Hello there, I was wondering what peoples opinions were on the best consulting firms for grads to begin their careers, I ask this because the best consulting firm to be working for as an adult may not neccessarily be the best consulting firms for graduates. I may also add, particularly looking for a broad experience within the realm of strategy/BOP scope. Regards A

Love the way you setarated the 'graduate' and 'adult' categories.

Obviously Accenture is the best for grads!!Many criticise Accenture for its collegiuate atmosphere - very young feeling, but that is exactly what you are after as a grad. 3 weeks in London on getting to know your start group, followed by a 2 week trip to Chicago: sure you can't beat that for your first month as a graduate employee.Also there's a 10k starting bonus to clear some of your debt.So if you've got a 2:1 and 3B's+ at A-Level tootle on over tohttp://careers3.accenture.com/Careers/UK/GraduateJoiners/apply/bsi

as a graduate who spent 1.5 years in accenture, and just left, let me give you my opinion - and im sorry if i burst your bubble. your 3 to 5 weeks of 'training' in london, is actually you being hammered 8 hours a day with programming knowledge about html or java. you are being literally 'programmed' to carry out the function that 99% of graduates at acn undertake: testing. your training in chicago does not happen immediately, rather, within one year of joining. again, its not ground breaking business training, just more technology.if you LIKE technology, systems and outsourcing - then ACN is absolutely the place to be, and you will flourish. However, if you dont - then reject the offer - and leave while you can still create other options. The only exception to this is those grads (like me) that joined straight into the strategy line - there it is pure business consulting and words such as oracle and manugistics belong to a different breed of consultants. the most important thing i can tell you: accenture have a graduate turnover of 64% every 24 months. this should say something to you. DONT fall for the marketing. make sure you are making an EDUCATED choice. good luck.

As a graduate currently working for Accenture, I'd just like to say that I agree with everything peters said! I am writing this from the office, in between running test scripts, bored out of my mind.Yes, there are some good aspects to the job - the bonus is nice, you are certainly well looked after on out of town assignments with smart flats to live in etc....but somehow it doesn't quite make up for the mind numbing tedium of it all!Just to correct peters on one very minor point - Accenture DO now send about half of their graduates to chicago immediately after joining, the other half are left to book the training for themselves, at any point when they can get their project to release them for 2 weeks! Which group you fall into depends on which operating group you are put into (and don't expect to get much choice in the matter, is all done on "business need")I can't wait to leave this job, like 64% (!) of my peers I'm going to do the 2 years that are required to avoid having to pay back some of my bonus and then hopefully move on to better things!If having 2 years at Accenture on my CV allows me to get a great job when I leave then I guess the whole experience will have been worth it...but who knows?

in reply to peters post:you do goto chicago for training straight away now, after 3 weeks in london. the 3 weeks in london is not all programming - it consisted of a whole host of differnet excercises of which programming was a part. Those 3-5 weeks in training are fantastic fun. yeah the hours may be long, but well worth it. i also question your comment regarding 'testing' roles. In my start group of 60 people, there are about 10 people doing testing roles. yeah its part of the business but they wont be doing it all the time. i dont feel like i was programmed to do a single role, maybe things have changed since you were joined...who knows. additionally, i'm doing changement management / business transformation work so i dont know what you are talking about. my whole start group has stayed in touch and i know most of the roles people are doing and it varys from PMO (project management office), business transforamtion work, business development and bid work to technical work and testing to mention among others. i would definatly recommend ACN as a grad scheme, and a great name to have on the CV as well.

Also in the recruitment they mention you need to have an interest in technology. So I reckon you joined Accenture thinking it was some sort of Strat house - that is confirmed by you joining strategy.I will be graduating with a Master of Engineering degree, and have experience in engineering - and guess what junior people test!

I work for a rival firm with consulting, outsourcing and tecnology service lines (Not IBM) and work in the consulting service.I can;t understand people wnating to join ACN for just two years. It appears you risk getting a bum role testing or doing somehting equally as menial with little chance for learning and developing ones skills. A tidy bonus is surely not the most important thing in a graduate job!? Career development and potential for shooting up the ladder in consulting and/or industry must be the priority right?!Thoughts?

of course it is important, thats why people join accenture - i would rather have ACN on my CV than any other consultancy excluding Mck..for my first job after university anyway.

Can you elaborate on the tests you are running?I mean, in the past I have worked testing designs for silicon integrated circuits and the interesting thing about the job is when the tess fail - you have to go debug complex systems. In fact generally you build a test suite and everythign is brokem - it is your job then to see that all the tests pass and you get some satisfaction from that.Is it a different sort of testing in Accenture? What's involved? Give an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn21N5jngW0&search=accenture%5D

In reply to 'a rival firm' - you're quite right, as I have discovered there is very little opportunity for developing meaningful, transferable skills. In a testing role you tend to become very familiar with the system you are testing but this is only relevant if you intend to continue doing the same sort of work in the future. I'm just hoping that having the name on my CV will help.....I'm beginning to think it's a vain hope though - think too many people are starting to see through accenture's thin veil of bullshit!

Accenturian (recent grad), can I discuss this with you offline, please?

sure, what is your email address?

Thanks Accenturian. You can email me on yaminibhandari@hotmail.com

does anyone have an idea of the starting salary for a junior Customer Management Consultant @ Capgemini, I am waiting for an offer from them?I have 5 years work experience in sales & marketingthanks.