Can anyone point me to the main differences between accenture and IBM for experienced hire within FS in Accenture and BCS - Financial Services in IBM.Which one would you recommend in long term career benefits.I have FS consulting experience.

I've worked in both and its a no brainer - Accenture FS every day of the week.Reasons1.2. You are there to pump IBM products into your clients even if they are not the best fit3. IBM pay less, A lot less !4. Progression in IBM is achingly slow but you wont get 'councilled out' like you can at ACN.Happy to elaborate for those people that flame for the above.I will point out I was ex-PwC Consulting !

I agree 100% with the opinion above. Accenture is a great company to spend 2-3 years at (training, polish, work ethic) or to make partner at. Downside is when you bust your nuts in the period in between those two points. It will be much more valuable on your CV than IBM if you plan on a career in consultancy.IBM is slooooooooooooooooow.

Is there a "type" of person that fits in best at Accenture?

I am the original anon who posted this query.Thanks for your responses till now...they are in line with what I was thinking.But what would you choose if you have a choice between a senior analyst level in accenture and a consultant position with IBM ? I understand the accenture offers better career prospects but what if position offered is higher that accenture and salary just a little bit higher.

orig anon - I would have thought the answer was obvious, if the IBM consultant offer pays only a "little bit" higher than ACN analyst then the scope for salary growth is much higher at ACN given the next step up (promotion) implies you are performing above expectations and will get a corresponding %increase. Think beyond the next 6-12 months and you'll find the salary gap is insignificant compared to the CV and network opportunities.

Hi original poster,I love giving this particular piece of advice!If you feel that this will be your final promotion before retirement, then take the additional money that is on offer and join IBM. Better jam today than jam tomorrow.If you feel that this is merely one move in a series of career progressions, then...er, you can kind of work it out can't you...?Enjoy AC.

Ditto. IBM is a truly awful place to work. I would not go there again for a substantial increaase. Have not worked for acne but. It must be better.Types of contract are similar and the work is similar and many of the people are similar. But definitely avoid as an employer.

Accenture and IBM both are very similar in terms of culture, projects, work-life balance etc. I have worked at both and the people at IBM are more down to earth and less pompous. Both organisations are huge and it is entirely up to you to drive your own career. The pay is pretty much on par with each other; however at IBM you receive a monthly car allowance and bonus (performance based). At Accenture you only get this at manager grade. Also there is a lot of bad press on here regarding IBM and this is mainly from ex-PWC consultants. Since the acquisition of PWC consulting, the company has changed and IBM is generally a good place to work. You are never going to find a company where you are happy 100% of the time. At the end of the day you have to go with what feels right for you…

I am amazed anyone could describe IBM as "generally a good place to work". I guess there will always be a few people who like it.I suggest you do your due diligence ie. ask to speak to existing employees informally before you accept. Ask them probing questions - specific projects they have worked on; amount of bench time; choice of projects; support given by management; bureaucracy; working environment; hours actually worked; bonuses received.If you get answers you are happy with then be happy.

I've worked at Accenture and as a client had both deliver FS projects for me. IBM struck me as far more laid back, and rather bureaucratic - the 'partner' wasn't really empowered. The team was more diverse in backgrounds and approaches. The Accenture team members were very driven, and were driven harder... They had far more polish and professionalism but not necessarily more content than IBM. I have to add that as a client experience, getting Accenture in to do a small projectis a bit like introducing cockroaches to deal with a food spillage.

If I was you, I would definitelly go with Accenture.I work for IBM and hate it. They work you the deadContantly asking for more and more overtime even ifthe project doesn't have the need for it.Also, they constantly demand mandatory weekend workto achieve management unrealistic quarterly expectationsThey are very unconsiderate with theirConsultants which are their biggest access. They don'tCare if their consultants travel weekly and spend a considerableAmount of time at airports and away from their families. StillThey are force ti work overtime and mandatory weekends. i also agree with some of the postings about management In IBM, it really stinks. There are too many useless layers of managementin IBM, they all want to manage at the same time. Too many managers and not enough people to do real work. That is yhe reason they work their people the dead.Please do yourself a favor an go with Accenture

I thought this was going to be a poem from the styling. Then I read it.

But it is just as beautiful. The passion of the words, the eloquence of the prose...

Yeah, you're right. Accenture is amazing, no long hours, everyone is nice and respects everyone else.

