Careers/Job Search

Accenture
Looking for a top-notch consulting and technology
services firm with a youthful culture and a high-end client roster? You’ll find that and more
at Accenture. Insiders say that having the Accenture name on your resume opens countless doors later
on and that they have the distinct pleasure of working with the best minds in the business. Hiring is
competitive and once in, you’ll be expected to work hard, but if you aspire to be involved in massive
projects for the nation’s largest Fortune 500 companies, Accenture is the place to be.

Accenture
Turn to this WetFeet Insider Guide to learn
• How Accenture stacks up against the competition.
• How the firm is organized, from top to bottom.
• What the typical responsibilities are and what day-to-day life is like for analysts and consultants.
• What employees love most and like least about working at Accenture.
• Detailed information about the workplace at Accenture, including the lifestyle and hours, culture,
compensation, travel, and training.
• What the recruiting process entails and what recruiters are looking for
• Tips from Accenture insiders for acing the interview.

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Insider Guide Accenture
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Accenture
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Table of Contents
Accenture at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Industry Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Organization of the Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

On the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Analysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Lifestyle and Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Workplace Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Career Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Insider Scoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Getting Hired. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Recruiting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Interviewing Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

For Your Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

For Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

The Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Et Cetera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
 At a Glance
Accenture at a Glance
Headquarters
Accenture is incorporated in Bermuda and does not have a fixed headquarters,
though the center of power is expected to shift slightly toward the Boston area
when it’s new CEO takes the helm. It has offices in more than three dozen U.S.
cities. Accenture’s recruiting function is based in its New York office:
1345 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10105
Phone: 917-452-4400
Fax: 917-527-9915
www.accenture.com

Primary Competitors
IBM, EDS, BearingPoint, Capgemini, Computer Sciences Corp., McKinsey &
Company

Key Differentiating Factors

• Accenture has about 95,000 employees in 48 countries.
• Accenture provides everything from hard-core technology support and top-
level strategic advice to outsourcing and human resources.
• The firm has a strong, young, and innovation-oriented culture.

In the Recruiter’s Words

“From a campus standpoint, we really look for people with a broad and diverse
set of experiences—computer science, management information systems,
economics, even through liberal arts.”
“Hiring has definitely increased from fiscal year 2003. With our market picking
up with the economy, that’s had ripple effects.”
“Come to the interview with several substantial and recent stories in mind, ones
which you believe demonstrate your interpersonal strengths, analytical prowess,
and ability to overcome challenges.”

1
At a Glance

What Insiders Say

In the interview, “I was asked how you handle team problems, individuals who
don’t work, people who miscommunicate. It was easy but you have to be
honest.”
“It’s very different from working in a traditional position, because you’re
working on a project. It focuses you.”

Career Ladder
• Accenture employees follow a defined career path with set milestones. New
employees move from analyst, to consultant, to manager, to senior manager,
and in some cases, to associate partner and partner. IT employees work as
programmers before moving into system analyst positions, and then in some
cases, into manager roles.
• Undergrads who join the firm as analysts can generally move to the
consultant level in 2 to 3 years. Undergrads entering into strategy start as
business analysts and may leave to go to business school after 3 or 4 years.
• Midcareer hires join at almost any level, depending on their programming or
industry experience.

Hiring Estimates
Accenture is hiring 30,000 people worldwide for its fiscal year ending August
31, 2004. About 8,000 of those positions are in the United States, and of those,
1,600 to 1,800 are likely to be new analysts that have just graduated or have a
few years of experience.

2
 At a Glance
 Estimated Compensation, 2004
Undergrad Hires
Starting salary: $38,000–55,000
Signing bonus: not usually
Relocation bonus: depends on need

MBA Hires
Starting salary: $60,000–100,000; a lot depends on work experience
Signing bonus: $10,000–15,000
Relocation bonus: depends on need

Midcareer Hires
Starting salary: $40,000–100,000
Signing bonus: $0–30,000 depending on experience
Relocation bonus: depends on need
Source: WetFeet estimates; Accenture does not release compensation data.

3
The Company

The Company
• Overview
• The Bottom Line
• Industry Position
• Organization of the Firm

5
 Overview
The Company

Accenture has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading management
consulting and technology services companies. Formally established in 1989 by a
group of partners from the consulting division of the various Arthur Andersen
firms around the world, Accenture began life as Andersen Consulting. From its
establishment until its incorporation in 2001, the company operated as a group
of more than 40 locally owned partnerships in 40-plus countries. Some things
have certainly changed since 1989: Arthur Andersen is no more, the Internet boom
has come and gone, and Andersen Consulting became Accenture and went public.
But there’s one thing that’s stayed the same: The company is still focused on
delivering top-notch consulting and technology services to organizations all
over the world.

Today, Accenture is a consulting behemoth with 95,000 employees toiling away

in 110 offices in 48 countries. The company’s traditional stronghold is systems
integration, but it also lays claim to formidable strategy, technology consulting,
human resources, and outsourcing practices. Accenture’s deep client roster is a
veritable who’s who list, one that straddles a multitude of industries; in addition
to a sizeable percentage of Fortune 500 companies, Accenture also consults to
a wide range of governmental and nonprofit organizations. Scoring massive projects
with high-profile organizations is the name of the game at Accenture. It made
headlines in June 2004 when an alliance led by Accenture won a Homeland Security
Department contract worth up to $10 billion.

Of course, the sputtering economy hit consulting companies hard, and Accenture
was no exception. In fact, as one of the few public consulting firms, it is
particularly sensitive to trends in the economy. For the first few years of this

6
decade, it introduced successive waves of layoffs and
“”
slowed down its recruiting efforts. Employees worked
longer and networked harder to make sure they wouldn’t Accenture can be a
find themselves “unstaffed,” or without a project and
great place to have a
career—you’ll have

The Company
thus more vulnerable to getting laid off, for too long.
the resources and
Says one insider, “In the bad times, you get a sense of
clout of a huge
your internal worth. The best people, in theory, wouldn’t
company behind
ever be available for a project because if you’re out there you—but it’s not for
networking, you’ll never be unstaffed.” everyone.
Since mid-2003, insiders report that the mood has
changed. The firm has “turned the taps back on,” for new hires, says an
insider, and skilled analysts and consultants again find themselves in demand
for projects.

Increased hiring stems directly from a rebound in the economy and, in particular,
the industry sectors Accenture serves. Communications and technology, financial
services, products (companies ranging from health care to travel services), and
resources are all growing at double-digit rates. For its 2004 fiscal year, the company
expects net revenue to rise 15 to 16 percent, up from 2 percent in 2003.

When corporations slashed their spending budgets during the downturn, contracts
with government agencies helped. They continue to buoy earnings. In the first
6 months of 2004, operating profits from its government sector made up 14.5
percent of total revenue. Meanwhile, it’s increasingly focused on outsourcing,
taking over whole IT or human resources functions for clients. In the last
year, Accenture has inked outsourcing deals with big firms such as Best Buy
and Deutsche Bank. Outsourcing now contributes nearly 40 percent of total
revenue. And in keeping with the trend rippling throughout the rest of Corporate
America, it’s helping companies move some of their operations offshore.

