Management Consulting / Accenture
Discussion
AB said:
I had a look on their website myself and all I can see is long words tied together to make long sentences that really don't seem to make much sense.
What the hell do they do!?
brilliant - good question! They talk a lot of sWhat the hell do they do!?
t and say nothing mate.Seriously - i've had 6 of them come to one of my meetings. I asked what they all did - and they couldn't tell me. Embarrassing to watch, and embarrasing for them when I threw them out.
Technically it's not the youngsters fault - they are being sold a dummy in one of the cleverest pyramid sells known to man!
RacerMDR said:
brilliant - good question! They talk a lot of st and say nothing mate.
Seriously - i've had 6 of them come to one of my meetings. I asked what they all did - and they couldn't tell me. Embarrassing to watch, and embarrasing for them when I threw them out.
Technically it's not the youngsters fault - they are being sold a dummy in one of the cleverest pyramid sells known to man!
But if you can get through your career earning good money and having people believe the mumbo-jumbo then that in itself is a success?t and say nothing mate.Seriously - i've had 6 of them come to one of my meetings. I asked what they all did - and they couldn't tell me. Embarrassing to watch, and embarrasing for them when I threw them out.
Technically it's not the youngsters fault - they are being sold a dummy in one of the cleverest pyramid sells known to man!
All I have managed to take from this and the website is that they blind people with science/tech and some funky graphs and figures then invoice then a shed load of money?
It all makes very little sense to my average brain.
An example of a big consultancy project of the type that Accenture/IBM/etc bid for would be the project I'm working on at the moment - the client needs to upgrade their payroll system (70,000+ employees) but do not have the skills in-house to design and build a new system that meets their requirements. Consultancy firms do have people with those skills.
As Fittster said, the vast majority of consultancy work is IT rather than management/strategy.
As Fittster said, the vast majority of consultancy work is IT rather than management/strategy.
TVR MAN said:
So Ewen, what is the consultant's actual role in that payroll project? Presumably you have IT people doing the actual computery stuff? 
Unless things have changed the grads are flogged to death until they become good at the computery stuff. The word consultant is just a job title, it doesn't reflect what you actually do.So my flat mate, (see other thread) and a few other mates... are analyst's at accenture.
his job basically entails producing a load of complete bullst for banks about how they are operating badly. Some projects he will simply be sitting in a room full of programmers waiting for something to go wrong, then emailing someone higher up saying its gone wrong. Some other mates make powerpoints all day, some sit on excel, and others don't really know what they do, but its in an office.
starting is 31k with 10k bonus split into two 5k lumps. Pay rises don't appear to happen until A2/3 level or if you are promoted to C1
Training takes place in Chicago for 2 weeks and London for 2 weeks and then you are charged out at an unreal rate companies, knowing pretty much nothing.
Promotion works on a ranking basis (which happens in the aptly named ranking week) and goes from Significantly below, below, average, above to significantly above. The bottom 10% are supposed to be let go but I haven't heard of anyone its happened to.
They are all brainwashed at an early stage into the accenture way of speaking, in which they can sound as if they are doing something really important whereas they are actually talking rubbish. One friend admits he hasn't done anything of note work wise since he joined.
that said 41k in your first year isn't bad.
his job basically entails producing a load of complete bulls
t for banks about how they are operating badly. Some projects he will simply be sitting in a room full of programmers waiting for something to go wrong, then emailing someone higher up saying its gone wrong. Some other mates make powerpoints all day, some sit on excel, and others don't really know what they do, but its in an office. starting is 31k with 10k bonus split into two 5k lumps. Pay rises don't appear to happen until A2/3 level or if you are promoted to C1
Training takes place in Chicago for 2 weeks and London for 2 weeks and then you are charged out at an unreal rate companies, knowing pretty much nothing.
Promotion works on a ranking basis (which happens in the aptly named ranking week) and goes from Significantly below, below, average, above to significantly above. The bottom 10% are supposed to be let go but I haven't heard of anyone its happened to.
They are all brainwashed at an early stage into the accenture way of speaking, in which they can sound as if they are doing something really important whereas they are actually talking rubbish. One friend admits he hasn't done anything of note work wise since he joined.
that said 41k in your first year isn't bad.
the problem is.........41k isn't much if you are wasting 3 years of your life before you get out - and realise you have no skills, are now mid 20s and you need to start again.
The issue they have is that they hire really good graduates usually, 2:1s, and 1st etc - from good places. Then they teach them to be arrogant and thicks skinned........then they charge them out at 1k per day (and pay them about 200 a day in reality).........it's a racket. Pure and simple.
If that person is happy to spend 2/3 years on 41k to be what amounts to a PA, then fair enough. It always just seems such a waste of talent when I meet the poor sods.
