Hi all, does anybody know when Accenture has there salary reviews? I am starting as a grad in Nov and have heard that Nov is bad time to start as the salary reviews are in Sept. Therefore, as 2 years is normally required at analyst level, it will effectively be 2 years 11 months before I can move up and get a possible raise? Is this true or just people not knowing what they are talking about?

Sorry 'their' not there

I doubt it's people "not knowing what they are talking about". November wasn't always an ideal time to start. As the promotion round was usually in September, and with a "normal" time at level for an Analyst to be 2 years, this means that those who joined in November usually had to have 30+ months at level. However there were notable exceptions - such as those highlighted as exceptional, in which case they were promoted up in March. Now the March promotion round is pretty much expected to resolve a lot of these difficulties. Again, it's (well at least it was this year) for the very high performers, but it does give everyone an opportunity for promotion before their time at level benchmark has been reached.Salary reviews take place at every change of level. So there is a salary increase from A1 to A2, and then to A3 I believe. These are progressions, not promotion. Promotion to C1 does entail a salary increase however this depends upon a) market conditions b) internal fiscal guidelines and c) your performance rating.lhope this helps

In summary then...Yes, you're right. Promotion is in September. Somebody joining 2 months before you will be time-eligible for promotion a year earlier.Exceptional promotion may be available, but in the 3 years I've been with Accenture i'm only aware of one person who achieved this.Employee satisfaction surveys regularly wail and moan about this but nothing ever improves the situation. Welcome to cost-cutting central!

Thank you for replying - that seems quite unfair but c'est la vie I guess. Sure it must be a source of job dissatisfaction for quite a few people at Accenture. Thanks again

Most of these posts are obviously not posted by people that work at Accenture !For junior staff such as analysts there are mid year promotion points as well in March so joining in November has little impact as your promotion point just moves to the march instead of the September. In most cases anyway if you have high performance ratings for the 2 years leading up to your promotion date you would be considered in September anyway.

They brought the mid-years back? When?!They were only scrapped 2 years ago!

They were never scrapped there just wasn't a mid-year review 2 years ago due to the market being what it was.There was one last year and the word is there will be one in March '08

I'm an SM at Accenture. 21 months is the usual time at level for analyst promotion consideration, but as the last posting said, there is a mid year promote for exceptional cases. Two analysts in my strategy service line were promoted to consultants after 15 months

ACN SM,"as the last posting said, there is a mid year promote for exceptional cases."No - the last poster said that there was a "mid year promotion point" implying that this is open to everyone as it was pre-2005.Does anyone actually know whether it's exceptional or open to all?

Out of interest - What classes as exceptional at Accenture and how do people achieve this? Obviously, the term exceptional is self explanatory and I take it that the person produces high quality results, has ownership of the tasks etc etc. However, how do managers at ACN rate exceptional in order to be eligible for such accelerated promotions?

I'd like to know that too, 2 1/2 years on analyst wages would suck. What you got to do for early promotion!

Do what everyone else is not doing and you will get an early promotion.

it is very difficult to achieve an "exceptional rating" or "at the very top of peer group" as it is called npw. usually you will not only need to deliver highest quality results but you need a very good network. you need to convice people on SM or SE level that you contributed exceptionally to the project´s success. for instance by pulling another weekend when your collegues are off, coming in on christmas assuming the others do not, helping to sell a significant piece of work. from my experience this rating is very rare, no matter if you a top performer or not. a "significantly above" aka "outstanding" however is realistic and should be enough for a promotion with <24 months at level.

No decision has been made about this March. It will all depend on affordability. If UKI is making a stonking profit around Jan/Feb time then they might go ahead with it. But if too many whingeing Analysts are sitting on the bench refusing roles then affordability goes out the window.In my experience, if you want to increase your chances of getting early promotion, I would recommend joining a mega-project. They have the clout to push people up early. I&apos;ve seen a number of people (i.e. more than 5) go up early from A2 to C1, and directly from C2 to M1.I&apos;ve also seen people go from C3 to M1 in March, in years where no official mid-year promotion round was held.

ACN cons,Of those who got early promotion, was it something they activey pursued and worked with their line managers to achieve or was it more down to the fact the project was very profitable and they could afford it?

Of course you have to actively pursue it. Too often you see people come up to a promotion point and say "I thought all I had to do was turn up, do my job and get promoted". As soon as you start a role, tell your manager when your promotion point is, and that you want to start preparing for it, or that you think you have a chance for early promotion and would like their support for it. Then work with them to make sure you tick all the boxes (e.g. ensure they give you a team to manage and adequate level of responsibility), make sure you get feedback on areas that you need to improve, and get their help in developing an action plan to improve those areas. But it will help if the project is a key project and very profitable, or if you can find a senior SE to act as your sponsor. Oh, and on bigger projects it might be easier to find roles with big teams to manage.

also, make sure your counselor is aware that you wanna go for an early promotion....he will have to fight for you in the laddering.advice: get as many sponsors (senior managers would be best) as possible in order to come high out of the project laddering.

So from this discussion, it would seem unfortunate to join in November and the best time is Septmber? as March reviews are not guarnteed and exceptional cases are unlikely.

I guess so. But it doesn&apos;t really matter if you don&apos;t get promoted unless you actually like it here as you can just leave and join another firm at that level, unless you&apos;re a bit poop.