Hi all, I have received an offer to join ACN as part of their systems integration workforce. Will my experience be favoured upon when I apply for grad school? I eventually wish to work in strategy consulting (I applied for ACN Strat, but they put me in SI).Any thoughts?Thanks.-J

No it won't. SI is just techie stuff so kiss the strategy dream goodbye.

Grad - think you need a reality check here. Those that try - and fail - to secure a strategy job offer at graduate level are extremely unlikely to "make up lost ground" in the next years such that they are made an offer with a strategy practice a few years later. You'd have to get into one of the world's top business schools to overcome the fact that the consulting experience on your resume is not strategy experience. But you may well find it hard to get into one of the top business schools if you've not made it into the elite part of Accenture in the first place.Don't get me wrong - this is a good place to start your career and you'll probably do very well in life joining this Accenture practice. But aspirations of making it into a strategy practice at a later date, having not made the grade at grad level, are more often than not deluded...

grad,Lots of people leave all parts of accenture and do top MBA's (I know poeple who've gone to Insead, Wharton etc.) and go to strategy consultancies and investment banks after. Also, just because you're not in strategy doesn't mean you have to do SI work. Get yourself alligned with one of the management consulting practises like human performance or supply chain and you'll get some great business consulting experience.

SI and Management Consulting/Strategy are becoming increasingly distinct within the organisation. If you are in SI you will struggle to "blag" your way onto a strat project. Unless they realise they made a terrible mistake not giving you Strat to start with because you show yourself to be something a bit special, expect to be doing SI work in the SI practice.

Yup, but my point is that it's possible to get involved in some supply chain or HP work or the management consulting practice as a whole which will provide a good background for business school and ultimately strategy consulting, even if you're not in strategy per se.

Why do you want to do Strategy anyway? It is just a load of b*ll! Stay technical.

Thanks for the feedback. I am graduating with an undergrad degree in business, so I would prefer something more closely related with the business side of things. I've heard that it is rather difficult to switch groups at ACN once you've joined. In fact, I've tried asking HR to re-align me but I have yet to hear back. What can/should I do??? What about this SITE practice within ACN? Is IT strategy more favoured upon?

MCIM is a much smaller group compared to all of ACN consulting. If you can demonstrate the specialized skills and experience that they require, get senior executives to support you, and get great performance evaluations, then you can transfer to MCIM. With a degree in business and interest in business consulting, you should try to get into MCIM. I think that you would then certainly gain the business skills most conducive to an MBA and other jobs in the future.

Thanks for the feedback!!! I will certainly keep all this in mind.

Actually, I have 1 more question regarding ACN Systems Integration!! I have heard many great things about the SITE group, and believe that SITE falls under Systems Integration in the organization. Would experience in SITE be favourable when applying for an MBA later on? How does SITE compare with other parts of MCIM? Thanks for your help.-J

No no no... unless you are in Strategy in Accenture, forget it.

Above poster justify yourself - do you even know what site is? Strategic IT Effectiveness. I recently heard a senior exec describing SITE people as the smartest ACN has to offer.To clarify I do not work for SITE myself.

Hmm.. I dont think we can take the word of one Senior Exec to be gospel... I once met an outsourcing SN who thought McKinsey was an investment bank! Agree with Anon... Strategy is on a different planet to the rest of ACN.

But my point is that SITE is considered Strategy. Not part of the Strat Group but still strategy i.e. you have to do the 3rd (potentia) interview for SITE, and analysts, etc. from SITE don't go to core analyst school, they go to core strategy school (or whatever it is called).

So would SITE be more favourable when it comes to grad school and pursuing a career in strategy consulting later on? Or would SITE be too specialized in IT Strategy and not necessarily be helpful for general management consulting?

grad,don't get too hung up on which bit is best for business school. people go to top schools from all parts of the company. choose the one that interests you most.

If you want to know about SITE try putting a H between the S and the I.

SITE is good but only if you want to do IT strategy and transformation type of work.