From a Programme perspective, I wouldn't let Accenture run me a bath.
The issue they have is that they hire really good graduates usually, 2:1s, and 1st etc - from good places. Then they teach them to be arrogant and thicks skinned........then they charge them out at 1k per day (and pay them about 200 a day in reality).........it's a racket. Pure and simple.
If that person is happy to spend 2/3 years on 41k to be what amounts to a PA, then fair enough. It always just seems such a waste of talent when I meet the poor sods.
From a Programme perspective, I wouldn't let Accenture run me a bath.
I think it's unfair to say a grad won't pick up any useful skills, it's very much dependent on what project you get put on (which is fairly much pot luck).
They did have a culture of very long hours, which seemed to be a hang over from their Andersen Consulting days, when it was worth giving your youth away if you had a chance of making partner. Now the carrot of partnerships has long gone I don't quite see the appeal.
They did have a culture of very long hours, which seemed to be a hang over from their Andersen Consulting days, when it was worth giving your youth away if you had a chance of making partner. Now the carrot of partnerships has long gone I don't quite see the appeal.
koolchris99 said:
So my flat mate, (see other thread) and a few other mates... are analyst's at accenture.
his job basically entails producing a load of complete bullst for banks about how they are operating badly. Some projects he will simply be sitting in a room full of programmers waiting for something to go wrong, then emailing someone higher up saying its gone wrong. Some other mates make powerpoints all day, some sit on excel, and others don't really know what they do, but its in an office.
starting is 31k with 10k bonus split into two 5k lumps. Pay rises don't appear to happen until A2/3 level or if you are promoted to C1
Training takes place in Chicago for 2 weeks and London for 2 weeks and then you are charged out at an unreal rate companies, knowing pretty much nothing.
Promotion works on a ranking basis (which happens in the aptly named ranking week) and goes from Significantly below, below, average, above to significantly above. The bottom 10% are supposed to be let go but I haven't heard of anyone its happened to.
They are all brainwashed at an early stage into the accenture way of speaking, in which they can sound as if they are doing something really important whereas they are actually talking rubbish. One friend admits he hasn't done anything of note work wise since he joined.
that said 41k in your first year isn't bad.
just to split hairs isn't it 31k with a 5k bonus in year 1. Then you get the same 31k and 5k bonus in year two. so effectively its 36k per year.his job basically entails producing a load of complete bulls
t for banks about how they are operating badly. Some projects he will simply be sitting in a room full of programmers waiting for something to go wrong, then emailing someone higher up saying its gone wrong. Some other mates make powerpoints all day, some sit on excel, and others don't really know what they do, but its in an office. starting is 31k with 10k bonus split into two 5k lumps. Pay rises don't appear to happen until A2/3 level or if you are promoted to C1
Training takes place in Chicago for 2 weeks and London for 2 weeks and then you are charged out at an unreal rate companies, knowing pretty much nothing.
Promotion works on a ranking basis (which happens in the aptly named ranking week) and goes from Significantly below, below, average, above to significantly above. The bottom 10% are supposed to be let go but I haven't heard of anyone its happened to.
They are all brainwashed at an early stage into the accenture way of speaking, in which they can sound as if they are doing something really important whereas they are actually talking rubbish. One friend admits he hasn't done anything of note work wise since he joined.
that said 41k in your first year isn't bad.
plus there is no company car or anything.
mind you there aren't many places with a salary that generous for grads
On a slightly related theme do any of you have experience with Avanade?
http://www.avanade.com
I'm looking for an escape from my current (stagnant and increasingly frustrating) "career" and Avanade have come up as a possibility but having read up on them and their ties with Accenture I can't help thinking this would be a jump to pretty much the same consultancy / managed services hell I'm in at the moment. The role in question potentially pays more and promises more prospects but the one I'm in now did too and I haven't had a pay review or any funded training for 5 years.
Just curious really, happy for someone to come back and say they are wonderful, it doesn't have to be bad
TVR MAN said:
So Ewen, what is the consultant's actual role in that payroll project? Presumably you have IT people doing the actual computery stuff?
The "Consultants" are the IT people. As said, very few projects for the big consultancies are at management/board/strategy level and the grads won't go onto them unless some dogsbody resource is needed.The true management/board/strategy consultants I know work for smaller specialist consultancies, not the big ones.
davepoth said:
MH said:
To sum it up they should use technology to help their clients make more profit, what other reason could there be? Whatever the short term goal is of a project (efficiencies, competitiveness, prestige, willy waving), the long term must always be about the bottom line.
Mike
Needs to be 3,000 words though. All of them buzz-worthy.Mike
Make sure that
"empower", "leverage", "incentivise", "change drivers", and such other management bulls
t features highly, and she'll get along fine. Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff