Hi All, I could use some advice in my situation. I have been working at Accenture Since late November 2016 within Operations within sourcing. Whilst I have been engaging in sourcing work, I have been participating in some analytics initiatives by improving a QV tool and running an analytics initiative. However, the analytics is basic (Regression, advanced functions) and being run on Excel. I have been working with some guys from Analytics but not from a technical perspective, but rather how they can scale my Excel work. My primary focus is and always will be sourcing projects.I have been offered a role at Atos as an Analytics Consultant which will have training and of course be within Infrastructure and Data Management business area. I will be getting comprehensive training in R, SQL and Hadoop. I will also be working on developing the analytics on ERP tools and other Analytic tools. My background is Accounting and Finance from LSE but I have been keen on Analytics but never thought about entering the space until I started experiencing parts of it at Accenture and enjoying it. I would really like to enhance my skill set further within Analytics. Perhaps financial analytics?I have been pushed by my manager to stay within Accenture for 18-24 months with a good possibility of training. However, this is within sourcing and the training (such as R) but not being to apply it properly, not getting the appropriate help in things like debugging code and without a local team to work together with. I have also spoken to the Analytics teams within Accenture and they have also expressed some difficulty in moving from my current position by 18-24 months.Whilst Accenture is a better company placed within Analytics and has a stronger brand name, Atos is also doing well in Analytics. I think Atos has a much more lucrative offer and long term development. Again, there is no guarantee I can move within Analytics at Accenture. Can anyone provide advice on such a career move, considering Accenture is my first proper job (excluding an internship for 6 months at a large pharma in price analytics) and I have been here for 8 months so far. Should I hope for a move to Analytics in Accenture or move to an Analytics practice now at Atos with guarantees in place? It would be good to get advice from people who are working at either company. Thanks

8 months into your career you should most certainly not be even considering a move unless you are on a burning platform. Move now and your next 5 years won't be spent talking about what you know in open source analytics but explaining why you moved from Acn after 8 months. Hint: no one will believe you chose to move from Acn to Atos after 8 months, they'll just silently conclude you couldn't hack it there. You are 8 months into your role at Accenture, let alone your career. Listen to your Manager, and focus on getting good - [i]very[/i] good -at what you are doing now, [i]then[/i] look to develop analytics skills. Stop this millennial whining and wanting the next thing before you've learnt the first thing, and take your Manager's advice before you commit career suicide.

[quote]8 months into your career you should most certainly not be even considering a move unless you are on a burning platform. Move now and your next 5 years won't be spent talking about what you know in open source analytics but explaining why you moved from Acn after 8 months. Hint: no one will believe you chose to move from Acn to Atos after 8 months, they'll just silently conclude you couldn't hack it there. You are 8 months into your role at Accenture, let alone your career. Listen to your Manager, and focus on getting good - [i]very[/i] good -at what you are doing now, [i]then[/i] look to develop analytics skills. Stop this millennial whining and wanting the next thing before you've learnt the first thing, and take your Manager's advice before you commit career suicide.[/quote]I'm sorry but this advice is moronic. To the OP, since you are beginning your career a move such as this should not be limiting. Moving from sourcing to analytics should not be seen as a bad thing. In fact, you are moving to a field which is growing substantially and is expected to grow. There is no point in "getting good" in an area which you may not be enjoying or find less interesting than analytics. My advice would be to contact people working in the analytics parts of Accenture and get their take on this. If they think you can move to analytics in a year or so, you should consider staying. However you have stated that you have spoken to the analytics teams and they have expressed difficulty in moving. I would still try to determine how viable this advice is and if the training promised by your manager can extend beyond just R. You should also try to gain an opinion from other experienced members of your team on this if possible. The above advice about getting very good at sourcing, then developing analytics is foolish and in most cases, managers are biased if your departure from a company will hinder them. I would also completely disregard the comment about this being "career suicide". This is completely false considering your lse academics and move to analytics.I think you made a very good move OP but I would consider staying at Atos for some time before considering moving to another organisation. Good luck!

