Wish to understand the difference between CSC senior consultant and Accenture level 9 consultant. What is the career path for each? What are the criteria to measure the performance in each firm? What is the culture difference? These two positions are all based in London and in analytics consulting. Even though CSC salary package is xk higher than Accenture, keen to understand which provides better opportunity and has nicer people to work with for a long term career development. Thanks

In this day and age, there's no such thing as "long term career development". Many consultants are just clinging on, frantically grabbing paycheck (yes, American spelling) after paycheck and trying to survive the next appraisal round. Forget thinking 20 years hence, the focus is on that next "up or out" review point and trying to dodge any possible redundancies. Few people plan their careers any more, they just grab the best thing they can and hold on to it for as long as they can before then grabbing the next best thing again. Long term planning? Heck, even whole countries like Greece can't even plan the management of their economies for longer than a 24 hour horizon, so what chance us mere consultants who are usually the first to face the axe when cuts need to be made.So, in summary, follow the money dude, follow the money.

HI, completely agree with you about "up or out" the most likely outcome for every consulting employment. That's why I think apart from salary, culture and project/people make a difference that are more important to consider. Any cash differences within 6~8K can generally be ignored considering the tax. The probation in Accenture is 6 months. Is it in general, the turn-over (redundancies, etc) rate is higher in Accenture than other places?Another question I think is is it better to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?

Can anyone shed some light on your experience at Accenture Digital?

[quote] Another question I think is is it better to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? [/quote]Look at this question another way. What do fish eat? Other fish.

[quote][quote] Another question I think is is it better to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? [/quote]Look at this question another way. What do fish eat? Other fish.[/quote]Fish food?

The career path (ACN) is exactly what you make. Generally speaking you have a lot of control over your career so can to an extent find the roles which you feel you are suited to. Of course that will change if you are on the bench, at that point you don't get a great deal of say.Culture wise I like Accenture. It is very competitive and things work in a certain way for not other reason other than that's how its always been. Play the game, work hard and produce good work and you'll be fine, don't and you'll be in trouble which is fair.Rightly or wrongly, Accenture will probably be viewed more favourably by SOME potential future employers.

Who provide the fish food? In reality, it is a natural world.

Thanks for sharing the your experience with me. I hope ACN is transparent and open-minded. It would be depressing if it was full of bureaucracies and politics, even dreadful if "fish eat fish". Happen to read a thread here saying analyst bullied by everyone higher up and consultant being bullied by managers and MD being worshipped. Personal experience so far is the recruitment team has been very ineffective which put me off a little bit . Really need some spirits here wish I have made the right choice. Many thanks again.

[quote][quote][quote] Another question I think is is it better to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? [/quote]Look at this question another way. What do fish eat? Other fish.[/quote]Fish food?[/quote]Big fish small pond, small pond big fish, it's a fish eat fish world out there. Until you become top dog, when it all becomes err....dog eat dog.

Agree with this and the previous post. As to big fish/little fish, it really depends on who you work for. I cannot stress this enough and this can be really tricky as hiring managers and surrounding teams can change so much within a short period of time. It can be good to join a firm where you already know people that can give you the inside scoop as in - this group is great or pretty good, etc it has sponsorship that is at an early cycle in progression and is doing well. You've got to test for the sociopaths at work - especially in consulting firms where you have a lot of wealth in the MD set and they actually think that they are smarter than anyone else on the planet and can treat people like dirt while taking calls from their houses in the Hamptons and posting pictures of their Yacht on their Facebook page while pushing more and more internal jobs and clients jobs to third world countries living it up off of the cheap labor and bragging about it to their internal employees that did not join at a time when you could become a Millionaire over night. Net is, this is what you are dealing with in these Companies that got rich when they went public and many MD's hang on for an ego trip and to make more millions by offshoring more jobs and employing expendable slaves. You've got to take matters into your own hands, try to get the best team you can and then look for your next job as soon as you get their as you'll need an exit strategy - you'll need one faster at Accenture - especially if you are from the US.

Yes...that is all true and HR is useless to do anything about it as it is also led by a thug...everyone inside thinks so, talks about it all the time but no one can do anything about it. Total disaster. I used to be on the functional side and then went back into consulting and the thugs are worse in consulting, abuse is everywhere, HR is no where as they get judged by the thugs in their performance review. There is actually no empowerment as the thugs in sales are in charge. Choose something else. I did have a friend from EY who said Sr Execs were very similar so not sure if this is all a part of the consulting world or not. I am planning to go back to work for a non consulting firm where I have found in my career that there are far more checks an balances. Also, working for more mature firms - e.g. 30 years old is not mature for a company - you usually have many of these cultural kinks worked out and more clear paths, mentors, etc. And then when you get there, you have to watch out for people from Accenture looking to off-shore you so they can buy another Yacht or house in the Hamptions.