Last week I was offered a position in the ACG group with Accenture. I don't know what's more depressing, the fact I wasn't good enough to get to the third round, or the fact that I'm going be doing IT consulting for the next two years. The more I think about it, the more I want to apply to banking grad schemes, but I can't afford to take another year out. Will it be possible to transfer after my two years, and how should I position myself within the ACG in order prepare for a launch into banking afterwards? I didn't apply to many consultancies and go to the final round of one, and this. Rejecting and then applying next year (especially given market conditions) is risky. Any sensible suggestions would really be appreciated.

I would n't worry about not getting into the 3rd round. All strategy grads will now be incorporated into the ACG - with most of them not doing strat work.To get into banking try and position yourself to get on to FS projects.

Why not just apply whilst you're working at accenture? You're not tied in for 2 years and you'll learn more this way than by rejecting the offer and applying from scratch.