Accenture reviews

Accenture is a great career “starter” for new joiners freshly out of college but for those hired who have worked in other companies for several years prior to on boarding at Accenture – you can expect to have a very rough stay here. With over 200k+ employee population, Accenture is the size of a medium city and operated very similar when it comes to politics. I was employed here for approximately 2 years before resigning with a bitter taste in my mouth. Experienced hires like me are generally brought on when a large amount of work is acquired and there are not enough of their “golden children” college recruits to fill the open gaps. Hence, you can expect to be looked at as a 2nd class citizen throughout most of your time here and don’t think for a minute that you will ever “ladder” above one of these college joiners or have any chance of breaking into their culture. Tons of politics come into play when it is time for laddering and staffing of projects. Most projects I was assigned to are nothing more than staff augmentation so that I had twice the amount of bosses than if I worked for the client directly. Also, expect to be “force-fitted” onto a project just to get you off the bench and then sink or swim. Unfortunately, most people in these positions end up sinking. Compensation is mediocre and annual bonus is full of shenanigans. The travel is weekly and gets old very quickly. Per diems are subpar and the travel policy in general is over a mile long pointing out all the things you can’t do or expense that most employers would not question. Don’t worry if you can’t find the time to read it as they will bombard you with email policy reminders on a daily basis. Training is conducted outside of Chicago, IL and facilitated by internal management looking to “check the box” in order to be considered for their next promotion (i.e. reading off of power point slides all day with not much enthusiasm). Overall, if you are currently unemployed, go for it so you can get a paycheck but I don’t recommend anyone stay here longer than they have to as an experienced hire.

Depending on who you ask, the name brand is so-so. I would say for Top 10 business schools, Accenture's name is less than stellar (mainly a byproduct of its IT consulting/delivery business). For schools outside of the Top 10, Accenture's name is good. As for work, IT consulting can be a pain esp. if you're not interested in it. Furthermore, even if you're NOT in IT/delivery work (say strategy), you tend to do a lot of technology related work anyway and it's not very applicable if you choose to change your career later in life. Finally, the hours can be out of control and there are plenty of managers there who will get you to work those long hours if you don't assert yourself.