Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana
Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana
Accenture 2005 Edition WetFeet Insider Guide
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<strong>Accenture</strong><br />
2005 Edition<br />
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Insider Guide<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong><br />
2005 Edition<br />
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<strong>Accenture</strong><br />
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Table of Contents<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1<br />
The Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5<br />
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6<br />
The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9<br />
Industry Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10<br />
Organization of the Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13<br />
On the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17<br />
<strong>An</strong>alysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18<br />
Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22<br />
The Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25<br />
Lifestyle and Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26<br />
Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28<br />
Workplace Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30<br />
Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33<br />
Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34<br />
Vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36<br />
Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Career Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39<br />
Insider Scoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43<br />
Getting Hired. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47<br />
The Recruiting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48<br />
Interviewing Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52<br />
For Your Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55<br />
Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56<br />
For Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57<br />
The Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58<br />
Et Cetera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
<strong>Accenture</strong> at a Glance<br />
At a Glance<br />
Headquarters<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is incorporated in Bermuda and does not have a fixed headquarters,<br />
though the center of power is expected to shift slightly toward the Boston area<br />
when it’s new CEO takes the helm. It has offices in more than three dozen U.S.<br />
cities. <strong>Accenture</strong>’s recruiting function is based in its New York office:<br />
1345 Avenue of the Americas<br />
New York, NY 10105<br />
Phone: 917-452-4400<br />
Fax: 917-527-9915<br />
www.accenture.com<br />
Primary Competitors<br />
IBM, EDS, BearingPoint, Capgemini, Computer Sciences Corp., McKinsey &<br />
Company<br />
Key Differentiating Factors<br />
• <strong>Accenture</strong> has about 95,000 employees in 48 countries.<br />
• <strong>Accenture</strong> provides everything from hard-core technology support and toplevel<br />
strategic advice to outsourcing and human resources.<br />
• The firm has a strong, young, and innovation-oriented culture.<br />
In the Recruiter’s Words<br />
“From a campus standpoint, we really look for people with a broad and diverse<br />
set of experiences—computer science, management information systems,<br />
economics, even through liberal arts.”<br />
“Hiring has definitely increased from fiscal year 2003. With our market picking<br />
up with the economy, that’s had ripple effects.”<br />
“Come to the interview with several substantial and recent stories in mind, ones<br />
which you believe demonstrate your interpersonal strengths, analytical prowess,<br />
and ability to overcome challenges.”<br />
1
At a Glance<br />
What Insiders Say<br />
In the interview, “I was asked how you handle team problems, individuals who<br />
don’t work, people who miscommunicate. It was easy but you have to be<br />
honest.”<br />
“It’s very different from working in a traditional position, because you’re<br />
working on a project. It focuses you.”<br />
Career Ladder<br />
• <strong>Accenture</strong> employees follow a defined career path with set milestones. New<br />
employees move from analyst, to consultant, to manager, to senior manager,<br />
and in some cases, to associate partner and partner. IT employees work as<br />
programmers before moving into system analyst positions, and then in some<br />
cases, into manager roles.<br />
• Undergrads who join the firm as analysts can generally move to the<br />
consultant level in 2 to 3 years. Undergrads entering into strategy start as<br />
business analysts and may leave to go to business school after 3 or 4 years.<br />
• Midcareer hires join at almost any level, depending on their programming or<br />
industry experience.<br />
Hiring Estimates<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is hiring 30,000 people worldwide for its fiscal year ending August<br />
31, 2004. About 8,000 of those positions are in the United States, and of those,<br />
1,600 to 1,800 are likely to be new analysts that have just graduated or have a<br />
few years of experience.<br />
2
Estimated Compensation, 2004<br />
Undergrad Hires<br />
Starting salary: $38,000–55,000<br />
Signing bonus:<br />
not usually<br />
Relocation bonus:<br />
depends on need<br />
At a Glance<br />
MBA Hires<br />
Starting salary:<br />
$60,000–100,000; a lot depends on work experience<br />
Signing bonus: $10,000–15,000<br />
Relocation bonus:<br />
depends on need<br />
Midcareer Hires<br />
Starting salary: $40,000–100,000<br />
Signing bonus:<br />
$0–30,000 depending on experience<br />
Relocation bonus:<br />
depends on need<br />
Source: WetFeet estimates; <strong>Accenture</strong> does not release compensation data.<br />
3
The Company<br />
• Overview<br />
The Company<br />
• The Bottom Line<br />
• Industry Position<br />
• Organization of the Firm<br />
5
Overview<br />
The Company<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading management<br />
consulting and technology services companies. Formally established in 1989 by a<br />
group of partners from the consulting division of the various Arthur <strong>An</strong>dersen<br />
firms around the world, <strong>Accenture</strong> began life as <strong>An</strong>dersen Consulting. From its<br />
establishment until its incorporation in 2001, the company operated as a group<br />
of more than 40 locally owned partnerships in 40-plus countries. Some things<br />
have certainly changed since 1989: Arthur <strong>An</strong>dersen is no more, the Internet boom<br />
has come and gone, and <strong>An</strong>dersen Consulting became <strong>Accenture</strong> and went public.<br />
But there’s one thing that’s stayed the same: The company is still focused on<br />
delivering top-notch consulting and technology services to organizations all<br />
over the world.<br />
Today, <strong>Accenture</strong> is a consulting behemoth with 95,000 employees toiling away<br />
in 110 offices in 48 countries. The company’s traditional stronghold is systems<br />
integration, but it also lays claim to formidable strategy, technology consulting,<br />
human resources, and outsourcing practices. <strong>Accenture</strong>’s deep client roster is a<br />
veritable who’s who list, one that straddles a multitude of industries; in addition<br />
to a sizeable percentage of Fortune 500 companies, <strong>Accenture</strong> also consults to<br />
a wide range of governmental and nonprofit organizations. Scoring massive projects<br />
with high-profile organizations is the name of the game at <strong>Accenture</strong>. It made<br />
headlines in June 2004 when an alliance led by <strong>Accenture</strong> won a Homeland Security<br />
Department contract worth up to $10 billion.<br />
Of course, the sputtering economy hit consulting companies hard, and <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
was no exception. In fact, as one of the few public consulting firms, it is<br />
particularly sensitive to trends in the economy. For the first few years of this<br />
6
decade, it introduced successive waves of layoffs and<br />
slowed down its recruiting efforts. Employees worked<br />
longer and networked harder to make sure they wouldn’t<br />
find themselves “unstaffed,” or without a project and<br />
thus more vulnerable to getting laid off, for too long.<br />
Says one <strong>insider</strong>, “In the bad times, you get a sense of<br />
your internal worth. The best people, in theory, wouldn’t<br />
ever be available for a project because if you’re out there<br />
networking, you’ll never be unstaffed.”<br />
“ ”<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> can be a<br />
great place to have a<br />
career—you’ll have<br />
the resources and<br />
clout of a huge<br />
company behind<br />
you—but it’s not for<br />
everyone.<br />
The Company<br />
Since mid-2003, <strong>insider</strong>s report that the mood has<br />
changed. The firm has “turned the taps back on,” for new hires, says an<br />
<strong>insider</strong>, and skilled analysts and consultants again find themselves in demand<br />
for projects.<br />
Increased hiring stems directly from a rebound in the economy and, in particular,<br />
the industry sectors <strong>Accenture</strong> serves. Communications and technology, financial<br />
services, products (companies ranging from health care to travel services), and<br />
resources are all growing at double-digit rates. For its 2004 fiscal year, the company<br />
expects net revenue to rise 15 to 16 percent, up from 2 percent in 2003.<br />
When corporations slashed their spending budgets during the downturn, contracts<br />
with government agencies helped. They continue to buoy earnings. In the first<br />
6 months of 2004, operating profits from its government sector made up 14.5<br />
percent of total revenue. Meanwhile, it’s increasingly focused on outsourcing,<br />
taking over whole IT or human resources functions for clients. In the last<br />
year, <strong>Accenture</strong> has inked outsourcing deals with big firms such as Best Buy<br />
and Deutsche Bank. Outsourcing now contributes nearly 40 percent of total<br />
revenue. <strong>An</strong>d in keeping with the trend rippling throughout the rest of Corporate<br />
America, it’s helping companies move some of their operations offshore.<br />
7
The Company<br />
With a brighter business outlook, some of the work strains seemed to have eased.<br />
People don’t feel the need to put in extra overtime just to keep their job. But<br />
