Pros
* Strong career development structure for new graduate * Great colleagues who are supportive and sharing * Variety of large blue-chip FTSE 100 companies to work with * Responsibility delegated at early stage in career * Potential to travel - depending on nature of project
Cons
* Long hours (up to 50+) * No overtime pay * Performance Reviews are geared towards rewarding those with most 'time at level' - a 1 year old high performing consultant will rarely be rewarded over a 3 year old average performing consultant * HR has little concept of realities of work and needs of project - from both a project and individual perspective they are only interested in filling positions and keeping unassigned numbers low regardless of individual skills * HR known to show favourtism to those they are friendly with * Training is available but no clear instruction on how to apply and recieve approval for it * Long, unreasonable commutes - I've never had a commute less than 90 minutes (and I live in central London!) - management typically put client first and bend over backwards to satisfy with little regard for consequences to their own team * Management support can vary depending on project and manager - I've had great constructive feedback from one manager, but then from another I'm seen as a junior resource who should just get the job done and not ask questions or request opportunities to develop skillbase beyond role description. * Accenture's recruitment policy and business needs don't always seem to align - they recruited heavily at the start of 2007 and now are struggling to find roles for everyone - ultimately the employee suffers as work is being generated where it doesn't exist (I was recently told I had to recruit a new analyst regardless of requirements) * HR recruitment is seemingly outsourced and disconnected with existing pay structure - last year it was announced the starting salary for an analyst would be raised by £2k, meanwhile new analysts who started up to 6 months before this remained on the old starting salary. And those in the company for a year or more were now being paid the same as a new analyst....when pushed to justify this the analyst group lead said it was just the way it was and we had to accept it or leave (!) * New Analyst Consulting Group (ACG) created in the UK is hopeless and does not help in accurate assignment to projects - whereas before analysts were assigned to an industry group (Finance, Resources, Products etc.) now they are all pooled together as one. Projects do not have visibility of analyst experience (which an industry alignment would provide), and leadership of the ACG is condecending to the point that analysts are treated as adolescent teenagers! * ACG structure was intended to allow analysts to move freely between industries and learn more of Accenture work. But this does not align with how Accenture works in realty where career progression is based on who you know and responsibilities built on a single project. As an analyst I worked on 2 projects over 24 months. My first consistently promised great rewards in return for loyalty and after 16 months I got none. 8 months on my second project luckily secured me a promotion that I would have otherwise not received. The ACG seems to think that 6 months or less on a project will be suffice for an analyst to build contacts and credibility required to succeed to consultant within the 2 year training period.