Accenture Reviews in Paris, France Area

Pros

After my graduation from a French business school I joined Accenture’s management consulting practice. I mostly work on functional, organizational and change aspects on CRM and HR implementation projects in Paris, London and Brussels.
Great place to learn a methodology

Cons

It was great but it wasn’t management consulting so I decided to change to something different.
Doing an IT implementation is great but I have the feeling that once you have the methodology…

Advice to Senior Management

More honesty about the fact that Accenture is an IT company and not a management consulting firm
Realistic work / life balance

Pros

Good brand name well known for employee addiction to work

Cons

Very bad balance between private life and workload

Advice to Senior Management

SE have lost contact with project reality. They are more sales persons than real managers.

Pros

Good school, and good brand name for the future. People under the level of Senior Executive can be really great. Some seniors executive are bright people you wanna work for.

Cons

The company cares more about selling jobs than about high standard of quality.

Advice to Senior Management

Start hiring smart people

Pros

Here's my personal review for Accenture in Paris. After careful thought I realized that you can replace Accenture with Big 4 audit names or other consulting firms...

- "Reputable" brandname which looks good on CV
- Large international network: many offices around the world (see below in Cons)
- Vast ressources for training (see below in Cons)
- Pretty good benefits ex-pay

Cons

- You are assigned on projects on a needs-basis not personal competence/preference! Bear in mind that switching from one project to another is very rare. Once staffed, the die is cast, so to speak. Many colleagues have been on the same project for several years... Colleagues who have transferred often quit and re-applied.

- Although some projects are less tense, the work atmosphere is generally very poor and EXTREMELY silent all day: don't expect jokes, coffee breaks or even a "bless you" after sneezing. We don't even say hi to other co-workers passing by, unless it's a Senior Manager/Executive. Lunch time is usually after 1pm since speaking up before would show insufficient self-control. Personally I am not a smoker, but heavy smokers beware! Get nicotine patches ready or quit smoking: You will NOT be able to move in/out freely !

- Working hours depend on clients but usually you can expect: 8:30am to MINIMUM 8pm. Leaving before even if all has been completed is frowned on. Expect angry e-mails from management if you leave too early on a regular basis. On many projects, "high performance" is a synonym for "long physical presence".

- Training is lip service, a sort of shopping window whose goods are VERY difficult to obtain. The Accenture carrot if you will. In the end, the project has the upper hand on everything. Many of my colleagues waited a year or two before doing their "Core Analyst" training !

Advice to Senior Management

During your recruitement campaigns, you should ask 2 questions:

- Are you ready to be 1000% available for the project, including personal time?
- Can you stay 12+ hours a day with your butt on a chair and stare at Excel sheets or Ppt slides from Monday to Friday?

Another interesting question to ask would be: Are you ready to go prison and be paid for staying in a cell Monday to Friday?

Think hard before joining...

Pros

Great training and working with some very bright co-workers. Opportunity to learn a wide variety of technologies very quickly. Solid name on the resume. Work with large and well-known clients.

Cons

Lot of hours required to maintain competitiveness with peers.
Work/Life balance is less important than they try to tell.
Some senior management people aren't as good as they think...

Advice to Senior Management

Remember when you were not slave to Wall Street and not focused only on hitting the quarterly numbers...
HR is too bureaucratic and not very helpful in staffing.

Pros

- Highly structured environment
- Lots of very interesting people, at least within the Management Consulting workforce
- Opportunities to work internationally (although quite limited for the management consuting workforce)

Cons

- Too big and publicly listed, very little sense of belonging to the the firm as a whole
- Many underqualified people in the IT consulting section - the firm had to grow fast, and has significantly lowered its standards for recruiting Analysts
- No control whatsoever on your industry, and the assignment to Financial Services, Energy etc. is quasi impossible to change.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember the Andersen days and try to replicate. Most of the best people within the firm have left because they do not want to be working for an IBM or TATA replica.

Pros

smart colleagues, gain experience quickly

Cons

need to pick your projects carefully: not all of them are interesting...

Advice to Senior Management

na

Pros

World's best company for learning, making mistakes, adhering to true professional values, not wind. True at all levels of company. Make sure you understand the rules but if you ask and you're smart, you'll succeed.

Cons

No salary hikes this year! Yikes! Still a few bunkerized zilch value adding old farts still around - usually takes 2 years to get rid of them but they cling on to their seats for sure

Advice to Senior Management

Don't forget to treat employee salary as best as shareholder return -

Pros

Team spirit and competencies of coworkers
Diversity of work assignments
Tota Salary package
Possibility for advancement
Highly qualified management
Recurrent training in Chicago

Cons

Heavy work load
Competition during promotion years

Advice to Senior Management

Make a more distinct separation between Management Consulting and other activities

Pros

- Straight forward career plan with specific time limits.
- Diversity in the area where the company provides solutions, letting you see all and take the decision on where to specialize.
- Colleagues within your same rank and capability.
- Those small benefits such as concert tickets, museum tickets, discounts at cinemas, etc.
- Ease of working in other cities or countries than your own.
- Great professional development courses and training (online and in classrooms).

Cons

- Those extra hours of work that are some times needed
- Excessive time in availability status waiting for a project to work on

Advice to Senior Management

Better planning of resource and talent recruiting to meet the needs of current projects instead of having analysts and consultants on the bench waiting for something to come up.