make no mistake, the work is demanding. <strong>An</strong>d the firm attracts the kind of<br />
people who like to reach for high hurdles. “One plus about working here is the<br />
kind of personality traits you can pick up—people here are at the top of their<br />
game, A-types, go-getters,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> tries to keep things from getting too intense. It keeps open lines of<br />
communication between on-site employees and home-base operations through<br />
regular e-mails, team and industry-specific meetings, and local get-togethers.<br />
Everyone has a career counselor who works as the employee’s advocate when it<br />
comes to staffing. The company also commits a ton of resources to training, and<br />
passes on to its employees discounts on services, like cell phones, that come with<br />
being a big multinational firm. It’s also got prestige: <strong>Accenture</strong> ranked first in its<br />
industry in Fortune’s 2004 list of “America’s Most Admired Companies.”<br />
Due in part to its university recruitment, <strong>Accenture</strong> has a youthful collegiate environment<br />
in which employees have the energy to work hard as projects intensify as well as<br />
the chance to relax with each other and interact socially. It’s not unusual for local<br />
offices or project teams to play softball or have dinner together.<br />
At work, <strong>insider</strong>s report a positive and cooperative environment. The atmosphere<br />
might get a little stiffer when promotions are being decided. But the ability to<br />
work well with one’s colleagues is a point of pride at the firm.<br />
“There’s a culture of sharing. If someone happens to be an expert in Java<br />
for instance, I feel I can pick up the phone even if I’ve never talked to them<br />
before, and they’ll feel an extensive obligation, an esprit de corp, to help me<br />
out,” says an <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
As demanding as consulting can be, getting a job at <strong>Accenture</strong> can pose an<br />
even greater challenge. Whether you’re an MBA or undergraduate, you should<br />
be ready to sell yourself.<br />
8
The Bottom Line<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong>’s employees are often technically specialized and also educationally<br />
diverse. They’ve joined the company because they want to get in on the diverse<br />
range of professional experiences consulting has to offer. Competition for jobs is<br />
intense. To be successful, candidates should try to demonstrate both team and<br />
leadership experiences that combine technical and consulting know-how. If you<br />
land a job, you’ll be in fairly good hands. The company is committed to training,<br />
and once you’re ready to move on, just having the <strong>Accenture</strong> name on your<br />
resume will open doors.<br />
The Company<br />
9
Industry Position<br />
The Company<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is definitely one of the big kids on the consulting block. According<br />
to Consultants News’ 2004 ranking of the “75 Largest Consulting Firms in the<br />
World,” for the second year in a row, <strong>Accenture</strong> ranks second only to IBM in<br />
global market share and consulting revenue. Few consulting firms offer as wide<br />
a range of services as <strong>Accenture</strong>. Its technology and process groups compete<br />
with top technical consulting firms such as IBM and EDS, its human performance<br />
competency goes head to head with HR consulting firms such as Hewitt, and<br />
its strategy group takes on strategy firms such as McKinsey and Deloitte.<br />
10
20 Largest Consulting Firms, by 2003 Consulting Revenue<br />
Rank<br />
Firm<br />
1 IBM<br />
2 <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
3 Deloitte<br />
4 Capgemini<br />
5 CSC<br />
6 BearingPoint<br />
7 Hewlett-Packard<br />
8 McKinsey & Co.<br />
9 Mercer<br />
10 SAP<br />
11 T-Systems<br />
12 Booz Allen Hamilton<br />
13 LogicaCMG<br />
14 Atos Origin<br />
15 Oracle<br />
16 Unisys<br />
17 Altran<br />
18 EDS<br />
19 TietoEnator<br />
20 Watson Wyatt Worldwide<br />
The Company<br />
Source: Excerpted and reprinted with permission of Consultants News June 2004; Consultants News/Kennedy Information,<br />
Peterborough, NH 03458 USA; phone: 800-531-0007; www.ConsultingCentral.com.<br />
11
Where MBAs Want to Work<br />
The Company<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> doesn’t have quite the cache among MBAs that the large strategy<br />
firms such as McKinsey and Bain do. But in 2004 it moved up two notches to<br />
number 27, between PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lehman Brothers. The<br />
following ranking is a result of Universum’s 2004 survey of MBAs, who ranked<br />
the companies where they would most like to work.<br />
Consulting Firms that Ranked in the Top 50<br />
Rank Firm<br />
1 McKinsey & Co.<br />
4 IBM<br />
7 Bain & Co.<br />
10 Booz Allen Hamilton<br />
11 Deloitte<br />
13 Boston Consulting Group<br />
27 <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
Source: Based on a study by Universum, published in Fortune. <strong>An</strong>n Harrington, Fortune, 4/19/2004.<br />
12
Organization of the Firm<br />
View from the Top<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is a public company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange<br />
under the symbol ACN. At the top of the organization sits CEO Joe Forehand<br />
and the executive committee of partners and officers who report directly to<br />
him, followed by numerous steering and operating committees. Though the<br />
firm has no fixed geographical headquarters, it has big offices in major U.S.<br />
cities such as Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.<br />
The Company<br />
View from the Middle<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is organized into several partially overlapping industry areas that<br />
allow clients to choose from a smorgasbord of integrated consulting services.<br />
The company maintains five global operations groups:<br />
1. Financial services<br />
2. Government<br />
3. Communications and high tech<br />
4. Products<br />
5. Resources<br />
13
Nine service and solutions lines support the global operations groups:<br />
1. Customer relationship management<br />
The Company<br />
2. Finance and performance management<br />
3. Human performance<br />
4. Strategy and business architecture<br />
5. Supply chain management<br />
6. Technology research and innovation<br />
7. Technology solutions<br />
8. Microsoft solutions<br />
9. Outsourcing and infrastructure delivery<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong>’s five operating groups function as umbrella units for 18 separate<br />
industry areas and government services. The service lines are then broken<br />
down between business consulting or technology and outsourcing. Some of<br />
these groups could change by the time you get there; <strong>Accenture</strong> is continually<br />
shifting its organizational structure. That’s not surprising, given that it’s in the<br />
business of reorganizing companies and processes. “If we ourselves aren’t<br />
changing, that means we’re stagnant, and we’re not a few steps ahead of the<br />
client,” explains one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
The tasks in the various service areas can vary widely. Customer relationship<br />
management, supply chain management, technology research, and technology<br />
solutions often involve more of the hard-core technology work. Members of<br />
the technology groups are more likely to work on-site for extended periods to<br />
implement new technology. The human performance group deals largely with<br />
the human resources and training issues that arise with technology work.<br />
14
Strategy and business architecture, as well as finance and performance management,<br />
involve higher level consulting work to determine the client’s business and technology<br />
needs. Employees in these service lines do often join engineering projects, but also<br />
handle a wide range of other related duties focusing on business process. Strategy<br />
and business-architecture consultants work at the highest levels of projects and<br />
might come in early on in a project to do trends and industry analysis. They often<br />
get paid more (after all, strategy has to compete with Bain, BCG, Booz Allen, and<br />
the other big-name, big-dollar firms).<br />
The Company<br />
One employee describes how various service roles overlap on a typical technology<br />
project: “First comes requirement analysis, where consultants help define the<br />
scope and design of the project. Then we work on common components, putting<br />
together the technology architecture. Training—gathering training needs to use<br />
the system—follows. Finally we build out the application, doing the detailed<br />
coding and user acceptance testing.”<br />
View from the Bottom<br />
With <strong>Accenture</strong>’s senior executives selling the firm’s pricey services on the basis<br />
of its highly trained workers, the firm encourages newcomers to constantly<br />
expand their skill set. For your first few projects, you’ll probably hop around<br />
between service areas, building programming and business skills along the way.<br />
Although some folks like to think of themselves as industry generalists, most<br />
<strong>insider</strong>s say it’s preferable and easier to stick within one industry and gain some<br />
specialization. “New analysts are encouraged to get a lot of different roles,<br />
because once people get to the 3- or 4-year mark, they’re starting to build up a<br />
resume that we use to sell them [to clients],” says one <strong>insider</strong>. “If you have 3<br />
years of experience in something you don’t really like, chances are you’re not<br />
going to stick around.”<br />
15
The Company<br />
Consultant teams do most of the work at the client site. These range from the small,<br />
paratroop-like squads of the strategy unit, consisting of two to five members, to<br />
massive mobilization units involving dozens to 100 or more folks from other service<br />
areas. Because of the nature of the work, <strong>Accenture</strong> project teams tend to be<br />
larger and more bottom-heavy than those of rival consulting firms that do less<br />
systems work. Many projects have an organizational structure worthy of a small<br />
firm: a senior manager or partner responsible for the most high-level client<br />
interaction, followed several managers who are each responsible for a part of the<br />
project and supervise two or three teams each of analysts and consultants.<br />
Many analysts and consultants will have their own cubicle and workstation at<br />