[quote] a bit like introducing cockroaches to deal with a food spillage.[/quote]Epic

Got to remember that one

This is what I have learnt over my past 10 years in consulting.The hours you spend per day on a project are generally dictated by the project management team, health of the project, drive of the leadership team and your ability to speak up. What happens on a project may not necessarily mirror the ethos of the organisation that employs you.Consultants on internal roles almost always do a 9-5! I have had the pleasure of doing 2 internal roles (3-4 months) in IBM and this has always held true.[u][b]GUIDE[/b][/u][u]1st Role[/u]When I was a very junior consultant i.e. on the grad program, the first project I was on (6 months) was as a developer. The latest I ever worked was at 8.00pm - twice! Otherwise it was generally a 9-6 affair.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenProject Management Team Strength (1-10): 8Task Manager Strength (1-10): 10Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: No[u]2nd Role[/u]Then I took a role as a test analysts - hello late nights and weekend work. To be fair - I got paid a lot of overtime so that was fine. I just didn't get time to go spend the money. That lasted about 8 months before I made a switch. We seemed to always be behind on testing and in hindsight we had a sh*ty contract.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: OrangeManagement team Strength (1-10): 6Task Manager Strength: 3Average Working Hours: 12Overtime Pay: Yes[u]3rd Role[/u]Decided to become a technical analyst in the financial services. Off I went to join the start-up of a new project. The key with new clients is we are trying to impress them, and to do that you need to deliver against milestones. Key words are "ontime" and "on budget". If the management team has their act together then you will achieve those goals. I'm not going to discuss realistic scope, project planning etc. but getting these things wrong will impact more junior staff who have no planning responsibilities. Methodology was very good, but plans keep changing and the team was fairly inexperienced.My Rank: ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: OrangeProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 9Task Manager Strength: 7Average Working Hours: 10Overtime Pay: Yes[u]4th Role[/u]Took a short break from Financial services and decided to get more technical experience in a different industry. I joined a slightly troubled project. Management team had just been changed and they had missed a number of key milestones. I joined as a task manager for total 5 resources (3 offshore) and these resources were way behind on testing activities. You guessed it we worked late hours - but my task manager (very snr. technical guy) suggested work late to devise a new process that would speed up testing. So for 2-3 weeks that's what we did. We were now able to test at 5-10 times faster rate. We were 3 months behind at this point. By month 2 we had caught up and we moved to more conventional hours i.e. 9-6. The late hours I asked the team to work were not IBM mandated - they were project mandated. My Rank: Snr. ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 40%Leadership Responsibilities: 5 resourcesProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 3 (old team) 9 (new tam)Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 14 (first 3 months) - 9 (next 6 months)Overtime Pay: Yes[u]5th Role[/u]Back to financial services - with some fairly strong technical skills picked up i.e. thinking outside the box, not continuing with torture when you can see it's hardly making a dent (work late hours with little to show for it). Plus a much needed promotion. This next project was a digital project and now I had a larger team to manage of 12 Business/Technical Analysts. Created plans etc. Also, with the promotion I was now not eligible for overtime pay. I saw this as encouragement to get delivery right - otherwise it's late nights with nothing to gain. So I spent a lot of time on upfront planning. It was important to me that we had no overtime working. This was my decision - Not IBMs. My Rank: Managing ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 70%Leadership Responsibilities: 12 resourcesProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 7Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: NoI have been fortunate enough to be rapidly promoted through the ranks. But I think my results from the past 3-4 years speak loudly enough for themselves that now I am about to be promoted to Snr. Manager. I started as a grad in 2009.Not sure what we consider slow progression but here's me:Grad Consultant: Jan 2009 (£28K)Consultant: June 2010 Snr. Consultant: Sept 2011Managing Consultant: May 2013Snr. Managing Consultant: Pending DecisionAssociate Partner: Target 2017

