Accenture Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

- Collegial atmosphere
- Fun, smart, hardworking colleagues
- Interesting variety of project opportunities
- Opportunities to travel and the perks that come with travel
- Exposure to different industries
- A lot of ownership even as an analyst
- Fair performance review system - career counseling great
- Approacheable and supportive senior mangement

Left ACN having made long-lasting friendships and professional relationships. I moved on to one of the top 5 business schools and now to Wall St. and I miss the collegial atmosphere I had experienced before.

Cons

- Company pigeon-holes - early on and it is very hard to pursue opportunities in different functional groups
- Compensation was below industry
- Experience at ACN is really hit or miss. It depends a lot on what you get started on when you join the company. I have been lucky to work with a great client, supportive senior management and a great career counseler who looked out for me, but I've seen a number of others being stuck in a role that did not advance their learnings for a long time.

Advice to Senior Management

Company needs to work on talent retention - it's not just about the pay but about giving people opportunities to move around and try new things. ACN needs to believe that people are mostly smart and will pick up new skills quickly.

Also, why does the company places bright new analysts from finance and economics education in systems groups. Wonder why these people leave in droves?

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

The company at least on the surface and all of its material wants you to do the responsible thing with clients: create value, treat their data with respect, work hard for them, and deliver on time.
The benefits package: vision, medical, dental etc is adequate. Compensation is probably on average or just below industry level. With over 200k in headcount you can't be above the industry average.

The company has logistical support departments to help you travel, manage emergencies, and relocate to another country.

Cons

1. Managers can be vindictive and abusive. One standard for them and another for everyone below.
2. Smart workers usually leave because they are too busy coding and delivering to actually care about petty politics, CYA and butt kissing.
3. This company is anything but a meritocracy. They spend more time encouraging you to 'network' to get on projects, rather than rely on your own skills and experince.
4. The worst aspect of working for accenture is that the 'managers', and 'senior managers' become lifers and have no discernible skills of their own. At that point, they flock to projects before everyone else does because of their connections. Then they bill the client like it's going out of style and bring in all of their friends from around the continent. They claim flights, hotels, per diems and rental cars. This jacks up the cost to the client, nothing is delivered in the requirements, plan and design phase. All they produce are spreadsheets, visio diagrams and powerpoint slides. With millions spent and nothing but provisioning models and a barrage of three letter acronyms (TLAs), the client generally denies more bodies on the projects, shuts it down or descopes it, sues Accenture and cuts its losses. I've saw this happen consistently.
5. When it comes to promotions and ratings, people are rated against their peers which is fair. But for one person to sit on the bench all the while they're struggling and willing to do whatever it takes to get on even most undesirable roles only to get no response from the role contacts is simply a good reason for a consultant or analyst to bail from the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Managment Lifers: in it for hotels, flights, rental cars (fuel included) and per diems should be fired outright. There is no other way around it. Giants fall. It wouldn't be the first time as more agile competitors bite a chunk out of Accenture's business. The lack of respect for the people who actually do something of value should not be tolerated. If anything, the company should test and train its managers and not consultants.

Pros

young energetic workforce
challenging and engaging
opportunity to travel

Cons

terrible pay
no work life balance
no opportunities for growth
office politics

Advice to Senior Management

be honest to employees about growth and development

Pros

Great people, great culture, lots to learn. There are plenty of opportunities for networking, which seems to be very important in order to achieve career goals here.

Cons

Work/life balance is tough, it can be a little political. The pay seems a little lower than that of the competition, and the technology workforce receives less than the management consluting workforce.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more realistic with goals, timelines and deadlines. The most trouble I see comes from being over-optimistic or unrealistic, and this results in a more hectic workplace for me.

Pros

Good intorduction to consulting
Ability to work in many different roles and locations
Fun environment

Cons

Poor post grad recruitment process
Reporting to higher ups not always about the work you do
Not enough guidance in my area

Advice to Senior Management

Better or more define roles for student interns

Pros

Good company to work for

Cons

Great company to work for. Just Opportunities to grow should be more

Advice to Senior Management

Just givemore opportunities for growth

Pros

People. I have been able to meet some of the most fun and interesting people. The network opportunity here endless and you will meet and work with people from all over the world with a wide range of personalities and skills. They say you don't really get to experience consulting until you get an out of town project. That's when all the perks come in with the hotels, flights, per diems.

Cons

Projects in the Canadian market are somewhat limited. There's Oil&Gas in Calgary and some random projects in Toronto and very limited elsewhere. Some projects are black holes and very difficult to get out of despite the lack of any career growth on the project.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees. They are smart and very capable and aren't afraid to leave the company if they are not happy.

Pros

- Great place to get experience and exposure to many projects
- Excellent networking value if you're smart
- Good place to improve your softskills
- Great co-workers for the most part
- Excellent value for those who have a global outlook to working

Cons

- Management is usually blind or not considerate enough for the work those below do
- Compensation lags behind other companies
- Too much politics between different BUs
- Overpromise and under deliver to customers but that is an industry issue and not completely the fault of ACN

Advice to Senior Management

Nurture and spend time with those who do the work. Keeping them happy will not only reduce attrition and "stats" but will improve productivity and save the company money in the long run.

Pros

Good pay and benefit at least

Cons

Manager manipulating, promote whom they favorite

Advice to Senior Management

Hire the right manager