7
 With a brighter business outlook, some of the work strains seemed to have eased.
People don’t feel the need to put in extra overtime just to keep their job. But
make no mistake, the work is demanding. And the firm attracts the kind of
people who like to reach for high hurdles. “One plus about working here is the
The Company

kind of personality traits you can pick up—people here are at the top of their
game, A-types, go-getters,” says one insider.

Accenture tries to keep things from getting too intense. It keeps open lines of
communication between on-site employees and home-base operations through
regular e-mails, team and industry-specific meetings, and local get-togethers.
Everyone has a career counselor who works as the employee’s advocate when it
comes to staffing. The company also commits a ton of resources to training, and
passes on to its employees discounts on services, like cell phones, that come with
being a big multinational firm. It’s also got prestige: Accenture ranked first in its
industry in Fortune’s 2004 list of “America’s Most Admired Companies.”

Due in part to its university recruitment, Accenture has a youthful collegiate environment
in which employees have the energy to work hard as projects intensify as well as
the chance to relax with each other and interact socially. It’s not unusual for local
offices or project teams to play softball or have dinner together.

At work, insiders report a positive and cooperative environment. The atmosphere

might get a little stiffer when promotions are being decided. But the ability to
work well with one’s colleagues is a point of pride at the firm.

“There’s a culture of sharing. If someone happens to be an expert in Java

for instance, I feel I can pick up the phone even if I’ve never talked to them
before, and they’ll feel an extensive obligation, an esprit de corp, to help me
out,” says an insider.

As demanding as consulting can be, getting a job at Accenture can pose an

even greater challenge. Whether you’re an MBA or undergraduate, you should
be ready to sell yourself.

8
The Bottom Line

The Company
Accenture’s employees are often technically specialized and also educationally
diverse. They’ve joined the company because they want to get in on the diverse
range of professional experiences consulting has to offer. Competition for jobs is
intense. To be successful, candidates should try to demonstrate both team and
leadership experiences that combine technical and consulting know-how. If you
land a job, you’ll be in fairly good hands. The company is committed to training,
and once you’re ready to move on, just having the Accenture name on your
resume will open doors.

9
 Industry Position
The Company

Accenture is definitely one of the big kids on the consulting block. According
to Consultants News’ 2004 ranking of the “75 Largest Consulting Firms in the
World,” for the second year in a row, Accenture ranks second only to IBM in
global market share and consulting revenue. Few consulting firms offer as wide
a range of services as Accenture. Its technology and process groups compete
with top technical consulting firms such as IBM and EDS, its human performance
competency goes head to head with HR consulting firms such as Hewitt, and
its strategy group takes on strategy firms such as McKinsey and Deloitte.

10
 20 Largest Consulting Firms, by 2003 Consulting Revenue
Rank Firm
1 IBM

The Company
2 Accenture
3 Deloitte
4 Capgemini
5 CSC
6 BearingPoint
7 Hewlett-Packard
8 McKinsey & Co.
9 Mercer
10 SAP
11 T-Systems
12 Booz Allen Hamilton
13 LogicaCMG
14 Atos Origin
15 Oracle
16 Unisys
17 Altran
18 EDS
19 TietoEnator
20 Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Source: Excerpted and reprinted with permission of Consultants News June 2004; Consultants News/Kennedy Information,
Peterborough, NH 03458 USA; phone: 800-531-0007; www.ConsultingCentral.com.

11
 Where MBAs Want to Work
Accenture doesn’t have quite the cache among MBAs that the large strategy
firms such as McKinsey and Bain do. But in 2004 it moved up two notches to
number 27, between PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lehman Brothers. The
The Company

following ranking is a result of Universum’s 2004 survey of MBAs, who ranked

the companies where they would most like to work.

 Consulting Firms that Ranked in the Top 50

Rank Firm
1 McKinsey & Co.
4 IBM
7 Bain & Co.
10 Booz Allen Hamilton
11 Deloitte
13 Boston Consulting Group
27 Accenture
Source: Based on a study by Universum, published in Fortune. Ann Harrington, Fortune, 4/19/2004.

12
Organization of the Firm

The Company
View from the Top
Accenture is a public company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol ACN. At the top of the organization sits CEO Joe Forehand
and the executive committee of partners and officers who report directly to
him, followed by numerous steering and operating committees. Though the
firm has no fixed geographical headquarters, it has big offices in major U.S.
cities such as Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.

View from the Middle

Accenture is organized into several partially overlapping industry areas that
allow clients to choose from a smorgasbord of integrated consulting services.
The company maintains five global operations groups:

1. Financial services

2. Government

3. Communications and high tech

4. Products

5. Resources

13
 Nine service and solutions lines support the global operations groups:

1. Customer relationship management

2. Finance and performance management

The Company

3. Human performance

4. Strategy and business architecture

5. Supply chain management

6. Technology research and innovation

7. Technology solutions

8. Microsoft solutions

9. Outsourcing and infrastructure delivery

Accenture’s five operating groups function as umbrella units for 18 separate

industry areas and government services. The service lines are then broken
down between business consulting or technology and outsourcing. Some of
these groups could change by the time you get there; Accenture is continually
shifting its organizational structure. That’s not surprising, given that it’s in the
business of reorganizing companies and processes. “If we ourselves aren’t
changing, that means we’re stagnant, and we’re not a few steps ahead of the
client,” explains one insider.

The tasks in the various service areas can vary widely. Customer relationship
management, supply chain management, technology research, and technology
solutions often involve more of the hard-core technology work. Members of
the technology groups are more likely to work on-site for extended periods to
implement new technology. The human performance group deals largely with
the human resources and training issues that arise with technology work.

14
Strategy and business architecture, as well as finance and performance management,
involve higher level consulting work to determine the client’s business and technology
needs. Employees in these service lines do often join engineering projects, but also
handle a wide range of other related duties focusing on business process. Strategy

The Company
and business-architecture consultants work at the highest levels of projects and
might come in early on in a project to do trends and industry analysis. They often
get paid more (after all, strategy has to compete with Bain, BCG, Booz Allen, and
the other big-name, big-dollar firms).

One employee describes how various service roles overlap on a typical technology
project: “First comes requirement analysis, where consultants help define the
scope and design of the project. Then we work on common components, putting
together the technology architecture. Training—gathering training needs to use
the system—follows. Finally we build out the application, doing the detailed
coding and user acceptance testing.”

View from the Bottom

With Accenture’s senior executives selling the firm’s pricey services on the basis
of its highly trained workers, the firm encourages newcomers to constantly
expand their skill set. For your first few projects, you’ll probably hop around
between service areas, building programming and business skills along the way.
Although some folks like to think of themselves as industry generalists, most
insiders say it’s preferable and easier to stick within one industry and gain some
specialization. “New analysts are encouraged to get a lot of different roles,
because once people get to the 3- or 4-year mark, they’re starting to build up a
resume that we use to sell them [to clients],” says one insider. “If you have 3
years of experience in something you don’t really like, chances are you’re not
going to stick around.”