the client site. If they’re locally based, they may report every day to that station,<br />
just like in an industry job. Strategy consultants and senior managers, who tend<br />
to be more mobile, often work out of a laptop and “totes,” or moveable storage<br />
containers.<br />
Moving from job to job, compounded by the size of <strong>Accenture</strong>, can be a strain.<br />
One <strong>insider</strong> describes the downside of working in consulting this way: “It’s so<br />
big, you’re always changing clients, you never get a sense of belonging.”<br />
Perhaps mindful of losing touch with its far-flung staff, <strong>Accenture</strong> has instituted<br />
activities that connect consultants outside of work. Some are as informal as<br />
dinners out. Others might be as time-consuming as teaching other consultants<br />
about a new programming language.<br />
In 1998, <strong>Accenture</strong> created market unit–based “communities” of 150 or so<br />
employees grouped by their location and industry practice. These communities<br />
meet quarterly in most cities to discuss everything from business to personnel<br />
issues. The ostensible purpose might be to hear a presentation by a resources<br />
consultant in Dallas. But they are really all about networking. “It’s to feel like<br />
you belong to the company, to not get overwhelmed by the fact that it’s a big,<br />
international firm,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
16
On the Job<br />
• <strong>An</strong>alysts<br />
• Consultants<br />
On the Job<br />
17
<strong>An</strong>alysts<br />
On the Job<br />
<strong>An</strong>alysts at <strong>Accenture</strong> come into a market unit and the Core <strong>An</strong>alysts Program<br />
(CAP). After an initial 2-week training, when they might participate in a mock<br />
client engagement, they get staffed with an industry group. The CAP affords<br />
them the chance to develop core skills through plenty of training as well as onthe-job<br />
experience. “We expect all analysts to go in and be information sponges.<br />
We want them to be learning how we work, soaking everything up,” says one<br />
<strong>insider</strong>.<br />
After 12 to 18 months, they attend another round of training at <strong>Accenture</strong>’s campus<br />
in St. Charles, Illinois. “We found that having the client experience earlier was<br />
very helpful for our new analysts, to get on-the-job training,” said an <strong>insider</strong> in<br />
recruiting.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong>’s business model revolves around throwing large numbers of people<br />
into big projects where they focus on implementation and execution work. With<br />
more seniority comes increased managerial responsibility, and ultimately, selling<br />
the firm’s business to new clients. But at the start, analysts are considered the<br />
“pack mules” of the consulting staff, says one <strong>insider</strong>. “You’ll do number crunching<br />
and heavy analysis . . . rather than the high-level thinking—this is calculations,<br />
building models, analyzing data line by line.”<br />
18
Typical Responsibilities<br />
Duties vary depending on the project, but <strong>insider</strong>s tell<br />
us that the first year typically involves the following<br />
types of tasks:<br />
• Mapping business processes<br />
• Gathering and analyzing client data<br />
• Developing design parameters for projects<br />
• Designing computer modules<br />
• Interviewing client management and employees<br />
• Writing computer code and configuring software (IT)<br />
• Preparing user-training materials<br />
• Implementing recommended changes at client site<br />
• Developing training models<br />
“ ”<br />
We expect all<br />
analysts to go in<br />
and be information<br />
sponges. We want<br />
them to be learning<br />
how we work, soaking<br />
everything up.<br />
On the Job<br />
Strategy<br />
On the strategy side, <strong>Accenture</strong> hires a small number of undergrads into<br />
business analyst positions. “People on strategy spend more time analyzing the<br />
industry, competitive analysis, identifying trends, valuation, economics,” says<br />
one <strong>insider</strong>. “Traditional consultants deal with processes from an operational<br />
standpoint—how they run the business. That’s not to say sometimes the two<br />
don’t bleed into one another.”<br />
Here’s a list of typical day-to-day tasks:<br />
• Develop key performance metrics<br />
• Conduct industry research<br />
• Facilitate the flow of work units through their teams<br />
• Discuss specific issues with in-house experts<br />
19
• Assess existing technology<br />
• Conduct market research<br />
• Develop and maintain client relationships<br />
• Perform benchmarking analysis<br />
• <strong>An</strong>alyze current systems and problems<br />
• Recommend new approaches<br />
• Present findings to team members<br />
A Day in the Life of a First-Year <strong>An</strong>alyst<br />
On the Job<br />
8:30 I get into the client site. While I take a few swigs of my coffee, I check<br />
e-mails I got from the client. First I glance to see whether any problems<br />
sprouted up overnight. Then I check the requests that piled up earlier in<br />
the week. Is there anything that’s a must-do today? Finally I sift through<br />
my <strong>Accenture</strong> e-mails.<br />
9:00 Open Microsoft Word and figure out where I last left off on the<br />
documentation for the system we’re implementing. It’s pretty long—<br />
two-thirds to go. Well, no time like the present.<br />
12:00 It’s the manager’s birthday today, so the team heads out to lunch. Thank<br />
goodness, I’m starved.<br />
1:00 Back to the office. I dive back into the documentation. One page at a<br />
time . . .<br />
3:00 I nab a half-hour with one of the consultants when he gets out of<br />
meetings. I’ve never done one of these documentation projects before,<br />
and I want to make sure I’m on track. Is this what I should be doing<br />
here and here?<br />
3:30 He was really helpful with feedback. I keep working and make the<br />
necessary updates.<br />
4:00 Time for a status meeting with the rest of the team. Gives me a chance<br />
to stretch my legs. I walk over to another building on the corporate<br />
campus, where I meet up with my manager, the rest of the team, and<br />
some members of the client firm. We go over what everyone’s working<br />
on, ask questions about the project. It’s a good way to get to know<br />
members of the team who work in different offices.<br />
20
5:00 My manager has a cube in both buildings, so I just stay at the other<br />
building and work on more detail analysis from his desk.<br />
6:00 Time to head out. But first, I’ll stop by another consultant’s cubicle for<br />
an update on our project’s softball team. They got the jerseys. But who<br />
decided we were the Mariners?<br />
A Day in the Life of an Experienced <strong>An</strong>alyst<br />
8:00 Arrive at client site. Spend 45 minutes checking client e-mails, voice<br />
mail, and <strong>Accenture</strong> e-mails. There are so many! Working with people in<br />
different time zones means my inbox really fills up when I’m not here.<br />
9:00 Meet with the internal team to discuss any problems and what we need<br />
to get done today.<br />
10:30 Back to my desk to tackle my ongoing work for this project. This time,<br />
it’s mostly trends analysis and market research.<br />
12:15 Time for lunch. That means walking down to the sandwich shop,<br />
grabbing something, and eating at a private table in the corner—my<br />
workstation.<br />
1:00 Time to meet with the clients, who are right down the hall. We go over<br />
progress to date, discuss certain initiatives, make sure we’re on the same<br />
page.<br />
3:00 Back at my desk, working on deliverables—the work we’ll present to the<br />
client. If only I can concentrate on it for a few hours . . .<br />
4:00 Not so fast. My teammates have some questions about a technical aspect<br />
of the project they know I’ve handled before. We talk and go over the<br />
problem.<br />
5:00 I might just have enough time to finish up the presentation before I<br />
leave. Now where was I?<br />
6:00 I’m on track to meet this week’s deadline, so I leave earlier than usual.<br />
Tomorrow’s going to be a long day, so better take off while the going’s<br />
good!<br />
On the Job<br />
21
Consultants<br />
After a couple of years with the firm, <strong>Accenture</strong>’s undergraduate hires can become<br />
consultants. Consultants have many of the same day-to-day tasks as analysts, with<br />
one big exception: They manage a small team. “After a few years at the firm, you’d<br />
be in a supervisory capacity—you’d be responsible for the output of three to five<br />
people,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
On the Job<br />
Also at the consultant and manager levels are those advanced-degree holders<br />
(e.g., MBAs and/or CPAs, especially those in process and strategy) who are<br />
deemed ready to perform at this level. Many MBAs are also hired as experienced<br />
analysts, bringing them a year or two closer to the consultant position than a<br />
new analyst with just an undergraduate degree. Often MBAs go straight to the<br />
firm’s strategy unit. Says one <strong>insider</strong> in recruiting, “Typically folks we target are<br />
completing degree programs with a strategy emphasis. They combine that with<br />
pretty significant work experience, and it gives them a nice package.”<br />
Typical Responsibilities<br />
• Lead project meetings<br />
• Monitor and report on project status<br />
• Lead presentations<br />
• Interview vendors<br />
• Supervise analysts<br />
• Facilitate brainstorming sessions<br />
• Conduct client interviews and workshops<br />
• Assess existing technology and future needs<br />
22
• Develop acceptance criteria<br />
• Oversee implementation of technical applications (IT)<br />
• Develop and implement financial models<br />
• Oversee training applications<br />
• Conduct structure analysis<br />
A Day in the Life of an IT Consultant<br />
8:30 Arrive at the site. Check my e-mail to see if tests found any bugs over<br />
night. Yep, there are a few critters in this system.<br />
9:00 Meet with the tester to get more information about the bugs. What’s the<br />
impact? By when do we need to resolve them?<br />
10:00 It’s a high-priority bug, so all hands on deck. I shove aside my other<br />
work and focus on clearing up this problem.<br />
12:00 Almost there, but not quite. Still, I need refueling. I head for the elevator<br />
bank and grab a sandwich at the coffee shop downstairs. I read over any<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> e-mails I might have glossed over while I munch through my<br />