With a background in Accounting & Finance from LSE, I'll go out on a limb and say that you have no proper tech exposure.You think you can learn R, SQL and Hadoop in weeks? You think it's that easy? There are a lot of complementary things, e.g. Mongo, Cassandra, etc. You will need to understand Hadoop in a proper production environment, e.g. getting experience with Cloudera/Hortonworks . Do you know what OLAP is?Even CS grads would not have the skills needed to jump into a Data Scientist position, but you think you can?Don't get me wrong. Am not trying to be negative. Am just pointing out some uncomfortable truths.Here's what I'd suggest. Take a step back. Figure out what you want to do, taking into consideration your education background, interests, etc. You yourself admit that ACN is better placed in Analytics. Better brand name. Stay on with ACN. Learn as much as possible. See if you really like it. Then decide.I guarantee you that you'd be out of your depth if you jump into the Analytics deep end.

[quote]With a background in Accounting & Finance from LSE, I'll go out on a limb and say that you have no proper tech exposure.You think you can learn R, SQL and Hadoop in weeks? You think it's that easy? There are a lot of complementary things, e.g. Mongo, Cassandra, etc. You will need to understand Hadoop in a proper production environment, e.g. getting experience with Cloudera/Hortonworks . Do you know what OLAP is?Even CS grads would not have the skills needed to jump into a Data Scientist position, but you think you can?Don't get me wrong. Am not trying to be negative. Am just pointing out some uncomfortable truths.Here's what I'd suggest. Take a step back. Figure out what you want to do, taking into consideration your education background, interests, etc. You yourself admit that ACN is better placed in Analytics. Better brand name. Stay on with ACN. Learn as much as possible. See if you really like it. Then decide.I guarantee you that you'd be out of your depth if you jump into the Analytics deep end. [/quote]I think this is partly true but from my experience there is a division between data analytics and data science. Whilst there isn't a set definition, data science has more technical knowledge required than analytics. Whilst both areas require statistics, data science relies heavily on the programming element to execute the analytics.If you are attempting to enter data science, then I would absolutely advise against it. If you are entering analytics and have some technical background in mathematics/ statistics which I am sure you do give the lse name, I think you can do very well. I would also advise you try some programming if you haven't already, to see if you like it. Even though you may not use it as heavily compared data science, it may provide an observation of skills you can develop in the future. It would also be good to know if you have done any financial modelling in your degree using something like pyhton. The outcome of that may help formulate a decision for your move.

The OP talked about Hadoop, etc. Are you telling me that this is just high level Analytics?Saying that, your final sentence tallies with my recommendation.

[quote][quote]8 months into your career you should most certainly not be even considering a move unless you are on a burning platform. Move now and your next 5 years won't be spent talking about what you know in open source analytics but explaining why you moved from Acn after 8 months. Hint: no one will believe you chose to move from Acn to Atos after 8 months, they'll just silently conclude you couldn't hack it there. You are 8 months into your role at Accenture, let alone your career. Listen to your Manager, and focus on getting good - [i]very[/i] good -at what you are doing now, [i]then[/i] look to develop analytics skills. Stop this millennial whining and wanting the next thing before you've learnt the first thing, and take your Manager's advice before you commit career suicide.[/quote]I'm sorry but this advice is moronic. To the OP, since you are beginning your career a move such as this should not be limiting. Moving from sourcing to analytics should not be seen as a bad thing. In fact, you are moving to a field which is growing substantially and is expected to grow. There is no point in "getting good" in an area which you may not be enjoying or find less interesting than analytics. My advice would be to contact people working in the analytics parts of Accenture and get their take on this. If they think you can move to analytics in a year or so, you should consider staying. However you have stated that you have spoken to the analytics teams and they have expressed difficulty in moving. I would still try to determine how viable this advice is and if the training promised by your manager can extend beyond just R. You should also try to gain an opinion from other experienced members of your team on this if possible. The above advice about getting very good at sourcing, then developing analytics is foolish and in most cases, managers are biased if your departure from a company will hinder them. I would also completely disregard the comment about this being "career suicide". This is completely false considering your lse academics and move to analytics.I think you made a very good move OP but I would consider staying at Atos for some time before considering moving to another organisation. Good luck![/quote][i]This[/i] is moronic.

You wrote:"I think you made a very good move OP but I would consider staying at Atos for some time before considering moving to another organisation".Why advocate staying at a company for some time but then, call Mars same advice "moronic"?Are you a hypocrite? Please advise. Thanks.