15
 Consultant teams do most of the work at the client site. These range from the small,
paratroop-like squads of the strategy unit, consisting of two to five members, to
massive mobilization units involving dozens to 100 or more folks from other service
areas. Because of the nature of the work, Accenture project teams tend to be
The Company

larger and more bottom-heavy than those of rival consulting firms that do less
systems work. Many projects have an organizational structure worthy of a small
firm: a senior manager or partner responsible for the most high-level client
interaction, followed several managers who are each responsible for a part of the
project and supervise two or three teams each of analysts and consultants.

Many analysts and consultants will have their own cubicle and workstation at
the client site. If they’re locally based, they may report every day to that station,
just like in an industry job. Strategy consultants and senior managers, who tend
to be more mobile, often work out of a laptop and “totes,” or moveable storage
containers.

Moving from job to job, compounded by the size of Accenture, can be a strain.
One insider describes the downside of working in consulting this way: “It’s so
big, you’re always changing clients, you never get a sense of belonging.”

Perhaps mindful of losing touch with its far-flung staff, Accenture has instituted
activities that connect consultants outside of work. Some are as informal as
dinners out. Others might be as time-consuming as teaching other consultants
about a new programming language.

In 1998, Accenture created market unit–based “communities” of 150 or so

employees grouped by their location and industry practice. These communities
meet quarterly in most cities to discuss everything from business to personnel
issues. The ostensible purpose might be to hear a presentation by a resources
consultant in Dallas. But they are really all about networking. “It’s to feel like
you belong to the company, to not get overwhelmed by the fact that it’s a big,
international firm,” says one insider.

16
On the Job
• Analysts
• Consultants

On the Job

17
 Analysts
Analysts at Accenture come into a market unit and the Core Analysts Program
(CAP). After an initial 2-week training, when they might participate in a mock
client engagement, they get staffed with an industry group. The CAP affords
them the chance to develop core skills through plenty of training as well as on-
the-job experience. “We expect all analysts to go in and be information sponges.
We want them to be learning how we work, soaking everything up,” says one
insider.
On the Job

After 12 to 18 months, they attend another round of training at Accenture’s campus

in St. Charles, Illinois. “We found that having the client experience earlier was
very helpful for our new analysts, to get on-the-job training,” said an insider in
recruiting.

Accenture’s business model revolves around throwing large numbers of people

into big projects where they focus on implementation and execution work. With
more seniority comes increased managerial responsibility, and ultimately, selling
the firm’s business to new clients. But at the start, analysts are considered the
“pack mules” of the consulting staff, says one insider. “You’ll do number crunching
and heavy analysis . . . rather than the high-level thinking—this is calculations,
building models, analyzing data line by line.”

18
Typical Responsibilities “”
Duties vary depending on the project, but insiders tell We expect all
us that the first year typically involves the following analysts to go in
types of tasks: and be information
sponges. We want
• Mapping business processes
them to be learning
• Gathering and analyzing client data how we work, soak-
• Developing design parameters for projects ing everything up.
• Designing computer modules
• Interviewing client management and employees
• Writing computer code and configuring software (IT)

On the Job
• Preparing user-training materials
• Implementing recommended changes at client site
• Developing training models

Strategy
On the strategy side, Accenture hires a small number of undergrads into
business analyst positions. “People on strategy spend more time analyzing the
industry, competitive analysis, identifying trends, valuation, economics,” says
one insider. “Traditional consultants deal with processes from an operational
standpoint—how they run the business. That’s not to say sometimes the two
don’t bleed into one another.”

Here’s a list of typical day-to-day tasks:

• Develop key performance metrics

• Conduct industry research
• Facilitate the flow of work units through their teams
• Discuss specific issues with in-house experts

19
 • Assess existing technology
• Conduct market research
• Develop and maintain client relationships
• Perform benchmarking analysis
• Analyze current systems and problems
• Recommend new approaches
• Present findings to team members

A Day in the Life of a First-Year Analyst

8:30 I get into the client site. While I take a few swigs of my coffee, I check
e-mails I got from the client. First I glance to see whether any problems
On the Job

sprouted up overnight. Then I check the requests that piled up earlier in

the week. Is there anything that’s a must-do today? Finally I sift through
my Accenture e-mails.
9:00 Open Microsoft Word and figure out where I last left off on the
documentation for the system we’re implementing. It’s pretty long—
two-thirds to go. Well, no time like the present.
12:00 It’s the manager’s birthday today, so the team heads out to lunch. Thank
goodness, I’m starved.
1:00 Back to the office. I dive back into the documentation. One page at a
time . . .
3:00 I nab a half-hour with one of the consultants when he gets out of
meetings. I’ve never done one of these documentation projects before,
and I want to make sure I’m on track. Is this what I should be doing
here and here?
3:30 He was really helpful with feedback. I keep working and make the
necessary updates.
4:00 Time for a status meeting with the rest of the team. Gives me a chance
to stretch my legs. I walk over to another building on the corporate
campus, where I meet up with my manager, the rest of the team, and
some members of the client firm. We go over what everyone’s working
on, ask questions about the project. It’s a good way to get to know
members of the team who work in different offices.

20
5:00 My manager has a cube in both buildings, so I just stay at the other
building and work on more detail analysis from his desk.
6:00 Time to head out. But first, I’ll stop by another consultant’s cubicle for
an update on our project’s softball team. They got the jerseys. But who
decided we were the Mariners?

A Day in the Life of an Experienced Analyst

8:00 Arrive at client site. Spend 45 minutes checking client e-mails, voice
mail, and Accenture e-mails. There are so many! Working with people in
different time zones means my inbox really fills up when I’m not here.
9:00 Meet with the internal team to discuss any problems and what we need
to get done today.

On the Job
10:30 Back to my desk to tackle my ongoing work for this project. This time,
it’s mostly trends analysis and market research.
12:15 Time for lunch. That means walking down to the sandwich shop,
grabbing something, and eating at a private table in the corner—my
workstation.
1:00 Time to meet with the clients, who are right down the hall. We go over
progress to date, discuss certain initiatives, make sure we’re on the same
page.
3:00 Back at my desk, working on deliverables—the work we’ll present to the
client. If only I can concentrate on it for a few hours . . .
4:00 Not so fast. My teammates have some questions about a technical aspect
of the project they know I’ve handled before. We talk and go over the
problem.
5:00 I might just have enough time to finish up the presentation before I
leave. Now where was I?
6:00 I’m on track to meet this week’s deadline, so I leave earlier than usual.
Tomorrow’s going to be a long day, so better take off while the going’s
good!

21
 Consultants
After a couple of years with the firm, Accenture’s undergraduate hires can become
consultants. Consultants have many of the same day-to-day tasks as analysts, with
one big exception: They manage a small team. “After a few years at the firm, you’d
be in a supervisory capacity—you’d be responsible for the output of three to five
people,” says one insider.

Also at the consultant and manager levels are those advanced-degree holders
(e.g., MBAs and/or CPAs, especially those in process and strategy) who are
On the Job

deemed ready to perform at this level. Many MBAs are also hired as experienced
analysts, bringing them a year or two closer to the consultant position than a
new analyst with just an undergraduate degree. Often MBAs go straight to the
firm’s strategy unit. Says one insider in recruiting, “Typically folks we target are
completing degree programs with a strategy emphasis. They combine that with
pretty significant work experience, and it gives them a nice package.”

