Accenture Reviews in Reston, VA

Pros

The people are amazing and there are loads of opportunities to get involved from a community and project perspective. Senior leadership is competent and really cares about the people.

Cons

It's big and you can get lost in the shuffle if you don't a)perform like a super star or b) make yourself known to the powers that be.
The company is not very nimble given its size and so downturns in the economy are met with layoffs as opposed to more creative solutions.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue looking out for your people and treating them well and you will get high-performance.

Pros

Great place to start your career.

Cons

Lack of a work life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your team more of a work life balance.

Pros

-- Systematic promotion process
-- Hard work and results are acknowledged and rewarded
-- Great internal technical resources available
-- Accenture spends a lot on training and education per capita

Cons

-- Hard for experienced hires to get into the old boys club
-- Staffing on projects is chaotic and based on networking only
-- Outside experience is not valued as much as Accenture experience even if outside experience is solid
-- Systematic process means many people who started their career with Accenture become Managers is 4-5 years and Senior Managers in 5-7 years and their lack of expeirence shows and bewilders the clients

Advice to Senior Management

Standardized staffing process (e.g. every role should be filled via myScheduling database) so the right people are staffed; less focus on just staffing via networking

Pros

The people. Resources. Career Opportunities.

Cons

1.) Promotion\performance evaluation process is subjective. Procedures are in place for an objective review, but the outcome of your rating is also tied to your relationship with your reviewer and others that can influence your ranking against your peers. 2.) The company needs to compensate their employees better. The pay is competitive, but by no means is Accenture attempting outpace their competitiors when it comes to rewarding\compensating their employees. 3.) No tuition reimbursement or advancement offering.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember the times they were "lower" level employees in their career. Keep in mind how they felt and what they wanted from an organization. In turn, think about how to incorporate those desirable thoughts and feelings into fabric of the organization to make it better for all. Stay in tune with career advancement, compensation, opportunities, and the work environment.

Pros

The people. There are a lot of young and intelligent people that work for Accenture. There is also a fair amount of company sponsored happy hours, which is a great way to get to know your colleagues better. I have definately met friends that I will be in contact with even after I leave the company.

Cons

The way ratings and promotions are handled. In the two years I was at Accenture they never explained why I received a particular ranking (and my final ranking was always lower than my project ranking on a diamond client). The HR staff is also entirely useless.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to actually help develop analysts and consultants.

Pros

The people are all great; it really made coming to work a pleasure. Despite being a huge company, it doesn't feel like one, as the management goes to great lengths to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable. The work was never particularly strenuous and never did I have to stay too late in the office. They are also really good at fostering team work and rewarding excellence. Sending all new hires out to St. Charles for training is a great way at having everyone in the global community start fresh from the same page, and sending you out there after every promotion is great at keeping those who have been with the firm longer in tune with what is going on.

Cons

The work was not very thrilling at a low level, which is to be expected anywhere, to some extent, but I never felt like I would have an impact on the project. Never was I given huge amounts of responsibility and rarely were others at a lower level. They say that if you ask for more difficult assignments, you will get them, but sometimes it shouldn't be up to the employee to keep going back to their manager and ask for something else. I felt forced into my work group when I joined because of my background and not because of what I was interested in, so while I wasn't necessarily doing things I didn't want to be doing on the project to which I was assigned, there was always the possibility for it because of what I studied in school and not where my passion lied.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management did a decent job at keeping lower level employees in the loop on big internal corporate affairs, but I never felt that I knew what was going on higher up on my own project. They were very insular about the workings of the project and I didn't feel like there was much transparency. I found this troubling because it is difficult to align and motivate people if they don't know where the project is going.

Pros

The people are fun and helpful. Everyone is very young, which is nice. The culture is open loose, you will often hear people laughing and joking around in the office.

They promote an atmosphere of learning. Everyone is very helpful. Everyone at every level welcomes people to come to them for help or anything. Even the senior executives welcome anyone and everyone to come talk to them.

Generally, you will have the freedom to complete your job the way you want it, but you can get help when you need it.

Cons

Expected to work long hours. They don't pay for educational expenses.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to build stronger relationships with clients instead of constantly pushing to maintain margins.

Pros

Accenture apparently has a great reputation for hiring the best people. I'm not sure how this is perceived throughout varying industries. However, the Accenture name is well-known, possibly due to one of their major endorsements.

Cons

The biggest downside to working at Accenture was the lack of training for inexperienced managers and leaders. There was little focus in this area and as a result, a lot of people get really unfair treatment.

Advice to Senior Management

I would really encourage management to focus on training and development of talent. Although there are a lot of smart people within the organization, people skills seem to be lacking, throughout.

Pros

It looks good on your resume for future jobs and there are some pretty decent discounts on consumer products available

Cons

No work life balance and super low pay for anything entry level

Advice to Senior Management

Try and make employees experience more enjoyable so they won't want to leave

Pros

If you love a particular technology, then you are the only limit to how successful you want to be. ACN is a huge firm that affords a tremendous amount of opportunity to individuals. I was allowed to travel quite a bit during my analyst years (even overseas), which was an incredible experience. You would be hard pressed to find other firms that allow you such latitude in work location and job function. Management always tended to be supportive of what you wanted to do, especially if it fit in with serving the client. Additionally, if you were on a services-focused account, your work schedule could be pretty flexible.

Cons

Rigid processes, but that is what makes the company so good for clients, and for investors. Also, you tend to get pigeon-holed into a technology, or process pretty quickly. If you don't watch out, you could be three years down the road with the firm and working on a technology that is going to be obsolete in a couple of more years. Although the firm provides a lot of opportunity, you need to be actively managing your own career. The company tends to make training widely available; however, you'll need to be savvy enough to convince your HR rep that you merit the firm spending that money on you.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work.