourself at a large brand name company. The ACN name will do just that, and will open a lot of doors for you in the future. If you were more senior, I would advise against it, but as a grad, its a great place to start.Here are my pros and cons for a grad pos at acn:Pros:- Internationally recognised brand name- Since ACN is a 'tier 1' IT shop, you will be seen as 'tier 1'. - lots of material for you to learn ( if you want to, theres stuff there to keep you busy).- Likely have ppl in your age gp working on your team. Generally fun and friendly ppl, especially the younger ones.Cons:- A bit of politics- success depends of who you know- gotta network here.- Graduates will likely be given junior mundane tasks ( thus not much job satisfaction). ACN has enough competition for the better jobs such as mgt/stgy. Those will almost surely goto the senior employees.However, your job duties will be a bit of a flip opf the coin- it depends on your PM. He/she can make life hell or quite good...- You probably wont feel like you really accomplished anything meaningful, but will likely be just another bum on a seat turning the wheel. ( dont take this harshly- most graduate roles in any company are like this).- Salary depends on which office, generally mkt or slighly below ( but as a grad, DO NOT go just for salary).My concluding advice:As a grad, take it. Your main objectives as a grad should be to:a) Learnb) Set yourself up for the future opportunities.ACN does both. Whilst it may not have you on the most exciting jobs, nor job duties, there will be enough in the role and 'knowledge base' for you to learn.As importantly, the international brand name carries a lot of weight, and places you well for the future. The brand alone opens many doors for you in the future.By the way, most of the others ( HP, EDS, IBM, etc) are almost exactly the same.The negativity on this thread regarding acn are primarilly from more senior ppl, who are frustrated with the a@@ kissing thats required to get the best jobs at these companies, or are clients who are unsatisfied with the service gotten from these companies. As a graduate, both these points are not really your concern.

I'd agree with much of the above post. I've been here nearly 2 years as a graduate now and life is better at the bottom than the top. On the graduate program there's lots of fit girls and you can learn a fair amount without killing yourself in terms of work-life balance. The job seems to get worse as you move up in that you work longer hours for average pay doing the same boring work. My plan is to do another year or 2, do an MBA and then get a proper job.

yeah, of all consultancies, for some reason, hot girls choose accenture. Dont ask me why...

Is it because of the flashy marketing, perhaps?

Dont blame you "proper job". Please tell us what is a proper job thats if you know one

Strategy (sort of), Banking, PE, VC, Industry Corp Dev....

Accenture spent a ton of money on its marketing ( especially those tiger woods ads). I wonder, as part of the marketing ROI, did they include skimping out on employees salary as part of the marketing benefits. That is, if we do this flashy marketing ad, we can pay employees less, and that cost ( salary) saving is directly part of Marketing(advertising) benefits in its project ROI.

Still you are yet to define what a proper job is, all you are listing is just another type of job that some love some hate just like any other job....Remember I met someone that works for amnesty international and she was working in Congo i though that was crazy and not a job but to her she felt IBs were un ethical and all that, so my dear pal proper job depends on what one likes and what one hates

What are you people complaining about?I thought ACN is the highest paying full-service consulting firm?

By proper job i mean one that you can build a tangible skillset which is transferable in the business world as opposed to IT delivery. As someone said on here before, if you look at senior people in almost any industry you will scarcely find one with a background in a firm like acn. The reason is that the skillset you build there is useless in the business world. I'm not having a go, some people love it and good luck to them but you can't kid yourself about the kind of work involved and exit ops. it provides.

Still you are yet to define what a proper job is, all you are listing is just another type of job that some love some hate just like any other job....Remember I met someone that works for amnesty international and she was working in Congo i though that was crazy and not a job but to her she felt IBs were un ethical and all that, so my dear pal proper job depends on what one likes and what one hates

Please tell me what kind of transferable skills you would expect to gain in IB, VC, PE, or strat consulting? I would imagine the only transferable skills you would pick up in these would be: - Excel modelling - PPT / re-sizing boxes - Sticking your nose up client's backsides to try to win business - Being nasty to your team since you are completely incapable of leading them effectively

not all of these relevant to all the afore mentioned careers but a few:- how to value a company- how to size a market- how to interpret a companies financial information- how to decide what's a good investment- how high level strategic decisions are madethese are things you don't learn at acn kind of firms and there's nothing wrong with that as it's not what they do (it's just not for me). I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on what great skillset you can end up with at acn and where it can take you outwith the firm.

"Amateurs talk about strategy, dilettantes talk about tactics, and professionals talk about logistics."Gen. Omar Bradley KCB

regardin ther above post, if that quib from gen bradley is true, then why is that amateurs ( strategy setters) get paid more than the pros( implementers- doers)?By the way, gen bradley actually set strategy and tactics , he got his footsoldiers to implement his strategy.

Cause they work about 50% more hours for their 10% extra money.

Anon,a) Very many of the people who work in "strategy" consulting or for so-called "strategy" houses spend very little of their time doing actual strategy work.b) People that work for these firms tend to be very smart indeed and have worked out that strategising is significantly more interesting than actually having to implement something and are smart enough to bullsh1t clients into paying them large sums for this. Occasionally, this is even justified by some results; however that's fine if they aren't because they can always claim that the implementation was poor. It's genius!EC