Typical Responsibilities
• Lead project meetings
• Monitor and report on project status
• Lead presentations
• Interview vendors
• Supervise analysts
• Facilitate brainstorming sessions
• Conduct client interviews and workshops
• Assess existing technology and future needs

22
• Develop acceptance criteria
• Oversee implementation of technical applications (IT)
• Develop and implement financial models
• Oversee training applications
• Conduct structure analysis

A Day in the Life of an IT Consultant

8:30 Arrive at the site. Check my e-mail to see if tests found any bugs over
night. Yep, there are a few critters in this system.
9:00 Meet with the tester to get more information about the bugs. What’s the
impact? By when do we need to resolve them?

On the Job
10:00 It’s a high-priority bug, so all hands on deck. I shove aside my other
work and focus on clearing up this problem.
12:00 Almost there, but not quite. Still, I need refueling. I head for the elevator
bank and grab a sandwich at the coffee shop downstairs. I read over any
Accenture e-mails I might have glossed over while I munch through my
lunch.
1:00 Work out the last kinks. There! Now I can shift my attention to new
development and new features we’re considering for this project.
3:00 Meet with clients and other Accenture consultants about some of the
new features we’re planning. It’s a good time to make sure we’re in touch
with the client’s needs—and pick some of my colleagues’ smart brains.
4:00 I start working on a proposal for one of these features, trying to distill
what people want and what we can do.
5:00 I check back with the client to make sure everything’s OK with that
earlier problem. Then I’m back on our proposal.
6:30 Time to head out. A bunch of folks from my last project are meeting to
watch the game at 7:00 and I’ve told them to save me a stool.

23
 A Day in the Life of a Strategy Consultant
7:30 I’m at my computer, waiting for the aircon to kick in. I need to wrap up
a PowerPoint presentation that’s due this morning, so no time for chit-
chatting with clients over the coffee maker.
11:00 Finished! I click through the slides with my supervisor, and we go over
the presentation.
11:30 She suggests an early lunch, to which I happily agree. Even if it’s a quick
one.
12:00 We head over to the other building and find the conference room where
we’ll meet some of the client managers. We present the PowerPoint and
answer any questions they have.
2:00 The meeting wraps up and my supervisor and I head back to the other
On the Job

building. We usually have a post-mortem on big meetings. This time we

discuss how the meeting went while we walk.
2:15 I’m back at my desk trying to tackle a bunch of other work that’s piled
up. I open up a spreadsheet but then . . .
2:30 One of my teammates, a new analyst, has a question about the analysis
he’s responsible for. I’ve done this twice in past projects, so I sit down
with him and show him the ropes.
3:00 Back to my desk and check to see how far I’ve got on my file.
3:05 Not so fast. Another colleague comes by with a different problem. I sit
down with her, discuss what she’s tried, and give her some advice. It’s a
tricky one, and we spend an hour trying to untangle it.
4:30 Yikes. How did it get so late? I try to get at least half of this report
done.
6:00 I head for the door, but I’ve got a laptop in hand. I’ll have to wrap up
this work tonight because my manager wants to see it tomorrow. Oh
well, it was going to be quiet evening at the hotel anyway.

24
The Workplace
• Lifestyle and Hours
• Culture
• Workplace Diversity
• Compensation
• Travel

The Workplace
• Vacation
• Training
• Career Path
• Insider Scoop

25
 Lifestyle and Hours
Analysts and consultants should expect an active daily work schedule that gets
filled up quickly with meetings, technical problem solving, and individual report
work. There’s not a lot of down time: Insiders are continually responding to
demands from managers, teammates, or clients. One insider estimates that
consultants spend 20 to 50 percent of the day in meetings. When you’re not
interacting with the client or fixing bugs, you’ll try to squeeze in an hour to
concentrate on analysis and documentation projects that may be assigned to you.

Accenture folks often find themselves on deadline, as teams finish stages of the
bigger project. “There are some self-enforced and some very hard ones. Generally
no one likes to delay a project. At the same time, if this doesn’t get done, you
don’t like to move on to the next change,” says one insider.

Projects can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. Regardless of how
The Workplace

short or long they are, projects operate in cycles. So consultants can expect to
work longer hours and even some weekends when a big deadline looms. “Its
sort of like a college class schedule,” says one insider. “There are times when
things are slow and chugging along, times when you put a little more in and if
you pace yourself you should be fine.” Says another insider, “I have had to
work a few nights, but nothing too crazy. As you get higher up in the company,
you tend to work a few more hours, but that is expected with the nature of the
job. I have only had to work weekends once, but that was told to me ahead of
time and it was due to the nature of the project (a week-long assignment in a
sunny location, which I didn’t mind at all).”

26
Aside from a busy schedule, travel is definitely a part of the Accenture lifestyle.
For the most part, that means spending the week with the client and a long
weekend at home, often for months at a time. “When you’re more junior,
you’re going to be dedicated to one client, so it’s not like you’re going to be
flying into Chicago on Monday and then Des Moines on Wednesday,” says one
insider. Still, travel takes it’s toll. “Everyone tells me you get sick of it after a
year,” says another.

The Workplace

27
 Culture
Accenture is a company on the move, one that’s engaged in a wide variety of
projects in a bunch of different locations. As such, Accenture’s culture can vary
from one extreme to another depending on the client you are working for and
the office in which you reside. Employees who work at the client site, especially
for extended periods, will find themselves interacting with the client’s culture as
much as Accenture’s. “On average, we aspire to blend in with our clients. In my
projects, I want client people on our team, I want them to be integrated,” said
one insider. “We go to lunch together, go out after work. That’s probably very
typical except on the large tech projects, where you have a pod of people in the
back room.”

Says another, “We spend 85 to 95 percent of our time at the client site. It may
be a little less true these days, because we actually have offices, where we can
work for clients at an Accenture office. But most of the time, it’s at the client site.”
The Workplace

Two recent events—the downturn in the economy and the transformation of

the firm from one owned and run by partners to a publicly owned firm—have
left their mark.

“Because we’re now a public company and our finances are subject to analyst
scrutiny, there’s more focus on financials and profit margins than there was
before. That has a trickle-down effect—there may be less money for someone
to put in a training budget, for instance.” The insider adds, “If there were
changes, it’s hard to say if they were due to strictly economic factors or going
public and needing to be more investor-friendly.”

28
Another change that followed the firm’s stock listing
“”
has been awarding bonuses. “At the consultant level,
your bonus is going to be relatively small compared to It’s definitely more
your salary. It’s mostly affected by the firm at large,
collegial than some
other firms. They
and to a somewhat lesser extent by your industry
encourage
group,” is the way one insider describes them.
teamwork. You get
Accenture has a youthful atmosphere that lends itself off the plane and
easily to making contacts that will last as you move you don’t know any
from project to project. “Over all, people like going of your colleagues.
out with each other after work. It’s pretty young, and
Within an hour,
you’re working
there’s quite a bit of socializing, especially when
together.
you’re out of town.”

