Accenture Reviews

Pros

Opportunity to do challenging work for clients, some of which are big names in the industry. Lots of opportunities for employee training.

Cons

Not a good place for career advancement opportunities. Lack of transparency in performance appraisals and a namesake HR. Difficult to switch from one division to the other.

Advice to Senior Management

Need increased visibility on how supervisors handle employees. Some of the senior employees do not update their skills and become stagnant in one particular project.

Pros

5 weeks of PTO. 5 weeks of PTO. 1 floating holiday. I've personally never been harassed sexually by a non-foreign employee, which I suppose is a pro. Genearlly an alcoholic-friendly work environment.

Cons

The quality of employee is pretty low and seems to be getting worse, but if you like feeling smart and like you may not be THAT much of a slacker, could be a pro. The politics are terrible. You wont get promoted unless you suck up, are a great pretender, and stay in.the same sh*t role for over a year. Career counselors don't give a crap about you, and good luck meeting them in person (they'd rather use their CC budget on themselves). They keep cutting HR to the point now where you likely never meet your dedicated HR rep (250+ resources per rep, whose only concern is getting you on ANY sh*t project, regardless of your career, because its their only KPI).

Advice to Senior Management

Attend events. Stop telling employees to ghost hours. Don't walk away briskly when approached. Be honest with counselees. Roll-on lunches should be a must.

Pros

Supportive work network always willing to help, plenty of opportunities to grow your skills and do things usually given to very senior people giving you experience that you would normally not get for years

Cons

biased performance system sometimes leading to who you know instead of how well you do, long work hours and sometimes little recognition for your hard work

Advice to Senior Management

Set expectations with employees more frequently, also if you want to be a top consulting firm then employees should be compensated at the top not at the 50 percentile

Pros

Compensation is good but not comparable to work/life balance and overall job satisfaction.

Cons

If you are an engineering student and thinking about working for Accenture DO NOT. You will not be satisfied. Every single former engineer I have spoken to regret the decision to work here, it is not technical, it is not challenging, it is staring at spreadsheets all day and doing work with little or no understanding of where/why its occurring. I do not understand why the recruiters have decided to zero in on the engineering students when so few of them stay for longer than 1-2 years to move onto more exciting and fulfilling opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

Give the lower level employees meaningful work to do or you will lose them to more exciting opportunities. Be transparent with decisions and try your best to actually get to know the lower level employees.

Pros

Good starting salary. Young energetic workers. Good place to get your feet wet. Some large clients to work for Makes it a good opportunity.

Cons

Bonuses are not in line with the industry. Long hours. Overworked. Little to no control over which clients you get to work on early in your career.

Advice to Senior Management

Start rewarding employees who are lower in the power structure. All rewards go to management, which leaves employees who aren't in management no options for advancement if you're not in a promotion year.

Pros

Deep diversity of opportunity, cultural experience, and delivering on a global scale

Cons

Very long hours with relentless challenges driven by one of the most competitive industries in the world. Accenture continues to go head to head with the world's top consulting and services provides- (IBM, TCS, Infosys) which can take its toll at the individual level.

Pros

1) Work with very competent and smart people who are not in management position.
2) Exposure to the internal processes of very large financial firms.
3) Good knowledge-base which require some organization.

Cons

1) The most INCOMPETENT Managers I have ever experienced in a firm. I see a pattern of very good people leaving because they cannot stand working with not-so-sharp managers. These incompetent managers survive by picking good people to do their work.
2) Subordinates do not have the channel to provide anonymous feedback about their managers.
3) Heavy politicking which is understandable since it’s a huge firm.
4) Compensation and benefits are low.

Advice to Senior Management

1) Put in place a solid process that allows subordinates to provide an anonymous feedback about their managers and use this feedback for their performance review.
2) Pay more since traveling takes up time that’s not considered “work time”.

Pros

Work life balance,oppurtunities,Can learn lot of new things

Cons

Pay scale is very less

Pros

Accenture's knowledge base is second to none. Additionally -in my experience- even the most senior of SE's respond to queries within 24 hours - even if it is to defer the answer to a later date, which by the way is committed to.

The majority of staff are there for a reason: they are articulate, know their stuff, and senior people bring relevant experience to the table. And with the right crowd, there is ample opportunity to adopt a similar "quiet confidence".

Lastly, Accenture is a listed company that is accountable to shareholders instead of partnerships. Individual partners have a higher tendency to protect their own turf which typically impairs collaboration across practices and regions. This significantly reduces frustration when doing business development work.

Cons

Accenture has the best people, probably because it pushes them hard and has high standards. And more than elsewhere, it is either up or out. Limited support if you slip, and even the most respected seniors will turn their back to you.

The hard fact is that Accenture is -at the end of the day- a consulting company trying to bite off a pie that has been getting smaller and smaller. It cannot afford to allow slack.

I would advise anyone to give themselves a good hard bought before considering Accenture: a wrong decision could leave you blistered for life.

Advice to Senior Management

Despite the need to preserve high standards, please do acknowledge the effect that clients and -indeed- behavior within the firm has on your assets ie professional staff. If not, you continue losing valuable assets to industry - which ultimately reduces your value proposition.

In the words of a client: why would I need a consultant when I've already hired some - and support them better than you do?

Pros

- skilled people
- global network, which works
- flexible work arrangements, when supported by senior management
- some interesting projects and roles

Cons

- very pyramid oriented
- low respect to less senior colleagues
- senior management living among themselves, disconnected
- poor career counseling, poor support in following a career path, poor staffing to fitting projects

Advice to Senior Management

- to find a better way to use their resources
- to bring in more innovation into their solutions for clients