This is what I have learnt over my past 10 years in consulting.The hours you spend per day on a project are generally dictated by the project management team, health of the project, drive of the leadership team and your ability to speak up. What happens on a project may not necessarily mirror the ethos of the organisation that employs you.Consultants on internal roles almost always do a 9-5! I have had the pleasure of doing 2 internal roles (3-4 months) in IBM and this has always held true.[u][b]GUIDE[/b][/u][u]1st Role[/u]When I was a very junior consultant i.e. on the grad program, the first project I was on (6 months) was as a developer. The latest I ever worked was at 8.00pm - twice! Otherwise it was generally a 9-6 affair.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenProject Management Team Strength (1-10): 8Task Manager Strength (1-10): 10Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: No[u]2nd Role[/u]Then I took a role as a test analysts - hello late nights and weekend work. To be fair - I got paid a lot of overtime so that was fine. I just didn't get time to go spend the money. That lasted about 8 months before I made a switch. We seemed to always be behind on testing and in hindsight we had a sh*ty contract.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: OrangeManagement team Strength (1-10): 6Task Manager Strength: 3Average Working Hours: 12Overtime Pay: Yes[u]3rd Role[/u]Decided to become a technical analyst in the financial services. Off I went to join the start-up of a new project. The key with new clients is we are trying to impress them, and to do that you need to deliver against milestones. Key words are "ontime" and "on budget". If the management team has their act together then you will achieve those goals. I'm not going to discuss realistic scope, project planning etc. but getting these things wrong will impact more junior staff who have no planning responsibilities. Methodology was very good, but plans keep changing and the team was fairly inexperienced.My Rank: ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: OrangeProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 9Task Manager Strength: 7Average Working Hours: 10Overtime Pay: Yes[u]4th Role[/u]Took a short break from Financial services and decided to get more technical experience in a different industry. I joined a slightly troubled project. Management team had just been changed and they had missed a number of key milestones. I joined as a task manager for total 5 resources (3 offshore) and these resources were way behind on testing activities. You guessed it we worked late hours - but my task manager (very snr. technical guy) suggested work late to devise a new process that would speed up testing. So for 2-3 weeks that's what we did. We were now able to test at 5-10 times faster rate. We were 3 months behind at this point. By month 2 we had caught up and we moved to more conventional hours i.e. 9-6. The late hours I asked the team to work were not IBM mandated - they were project mandated. My Rank: Snr. ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 40%Leadership Responsibilities: 5 resourcesProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 3 (old team) 9 (new tam)Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 14 (first 3 months) - 9 (next 6 months)Overtime Pay: Yes[u]5th Role[/u]Back to financial services - with some fairly strong technical skills picked up i.e. thinking outside the box, not continuing with torture when you can see it's hardly making a dent (work late hours with little to show for it). Plus a much needed promotion. This next project was a digital project and now I had a larger team to manage of 12 Business/Technical Analysts. Created plans etc. Also, with the promotion I was now not eligible for overtime pay. I saw this as encouragement to get delivery right - otherwise it's late nights with nothing to gain. So I spent a lot of time on upfront planning. It was important to me that we had no overtime working. This was my decision - Not IBMs. My Rank: Managing ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 70%Leadership Responsibilities: 12 resourcesProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 7Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: NoI have been fortunate enough to be rapidly promoted through the ranks. But I think my results from the past 3-4 years speak loudly enough for themselves that now I am about to be promoted to Snr. Manager. I started as a grad in 2009.Not sure what we consider slow progression but here's me:Grad Consultant: Jan 2009 (£28K)Consultant: June 2010 Snr. Consultant: Sept 2011Managing Consultant: May 2013Snr. Managing Consultant: Pending DecisionAssociate Partner: Target 2017