In spite of the youthful, work-hard/play-hard atmosphere—or maybe because

of it—employees respond well to Accenture’s high standards, which require a
lot of dedication and self-discipline on the part of the employees. As one
insider says, “You do get a lot of opportunities. You’re there because they can’t
do something internally, so you continually have to prove your worth.”

The Workplace
And finally, the people at Accenture seem to genuinely like and respect each other.
Good interpersonal skills and a willingness to help are definitely more common than
“me first” attitudes. Of course, people who don’t play well with others are probably
not a good fit for consulting. Insiders consistently proclaimed the willingness of
colleagues in different cities or even countries to respond to a request for help at the
drop of a hat. “We have a very strong collaborative culture. If I go on the
[companywide] portal, and post questions, I immediately get answers,” says
one insider.

29
 Workplace Diversity
Accenture has spent a lot of time trying to recruit and make working conditions
amenable to people of color and other minority groups. The diversity program
focuses on themes such as mentorship, recruitment, career counseling, schedule
flexibility for parents, and retention of women and minorities. Accenture’s
Chief Diversity Officer Kedrick Adkins has created the Diversity Advisory
Council, a group of leadership partners with representation across all segments
of the company. This group is instrumental in setting strategic direction and
implementing key initiatives.

In terms of recruiting, Accenture offers internships, jobs, and scholarships

through INROADS, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society
of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Once employees start working, Accenture
offers a sponsorship program in addition to its recruiting program. Sponsors
work with others on the employee’s behalf, particularly when it comes to salary
The Workplace

increases or promotion discussions, and the company’s diversity unit is pushing

to get women and minorities strong sponsors.

“We are spending a lot of time working with our senior leadership. That’s not
to say that we didn’t have their interest and visibility before, but I spend the
vast majority of my time working with our senior executives on diversity-related
opportunities, such as recruiting and promotion,” says Adkins in a recent
interview in The Black Collegian. “I report directly to our CEO, Joe Forehand,
which speaks volumes to the importance our company places on diversity.”

In addition, the firm offers diversity training. Some highlights include a 3-hour
instructor-led course that demonstrates the importance of appreciating and

30
valuing the dynamics between men and women; the “diversity principle,” a
1-hour course that underlines that diversity in the workforce is a key company
priority and shows how stereotypes can contribute to a nonproductive work
environment; and “the diversity principle in motion,” a group workshop on
recognizing inappropriate behaviors related to differences in the workplace.

As far back as 1994, Accenture was named one of the “100 Best Companies
for Gay Men and Lesbians” in the Ed Mickens book of the same title. Among
the seven networking groups that comprise its Local Office Diversity Program
is one for gay and lesbians. Plus, Accenture extends domestic partner benefits
to U.S. personnel in same-sex relationships under its medical, dental, and dependent
life insurance plans. The plans and their benefits are the same as those available
to spouses of married personnel, wherever it is legally possible to do so. Children
of same-sex domestic partners can be covered under the same rules as those
for children of married personnel.

Opportunities for Women

The Workplace
Like the consulting industry as a whole, Accenture has relatively low female
representation among its very senior management. At last count, three of its
21 management committee members were female. Still, the number of women
in top positions at Accenture has steadily increased over the past decade. The
percentage of female senior-level executives rose from 5.8 percent in 1994 to
10 percent in 2002. However, in 2002 (most recent available) women only
accounted for a little more than 14 percent of all promotions to partner status
globally and 19 percent of all promotions to partner in the United States.

In general, insiders report plenty of women in the workforce, though some

areas attract more than others. “There are quite a number of females, but it’s
very polarized. It’s often in testing and functional design, and less in

31
 technology,” says one insider. Another says, “When I was hired in, not many
women were hired at the same time. I think that’s just coincidence, though. On
my current project, more than half of my team members are female and they
hold positions at all levels.”

In 1995, Accenture leadership created a U.S. Women’s Initiatives team composed

of eight women partners and led by Managing Partner Pam Craig. These women
represent all U.S. regions and industries and work closely with the firm’s CEO to
identify strategies that will attract, retain, promote, and advance women at
Accenture. Some of the programs include local women’s initiatives (31 women’s
teams in U.S. offices), mentoring/sponsorship, training, and work-life integration.
The firm works hard to make it possible for working mothers to achieve a work-
life balance, with such options as part-time schedules and job sharing.

“Accenture gives great emphasis to providing opportunities for personal growth

and advancement for women,” says a female insider. “Additionally, all of my
mentors at Accenture have been men—each of whom has shown an enormous
interest in providing feedback and helping me achieve my personal goals and
aspirations.”
The Workplace

Accenture’s efforts earned it the praise and notice of outsiders. In September

2003, the firm made its debut on Working Mother’s 18th annual “100 Best
Companies for Working Mothers.” That same year it won a Catalyst award for
its efforts to include women in its workforce. Catalyst, a nonprofit research and
advisory organization working to advance women in business and the professions,
honors innovative approaches with proven results taken by companies attempting
to address the recruitment, development, and advancement of all managerial women,
including women of color.

32
Compensation
Accenture has been known to pay well and to offer significant raises. Though
the weak economy brought back salaries for both MBAs and undergraduates
to preboom levels, the rebound is trickling down to even new hire levels.
Undergraduate hires can expect to start in the $40,000 to $55,000 range, and
insiders report raises are anywhere from 10 to 20 percent a year.

MBAs and other advanced-degree holders entering the strategy practice should
start from $60,000 to $100,000, depending on office location, educational background,
and work experience. Of course, many MBAs move to the level of manager a
few years after they start, getting an additional salary boost when they advance.

“A lot of the MBA programs are people who have pretty good experience—4
or 5 years experience in some fields,” says one insider. “Typically when we hire
off the higher-ranking MBA schools, we’ll bring those people in at a manager

The Workplace
level with the expectation that they’ll be a senior manager fairly soon.”

Note: Compensation numbers are based on WetFeet research; Accenture does

not release this information.

33
 Travel
Most of Accenture’s work takes place at client sites, and you’ll often need to
travel to get there. For some, this is a perk, and for others, a trying routine.

To try to lessen the burden of being away from friends and family for days at a
time, the firm follows a “seven to seven” schedule, meaning consultants leave for
the client site around 7:00 a.m. on Monday morning and are at home by Friday at
7:00 p.m. Many return to their home city on Thursday night and then work from
their home or a local Accenture office on Friday. “The plus is that you’re spending
more nights at home than at the apartment. The downside—you’re still
spending three nights away,” says an insider.

Some insiders report that travel has subsided from years past. “We tend to have
much larger contracts and that lets you forecast what your demand is, rather
than having short-term demand where you’re bringing in short-term resources.”
The Workplace

On the flip side, strategy consultants, whose project work can be as short as a
month, can find themselves in several cities each year.

A lot of factors go into whether you end up in Honolulu or Manhattan, starting

with your skill set and whether you’re in an industry group that’s clustered around
certain cities. And not everyone ends up living out of a suitcase 4 days a week.
Consultants in government services, not surprisingly, can work for years out of
their home base—as long as it’s Washington, D.C., or another big capital city.
“It’s really just luck of the draw. It’s very much timing—if you happen to be
available at a time when there’s a big demand for a project that’s in another city,
you’ll be on that project.”

