Hi, I am joining Accenture in Jan 2011. I have been told that they would contact me a week before my joining date and let me know about my induction / reporting instructions etc. I have a couple of questions for which your thoughts would be helpful,1. When would a decision be taken on which client I would start working for? 2. Do i get an option of choosing the domain where I would work i.e if I am in Banking/Insurance, would ACN give me a choice to choose within Banking/Insurance clients?Thanks to all.

Congrats on your news - new year, new job always good!. With regards to your questions:1. Dependant on the market at the time, project decision could be taken before you start (if the market is buoyant) or after you start (if market is depressed). If its after then you would typically be on the bench helping on proposals, settling in, expanding network, etc. If the market is as good for ACN as it was when I left 3/4 months ago (v.v. good) then you will probably be assigned immediately after your induction.2. At Consultant level you will have very little choice as to where you are posted. They will always try and place you in a project that builds on your skills, but at the end of the day, its about chargeability so you go where you are told :-)Hope that helps, and good luck.

Talk to your HR rep, career counsellor and any managers you meet about what you want. My career counsellor once told me 'nobody cares about your career except you'. You get out of it what you put in. If nobody knows what you want, you'll end up doing the rubbish that's left over.Good luck!

Congrats on the new job! The decision on which client you should start working for is never final - we sometimes hire to fill a prospective pipeline that never materialises; other times to backfill an expected exodus of people eg. in Cap Markets just after bonus time. So you may find yourself with three projects (and three very pushy SMs / SEs) to choose from, or on the bench.If you haven't been hired to fill an existing niche you may ironically have more choice of roles. If you are an industry hire (as opposed to a generalist PM or IT bod) then I would immediately book 15 minutes with a senior CSG person (it doesn't have to to be the practice head) to understand where the "sexy" projects are - keeping in mind the fact they would like you staffed at any cost, it's still worth having that discussion to understand the priorities.Good luck!

Thanks all for your thoughts. I am basically from the Banking industry but that experience was gained by working for a consulting company. So can I expect myself to be most probably be put in one of the banking clients? OR can it be in any other industry too? Can I request on my 4th day (after the first 3 days of Induction) that I work for 1 of the banking clients preferably?

I suggest that you DO NOT put forth your preferences, it is something that is not taken very well by the bigh honchos there.....times are tough, grin and bear it ....