Accenture Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

* For the most part, a very collaborative and helpful environment
* Not a lot of backstabbing
* Good benefits
* Decent pay - We'd all love more wouldn't we? But they are above average I think.

Cons

* I found myself on many roles where I didn't really know what my role was
* You could blame the above con on my part, but I attribute it to the corporate culture
* Typical right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing

Advice to Senior Management

I feel that the leadership is, for the most part, pretty decent. But the employees are sometimes overwhelmed with multiple priorities which results in people coming off as - well, as kind of uninterested, confused, or unintelligent.

Pros

Generically, the people (especially below the Partner/Sr. Exec level) are pretty good people. Beyond that, it depends what you're interested in:

Operations Consulting:
If you want to do Sourcing/Procurement work, there's a lot of work available. If you know how to do it or are willing to learn, you will always have work to do. If you'd rather do other kinds of work, it's a mixed bag (see Cons).

Strategy Consulting:
There is hardly any strategy work done at Accenture. Only join Accenture to do strategy if it's a 1 or 2 year pitstop that you need to make to get consulting credentials on your way to a job will a real strategy firm.

Systems Integration Consulting:
Don't kid yourself. If you are joining Accenture, you will most likely be working on Systems Integration projects (unless you're doing sourcing). You will probably start each project by doing the process work, which happens early in projects. However, in all likelihood, especially if you are more junior (<Manager), you will be asked to stay on the project through the SI work (build, test, deploy). If you're fine with that, then you'll do great at Accenture. If not, you'll be looking for a new job soon enough.

Overall, just know what you're getting yourself into. If you are fine doing SI or Sourcing work, great. If not, look elsewhere unless you need an entry on your resume (you'll undoubtedly need to stretch the truth a little to make it look like you did a lot more MC work than you did).

Cons

Work Available:
See above for the type of work you'll most likely do. That being said, Accenture has absolutely no qualms sticking you in a role you don't want to do. They say you have the right to refuse the first role they assign you when you're between projects, but that is usually not true. If you fit a project's needs (which often enough means that you are assigned to the right practice in Accenture and have a pulse), you will be rolled onto the project regardless of what you want. There are two important things to note:
- You will almost certainly be given the "In your career at Accenture, and in any company, you will occasionally be given roles that you don't want to take. You have to suck it up and do the work, and we'll take care of you in the end." speech. I've heard it a dozen times. FML.
- You can refuse a role and succeed in one of two ways: A) you have another role already lined up and they'll take you on the same timeline and/or B) Your Career Counselor is on your side and willing to go to bat for you.
Important Note: Once you are on a client, they own you. You will not be able to roll off unless they agree to it. There is only one way to get off a client if they won't let you: quit. I know 7 people who have done this in the last few years.
Important Note 2: Once you develop a skill, don't expect to be doing anything else for the rest of your time at Accenture. The emphasis is on deepening skills, not acquiring a broad spectrum of skills. That translates into doing the same project over and over at different clients while moving up the hierarchy of roles.

Review Process:
Yearly review process. You get slotted by your project, then slotted at the client level, and finally slotted at the practice level. If you haven't been on a single project for the entire year, you are at a HUGE disadvantage, and will likely be slotted at the lowest level of all your project ratings. This is almost a guarantee, regardless of who your CC is. Your Career Counselor (CC) becomes hugely important at the last level. If you do not have a CC who has the personality (slash endurance) to fight for you to the very end, you will consistently see yourself dropped down levels.
If your CC is bad, get rid of him/her. You will have no career at Accenture if that's the case. Be aggressive in managing your CC, they control your promotion (and thus your bank account)

Promotions:
Ugh. Accenture works like a huge corporation. There is no fast track. There is no incentive to be excellent, only good enough to be promoted. Your first year at any level is totally useless from a promotion standpoint, so no need to work hard. Don't worry, everybody knows it except for the first year analysts, so you won't be picked out for being a slacker. At the lower levels, name recognition gets your promoted over work performed. At the higher levels, politics (and sales numbers) over work performed.