34
Accenture also has a program called Flexible Fly-Back, which means you do not
need to return to your home office every weekend. Instead, every other “flyback”
(for assignments within the United States this equates to once every 2 weeks),
you can fly anywhere else as long as the ticket is no more than what it would
cost to fly home. For instance, an employee who is headquartered in Los Angeles
but working in New York could fly to London for the weekend instead of back
to Los Angeles. Accenture employees may also fly friends or family members to
their engagement locations. This provision is also available on cross-border
assignments.

The Workplace

35
 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.

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—
The Workplace

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

The Workplace
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.

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
 business language, so cross-group (or transnational) communication poses no
problem (in theory, at least). One insider says, “Our 2-week training course in
St. Charles consisted of 180 people from all over the world. Not only are the
trainees from all over the world, but the trainers are as well.”

New consultants also learn how to use the Knowledge xChange, Accenture’s
internal information-management system, which enables them to tap into
mountains of data from all of the firm’s consulting assignments, regardless of
business group or geographical location.

Accenture is increasingly offering training in an online format called

myLearning.accenture.com. That’s a common way that Accenture employees
learn new skills. For ongoing training there’s also a 3-day classroom training
conducted by the company’s top leadership.
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38
Career Path
Most undergraduates enter the firm as analysts (or as business analysts, in strategy).
Most MBAs enter the strategy service line as consultants or experienced analysts,
if they lack significant prior experience.

Accenture employees follow a defined career path with set milestones. New
employees move from analyst, to consultant, to manager, to senior manager, to
associate partner, and finally to partner. The chart below shows the opportunities
for applicants in each of the three main categories: undergraduates, MBAs, and
midcareer candidates.

“The whole theory, in those couple of years, is that not only do you get the initial
foundation, but it’s like a blank check to jump around with clients and get a
broader experience,” says one insider about the Core Analysts Program. “After
you’ve been with the firm for a few years, the expectation is that you’ve aligned

The Workplace
with an industry group and specialty group. The further you go on, the more
valuable you are if you have something unique.”

 Accenture Career Path

Job Title Eligibility
Analyst (except strategy) Undergrad hires, for 1½ to 3 years
Business analyst (strategy only) Undergrad or MBA, entry-level hires, for 2 to 4 years
Consultant New MBA hires and analysts with at least 2 years’ experience
Manager Consultants with 2 to 4 years’ experience
Senior manager Managers with 3 to 4 years’ experience
Associate partner Experienced managers
Partner Those elected to firm’s partnership (currently 2,300)
Source: WetFeet research.

39
 Opportunities for Undergraduates
Undergraduates join the CAP as analysts and, except in strategy, can generally
find opportunities to move straight up the career ladder without investing a
small fortune in another degree. On the strategy side, Accenture has a business
analyst program for undergraduates.

Depending on needs, Accenture offers a limited number of paid 10- to 12-week

internships for undergraduates, typically in the summer before their senior year.
The profile is similar to that of a full-time entry-level analyst. That is, they must
have technical skills, a strong GPA and show involvement in extracurricular
activities.

The firm also sponsors several minority internship programs, including:

• Entry-Level Summer Intern Program, in which the firm works with
identified star candidates from key schools and programs. This program
includes a 3-day leadership conference.
• Student Leadership Conference, in which the firm provides top students
who are unable to perform internships with a 3-day leadership conference to
The Workplace

learn about Accenture.

• Accenture’s Commitment to Empower Successful Students Program is a
multiyear mentorship program targeting top African-American and Hispanic-
American students at key sources.
• Diversity Leadership Weekend, in which students attend a 3-day leadership
event led by Monster.com. Students get to network with each other during
summer by attending workshops and information sessions.

40
Opportunities for MBAs
MBAs start as experienced analysts or consultants (some MBAs with little relevant
work experience start as new analysts), and move up to manager, senior manager,
associate partner, and partner. The trip to the top could take as little as 10 years.
Insiders report some executives prefer to stay at the senior manager or manager
level if they want to stay involved with the operational, hands-on side of consulting.
Associate partners and partners spend much of the time selling the firm to
clients.

“You might be hired in strategy, [and] you’d be focused much more on analysis,”
says an insider. “You’re involved much more on the early phases of a project.
You wouldn’t be in a role at the tale end.”

Opportunities for Midcareer Candidates

Midcareer hires come into the firm at any level, from analyst to senior manager.
“It varies greatly by profile and experience,” says an insider in recruiting. Many
industry hires occur when Accenture expands and pulls in consultants knowl-

The Workplace
edgeable in a skills area or industry sector. Often they come from a rival firm or
within the industry. But consulting or industry experience doesn’t necessarily
mean you’ll enter as a manager; with just a few years of work experience under
your belt, you may still start as an analyst.

“We do it, but it’s usually because there’s a specific skill, and we need to have
it,” says on insider.

“It didn’t used to be common, but it’s increasingly common, because we’ve got
a lot bigger. When we’ve branched out, we’ve needed to hire for a certain
expertise,” says another insider. But experienced hires can sometimes have
difficulties. “I’ve heard people say that they have a unique expertise that isn’t

41
 valued properly,” adds the insider. “Sometimes we were more interested in the
process of doing something rather than the expertise. We put a lot of emphasis
on methodology.”

International Opportunities
Accenture has offices in 48 countries and is well known around the world. In
fact, the lion’s share of its hiring for its fiscal year 2004 is taking place outside
the United States. And in the first 6 months of 2004, non-U.S. business accounts
made up 54 percent of the firm’s net revenues. But Accenture doesn’t currently
offer many opportunities to go abroad.

Instead, the firm prefers to staff locally. The most common way to do a stint
overseas is to be staffed on an international project, which is only going to
happen if your particular skill set is in demand and if you have the requisite
language skills.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the norm,” says one insider in recruiting about overseas
assignments. “If the client has a global presence, they have a large project-need
The Workplace

outside the United States, we may deploy consultants,” says the insider. “We
take interest in these opportunities seriously, or if they have a background in
language, etc., that would make them particularly valuable.”

42
Insider Scoop
What Employees Really Like
Neither Burnout nor Rust
Sure, Accenture consultants, especially in strategy, can get tired of the meeting/
deadline/meeting routine when projects heat up. Working out of town and
flying back for a Friday to Sunday stay in your hometown can take its toll. But
there’s a silver lining to the kind of work they do: the opportunity to, in essence,
start a new job every 6 to 12 months. When things go as they should, consultants
spend enough time on-site to truly know the client’s business and culture, but
not so much time that they burn out. “One partner told me the partner lived in
periods of 2-year chunks. You keep reevaluating and saying I’ll stay another
2 years, and chances are, before long you’re a partner,” said one insider.

The Workplace
People Helping People
Though it’s surprising given its size, Accenture gets good marks for openness,
responsiveness, and flexibility. Insiders regularly highlight their colleagues’
positive attributes when describing the atmosphere of the firm. “High performing,
results-oriented, generally quite energetic,” says one insider about the people.
It’s fairly young, although the slowdown in hiring over the last few years took
away a little of that Accenture U. feeling. “We probably had a bit of a demo
graphic shift, when we stopped the pipeline for recruiting. Now we’ve turned
the taps back on,” says the insider.