This is what I have learnt over my past 10 years in consulting.The hours you spend per day on a project are generally dictated by the project management team, health of the project, drive of the leadership team and your ability to speak up. What happens on a project may not necessarily mirror the ethos of the organisation that employs you.Consultants on internal roles almost always do a 9-5! I have had the pleasure of doing 2 internal roles (3-4 months) in IBM and this has always held true.[u][b]GUIDE[/b][/u][u]1st Role[/u]When I was a very junior consultant i.e. on the grad program, the first project I was on (6 months) was as a developer. The latest I ever worked was at 8.00pm - twice! Otherwise it was generally a 9-6 affair.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenProject Management Team Strength (1-10): 8Task Manager Strength (1-10): 10Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: No[u]2nd Role[/u]Then I took a role as a test analysts - hello late nights and weekend work. To be fair - I got paid a lot of overtime so that was fine. I just didn't get time to go spend the money. That lasted about 8 months before I made a switch. We seemed to always be behind on testing and in hindsight we had a sh*ty contract.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: OrangeManagement team Strength (1-10): 6Task Manager Strength: 3Average Working Hours: 12Overtime Pay: Yes[u]3rd Role[/u]Decided to become a technical analyst in the financial services. Off I went to join the start-up of a new project. The key with new clients is we are trying to impress them, and to do that you need to deliver against milestones. Key words are "ontime" and "on budget". If the management team has their act together then you will achieve those goals. I'm not going to discuss realistic scope, project planning etc. but getting these things wrong will impact more junior staff who have no planning responsibilities. Methodology was very good, but plans keep changing and the team was fairly inexperienced.My Rank: ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: OrangeProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 9Task Manager Strength: 7Average Working Hours: 10Overtime Pay: Yes[u]4th Role[/u]Took a short break from Financial services and decided to get more technical experience in a different industry. I joined a slightly troubled project. Management team had just been changed and they had missed a number of key milestones. I joined as a task manager for total 5 resources (3 offshore) and these resources were way behind on testing activities. You guessed it we worked late hours - but my task manager (very snr. technical guy) suggested work late to devise a new process that would speed up testing. So for 2-3 weeks that's what we did. We were now able to test at 5-10 times faster rate. We were 3 months behind at this point. By month 2 we had caught up and we moved to more conventional hours i.e. 9-6. The late hours I asked the team to work were not IBM mandated - they were project mandated. My Rank: Snr. ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 40%Leadership Responsibilities: 5 resourcesProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 3 (old team) 9 (new tam)Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 14 (first 3 months) - 9 (next 6 months)Overtime Pay: Yes[u]5th Role[/u]Back to financial services - with some fairly strong technical skills picked up i.e. thinking outside the box, not continuing with torture when you can see it's hardly making a dent (work late hours with little to show for it). Plus a much needed promotion. This next project was a digital project and now I had a larger team to manage of 12 Business/Technical Analysts. Created plans etc. Also, with the promotion I was now not eligible for overtime pay. I saw this as encouragement to get delivery right - otherwise it's late nights with nothing to gain. So I spent a lot of time on upfront planning. It was important to me that we had no overtime working. This was my decision - Not IBMs. My Rank: Managing ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 70%Leadership Responsibilities: 12 resourcesProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 7Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: NoI have been fortunate enough to be rapidly promoted through the ranks. But I think my results from the past 3-4 years speak loudly enough for themselves that now I am about to be promoted to Snr. Manager. I started as a grad in 2009.Not sure what we consider slow progression but here's me:Grad Consultant: Jan 2009 (£28K)Consultant: June 2010 Snr. Consultant: Sept 2011Managing Consultant: May 2013Snr. Managing Consultant: Pending DecisionAssociate Partner: Target 2017