lunch.<br />
1:00 Work out the last kinks. There! Now I can shift my attention to new<br />
development and new features we’re considering for this project.<br />
3:00 Meet with clients and other <strong>Accenture</strong> consultants about some of the<br />
new features we’re planning. It’s a good time to make sure we’re in touch<br />
with the client’s needs—and pick some of my colleagues’ smart brains.<br />
4:00 I start working on a proposal for one of these features, trying to distill<br />
what people want and what we can do.<br />
5:00 I check back with the client to make sure everything’s OK with that<br />
earlier problem. Then I’m back on our proposal.<br />
6:30 Time to head out. A bunch of folks from my last project are meeting to<br />
watch the game at 7:00 and I’ve told them to save me a stool.<br />
On the Job<br />
23
A Day in the Life of a Strategy Consultant<br />
On the Job<br />
7:30 I’m at my computer, waiting for the aircon to kick in. I need to wrap up<br />
a PowerPoint presentation that’s due this morning, so no time for chitchatting<br />
with clients over the coffee maker.<br />
11:00 Finished! I click through the slides with my supervisor, and we go over<br />
the presentation.<br />
11:30 She suggests an early lunch, to which I happily agree. Even if it’s a quick<br />
one.<br />
12:00 We head over to the other building and find the conference room where<br />
we’ll meet some of the client managers. We present the PowerPoint and<br />
answer any questions they have.<br />
2:00 The meeting wraps up and my supervisor and I head back to the other<br />
building. We usually have a post-mortem on big meetings. This time we<br />
discuss how the meeting went while we walk.<br />
2:15 I’m back at my desk trying to tackle a bunch of other work that’s piled<br />
up. I open up a spreadsheet but then . . .<br />
2:30 One of my teammates, a new analyst, has a question about the analysis<br />
he’s responsible for. I’ve done this twice in past projects, so I sit down<br />
with him and show him the ropes.<br />
3:00 Back to my desk and check to see how far I’ve got on my file.<br />
3:05 Not so fast. <strong>An</strong>other colleague comes by with a different problem. I sit<br />
down with her, discuss what she’s tried, and give her some advice. It’s a<br />
tricky one, and we spend an hour trying to untangle it.<br />
4:30 Yikes. How did it get so late? I try to get at least half of this report<br />
done.<br />
6:00 I head for the door, but I’ve got a laptop in hand. I’ll have to wrap up<br />
this work tonight because my manager wants to see it tomorrow. Oh<br />
well, it was going to be quiet evening at the hotel anyway.<br />
24
The Workplace<br />
• Lifestyle and Hours<br />
• Culture<br />
• Workplace Diversity<br />
• Compensation<br />
• Travel<br />
• Vacation<br />
• Training<br />
• Career Path<br />
The Workplace<br />
• Insider Scoop<br />
25
Lifestyle and Hours<br />
<strong>An</strong>alysts and consultants should expect an active daily work schedule that gets<br />
filled up quickly with meetings, technical problem solving, and individual report<br />
work. There’s not a lot of down time: Insiders are continually responding to<br />
demands from managers, teammates, or clients. One <strong>insider</strong> estimates that<br />
consultants spend 20 to 50 percent of the day in meetings. When you’re not<br />
interacting with the client or fixing bugs, you’ll try to squeeze in an hour to<br />
concentrate on analysis and documentation projects that may be assigned to you.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> folks often find themselves on deadline, as teams finish stages of the<br />
bigger project. “There are some self-enforced and some very hard ones. Generally<br />
no one likes to delay a project. At the same time, if this doesn’t get done, you<br />
don’t like to move on to the next change,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
The Workplace<br />
Projects can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. Regardless of how<br />
short or long they are, projects operate in cycles. So consultants can expect to<br />
work longer hours and even some weekends when a big deadline looms. “Its<br />
sort of like a college class schedule,” says one <strong>insider</strong>. “There are times when<br />
things are slow and chugging along, times when you put a little more in and if<br />
you pace yourself you should be fine.” Says another <strong>insider</strong>, “I have had to<br />
work a few nights, but nothing too crazy. As you get higher up in the company,<br />
you tend to work a few more hours, but that is expected with the nature of the<br />
job. I have only had to work weekends once, but that was told to me ahead of<br />
time and it was due to the nature of the project (a week-long assignment in a<br />
sunny location, which I didn’t mind at all).”<br />
26
Aside from a busy schedule, travel is definitely a part of the <strong>Accenture</strong> lifestyle.<br />
For the most part, that means spending the week with the client and a long<br />
weekend at home, often for months at a time. “When you’re more junior,<br />
you’re going to be dedicated to one client, so it’s not like you’re going to be<br />
flying into Chicago on Monday and then Des Moines on Wednesday,” says one<br />
<strong>insider</strong>. Still, travel takes it’s toll. “Everyone tells me you get sick of it after a<br />
year,” says another.<br />
The Workplace<br />
27
Culture<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is a company on the move, one that’s engaged in a wide variety of<br />
projects in a bunch of different locations. As such, <strong>Accenture</strong>’s culture can vary<br />
from one extreme to another depending on the client you are working for and<br />
the office in which you reside. Employees who work at the client site, especially<br />
for extended periods, will find themselves interacting with the client’s culture as<br />
much as <strong>Accenture</strong>’s. “On average, we aspire to blend in with our clients. In my<br />
projects, I want client people on our team, I want them to be integrated,” said<br />
one <strong>insider</strong>. “We go to lunch together, go out after work. That’s probably very<br />
typical except on the large tech projects, where you have a pod of people in the<br />
back room.”<br />
The Workplace<br />
Says another, “We spend 85 to 95 percent of our time at the client site. It may<br />
be a little less true these days, because we actually have offices, where we can<br />
work for clients at an <strong>Accenture</strong> office. But most of the time, it’s at the client site.”<br />
Two recent events—the downturn in the economy and the transformation of<br />
the firm from one owned and run by partners to a publicly owned firm—have<br />
left their mark.<br />
“Because we’re now a public company and our finances are subject to analyst<br />
scrutiny, there’s more focus on financials and profit margins than there was<br />
before. That has a trickle-down effect—there may be less money for someone<br />
to put in a training budget, for instance.” The <strong>insider</strong> adds, “If there were<br />
changes, it’s hard to say if they were due to strictly economic factors or going<br />
public and needing to be more investor-friendly.”<br />
28
<strong>An</strong>other change that followed the firm’s stock listing<br />
has been awarding bonuses. “At the consultant level,<br />
your bonus is going to be relatively small compared to<br />
your salary. It’s mostly affected by the firm at large,<br />
and to a somewhat lesser extent by your industry<br />
group,” is the way one <strong>insider</strong> describes them.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has a youthful atmosphere that lends itself<br />
easily to making contacts that will last as you move<br />
from project to project. “Over all, people like going<br />
out with each other after work. It’s pretty young, and<br />
there’s quite a bit of socializing, especially when<br />
you’re out of town.”<br />
“ ”<br />
It’s definitely more<br />
collegial than some<br />
other firms. They<br />
encourage<br />
teamwork. You get<br />
off the plane and<br />
you don’t know any<br />
of your colleagues.<br />
Within an hour,<br />
you’re working<br />
together.<br />
In spite of the youthful, work-hard/play-hard atmosphere—or maybe because<br />
of it—employees respond well to <strong>Accenture</strong>’s high standards, which require a<br />
lot of dedication and self-discipline on the part of the employees. As one<br />
<strong>insider</strong> says, “You do get a lot of opportunities. You’re there because they can’t<br />
do something internally, so you continually have to prove your worth.”<br />
<strong>An</strong>d finally, the people at <strong>Accenture</strong> seem to genuinely like and respect each other.<br />
Good interpersonal skills and a willingness to help are definitely more common than<br />
“me first” attitudes. Of course, people who don’t play well with others are probably<br />
not a good fit for consulting. Insiders consistently proclaimed the willingness of<br />
colleagues in different cities or even countries to respond to a request for help at the<br />
drop of a hat. “We have a very strong collaborative culture. If I go on the<br />
[companywide] portal, and post questions, I immediately get answers,” says<br />
one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
The Workplace<br />
29
Workplace Diversity<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has spent a lot of time trying to recruit and make working conditions<br />
amenable to people of color and other minority groups. The diversity program<br />
focuses on themes such as mentorship, recruitment, career counseling, schedule<br />
flexibility for parents, and retention of women and minorities. <strong>Accenture</strong>’s<br />
Chief Diversity Officer Kedrick Adkins has created the Diversity Advisory<br />
Council, a group of leadership partners with representation across all segments<br />
of the company. This group is instrumental in setting strategic direction and<br />
implementing key initiatives.<br />
The Workplace<br />
In terms of recruiting, <strong>Accenture</strong> offers internships, jobs, and scholarships<br />
through INROADS, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society<br />
of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Once employees start working, <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
offers a sponsorship program in addition to its recruiting program. Sponsors<br />
work with others on the employee’s behalf, particularly when it comes to salary<br />
increases or promotion discussions, and the company’s diversity unit is pushing<br />
to get women and minorities strong sponsors.<br />