Accenture employees often embrace the networking possibilities the company

provides, even if that means meeting after hours to plan a class and then teach

43
 it. They seem ready to spend a little of their personal time helping unknown
colleagues, because they know they’ll get that service back some day. Managers
and partners are reportedly approachable on projects. And the firm, while large,
isn’t inflexible when it comes to individual needs. “If you’re determined enough,
if you’re persistent and not too much of a pain, you can usually get what you
want,” says one insider.

Opportunity Knocks
Accenture is a great name to have on your resume, and it’s a great place to learn
about a variety of industries and get quality training. One insider describes the
typical departure points for consultants this way: “A lot of people leave between
year 1 and 2—a lot of people who thought travel was fantastic and it wasn’t
their cup of tea. The next batch, people leave at the 4-year mark. These people
tend to leave because the headhunters drive them crazy, people who want to
take advantage of the fact that we invest a lot in their training.”

The insider continues, “The next big area are people who leave between year 7
and year 10. These people are leaving for a combination of getting very good
The Workplace

roles, sometimes with clients. Or they’re starting to have a family, and it

becomes a bigger deal being away.”

Watch Out!
Know What You’re Getting Into
Contrary to what some MBAs might think, not everyone would give up his left
tooth to get a strategy consulting job. Accenture’s strong suit has traditionally
been systems integration, and insiders report that a lot of people are attracted
to the firm because of its tech reputation. In fact, new analysts often don’t realize
the scope of activities that Accenture consultants engage in.

44
“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-and-
bolts 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,”

The Workplace
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 jack-

all-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.

45
 Get Out and Mingle
Almost from day 1, Accenture analysts and consultants have two jobs: working
on a project for clients, and working to make sure they’ll be staffed on a good
project when the current one ends. Of course, client work takes up the bulk of
consultants’ time, energy, and focus. But insiders say it’s important to keep in
touch with colleagues from past projects, acquaintances met at local industry
gatherings, and anyone who might work on a project you’d want to join. In a
word, networking.

“You really don’t want to tempt fate by just plodding along,” says one insider.
“In the best of times, you’ll just get marginal projects. In down times, you may
not get projects at all. You really have to work hard to get to know people.”
The Workplace

46
Getting Hired
• The Recruiting Process
• Interviewing Tips

Getting Hired

47
 The Recruiting Process
Accenture has a fairly focused recruiting strategy. Recruitment areas are determined
separately by industry needs. Accenture targets schools and applicants who fit
those needs as well as those who fit its goals for retaining a diverse workforce.
Local Accenture offices send out representatives from those groups to conduct
marketing and interviewing at the selected schools in their areas.

Accenture also accepts applications from students at schools at which it doesn’t

recruit. The company advises would-be candidates to speak first with their campus
career center to learn whether there’s a liaison at their school. If Accenture
does not visit your campus, students are encouraged to apply through the
company website, by submitting a resume. Students should visit Accenture at
www.campusconnection.accenture.com. The site also lists the locations currently
hiring entry-level analysts.

First-round interviews with Accenture take place on campus or by phone.

They are really an initial screening, lasting from 15 to 20 minutes. But don’t be
surprised if the manager throws some behavioral questions out at this stage.
The company looks for people who can handle deadlines, work with colleagues
in an office and act professionally with clients. “We go through a fairly involved
assessment process,” says an insider in recruiting.

Some questions you may be asked:

Getting Hired

• I’ve seen your resume; can you make it come alive?

• Why consulting?
• Why Accenture?
• What group within the firm are you interested in? Why?

48
• When was a time in your life that you had to
meet deadlines? “”
• How do you react to tough situations? Be honest—some
setbacks often lead
The second-round interview lasts 30 to 45 minutes
to other great
and spends more time on behavioral questions, skills, examples of how
and experience. “The manager wanted to know more someone handled
about which group I was interested in, technology or them self.
process. He gave me a lot more detailed questions, like
‘How do you handle team problems, individuals who don’t want to work,
people who miscommunicate?’” says one insider. In other words, your interviewer
will be looking for two things: examples from your background—usually school
or work experience—that will shed light on how you’ll perform as an Accenture
employee, and evidence of how you operate as a problem solver.

There’s more of an art to giving knockout answers to behavioral questions than

one might think. An insider in recruiting advises, “Be prepared to walk through
stories in detail. Focus on the role that you played specifically, not what a team
did overall.”

A typical question in the first or second round might be: “Tell me about a complex
problem you had to solve, and walk me through your thinking as you solved it.”

The third round is mostly a formality, say insiders. Candidates meet with more
Accenture executives, and if all goes well, can receive an offer from a partner.

In general, “They basically want to see how you would handle yourself in a

Getting Hired
consultant-type role where you will be constantly changing projects and team
members. They want to make sure that you can not only survive, but excel in
this type of environment,” says an insider.

49
 “I would suggest that you pick a few examples out of your life where you have
demonstrated these characteristics,” advises the insider. Don’t be afraid to give
examples of leadership qualities the firm prides itself on. “They are looking for
people who are very driven and who take charge of a situation when necessary.”

The process for interviewing strategy candidates is much like that for candidates
in the service lines, but with one exception: Strategy candidates are also asked
to analyze and describe their thought processes related to case studies.

“We ask general, open-ended questions that ask a recruit to describe a situation
from his or her recent past,” says an Accenture recruiter. “We believe in the
premise that past performance is the best indicator of future performance.
Therefore, we are trying to understand what a recruit did, knowing that people
often handle things similarly when faced with like situations,” says the insider.

Each service line at Accenture draws people from distinct educational backgrounds,
though the firm does make exceptions. Human performance hires, for instance, are
likely to have degrees in areas such as organizational design, organizational behavior,
industrial or organizational psychology, instructional design, executive leadership,
liberal arts, and business with an organizational development or human resources
concentration. Solutions operations hires generally have degrees in industrial
engineering, management information systems, computer information systems,
math, economics, or business administration. The various tech-oriented service
lines hire folks with degrees in things like computer science, electrical engineering,
computer engineering, management information systems, computer information
systems, math, economics, and business administration.
Getting Hired

50
Undergraduates
Accenture hires the bulk of entry-level undergrads from computer science or
engineering programs, plus organizational management and economics. Students
from “softer” disciplines can get jobs at Accenture, but human performance is
probably the group most receptive to English majors and the like. For positions
other than those in strategy, Accenture recruits at many schools; check with
your recruiting center.

MBAs
Accenture hires a lot of MBAs—as well as other advanced-degree holders,
such as PhDs, MDs, and JDs—and looks to programs far and wide to help
fill its staffing needs. Compensation levels vary according to location and the
candidate’s experience.

Accenture recruits for strategy at such top MBA schools as Harvard, U.C.
Berkeley, Wharton, University of Chicago, Stanford, Kellogg, and MIT Sloan.

