Pros
1.) From a technical perspective, many of your co-workers will be exceptional to work with and aside from niche firms are the best you'll find on the Microsoft stack in a large consultancy. 2.) The training program is quite generous - access to MOC materials, other study guides and certifications are completely paid for. 3.) You get access to large companies - many of whom may solicit you to work for them. Perform well and negotiate well to get the comp benefits of working at a consulting firm at a local company.
Cons
1.) Accenture. While it's set up as a partnership and ostensibly a "best of both worlds" organization, it truly isn't. I'd say the culture is in line with the relative ownership percentages of Accenture (81%) and Microsoft (~19%). While Accenture is certainly a large and prestigious organization, they are also rather clumsy to adapt to environments, organizationally bloated and have a habit of overworking employees. This has most definitely made its way into Avanade. 2.) Area "design". As of my departure, the areas (e.g. Desert, Mountain, PacNW, etc...) were becoming quite top heavy and there was really no way for upper level employees to progress since there was generally one director per area (this did change a bit with some minor restructuring however). Just keep in mind that if you go in at a high level (Arch / Manager / Sr Manager), you're likely to be stuck there for a while. 3.) The bonus plan is somewhat ridiculous and tied very little to your individual performance. They haven't seem to have quite mastered the aspects of a proper bonus program and you're tied too directly to the performance of other regions and areas. 4.) If you're a low level employee, expect to work a lot - and get paid little for it. I've had numerous downline reports overworked (60+ hours for 6+ months) and they got very little to show for it. Even worse, if you're a mid level (35-45 in the old leveling system) you get no overtime. When overtime is paid, it's paid only for the difference between the hours worked and 50 hours, so if you work 51 hours, you get 1 hour of straight time. Expect people to take advantage of this fact - they do. Sadly, the company doesn't do a lot to address these issues. 5.) You'd better really like Accenture. That's their bread and butter and they've changed the business model around repeatedly to support it. In fact, most of the business is generated from Accenture so you will be on Accenture projects and have little to no say in the direction or management of them as you have no chain to report through that's remotely effective.