This is what I have learnt over my past 10 years in consulting.The hours you spend per day on a project are generally dictated by the project management team, health of the project, drive of the leadership team and your ability to speak up. What happens on a project may not necessarily mirror the ethos of the organisation that employs you.Consultants on internal roles almost always do a 9-5! I have had the pleasure of doing 2 internal roles (3-4 months) in IBM and this has always held true.[u][b]GUIDE[/b][/u][u]1st Role[/u]When I was a very junior consultant i.e. on the grad program, the first project I was on (6 months) was as a developer. The latest I ever worked was at 8.00pm - twice! Otherwise it was generally a 9-6 affair.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenProject Management Team Strength (1-10): 8Task Manager Strength (1-10): 10Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: No[u]2nd Role[/u]Then I took a role as a test analysts - hello late nights and weekend work. To be fair - I got paid a lot of overtime so that was fine. I just didn't get time to go spend the money. That lasted about 8 months before I made a switch. We seemed to always be behind on testing and in hindsight we had a sh*ty contract.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: OrangeManagement team Strength (1-10): 6Task Manager Strength: 3Average Working Hours: 12Overtime Pay: Yes[u]3rd Role[/u]Decided to become a technical analyst in the financial services. Off I went to join the start-up of a new project. The key with new clients is we are trying to impress them, and to do that you need to deliver against milestones. Key words are "ontime" and "on budget". If the management team has their act together then you will achieve those goals. I'm not going to discuss realistic scope, project planning etc. but getting these things wrong will impact more junior staff who have no planning responsibilities. Methodology was very good, but plans keep changing and the team was fairly inexperienced.My Rank: ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: OrangeProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 9Task Manager Strength: 7Average Working Hours: 10Overtime Pay: Yes[u]4th Role[/u]Took a short break from Financial services and decided to get more technical experience in a different industry. I joined a slightly troubled project. Management team had just been changed and they had missed a number of key milestones. I joined as a task manager for total 5 resources (3 offshore) and these resources were way behind on testing activities. You guessed it we worked late hours - but my task manager (very snr. technical guy) suggested work late to devise a new process that would speed up testing. So for 2-3 weeks that's what we did. We were now able to test at 5-10 times faster rate. We were 3 months behind at this point. By month 2 we had caught up and we moved to more conventional hours i.e. 9-6. The late hours I asked the team to work were not IBM mandated - they were project mandated. My Rank: Snr. ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 40%Leadership Responsibilities: 5 resourcesProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 3 (old team) 9 (new tam)Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 14 (first 3 months) - 9 (next 6 months)Overtime Pay: Yes[u]5th Role[/u]Back to financial services - with some fairly strong technical skills picked up i.e. thinking outside the box, not continuing with torture when you can see it's hardly making a dent (work late hours with little to show for it). Plus a much needed promotion. This next project was a digital project and now I had a larger team to manage of 12 Business/Technical Analysts. Created plans etc. Also, with the promotion I was now not eligible for overtime pay. I saw this as encouragement to get delivery right - otherwise it's late nights with nothing to gain. So I spent a lot of time on upfront planning. It was important to me that we had no overtime working. This was my decision - Not IBMs. My Rank: Managing ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 70%Leadership Responsibilities: 12 resourcesProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 7Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: NoI have been fortunate enough to be rapidly promoted through the ranks. But I think my results from the past 3-4 years speak loudly enough for themselves that now I am about to be promoted to Snr. Manager. I started as a grad in 2009.Not sure what we consider slow progression but here's me:Grad Consultant: Jan 2009(£28K)Consultant: June 2010 Snr. Consultant: Sept 2011Managing Consultant: May 2013Snr. Managing Consultant: Pending DecisionAssociate Partner: Target 2017

This is what I have learnt over my past 5-6 years in consulting.The hours you spend per day on a project are generally dictated by the project management team, health of the project, drive of the leadership team and your ability to speak up. What happens on a project may not necessarily mirror the ethos of the organisation that employs you.Consultants on internal roles almost always do a 9-5! I have had the pleasure of doing 2 internal roles (3-4 months) in IBM and this has always held true.[u][b]GUIDE[/b][/u][u]1st Role[/u]When I was a very junior consultant i.e. on the grad program, the first project I was on (6 months) was as a developer. The latest I ever worked was at 8.00pm - twice! Otherwise it was generally a 9-6 affair.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenProject Management Team Strength (1-10): 8Task Manager Strength (1-10): 10Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: No[u]2nd Role[/u]Then I took a role as a test analysts - hello late nights and weekend work. To be fair - I got paid a lot of overtime so that was fine. I just didn't get time to go spend the money. That lasted about 8 months before I made a switch. We seemed to always be behind on testing and in hindsight we had a sh*ty contract.My Rank: Grad ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: OrangeManagement team Strength (1-10): 6Task Manager Strength: 3Average Working Hours: 12Overtime Pay: Yes[u]3rd Role[/u]Decided to become a technical analyst in the financial services. Off I went to join the start-up of a new project. The key with new clients is we are trying to impress them, and to do that you need to deliver against milestones. Key words are "ontime" and "on budget". If the management team has their act together then you will achieve those goals. I'm not going to discuss realistic scope, project planning etc. but getting these things wrong will impact more junior staff who have no planning responsibilities. Methodology was very good, but plans keep changing and the team was fairly inexperienced.My Rank: ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 0%Leadership Responsibilities: NoneProject Delivery Health: OrangeProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 9Task Manager Strength: 7Average Working Hours: 10Overtime Pay: Yes[u]4th Role[/u]Took a short break from Financial services and decided to get more technical experience in a different industry. I joined a slightly troubled project. Management team had just been changed and they had missed a number of key milestones. I joined as a task manager for total 5 resources (3 offshore) and these resources were way behind on testing activities. You guessed it we worked late hours - but my task manager (very snr. technical guy) suggested work late to devise a new process that would speed up testing. So for 2-3 weeks that's what we did. We were now able to test at 5-10 times faster rate. We were 3 months behind at this point. By month 2 we had caught up and we moved to more conventional hours i.e. 9-6. The late hours I asked the team to work were not IBM mandated - they were project mandated. My Rank: Snr. ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 40%Leadership Responsibilities: 5 resourcesProject Delivery Health: RedProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 3 (old team) 9 (new tam)Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 14 (first 3 months) - 9 (next 6 months)Overtime Pay: Yes[u]5th Role[/u]Back to financial services - with some fairly strong technical skills picked up i.e. thinking outside the box, not continuing with torture when you can see it's hardly making a dent (work late hours with little to show for it). Plus a much needed promotion. This next project was a digital project and now I had a larger team to manage of 12 Business/Technical Analysts. Created plans etc. Also, with the promotion I was now not eligible for overtime pay. I saw this as encouragement to get delivery right - otherwise it's late nights with nothing to gain. So I spent a lot of time on upfront planning. It was important to me that we had no overtime working. This was my decision - Not IBMs. My Rank: Managing ConsultantLevel of Management Influence: 70%Leadership Responsibilities: 12 resourcesProject Delivery Health: GreenProject Financial Health: GreenManagement team Strength (1-10): 7Task Manager Strength: 8Average Working Hours: 9Overtime Pay: NoNot sure what we consider slow progression but here's me:Grad Consultant: Jan 2009 (£28K)Consultant: June 2010 (£38K) Snr. Consultant: Sept 2011 (£52K - big jump, retention offer!) Managing Consultant: May 2013 (£67K + 5K car = 72K)Snr. Managing Consultant: Pending Decision (~£80K + 5K car = 85K)Associate Partner: Target 2017 (~£120K + 30-40% bonus)I felt I was making these moves at the right time - maybe I'll bitch if I don't get the Snr. Manager role but that's human right?!I've had a 1 rating (v. high) a few 2+ ratings (high) and a 2 (average). No 3s (low) and no 4s (no pulse)

