Accenture Reviews in Atlanta, GA Area

Pros

Good training
Good Networking
Good Mentoring System
Good Social responsibility

Cons

None the company is doing quite nicely

Advice to Senior Management

Accenuture Management should promote the firm more on the Netwrok Media

Pros

Exposure to new/emerging methodologies, technology and ideas regularly
Generally, great people in the trenches
great branding and name recognition
Any similar job will be a breeze after working for this company (Trial by fire?)

Cons

- No respect/career path for experienced hires, but your abilities will be used to the greatest extent with no recognition; Why the double standard? You don't survive for long if you are not good;
- No reward system worth speaking of.
- Negative feedback only. If you accomplish 99 of a hundred tasks (an oppressive number) as required, you will only get feedback on that one outstanding task unless you know the right people;
- Extremely political, promotions based on who you know and a 'what have you done for me lately' mentality, which explains why more than a few of the managers are incompetent;
- work.life balance is a core value on paper only;
- laddering process used to determine salary increases and promotions work against the employee who changes career path since no matter how well you perform in your new role, the general consensus is that you can not be ranked higher than a barely functioning employee who has been in the role longer; Note that there is no transition period - you are just as likely to be given the same type opf assignment as that experienced employee with little support from mgt.
- tendency to 'shoot self in the foot' by loading projects with new hires resulting in higher profit margin but struggling project, which in turn will (unfairly) affect the next performance evaluation of all involved.
- Unable to determine role of HR. I think their job description requires that they back up the SMs and SEs so don't waste your time;
- Burn-out pending

Advice to Senior Management

- Determine if your current model is really working. How successful can you really be with the turnover/employee morale you have?
- Take a hard look at the corporate culture. It is disheartening to say the least.
- Rethink how you're handling your experienced hires. Who is really pulling these projects off (or not) in the end? Leverage their experience.
- develop an objective performance model. Overall, modelling is one of the things the company does best.
-Stop taking yourself so seriously!

Pros

People that work at Accenture are highly professional and knowledgeable, especially at higher levels. The performance feedback process is very well defined and can be very helpful in career development. Promotion/salary increase process is also very well defined and fair.

Cons

Some of the downsides are the uncertainty in project locations and traveling. Also the firm has grown very large especially over the last few years and its starting to get to a point where you feel more of a number rather than the person connection that I once felt I had within the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

I would ask for the management to continue to keep the lines of communications open through out the firm and look to involve the lower level resources into understanding where the firm's growth should be focused.

Pros

- Work / Life balance
- Benefits
- Great People

Cons

- Difficulties in changing career paths

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

- Ability to interact with senior client management at more junior levels
- Work with great people
- Opportunity to expand skills with challenging roles outside of your area of direct expertise

Cons

- Work/Life Balance
- Ability to control projects. Project management holds on to good resources even if it is not in the best interest of your career to stay with a given client.
- Compensation. The gap between at the very top (top 5%) and consistent with (middle 40%) is rarely more than a few ~5% points in yearly compensation.
- Paltry bonuses at more junior levels (analyst/consultant)

Advice to Senior Management

Compensation. The gap between at the very top (top 5%) and consistent with (middle 40%) is rarely more than a few ~5% points in yearly compensation. This is not a good motivational tool. Also the bonuses at the analyst and consultant levels are a pittance (4% or less).

Accenture still operates under the partner model. Pay/compensation has always been lower until you make partner where it would finally be "worth it". Now that you are no longer a real partner but instead a senior executive, which is not as lucrative, the entire process needs to be revised. Senior executives also need to be correctly aligned to delivery/sales.

Further, there needs to be more work integrating the various workstreams in Accenture. F&PM does not work well with SAP-Financials etc.

Pros

Good company in terms of knowledge base.

Cons

too many long hours. Always projects are behind schedule. Finding resources for projects always a challenge.

Advice to Senior Management

all projects are always set up as a stretch ti begin with and hence long work hours on every project

Pros

A great place to take on challenging and interesting work assignments. If you are looking to do the same thing day in and day out then this may not be the right place for you.

Cons

Travel and uncertainty about work assignments and schedules.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to have the courage to change.

Pros

You will get reviewed for promotion on a regular schedule
You will have a wide range of opportunities
You can get exposed to a lot of different industries

Cons

Long hours.
Travel does get old very quickly
The politics can be challenging to navigate, especially for experienced hires

Advice to Senior Management

Keep trying to improve the experienced hire integration program, especially considering the more agressive hiring of experienced hires within the last few years.

Pros

If you feel stuck in your current job and need a push, Accenture is the best place to push you out of your comfort zone. I started as an entry level analyst with previous work experience. I soon found that my previous work experience didn't really count for much at Accenture. Expectations are high, but rewards are high as well. Make no mistakes, it's a tough place to work because of all the things you've read about IT consulting companies. It's pretty much true, but Accenture does have an amazing corporate culture and every day I'm happy to not be working directly for the client. Great people too.

Cons

The travel sucks (at least for me), but by far the worst is the work/life balance issues. On my project, it's nearly impossible to control the work/life balance. Client has my cell phone number and feels free to call whenever. The intensity level never seems to end, so having good professional endurance is something to develop quickly. It's tough to be the "outside contractor" as well because the client often holds us to a different set a rules than employee resources, or even other consulting companies we've had to work with on the same project. That double standard wears thin. Also frustrating is upper management who has no technical experience and thus can't understand technical concerns. PMs seem to get promoted heavily and getting into upper levels is good for somethings (like client interaction and statusing), but bad for others (helping protect the technical team when something goes wrong).

Advice to Senior Management

Project Management needs a better blend of technical understanding and management experience. Too many functional or PM managers without a firm understanding on technical underpinnings of the systems they're selling.

Pros

Its a great opportunity to get exposed to the consulting business. Managers and analysts are very helpful. Great work experience.

Cons

I haven't been exposed to traveling as an intern, but I would imagine that is one of the main disadvantages of working for a consulting company.

Advice to Senior Management

I've heard negative things about intern retention. Hopefully, management can work on a better transition from internships to full-time employment.