“We are spending a lot of time working with our senior leadership. That’s not<br />
to say that we didn’t have their interest and visibility before, but I spend the<br />
vast majority of my time working with our senior executives on diversity-related<br />
opportunities, such as recruiting and promotion,” says Adkins in a recent<br />
interview in The Black Collegian. “I report directly to our CEO, Joe Forehand,<br />
which speaks volumes to the importance our company places on diversity.”<br />
In addition, the firm offers diversity training. Some highlights include a 3-hour<br />
instructor-led course that demonstrates the importance of appreciating and<br />
30
valuing the dynamics between men and women; the “diversity principle,” a<br />
1-hour course that underlines that diversity in the workforce is a key company<br />
priority and shows how stereotypes can contribute to a nonproductive work<br />
environment; and “the diversity principle in motion,” a group workshop on<br />
recognizing inappropriate behaviors related to differences in the workplace.<br />
As far back as 1994, <strong>Accenture</strong> was named one of the “100 Best Companies<br />
for Gay Men and Lesbians” in the Ed Mickens book of the same title. Among<br />
the seven networking groups that comprise its Local Office Diversity Program<br />
is one for gay and lesbians. Plus, <strong>Accenture</strong> extends domestic partner benefits<br />
to U.S. personnel in same-sex relationships under its medical, dental, and dependent<br />
life insurance plans. The plans and their benefits are the same as those available<br />
to spouses of married personnel, wherever it is legally possible to do so. Children<br />
of same-sex domestic partners can be covered under the same rules as those<br />
for children of married personnel.<br />
Opportunities for Women<br />
Like the consulting industry as a whole, <strong>Accenture</strong> has relatively low female<br />
representation among its very senior management. At last count, three of its<br />
21 management committee members were female. Still, the number of women<br />
in top positions at <strong>Accenture</strong> has steadily increased over the past decade. The<br />
percentage of female senior-level executives rose from 5.8 percent in 1994 to<br />
10 percent in 2002. However, in 2002 (most recent available) women only<br />
accounted for a little more than 14 percent of all promotions to partner status<br />
globally and 19 percent of all promotions to partner in the United States.<br />
The Workplace<br />
In general, <strong>insider</strong>s report plenty of women in the workforce, though some<br />
areas attract more than others. “There are quite a number of females, but it’s<br />
very polarized. It’s often in testing and functional design, and less in<br />
31
technology,” says one <strong>insider</strong>. <strong>An</strong>other says, “When I was hired in, not many<br />
women were hired at the same time. I think that’s just coincidence, though. On<br />
my current project, more than half of my team members are female and they<br />
hold positions at all levels.”<br />
In 1995, <strong>Accenture</strong> leadership created a U.S. Women’s Initiatives team composed<br />
of eight women partners and led by Managing Partner Pam Craig. These women<br />
represent all U.S. regions and industries and work closely with the firm’s CEO to<br />
identify strategies that will attract, retain, promote, and advance women at<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong>. Some of the programs include local women’s initiatives (31 women’s<br />
teams in U.S. offices), mentoring/sponsorship, training, and work-life integration.<br />
The firm works hard to make it possible for working mothers to achieve a worklife<br />
balance, with such options as part-time schedules and job sharing.<br />
The Workplace<br />
“<strong>Accenture</strong> gives great emphasis to providing opportunities for personal growth<br />
and advancement for women,” says a female <strong>insider</strong>. “Additionally, all of my<br />
mentors at <strong>Accenture</strong> have been men—each of whom has shown an enormous<br />
interest in providing feedback and helping me achieve my personal goals and<br />
aspirations.”<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong>’s efforts earned it the praise and notice of outsiders. In September<br />
2003, the firm made its debut on Working Mother’s 18th annual “100 Best<br />
Companies for Working Mothers.” That same year it won a Catalyst award for<br />
its efforts to include women in its workforce. Catalyst, a nonprofit research and<br />
advisory organization working to advance women in business and the professions,<br />
honors innovative approaches with proven results taken by companies attempting<br />
to address the recruitment, development, and advancement of all managerial women,<br />
including women of color.<br />
32
Compensation<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has been known to pay well and to offer significant raises. Though<br />
the weak economy brought back salaries for both MBAs and undergraduates<br />
to preboom levels, the rebound is trickling down to even new hire levels.<br />
Undergraduate hires can expect to start in the $40,000 to $55,000 range, and<br />
<strong>insider</strong>s report raises are anywhere from 10 to 20 percent a year.<br />
MBAs and other advanced-degree holders entering the strategy practice should<br />
start from $60,000 to $100,000, depending on office location, educational background,<br />
and work experience. Of course, many MBAs move to the level of manager a<br />
few years after they start, getting an additional salary boost when they advance.<br />
“A lot of the MBA programs are people who have pretty good experience—4<br />
or 5 years experience in some fields,” says one <strong>insider</strong>. “Typically when we hire<br />
off the higher-ranking MBA schools, we’ll bring those people in at a manager<br />
level with the expectation that they’ll be a senior manager fairly soon.”<br />
Note: Compensation numbers are based on WetFeet research; <strong>Accenture</strong> does<br />
not release this information.<br />
The Workplace<br />
33
Travel<br />
Most of <strong>Accenture</strong>’s work takes place at client sites, and you’ll often need to<br />
travel to get there. For some, this is a perk, and for others, a trying routine.<br />
To try to lessen the burden of being away from friends and family for days at a<br />
time, the firm follows a “seven to seven” schedule, meaning consultants leave for<br />
the client site around 7:00 a.m. on Monday morning and are at home by Friday at<br />
7:00 p.m. Many return to their home city on Thursday night and then work from<br />
their home or a local <strong>Accenture</strong> office on Friday. “The plus is that you’re spending<br />
more nights at home than at the apartment. The downside—you’re still<br />
spending three nights away,” says an <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
The Workplace<br />
Some <strong>insider</strong>s report that travel has subsided from years past. “We tend to have<br />
much larger contracts and that lets you forecast what your demand is, rather<br />
than having short-term demand where you’re bringing in short-term resources.”<br />
On the flip side, strategy consultants, whose project work can be as short as a<br />
month, can find themselves in several cities each year.<br />
A lot of factors go into whether you end up in Honolulu or Manhattan, starting<br />
with your skill set and whether you’re in an industry group that’s clustered around<br />
certain cities. <strong>An</strong>d not everyone ends up living out of a suitcase 4 days a week.<br />
Consultants in government services, not surprisingly, can work for years out of<br />
their home base—as long as it’s Washington, D.C., or another big capital city.<br />
“It’s really just luck of the draw. It’s very much timing—if you happen to be<br />
available at a time when there’s a big demand for a project that’s in another city,<br />
you’ll be on that project.”<br />
34
<strong>Accenture</strong> also has a program called Flexible Fly-Back, which means you do not<br />
need to return to your home office every weekend. Instead, every other “flyback”<br />
(for assignments within the United States this equates to once every 2 weeks),<br />
you can fly anywhere else as long as the ticket is no more than what it would<br />
cost to fly home. For instance, an employee who is headquartered in Los <strong>An</strong>geles<br />
but working in New York could fly to London for the weekend instead of back<br />
to Los <strong>An</strong>geles. <strong>Accenture</strong> employees may also fly friends or family members to<br />
their engagement locations. This provision is also available on cross-border<br />
assignments.<br />
The Workplace<br />
35
Vacation<br />
In September 2002, <strong>Accenture</strong> started its PTO, or paid time off, program. The<br />
firm doesn’t distinguish between vacation, personal, or sick days, providing<br />
employees with greater flexibility than a traditional vacation and sick time bank<br />
approach. From the corporation’s viewpoint, the PTO approach reduces<br />
unplanned absences and allows smoother business operations.<br />
<strong>An</strong>alysts and consultants get 25 PTO days, which include both vacation and<br />
personal days. Employees who work in outsourcing or the internal business<br />
functions at <strong>Accenture</strong> add on PTO days as they work—18 days for the first<br />
5 years, then 21 days for the next 5 years.<br />
The Workplace<br />
In terms of being able to actually schedule vacations, due to the relatively stable<br />
nature of project work, a consultant can and will reach a point where the work<br />
will start to taper off. As such, scheduling is a fairly straightforward process—<br />
unlike that of other consulting firms.<br />
Insiders report that the firm strives to maintain a good work-life balance, whether<br />
that means helping employees get home on the weekends or recognizing overtime.<br />
“Managers are quite aware of the time and effort that you put into a project,<br />
and they never hesitate to appreciate you. While it is not necessarily company<br />
practice, some of my managers have bought me dinner on nights that we work<br />
a little longer,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
36
Training<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> provides technical and managerial skills development. At the entry<br />
level, employees in the consulting workforce can expect at least 300 hours of<br />
core training during their first 5 years. The training enables consultants to build<br />
a common corporate culture, and the firm sees it as a competitive advantage.<br />