Midcareer Candidates
Historically, Accenture has hired a substantial number of experienced people.
These hires include some who have worked in industry and some who have
worked for other consulting firms. If you don’t have a contact in the firm, the
best bet is to contact the recruiting director at the office of your choice. In any
case, you’ll want to think long and hard about how to show that you’re a good

Getting Hired
fit in Accenture’s famously strong culture. At this level, prepare to show how
your specific technical or industry skills and knowledge match Accenture’s needs.
Experienced candidates generally go through two rounds of interviews—a
screening interview followed by a behavioral and skills-assessment interview—
but the process is much less set in stone than it is for undergrads and MBAs.

51
 Interviewing Tips
After the first round, which exists mainly to screen out candidates whose resumes
or personalities obviously don’t fit with Accenture, recruiters use the behavioral
interviewing technique to seek out personality types that will fit well in the firm’s
culture. They’re looking for well-rounded types with strong communication skills,
problem-solving abilities, an interest in technology, determination, a strong
learning capacity, a willingness to work hard, and flexibility, among other traits.

1. To prepare for your interview, think about your work and school experiences,
paying special attention to times when you worked as part of a group. Try
to take every relevant piece of experience you have and demonstrate how that
experience has directed you toward consulting and Accenture specifically.
Have the names, dates, and numbers for these experiences at your fingertips
so you can mention them quickly, and then spend time explaining their
significance.

2. Be prepared to discuss your feelings and emotional responses to work

experiences. Insiders tell us that a big part of Accenture’s behavioral
interviewing technique is to ask how you felt about particular situations,
especially those involving conflict: What frustrated you and how did you
overcome that frustration? In what areas are you particularly confident
and why? What difficulties do you experience on group projects and how
Getting Hired

do you address those problems?

3. Do your homework about the organization. Reading this guide is a good

start. But also visit the company website (www.accenture.com) and look at
the “Careers” section thoroughly. Do job searches and read related job

52
 announcements to familiarize yourself with the Accenture language. You’ll
definitely want to know the structure of the firm and the differences between
the services, not to mention have a compelling rationale for choosing one
service line over the others.

4. Recruiters are always impressed by an educated query. This is your chance

to interview the company as it interviews you. If you can get the interviewer
to try to sell the company to you rather than vice versa, you will have made
an impression. The following are a few questions to help get you started:

- What are the specific expectations you would have of me as a new

employee, and how will Accenture help me meet those expectations?
- How much client interaction should I expect?
- What would you say are the benefits of having so many different industry
and service lines in one company?
- How much leeway would I have in determining which industry or client I
will work for?

Getting Hired

53
 For Your Reference
For Your Reference
• Recommended Reading
• For Further Study
• The Numbers
• Et Cetera

55
For Your Reference

Recommended Reading
“Skin in the Game”
Corporate clients, wary of expensive consulting projects that don’t live up to
promises, are pressuring firms like Accenture to tie fees to results.

Source: Daniel Lyons, Forbes, 2/16/04.

“Sharing Gains, Risks; Accenture Finds Opportunity in Business

Transformation Outsourcing”
An interview with a senior executive about the burgeoning market for
outsourcing and Accenture’s place in it.

Source: Stan Gibson, eWeek 3/15/04.

“The Incredible Shrinking Consultant”

The consulting industry may be changing, and according to this article,
Accenture may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of those changes.

Source: Melanie Warner, Fortune, 5/26/03.

“A Rose by Any Other Name”

A good discussion of the wisdom of Andersen Consulting changing its name;
in hindsight, it was a smart move.

Source: Joanne Gordon, Forbes, 3/4/02.

56
 For Your Reference
For Further Study
Spend some time looking at Accenture’s website at www.accenture.com.

A general resource for information about the consulting industry is Consultants

News, which is published by Kennedy Information. For more information about
this and other Kennedy publications, visit ConsultingCentral.com or the Kennedy
Information website at www.kennedyinfo.com.

Visit www.WetFeet.com for more information about a number of consulting

firms, their jobs, and recruiting. And for help with your case interviews, check
out the best-selling Ace Your Case series, also available at www.WetFeet.com.

Finally, Accenture consultants have written or contributed to a wide array of

books. For a taste of what you might be dealing with as a consultant, Check out
What’s the Big Idea? Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking, a
book that gives insight on when to pursue an idea; Geeks & Geezers: How Era,
Values and Defining Moments Shape Leaders, co-authored by an Accenture
associate partner; Making Markets: How Firms can Design and Profit from Online
Auctions and Exchange, co-authored by a senior research fellow at the Accenture
Institute for Strategic Change; and The Future of Leadership: Today’s Top Leadership
Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow’s Leaders, to which three Accenture professionals
contributed.

57
For Your Reference

The Numbers
Revenue (in thousands) for the 6-month period ending February 29, 2004,
compared to February 28, 2003:

 Accenture Revenue
Operating Group 2004 ($) 2003 ($) 1-Yr. Change (%)

Communication & high tech 1,809,822 1,616,451 12

Financial services 1,293,580 1,172,171 10
Government 946,145 720,498 31
Products 1,416,527 1,291,808 10
Resources 1,092,895 950,985 15
Other 4,825 4,241 14
Total 7,256,792 6,516,470 11
Source: www.accenture.com.

58
 For Your Reference
Et Cetera
Recruiting Contacts
Accenture is probably coming soon to a school near you. If not, your chances
of getting a position will be tougher. Nevertheless, take heart: The firm is
hiring lots of people, many of them during the off-season. It’s best to contact
the recruiting coordinator at your office of choice (check the Accenture
website). If you’re a midcareer candidate interested in working in the United
States, you can submit your resume at www.accenture.com.

Key People
Joe W. Forehand, Chairman and CEO (William D. Green will become CEO on
September 1, 2004)
Michael G. McGrath, Chief Financial Officer
Stephan A. James, Chief Operating Officer—Capabilities
William D. Green, Chief Operating Officer—Client Services, CEO designate
R. Timothy S. Breene, Chief Strategy Officer

59
For Your Reference

Major Offices
Accenture has hundreds of offices around the world. For a complete list, check
out www.accenture.com. Also refer to the New York address listed in the
Accenture at a Glance section.

Large U.S. offices include:

Chicago
161 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-693-0161
Fax: 312-693-0507

San Francisco
Spear Street Tower
Suite 4200, One Market
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: 415-537-5000
Fax: 415-537-5037

Dallas
5221 North O’Connor Boulevard, Suite 1400
Irving, TX 75039
Phone: 469-665-0000
Fax: 469-665-2000

60
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Beat the Street: Investment Banking Interviews
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CAREER & INDUSTRY GUIDES

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Careers in Biotech & Pharmaceuticals
Careers in Brand Management
Careers in Consumer Products
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Careers in Human Resources
Careers in Information Technology
Careers in Investment Banking
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Careers in Nonprofits & Government
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Careers in Supply Chain Management
Careers in Venture Capital
Consulting for PhDs, Doctors & Lawyers
Industries & Careers for MBAs
Industries & Careers for Undergrads

COMPANY GUIDES
Accenture
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Boston Consulting Group
Booz Allen Hamilton
Citigroup’s Corporate & Investment Bank
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Deloitte Consulting
Goldman Sachs Group
J.P. Morgan Chase & Company
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McKinsey & Company
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
25 Top Consulting Firms
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Top 25 Financial Services Firm
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Accenture
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