Accenture Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

Generally good work experience, excellent backoffice operations

Cons

Poor outside reputation for technical expertise among those "in the know"

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

- good exposure to IT systems development methodology
- encourages stewardship, even as an analyst, with the concept of a career buddy
- young culture with interesting people
- reasonable salary
- possibility of going on training (easier if aligned a specific group)
- well known company
- bench time can be a good way of taking a break without using vacation time
- a draw of moving up quickly to more senior positions compared to non-consulting occupations

Cons

- projects are often unorganized and executed poorly
- experienced hire managers are often below par
- many employees who are there to enjoy benefits of the job, but do not take pride in high quality work
- tough rating system results in small chance of getting good raise until promotion to next level
- unorganzied projects and poor management may mean long hours
- career development is random, especially starting out; first project are usually assigned and are usually not great opportunities to develope specialized skills
- training is more available to employees who are aligned to specialties
- entry level employees rarely get to travel, but are probably drawn in because the job was advertised this way
- when employees get/need to travel, they are usually at point of life where they have more committments outside of work (e.g. employees who make managers, but at the same time become married or have first kids)
- travelling does not seem great for social life in home city
- unengaged career counsellors can really sink a career, because they take a big part in the promotion/ranking process
- not true meritocracy; must stay usually 24 months at position to be considered for promotion regardless of performance
- difficult ot specialize; difficult to choose roles aligned to career development especially starting out

Advice to Senior Management

- out source testing work
- hire people with a more techincal background

Pros

Global network, Opportunities and Accenture Culture

Cons

It varies from Client to Client. But I feel all upper Management (Level A and above) are really very supportive and encourages a lot

Advice to Senior Management

I don't have to say really anything

Pros

Accenture is a global company, and for some reason that I can't really understand, it has a lot of prestigious clients in its portfolio. This is a good thing, because it will give you plenty of exposure to MUCH better places to work, and will allow you to shop for a new employer.
Also, if you like the meaningless pursuit of activities such as drinking, partying and other "high school" level fun, you'll love ACN. Management truly believe that this is the only reward they need to supply you in exchange of the amazingly high amount of free overtime you'll be doing for them.

Cons

That's a funny question.... Let me be blunt: unless you're right out of college, away from any other better places to work, not interested in work-life balance and willing to give the company access to EVERY hour you have (including evenings and weekends), with poor benefits and incredibly incompetent managers, stay away from Accenture.

Advice to Senior Management

Must be great to sit at the top, where no work is actually performed and you've already accepted that your entire life belongs to the company...
In any case, stop abusing junior employees by stealing their time. You get 8hrs a day, nothing more. If you want/need more, you should pay for it.
No wonder you can't keep anybody in Canada and you're turnover rate is like 35% ...

Pros

As an Accenture employee, I work for a big customer of Accenture and on a long term contract. Not much travel required, which is good for me. (I have two kids under 6.)
You get some training opportunities and learn different technologies, especially when the project get more complicated.
Workload is not that terrible, did not work many over night in my past year.
People are very nice and pretty tolerate each other with different culture.
Accenture is a good name to put into resume. If you want some security, stay here. If you are young and competent, move ahead.

Cons

We have many managers have no idea about the technologies. Some horrible architecture and design are passed into implementation without enough technical review, usually because the managers lack technical skills.
Out sourcing makes things even worse. Poor and inexperienced developers get hired at India and cause more work here, e.g., cleaning the code and more debug.
What managers care is budget and deadline, not enough work has been done to coordinate the teams.
All these add up. You can imagine the mess.
It won't take too long to make your morale low. I think that's why I see many people leaving.

Advice to Senior Management

Be realistic about out sourcing. We are not saving money by doing this. We produce low quality deliverable and ruining Accenture's good reputation.