So do other firms. Insiders report that <strong>Accenture</strong> analysts are often recruited by<br />
competitors in part because of the thorough training they receive at <strong>Accenture</strong>.<br />
A key component is a 2-week visit to the <strong>Accenture</strong> facility in the Chicago<br />
suburb of St. Charles, Illinois. <strong>An</strong>alysts used to attend classes at the corporate<br />
campus shortly after they started work. Recently the firm shifted the schedule,<br />
and it now sends new recruits to St. Charles once they have several months of<br />
on-the-job experience.<br />
“It makes a lot more sense,” says one <strong>insider</strong>. “I would have been able to get a<br />
lot more experience from St. Charles after a year than right off the chute . . .<br />
also, it’s expensive for the firm to do it at the front end.”<br />
But <strong>Accenture</strong> won’t throw you into a big project cold. Most analysts start with<br />
a week’s orientation, followed by 2 weeks of guidance on skills necessary for<br />
interacting with a client and working on the project. Training helps consultants<br />
develop critical skills such as leadership, value creation, relationship building,<br />
business and technology acumen, selling, and methodology. But it also teaches<br />
hands-on skills such as programming languages used in the debugging and data<br />
analysis that occurs in so many of <strong>Accenture</strong>’s projects.<br />
The Workplace<br />
In training and thereafter, they are instructed on how to think, act, and speak<br />
like an <strong>Accenture</strong> consultant. As a result, people in <strong>Accenture</strong> all use a uniform<br />
37
usiness language, so cross-group (or transnational) communication poses no<br />
problem (in theory, at least). One <strong>insider</strong> says, “Our 2-week training course in<br />
St. Charles consisted of 180 people from all over the world. Not only are the<br />
trainees from all over the world, but the trainers are as well.”<br />
New consultants also learn how to use the Knowledge xChange, <strong>Accenture</strong>’s<br />
internal information-management system, which enables them to tap into<br />
mountains of data from all of the firm’s consulting assignments, regardless of<br />
business group or geographical location.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is increasingly offering training in an online format called<br />
myLearning.accenture.com. That’s a common way that <strong>Accenture</strong> employees<br />
learn new skills. For ongoing training there’s also a 3-day classroom training<br />
conducted by the company’s top leadership.<br />
The Workplace<br />
38
Career Path<br />
Most undergraduates enter the firm as analysts (or as business analysts, in strategy).<br />
Most MBAs enter the strategy service line as consultants or experienced analysts,<br />
if they lack significant prior experience.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> employees follow a defined career path with set milestones. New<br />
employees move from analyst, to consultant, to manager, to senior manager, to<br />
associate partner, and finally to partner. The chart below shows the opportunities<br />
for applicants in each of the three main categories: undergraduates, MBAs, and<br />
midcareer candidates.<br />
“The whole theory, in those couple of years, is that not only do you get the initial<br />
foundation, but it’s like a blank check to jump around with clients and get a<br />
broader experience,” says one <strong>insider</strong> about the Core <strong>An</strong>alysts Program. “After<br />
you’ve been with the firm for a few years, the expectation is that you’ve aligned<br />
with an industry group and specialty group. The further you go on, the more<br />
valuable you are if you have something unique.”<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> Career Path<br />
Job Title<br />
Eligibility<br />
The Workplace<br />
<strong>An</strong>alyst (except strategy) Undergrad hires, for 1½ to 3 years<br />
Business analyst (strategy only) Undergrad or MBA, entry-level hires, for 2 to 4 years<br />
Consultant<br />
New MBA hires and analysts with at least 2 years’ experience<br />
Manager<br />
Consultants with 2 to 4 years’ experience<br />
Senior manager<br />
Managers with 3 to 4 years’ experience<br />
Associate partner<br />
Experienced managers<br />
Partner Those elected to firm’s partnership (currently 2,300)<br />
Source: WetFeet research.<br />
39
Opportunities for Undergraduates<br />
Undergraduates join the CAP as analysts and, except in strategy, can generally<br />
find opportunities to move straight up the career ladder without investing a<br />
small fortune in another degree. On the strategy side, <strong>Accenture</strong> has a business<br />
analyst program for undergraduates.<br />
Depending on needs, <strong>Accenture</strong> offers a limited number of paid 10- to 12-week<br />
internships for undergraduates, typically in the summer before their senior year.<br />
The profile is similar to that of a full-time entry-level analyst. That is, they must<br />
have technical skills, a strong GPA and show involvement in extracurricular<br />
activities.<br />
The firm also sponsors several minority internship programs, including:<br />
The Workplace<br />
• Entry-Level Summer Intern Program, in which the firm works with<br />
identified star candidates from key schools and programs. This program<br />
includes a 3-day leadership conference.<br />
• Student Leadership Conference, in which the firm provides top students<br />
who are unable to perform internships with a 3-day leadership conference to<br />
learn about <strong>Accenture</strong>.<br />
• <strong>Accenture</strong>’s Commitment to Empower Successful Students Program is a<br />
multiyear mentorship program targeting top African-American and Hispanic-<br />
American students at key sources.<br />
• Diversity Leadership Weekend, in which students attend a 3-day leadership<br />
event led by Monster.com. Students get to network with each other during<br />
summer by attending workshops and information sessions.<br />
40
Opportunities for MBAs<br />
MBAs start as experienced analysts or consultants (some MBAs with little relevant<br />
work experience start as new analysts), and move up to manager, senior manager,<br />
associate partner, and partner. The trip to the top could take as little as 10 years.<br />
Insiders report some executives prefer to stay at the senior manager or manager<br />
level if they want to stay involved with the operational, hands-on side of consulting.<br />
Associate partners and partners spend much of the time selling the firm to<br />
clients.<br />
“You might be hired in strategy, [and] you’d be focused much more on analysis,”<br />
says an <strong>insider</strong>. “You’re involved much more on the early phases of a project.<br />
You wouldn’t be in a role at the tale end.”<br />
Opportunities for Midcareer Candidates<br />
Midcareer hires come into the firm at any level, from analyst to senior manager.<br />
“It varies greatly by profile and experience,” says an <strong>insider</strong> in recruiting. Many<br />
industry hires occur when <strong>Accenture</strong> expands and pulls in consultants knowledgeable<br />
in a skills area or industry sector. Often they come from a rival firm or<br />
within the industry. But consulting or industry experience doesn’t necessarily<br />
mean you’ll enter as a manager; with just a few years of work experience under<br />
your belt, you may still start as an analyst.<br />
The Workplace<br />
“We do it, but it’s usually because there’s a specific skill, and we need to have<br />
it,” says on <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
“It didn’t used to be common, but it’s increasingly common, because we’ve got<br />
a lot bigger. When we’ve branched out, we’ve needed to hire for a certain<br />
expertise,” says another <strong>insider</strong>. But experienced hires can sometimes have<br />
difficulties. “I’ve heard people say that they have a unique expertise that isn’t<br />
41
valued properly,” adds the <strong>insider</strong>. “Sometimes we were more interested in the<br />
process of doing something rather than the expertise. We put a lot of emphasis<br />
on methodology.”<br />
International Opportunities<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has offices in 48 countries and is well known around the world. In<br />
fact, the lion’s share of its hiring for its fiscal year 2004 is taking place outside<br />
the United States. <strong>An</strong>d in the first 6 months of 2004, non-U.S. business accounts<br />
made up 54 percent of the firm’s net revenues. But <strong>Accenture</strong> doesn’t currently<br />
offer many opportunities to go abroad.<br />
Instead, the firm prefers to staff locally. The most common way to do a stint<br />
overseas is to be staffed on an international project, which is only going to<br />
happen if your particular skill set is in demand and if you have the requisite<br />
language skills.<br />
The Workplace<br />
“I wouldn’t say it’s the norm,” says one <strong>insider</strong> in recruiting about overseas<br />
assignments. “If the client has a global presence, they have a large project-need<br />
outside the United States, we may deploy consultants,” says the <strong>insider</strong>. “We<br />
take interest in these opportunities seriously, or if they have a background in<br />
language, etc., that would make them particularly valuable.”<br />
42
Insider Scoop<br />
What Employees Really Like<br />
Neither Burnout nor Rust<br />
Sure, <strong>Accenture</strong> consultants, especially in strategy, can get tired of the meeting/<br />
deadline/meeting routine when projects heat up. Working out of town and<br />
flying back for a Friday to Sunday stay in your hometown can take its toll. But<br />
there’s a silver lining to the kind of work they do: the opportunity to, in essence,<br />
start a new job every 6 to 12 months. When things go as they should, consultants<br />
spend enough time on-site to truly know the client’s business and culture, but<br />
not so much time that they burn out. “One partner told me the partner lived in<br />
periods of 2-year chunks. You keep reevaluating and saying I’ll stay another<br />
2 years, and chances are, before long you’re a partner,” said one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
People Helping People<br />
Though it’s surprising given its size, <strong>Accenture</strong> gets good marks for openness,<br />
responsiveness, and flexibility. Insiders regularly highlight their colleagues’<br />
positive attributes when describing the atmosphere of the firm. “High performing,<br />
results-oriented, generally quite energetic,” says one <strong>insider</strong> about the people.<br />
