Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana

“The biggest misconception that new people have is around the technology
parts of the business. It often depends on who they’ve interviewed with,” says
one insider. “Sometimes they think they’re going to do lots of technology and
want to know why we aren’t building a system. Then on the flip side, people
who have done organization design, then they’re testing a system, and that’s not
what they expected, either.”
Jack-of-All-Trades?
The bottom line to working in Accenture’s consulting practice is that you could
easily end up with bit parts on a variety of projects, from writing training scripts
to proofing user manuals to helping screw in large computer systems. The
possibility for different types of project work seems only likely to expand as the
firm builds out newer areas, such as outsourcing and offshoring, and partners
sell clients packages of services—from high-level strategic thinking to nuts-andbolts
system installation.
“If you look at the firm like a bell curve, the far right would be pure strategy.
We’re not pure strategy. We can do strategy and technology and outsourcing,”
says one insider. “For Accenture, on a typical deal, the business consultant says
we’ll implement the technology or we’ll outsource the function. The client
might say, ‘If you execute it, that’s great, how about the strategic direction?’”
The downside of working on different types of projects means “you’re a jackall-trades
and a master of none,” says one insider. But rest assured, you will
specialize whether you want to or not. Managers typically staff their projects
with analysts and consultants who have particular industry, programming, or
business analysis expertise. The more projects of a certain type that you do,
the more likely you are to be a master of some.
The Workplace
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