Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana
Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana
Vacation In September 2002, Accenture started its PTO, or paid time off, program. The firm doesn’t distinguish between vacation, personal, or sick days, providing employees with greater flexibility than a traditional vacation and sick time bank approach. From the corporation’s viewpoint, the PTO approach reduces unplanned absences and allows smoother business operations. Analysts and consultants get 25 PTO days, which include both vacation and personal days. Employees who work in outsourcing or the internal business functions at Accenture add on PTO days as they work—18 days for the first 5 years, then 21 days for the next 5 years. The Workplace In terms of being able to actually schedule vacations, due to the relatively stable nature of project work, a consultant can and will reach a point where the work will start to taper off. As such, scheduling is a fairly straightforward process— unlike that of other consulting firms. Insiders report that the firm strives to maintain a good work-life balance, whether that means helping employees get home on the weekends or recognizing overtime. “Managers are quite aware of the time and effort that you put into a project, and they never hesitate to appreciate you. While it is not necessarily company practice, some of my managers have bought me dinner on nights that we work a little longer,” says one insider. 36
Training Accenture provides technical and managerial skills development. At the entry level, employees in the consulting workforce can expect at least 300 hours of core training during their first 5 years. The training enables consultants to build a common corporate culture, and the firm sees it as a competitive advantage. So do other firms. Insiders report that Accenture analysts are often recruited by competitors in part because of the thorough training they receive at Accenture. A key component is a 2-week visit to the Accenture facility in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, Illinois. Analysts used to attend classes at the corporate campus shortly after they started work. Recently the firm shifted the schedule, and it now sends new recruits to St. Charles once they have several months of on-the-job experience. “It makes a lot more sense,” says one insider. “I would have been able to get a lot more experience from St. Charles after a year than right off the chute . . . also, it’s expensive for the firm to do it at the front end.” But Accenture won’t throw you into a big project cold. Most analysts start with a week’s orientation, followed by 2 weeks of guidance on skills necessary for interacting with a client and working on the project. Training helps consultants develop critical skills such as leadership, value creation, relationship building, business and technology acumen, selling, and methodology. But it also teaches hands-on skills such as programming languages used in the debugging and data analysis that occurs in so many of Accenture’s projects. The Workplace In training and thereafter, they are instructed on how to think, act, and speak like an Accenture consultant. As a result, people in Accenture all use a uniform 37
- Page 1 and 2: Accenture 2005 Edition WetFeet Insi
- Page 3 and 4: Insider Guide Accenture 2005 Editio
- Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Accenture at a Gl
- Page 7 and 8: Accenture at a Glance At a Glance H
- Page 9: Estimated Compensation, 2004 Underg
- Page 12 and 13: Overview The Company Accenture has
- Page 14 and 15: The Company With a brighter busines
- Page 16 and 17: Industry Position The Company Accen
- Page 18 and 19: Where MBAs Want to Work The Company
- Page 20 and 21: Nine service and solutions lines su
- Page 22 and 23: The Company Consultant teams do mos
- Page 24 and 25: Analysts On the Job Analysts at Acc
- Page 26 and 27: • Assess existing technology •
- Page 28 and 29: Consultants After a couple of years
- Page 30 and 31: A Day in the Life of a Strategy Con
- Page 32 and 33: Lifestyle and Hours Analysts and co
- Page 34 and 35: Culture Accenture is a company on t
- Page 36 and 37: Workplace Diversity Accenture has s
- Page 38 and 39: technology,” says one insider. An
- Page 40 and 41: Travel Most of Accenture’s work t
- Page 44 and 45: usiness language, so cross-group (o
- Page 46 and 47: Opportunities for Undergraduates Un
- Page 48 and 49: valued properly,” adds the inside
- Page 50 and 51: it. They seem ready to spend a litt
- Page 52 and 53: Get Out and Mingle Almost from day
- Page 54 and 55: The Recruiting Process Accenture ha
- Page 56 and 57: “I would suggest that you pick a
- Page 58 and 59: Interviewing Tips After the first r
- Page 61 and 62: For Your Reference For Your Referen
- Page 63 and 64: For Further Study For Your Referenc
- Page 65 and 66: Et Cetera For Your Reference Recrui
- Page 67 and 68: WETFEET’S INSIDER GUIDE SERIES JO
- Page 69 and 70: Who We Are WetFeet is the trusted d
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
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