This post needs an executive summary. Not sure you're ready to be SM just yet.

Ditto. Where's the one slider please.

All these big salaries make me think I need to review my own team's day rates.

[quote]This post needs an executive summary. Not sure you're ready to be SM just yet.[/quote]This is pitched just right for the audience that's coming out of uni or at lower bands. Remember, most people think we just track spreadsheets.Sorry for the multiple posts, phone kept auto submitting.

[quote]Ditto. Where's the one slider please. [/quote]I've given you all the info you need to create that 1 slider.

[quote]All these big salaries make me think I need to review my own team's day rates. [/quote]I think it's IBM playing salary catchup. 2 years ago an HR person suggested IBM would move salary to match Accenture. IBM had a similar program in India to match Accenture salary, from what I hear they are pretty much on parity.You now find that each promotion gets you 15-25% salary increase in the UK, based on your moderation results. There's now also 2 yearly salary increases - performance based and market adjustment based. Last year quite a few people had 6-8% salary increases and that's fairly good in the IBM world.I will however point out that certain service lines get a better deal. This could be based on profitability I suspect. Thus the better salary increases and quick promotions.

could you tell me all about your time as a grad consultant at IBM. I will be joining IBM soon as a grad consultant and it hasn't been made clear all the things that I will be doing/involved inthanksss

[quote]could you tell me all about your time as a grad consultant at IBM. I will be joining IBM soon as a grad consultant and it hasn't been made clear all the things that I will be doing/involved inthanksss[/quote]I was a grad many many years ago.A recent change in IBM is you're expected to learn quickly and progress quickly as a grad. Pay is now more or less on par with Accenture.Promoted grads get pay increase on par (if not better) with Accenture. I believe starting salary published on the IBM site for a grad is between £32-35K. Expect your first promotion within 12 months - a 15-25% increase is not unheard of. I think it's now pretty hard to lure IBM grads away for the first 4-5 years in IBM because of very competitive pay. Within 2-3 years quite a few are on 45K.On to the what will you be doing: Depends on which part of the business you end up in. But you'll end up on a project and someone more senior will hand hold you for a few weeks while you learn your role. This could be as a jnr. BA, jnr Technical Analyst, Test Analyst, jnr. project manager etc. In all cases, you will be placed with a client and be part of a team providing consulting services. You're not expected to know anything (and you won't), so just show up and have the right attitude to learn - go further than your collegues - and always ask how you can improve.

thanks for the advice!!So how does one ensure they get a good pay rise? o.O

A good solid consistent performance performance helps. Make a name for yourself with the right people. Network. Be know for something.