It’s fairly young, although the slowdown in hiring over the last few years took<br />
away a little of that <strong>Accenture</strong> U. feeling. “We probably had a bit of a demo<br />
graphic shift, when we stopped the pipeline for recruiting. Now we’ve turned<br />
the taps back on,” says the <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
The Workplace<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> employees often embrace the networking possibilities the company<br />
provides, even if that means meeting after hours to plan a class and then teach<br />
43
it. They seem ready to spend a little of their personal time helping unknown<br />
colleagues, because they know they’ll get that service back some day. Managers<br />
and partners are reportedly approachable on projects. <strong>An</strong>d the firm, while large,<br />
isn’t inflexible when it comes to individual needs. “If you’re determined enough,<br />
if you’re persistent and not too much of a pain, you can usually get what you<br />
want,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
Opportunity Knocks<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is a great name to have on your resume, and it’s a great place to learn<br />
about a variety of industries and get quality training. One <strong>insider</strong> describes the<br />
typical departure points for consultants this way: “A lot of people leave between<br />
year 1 and 2—a lot of people who thought travel was fantastic and it wasn’t<br />
their cup of tea. The next batch, people leave at the 4-year mark. These people<br />
tend to leave because the headhunters drive them crazy, people who want to<br />
take advantage of the fact that we invest a lot in their training.”<br />
The Workplace<br />
The <strong>insider</strong> continues, “The next big area are people who leave between year 7<br />
and year 10. These people are leaving for a combination of getting very good<br />
roles, sometimes with clients. Or they’re starting to have a family, and it<br />
becomes a bigger deal being away.”<br />
Watch Out!<br />
Know What You’re Getting Into<br />
Contrary to what some MBAs might think, not everyone would give up his left<br />
tooth to get a strategy consulting job. <strong>Accenture</strong>’s strong suit has traditionally<br />
been systems integration, and <strong>insider</strong>s report that a lot of people are attracted<br />
to the firm because of its tech reputation. In fact, new analysts often don’t realize<br />
the scope of activities that <strong>Accenture</strong> consultants engage in.<br />
44
“The biggest misconception that new people have is around the technology<br />
parts of the business. It often depends on who they’ve interviewed with,” says<br />
one <strong>insider</strong>. “Sometimes they think they’re going to do lots of technology and<br />
want to know why we aren’t building a system. Then on the flip side, people<br />
who have done organization design, then they’re testing a system, and that’s not<br />
what they expected, either.”<br />
Jack-of-All-Trades?<br />
The bottom line to working in <strong>Accenture</strong>’s consulting practice is that you could<br />
easily end up with bit parts on a variety of projects, from writing training scripts<br />
to proofing user manuals to helping screw in large computer systems. The<br />
possibility for different types of project work seems only likely to expand as the<br />
firm builds out newer areas, such as outsourcing and offshoring, and partners<br />
sell clients packages of services—from high-level strategic thinking to nuts-andbolts<br />
system installation.<br />
“If you look at the firm like a bell curve, the far right would be pure strategy.<br />
We’re not pure strategy. We can do strategy and technology and outsourcing,”<br />
says one <strong>insider</strong>. “For <strong>Accenture</strong>, on a typical deal, the business consultant says<br />
we’ll implement the technology or we’ll outsource the function. The client<br />
might say, ‘If you execute it, that’s great, how about the strategic direction?’”<br />
The downside of working on different types of projects means “you’re a jackall-trades<br />
and a master of none,” says one <strong>insider</strong>. But rest assured, you will<br />
specialize whether you want to or not. Managers typically staff their projects<br />
with analysts and consultants who have particular industry, programming, or<br />
business analysis expertise. The more projects of a certain type that you do,<br />
the more likely you are to be a master of some.<br />
The Workplace<br />
45
Get Out and Mingle<br />
Almost from day 1, <strong>Accenture</strong> analysts and consultants have two jobs: working<br />
on a project for clients, and working to make sure they’ll be staffed on a good<br />
project when the current one ends. Of course, client work takes up the bulk of<br />
consultants’ time, energy, and focus. But <strong>insider</strong>s say it’s important to keep in<br />
touch with colleagues from past projects, acquaintances met at local industry<br />
gatherings, and anyone who might work on a project you’d want to join. In a<br />
word, networking.<br />
“You really don’t want to tempt fate by just plodding along,” says one <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
“In the best of times, you’ll just get marginal projects. In down times, you may<br />
not get projects at all. You really have to work hard to get to know people.”<br />
The Workplace<br />
46
Getting Hired<br />
• The Recruiting Process<br />
• Interviewing Tips<br />
Getting Hired<br />
47
The Recruiting Process<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has a fairly focused recruiting strategy. Recruitment areas are determined<br />
separately by industry needs. <strong>Accenture</strong> targets schools and applicants who fit<br />
those needs as well as those who fit its goals for retaining a diverse workforce.<br />
Local <strong>Accenture</strong> offices send out representatives from those groups to conduct<br />
marketing and interviewing at the selected schools in their areas.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> also accepts applications from students at schools at which it doesn’t<br />
recruit. The company advises would-be candidates to speak first with their campus<br />
career center to learn whether there’s a liaison at their school. If <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
does not visit your campus, students are encouraged to apply through the<br />
company website, by submitting a resume. Students should visit <strong>Accenture</strong> at<br />
www.campusconnection.accenture.com. The site also lists the locations currently<br />
hiring entry-level analysts.<br />
First-round interviews with <strong>Accenture</strong> take place on campus or by phone.<br />
They are really an initial screening, lasting from 15 to 20 minutes. But don’t be<br />
surprised if the manager throws some behavioral questions out at this stage.<br />
The company looks for people who can handle deadlines, work with colleagues<br />
in an office and act professionally with clients. “We go through a fairly involved<br />
assessment process,” says an <strong>insider</strong> in recruiting.<br />
Getting Hired<br />
Some questions you may be asked:<br />
• I’ve seen your resume; can you make it come alive?<br />
• Why consulting?<br />
• Why <strong>Accenture</strong>?<br />
• What group within the firm are you interested in? Why?<br />
48
• When was a time in your life that you had to<br />
meet deadlines?<br />
• How do you react to tough situations?<br />
“ ”<br />
Be honest—some<br />
setbacks often lead<br />
to other great<br />
examples of how<br />
someone handled<br />
them self.<br />
The second-round interview lasts 30 to 45 minutes<br />
and spends more time on behavioral questions, skills,<br />
and experience. “The manager wanted to know more<br />
about which group I was interested in, technology or<br />
process. He gave me a lot more detailed questions, like<br />
‘How do you handle team problems, individuals who don’t want to work,<br />
people who miscommunicate?’” says one <strong>insider</strong>. In other words, your interviewer<br />
will be looking for two things: examples from your background—usually school<br />
or work experience—that will shed light on how you’ll perform as an <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
employee, and evidence of how you operate as a problem solver.<br />
There’s more of an art to giving knockout answers to behavioral questions than<br />
one might think. <strong>An</strong> <strong>insider</strong> in recruiting advises, “Be prepared to walk through<br />
stories in detail. Focus on the role that you played specifically, not what a team<br />
did overall.”<br />
A typical question in the first or second round might be: “Tell me about a complex<br />
problem you had to solve, and walk me through your thinking as you solved it.”<br />
The third round is mostly a formality, say <strong>insider</strong>s. Candidates meet with more<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> executives, and if all goes well, can receive an offer from a partner.<br />
In general, “They basically want to see how you would handle yourself in a<br />
consultant-type role where you will be constantly changing projects and team<br />
members. They want to make sure that you can not only survive, but excel in<br />
this type of environment,” says an <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
Getting Hired<br />
49
“I would suggest that you pick a few examples out of your life where you have<br />
demonstrated these characteristics,” advises the <strong>insider</strong>. Don’t be afraid to give<br />
examples of leadership qualities the firm prides itself on. “They are looking for<br />
people who are very driven and who take charge of a situation when necessary.”<br />
The process for interviewing strategy candidates is much like that for candidates<br />
in the service lines, but with one exception: Strategy candidates are also asked<br />
to analyze and describe their thought processes related to case studies.<br />
“We ask general, open-ended questions that ask a recruit to describe a situation<br />
from his or her recent past,” says an <strong>Accenture</strong> recruiter. “We believe in the<br />
premise that past performance is the best indicator of future performance.<br />
Therefore, we are trying to understand what a recruit did, knowing that people<br />
often handle things similarly when faced with like situations,” says the <strong>insider</strong>.<br />
Getting Hired<br />
Each service line at <strong>Accenture</strong> draws people from distinct educational backgrounds,<br />
though the firm does make exceptions. Human performance hires, for instance, are<br />
