They are supposed to do strategy consulting. But accenture doesn't have much market share on that, so most management consultants there end up working in large IT projects. They are supposed to interact with clients more compared to solutions workforce people but this does not always hold true. You'll do well as long as you manage to keep your image as a capable person even if you're not. One would argue that it's the same in all other industries, but it's more widespread and more common in Accenture MC because the work quality is difficult to value and measure as most often it's fluffy. Having said that, they do articulate ideas and present them very well. You also do learn to be very organized in MC.

I think what raymond80 said was blunt but it's true.

I wouldn't recommend anyone who believes in succeeding through specializing in some core business skills to join Accenture. The longer the time you spend there, the more you're detached from the real business world. You don't see Accenture senior managers or partners moving out to real business world and work in front office/business units. They might lead the back office, which could be some very high lvl positions, wont doubt that.

And, DO NOT get me wrong. PLEASE do buy their shares. IT's a fantastic business model. Consulting ideas -> Solutions implementation -> Hook them with long term outsourcing contract. Very very profitable.

If you think junior employees dont know well, then I'd encourage you to talk to the senior people in MC. You'll get a feel of how deluded most of them are, assuming that you have the common sense to judge. The reason why they could sell projects well in msia is because there are many incompetent mid management in Malaysia companies and government agencies currently. This trend will change in the next decade. If you build your career there, you risk not being able to move out of Accenture because you have NO core skills, NO specialty yet you draw a high salary. Yes, a few are lucky enough to be account holders. They make it big. Yes... I used the word "lucky" because it's almost always sheer luck with projects coming to them.

Most people think that solutions workforce is a terrible place to be because they do the core work and yet paid much less than consulting peers. Hence, high turnover. But if you observe enough, you'd realise that the high turnover in solutions is a reflection of how easy it is for solutions ppl to look for a job. They CAN work and they HAVE skills.

I agree in building soft skills and leadership skills. But, selling products/services that you have NO IDEA about is to me B*llsh*tting. There are people outside who could sell well AND know what they are selling.

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Added on February 2, 2012, 5:41 pmOk, I do admit that the above doesn't apply to everyone there and every single project even within KL office. Good luck to the minorities.

This post has been edited by fletcherwind: Feb 2 2012, 05:41 PM

Mainly deloitte consulting from big 4. Otherwise it's IBM and other IT consulting companies. The other three of the big 4 dont usually compete in the same space.

Operational strategy and transformation is not part of core business (revenue generating/profit centers) for banks. I don't know who in CIMB or OCBC you're referring to whom senior managers moved there from Accenture and hold senior front office positions. I don't know any. But, I can kind of guess who's the maybank guy, most likely michael foong who was ex-mcim head, Cambridge grad, smart guy. Like what I said before, senior positions in non-front office functions are options for ex-accenture people and I've never denied that.

These people are good at project management and doing detail tracking work, change management work. What I was trying to tell others is that 1) you build project management skills and other kind of skills in Accenture, just not front office related experience (tell me some if you do know any projects that remotely advise on revenue generating strategies? skip those 1MDB and gov projects please, all consulting firms get a share of those projects), 2) I'm not implying that front office work is always better than operational work. But, I'm cautioning people who join Accenture in hope of learning some front office skills (Acn likes to market itself as industry experts and relevant to revenue generating business). Operation consulting people can be very successful too.

I don't know enough about Tony Pua to comment and I don't know how much time he has spent in Acn. Maybe there's a reason why he's no longer there.

I strongly disagree with your belief that successful business has to be unethical. I know you try to sound mature and experienced in life with the advice on "true side of things", but I've seen businesses doing well from honest sales of services and products. To be fair, you might be working in a different environment hence you are sharing a different experience.

No matter what company you join, if you take the initiative, you can always learn. It depends on what you want to learn. Accenture is very good at IT consulting work, project management work and change management work. They just tend to sell more than what they can do.

This post has been edited by fletcherwind: Feb 13 2012, 11:49 PM

Dear Jabber,

1)I don't think people who setup those software companies are from Management Consulting in Accenture. Well, I might be wrong. I was never an IT person and many of my kind were in MC. I put myself into the shoes of an average Acn employee and I think opportunities like you mentioned are rare. How can a person who's tasked to do project mgmt grow into developing software?

2) Size is besides the point. You can put in different conditions to justify that other companies are in a different nature and that Accenture is unique in itself (size argument). So, it deserves special rights and that normally unacceptable practice would become acceptable.

3) No doubt the industry is competitive and all partners want to drive sales, it's good to introduce new services that they can actually offer. Sigh... I'm not sure whether you've been in one of those projects where even your Manager has no idea about your end delivery You'll feel inadequate and unprofessional, on the company's behalf. Again, my experience...Congrats if you have very defined role in a large IT project, maybe you won't feel that way.

Jabber, please don't take it personally. Many ex-Acn people are successful. I just find that there's a big discrepancy between how people from outside understands the company and how people inside the company sees it. I'm just helping to bridge the gap a little here. Although I've been trying hard to sound impartial, I still can't hide the bitter tone. Views within Acn might be polarised. I might be the 0.001% in the company who's unlucky and unhappy. Let the readers decide.

I apologize to readers if I come across as arrogant from the posts that I put up. I didn't mean it. Many people don't share their experience, whether good or bad, about their company online. There are haters who attack a company to no end, there's also lovers who defend a company to no end. It's not too bad either way, no matter which side you come from, at least you contribute to the people who read the forum. They'd be able see the points laid down on both sides. I'm sure they can judge and filter out "noise" from the relevant contents. It takes effort to take sides and voice one's opinion.

This post has been edited by fletcherwind: Feb 15 2012, 08:39 AM

If there're no barriers in goods, labor and capital movement in the world, and no logistical advantages in any countries, then salaries for the same type of work in every part of the world would converge.

It's just not the case here. You might do the same work but the value derived from it could be different due to many reasons. Supply and demand argument makes sense. You'd want to lower your cost as much as possible.

You should Google Arthur Andersen.

You can have very smart people but yet don't have the right technical skills internally... Smart people can learn fast but that's if someone good technically could pass down the knowledge.

Consulting is a very interesting industry..