Salary:
It's on the low side of the spectrum. Accenture has a tendency to give you a fairly high starting salary (in line or slightly above market rate), but then gives you close to nothing when it comes to raises and bonuses. Yearly raises of 2-5%. The annual bonus varies by level - Analyst 3-6%, Consultant 3-7%, Manager 10-12%, Sr. Manager 25-40%, Partner/SE up to 100%. At promotion, your salary usually goes up 10-15%.

Advice to Senior Management

This is a funny question. They won't care anyway.

Several things to improve:
- Accenture mostly does Systems Integration work. Honestly tell prospective employees that the MC side usually works mostly on SI projects. There is close to no strategy work - be honest about that.
- Allow employees to refuse projects within reason. Allow employees to leave projects within reason. Extensions of roll-off dates should be discussed with employees, not just assumed.
- Pay up. Bonuses of <15% until you hit Sr Manager is unacceptable.

Pros

People are nice, Benefits are good.

Cons

Internal Financial Operations are layered and disperse which makes reporting cumbersome

Advice to Senior Management

Constant realigment of organization causes problems

Pros

On the cutting edge of Marketing. Less travel than regular Accenture.

Cons

Poor pay. Leadership isn't that great. Basically ignored by larger Accenture family. Little room for growth upward. No room to grow laterally. Poor training. People are leaving left and right....

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at the cons, and make a change.

Pros

Lots of varied roles across multiple clients. Allows people to develop broad range of skills and expertise. Career path leads to constant drive to continue to better yourself.

Cons

Expected to travel to out of town assignments on a full time basis regardless of personal preference. This can get extremely tiring after a short period of time.

Advice to Senior Management

Be flexible and allow individuals to take in town assignments over out of town assignments after they have spent time traveling.

Pros

excellent network, good internal knowledge base.

Cons

Endless reorgs, inward looking management, lack of focus, no talent management for top performers.

Advice to Senior Management

latest reorg has failed.

Pros

Great PTO - 5 weeks for new hires is amazing
Flexible with remote working (depends on project)
Travel is fully paid for, you keep all frequent flier miles and points, plus per diems as a bonus!
Each project and division is different, with an overarching methodology. Hopefully you can find your place and enjoy.

Cons

Projects can have periods of long hours, overtime and weekends that are uncompensated
Travel can be anywhere from 0%-100% (could be a pro or con)
Promotions come rarely and feedback is only in a yearly cycle
Clients can be great or annoying

Advice to Senior Management

Give positive feedback as much or more than negative feedback
Plan projects more realistically to even out the hours - if possible

Pros

- global company, market leader
- opportunity to grow if focused and skills
- below SE levels, real attempts at meritocracy given the context
- grows professional relationship skills across major companies
- large scale enterprise project exposure
- has weathered the storm of consolidation, will continue to be a global leader
- people

Cons

- growth and size has ensured the "old" consulting culture is no longer there
- latest re-org has resulted in loss of talent and high degree of institutional knowledge en-masse
- junior folks are expected to be able to navigate their own career direction, yet are often pulled into roles that are not matching these goals that can implicate longer term roles, so mixed messages
- no more "carrot" for making SE/Partner, overall focus is still heavy large SI
- increasing focus on specialization creates barriers/blinders

Advice to Senior Management

Re-assess the latest re-org, MC is doing the same thing as Strategy group did in 1998-2000. Regain the former/lost market presence of the brand. Client perception and sophistication is changing, need to become relevant again and outward focused.

Pros

Good place to work, flexible work timing and nice people around.
Salary is competitive, growth is transparent.
Good supporting teams

Cons

Nothing bad so far to say

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Great people, great work, fun work. Cool perks, and good working environment. Good communication and lots and lots of travelling

Cons

long hours, monday to friday we are spent on the road, sometimes we have grouch clients. The work can be boring at times

Advice to Senior Management

Work with junior team to understand issues
Encourage team to operate as a team and not as individuals
Pay your staff more money