likely to have degrees in areas such as organizational design, organizational behavior,<br />
industrial or organizational psychology, instructional design, executive leadership,<br />
liberal arts, and business with an organizational development or human resources<br />
concentration. Solutions operations hires generally have degrees in industrial<br />
engineering, management information systems, computer information systems,<br />
math, economics, or business administration. The various tech-oriented service<br />
lines hire folks with degrees in things like computer science, electrical engineering,<br />
computer engineering, management information systems, computer information<br />
systems, math, economics, and business administration.<br />
50
Undergraduates<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> hires the bulk of entry-level undergrads from computer science or<br />
engineering programs, plus organizational management and economics. Students<br />
from “softer” disciplines can get jobs at <strong>Accenture</strong>, but human performance is<br />
probably the group most receptive to English majors and the like. For positions<br />
other than those in strategy, <strong>Accenture</strong> recruits at many schools; check with<br />
your recruiting center.<br />
MBAs<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> hires a lot of MBAs—as well as other advanced-degree holders,<br />
such as PhDs, MDs, and JDs—and looks to programs far and wide to help<br />
fill its staffing needs. Compensation levels vary according to location and the<br />
candidate’s experience.<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> recruits for strategy at such top MBA schools as Harvard, U.C.<br />
Berkeley, Wharton, University of Chicago, Stanford, Kellogg, and MIT Sloan.<br />
Midcareer Candidates<br />
Historically, <strong>Accenture</strong> has hired a substantial number of experienced people.<br />
These hires include some who have worked in industry and some who have<br />
worked for other consulting firms. If you don’t have a contact in the firm, the<br />
best bet is to contact the recruiting director at the office of your choice. In any<br />
case, you’ll want to think long and hard about how to show that you’re a good<br />
fit in <strong>Accenture</strong>’s famously strong culture. At this level, prepare to show how<br />
your specific technical or industry skills and knowledge match <strong>Accenture</strong>’s needs.<br />
Experienced candidates generally go through two rounds of interviews—a<br />
screening interview followed by a behavioral and skills-assessment interview—<br />
but the process is much less set in stone than it is for undergrads and MBAs.<br />
Getting Hired<br />
51
Interviewing Tips<br />
After the first round, which exists mainly to screen out candidates whose resumes<br />
or personalities obviously don’t fit with <strong>Accenture</strong>, recruiters use the behavioral<br />
interviewing technique to seek out personality types that will fit well in the firm’s<br />
culture. They’re looking for well-rounded types with strong communication skills,<br />
problem-solving abilities, an interest in technology, determination, a strong<br />
learning capacity, a willingness to work hard, and flexibility, among other traits.<br />
1. To prepare for your interview, think about your work and school experiences,<br />
paying special attention to times when you worked as part of a group. Try<br />
to take every relevant piece of experience you have and demonstrate how that<br />
experience has directed you toward consulting and <strong>Accenture</strong> specifically.<br />
Have the names, dates, and numbers for these experiences at your fingertips<br />
so you can mention them quickly, and then spend time explaining their<br />
significance.<br />
Getting Hired<br />
2. Be prepared to discuss your feelings and emotional responses to work<br />
experiences. Insiders tell us that a big part of <strong>Accenture</strong>’s behavioral<br />
interviewing technique is to ask how you felt about particular situations,<br />
especially those involving conflict: What frustrated you and how did you<br />
overcome that frustration? In what areas are you particularly confident<br />
and why? What difficulties do you experience on group projects and how<br />
do you address those problems?<br />
3. Do your homework about the organization. Reading this <strong>guide</strong> is a good<br />
start. But also visit the company website (www.accenture.com) and look at<br />
the “Careers” section thoroughly. Do job searches and read related job<br />
52
announcements to familiarize yourself with the <strong>Accenture</strong> language. You’ll<br />
definitely want to know the structure of the firm and the differences between<br />
the services, not to mention have a compelling rationale for choosing one<br />
service line over the others.<br />
4. Recruiters are always impressed by an educated query. This is your chance<br />
to interview the company as it interviews you. If you can get the interviewer<br />
to try to sell the company to you rather than vice versa, you will have made<br />
an impression. The following are a few questions to help get you started:<br />
- What are the specific expectations you would have of me as a new<br />
employee, and how will <strong>Accenture</strong> help me meet those expectations?<br />
- How much client interaction should I expect?<br />
- What would you say are the benefits of having so many different industry<br />
and service lines in one company?<br />
- How much leeway would I have in determining which industry or client I<br />
will work for?<br />
Getting Hired<br />
53
For Your Reference<br />
For Your Reference<br />
• Recommended Reading<br />
• For Further Study<br />
• The Numbers<br />
• Et Cetera<br />
55
For Your Reference<br />
Recommended Reading<br />
“Skin in the Game”<br />
Corporate clients, wary of expensive consulting projects that don’t live up to<br />
promises, are pressuring firms like <strong>Accenture</strong> to tie fees to results.<br />
Source: Daniel Lyons, Forbes, 2/16/04.<br />
“Sharing Gains, Risks; <strong>Accenture</strong> Finds Opportunity in Business<br />
Transformation Outsourcing”<br />
<strong>An</strong> interview with a senior executive about the burgeoning market for<br />
outsourcing and <strong>Accenture</strong>’s place in it.<br />
Source: Stan Gibson, eWeek 3/15/04.<br />
“The Incredible Shrinking Consultant”<br />
The consulting industry may be changing, and according to this article,<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of those changes.<br />
Source: Melanie Warner, Fortune, 5/26/03.<br />
“A Rose by <strong>An</strong>y Other Name”<br />
A good discussion of the wisdom of <strong>An</strong>dersen Consulting changing its name;<br />
in hindsight, it was a smart move.<br />
Source: Joanne Gordon, Forbes, 3/4/02.<br />
56
For Further Study<br />
For Your Reference<br />
Spend some time looking at <strong>Accenture</strong>’s website at www.accenture.com.<br />
A general resource for information about the consulting industry is Consultants<br />
News, which is published by Kennedy Information. For more information about<br />
this and other Kennedy publications, visit ConsultingCentral.com or the Kennedy<br />
Information website at www.kennedyinfo.com.<br />
Visit www.WetFeet.com for more information about a number of consulting<br />
firms, their jobs, and recruiting. <strong>An</strong>d for help with your case interviews, check<br />
out the best-selling Ace Your Case series, also available at www.WetFeet.com.<br />
Finally, <strong>Accenture</strong> consultants have written or contributed to a wide array of<br />
books. For a taste of what you might be dealing with as a consultant, Check out<br />
What’s the Big Idea? Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking,a<br />
book that gives insight on when to pursue an idea; Geeks & Geezers: How Era,<br />
Values and Defining Moments Shape Leaders, co-authored by an <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
associate partner; Making Markets: How Firms can Design and Profit from Online<br />
Auctions and Exchange, co-authored by a senior research fellow at the <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
Institute for Strategic Change; and The Future of Leadership: Today’s Top Leadership<br />
Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow’s Leaders, to which three <strong>Accenture</strong> professionals<br />
contributed.<br />
57
For Your Reference<br />
The Numbers<br />
Revenue (in thousands) for the 6-month period ending February 29, 2004,<br />
compared to February 28, 2003:<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> Revenue<br />
Operating Group 2004 ($) 2003 ($) 1-Yr. Change (%)<br />
Communication & high tech 1,809,822 1,616,451 12<br />
Financial services 1,293,580 1,172,171 10<br />
Government 946,145 720,498 31<br />
Products 1,416,527 1,291,808 10<br />
Resources 1,092,895 950,985 15<br />
Other 4,825 4,241 14<br />
Total 7,256,792 6,516,470 11<br />
Source: www.accenture.com.<br />
58
Et Cetera<br />
For Your Reference<br />
Recruiting Contacts<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> is probably coming soon to a school near you. If not, your chances<br />
of getting a position will be tougher. Nevertheless, take heart: The firm is<br />
hiring lots of people, many of them during the off-season. It’s best to contact<br />
the recruiting coordinator at your office of choice (check the <strong>Accenture</strong><br />
website). If you’re a midcareer candidate interested in working in the United<br />
States, you can submit your resume at www.accenture.com.<br />
Key People<br />
Joe W. Forehand, Chairman and CEO (William D. Green will become CEO on<br />
September 1, 2004)<br />
Michael G. McGrath, Chief Financial Officer<br />
Stephan A. James, Chief Operating Officer—Capabilities<br />
William D. Green, Chief Operating Officer—Client Services, CEO designate<br />
R. Timothy S. Breene, Chief Strategy Officer<br />
59
For Your Reference<br />
Major Offices<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> has hundreds of offices around the world. For a complete list, check<br />
out www.accenture.com. Also refer to the New York address listed in the<br />
<strong>Accenture</strong> at a Glance section.<br />
Large U.S. offices include:<br />
Chicago<br />
161 North Clark Street<br />
Chicago, IL 60601<br />
Phone: 312-693-0161<br />
Fax: 312-693-0507<br />
San Francisco<br />
Spear Street Tower<br />
Suite 4200, One Market<br />
San Francisco, CA 94105<br />
Phone: 415-537-5000<br />
Fax: 415-537-5037<br />
Dallas<br />
5221 North O’Connor Boulevard, Suite 1400<br />
Irving, TX 75039<br />
Phone: 469-665-0000<br />
Fax: 469-665-2000<br />
60
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