Accenture Graduate Programme

Splicer

Hello,

I am wondering does anybody here know if there is a given length for this Graduate Programme, i.e. what is the usual time period between starting this programme and "graduating" from it to the next level?

Also, what month does it usually start?e.g. is it September every year

I have flicked through older threads on the issue. It seems as though the general concesus is that its a cut throat backstabbing unpleasant place that aims to squeeze out the last drop of juice from its graduate people but pays decent money... Any comment?

Thanks

sozbox

There's no end date as it isn't a graduate program me in the usual sense. After a 9 month probation period your employment becomes permanent.
It usually takes 18-30 months to progress to the next career level, depending on performance etc.
In terms on starting, there are groups on-boarded most months of the year so that is flexible to a degree.
Salary is ok 31k EUR, good for a graduate I guess but after 2-3 years you'll become anxious to progress.
The work varies hugely, depending on project. I've been on great projects that I would have gladly stayed on for years and I've been on projects I didn't like.
But in terms of experience and CV I honestly believe it's the best option for a fresh graduate as you could potentially work in 3 big firms in your 1st two years.

I no longer work there but would be happy to answer any questions.

johnny-fatality

Splicer wrote: »

Hello,

I am wondering does anybody here know if there is a given length for this Graduate Programme, i.e. what is the usual time period between starting this programme and "graduating" from it to the next level?

Also, what month does it usually start?e.g. is it September every year

I have flicked through older threads on the issue. It seems as though the general concesus is that its a cut throat backstabbing unpleasant place that aims to squeeze out the last drop of juice from its graduate people but pays decent money... Any comment?

Thanks

Hi Splicer, did you get offered a place on the programme? I went for it as well, but didn't hear anything back. Presuming it's a no go. Thanks

Splicer

johnny-fatality wrote: »

Hi Splicer, did you get offered a place on the programme? I went for it as well, but didn't hear anything back. Presuming it's a no go. Thanks

I havent heard back yet, I understand they take a while.

Jason1984, thank you for the insight. What is the office politics like?

sozbox

The office politics aren't too bad but again it depends on your project. If you are moving projects every 12ish months then it's not such a big issue, but you could be on one for 4 years too.
You will be expected to work on 'raising your profile' to get a good chance at promotion, I never did understand that but it involves organizing things outside your day to day job to get noticed.
The work at entry level can get boring depending on your project. You could spend weeks working on documents, spreadsheets and presentations or you could get something interesting and be given a project to manage, I experienced both in my time there.

As you work on a client site you will have a lot of relationships to manage, client teams, Accenture teams, and mixed teams etc.
There's good and bad to it just like any other job, some people I know worked 40+ weekends in a year, whereas I never worked one so expect everything from the best to the worst.

When I decided to leave I found that the experience I was able to put on my CV ensured getting a job was a cakewalk - I got 4 solid offers, all with higher pay, within a month so I would recommend it as a fantastic place to start your career.

dylankay

Hi there, I interviewed also, for management and got an email saying that first round interviews will be completed on March 20th and we should hear back after that date with regards to the second round.

Could I ask Jason1984 how you found the interview process? My first interview went relatively well I feel but I don't know what to expect for the second round. I imagine it is difficult to stand out.

Would you mind also if I asked your background, undergrad/postgrad/masters? Do you know if they are inclined to take people from an undergrad or do they like to see a little more?

Thank you for all your help.

sozbox

dylankay wrote: »

Hi there, I interviewed also, for management and got an email saying that first round interviews will be completed on March 20th and we should hear back after that date with regards to the second round.

Could I ask Jason1984 how you found the interview process? My first interview went relatively well I feel but I don't know what to expect for the second round. I imagine it is difficult to stand out.

Would you mind also if I asked your background, undergrad/postgrad/masters? Do you know if they are inclined to take people from an undergrad or do they like to see a little more?

Thank you for all your help.

THe second round I did con sited of a panel interview with 2 senior managers, a case study assessment and a one to one interview with a senior executive, all in a half day so it's quite intense.
Be prepared for questions that probe your suitability to consulting life rather such as questions on current affairs, industry etc
The case study I found easy, there are no wrong answers it exists merely to examine your thought process and if you able to adapt your answer when given fresh information etc.

The SE interview is tough, hard, hard questions, seemed like they were designed to be that way to see if I would get flustered or thrown. Just remain cool headed and back up your answers with reasoning and you will be fine.

I have an undergrad in Science and a Masters in Economics so it's hard to say if that helped or hindered me!
They target engineering CS, science and technical grads a bit more than straight business grads.BIS is popular there too.

Any more questions fire away.

nwall9

Hi dylankay, Im interviewing for managment consulting tomorrow first round, i was just wondering is it strictly competency based questions? Also Jason1984 you said you got 4 solid offers following working in accenture, i was just wondering did you stay within the consultancy industry or do people tend to work in different roles following training in accenture? thanks

krissovo

Lads, create an account on the Accenture website careers section and you will have access to loads of details about the interviews and sample case studies that you can download as PDF's.

The case studies are excellent and show the process you should follow for each different type of study.

sozbox

nwall9 wrote: »

Hi dylankay, Im interviewing for managment consulting tomorrow first round, i was just wondering is it strictly competency based questions? Also Jason1984 you said you got 4 solid offers following working in accenture, i was just wondering did you stay within the consultancy industry or do people tend to work in different roles following training in accenture? thanks

I stayed in the IT industry in general but some of those offer were for consulting yes.
Now again my search was confined to a narrow area but colleagues with similar experience who left at the same time as I did all found jobs in project management, consulting or general IT within weeks.
Great place to start a career and you'll come out the other side a lot more experienced than if you spent 2 years in a standard grad role.

dylankay

Hello nwall9 hope I am not too late! The first round was mainly competency based questions. Anything topical was brought up by myself through my answers! Best of luck today

nwall9

Thanks for the replies guys, just in the door dylankay felt it went well. How long were you waiting to hear back?

dylankay

We should hear back mid-March I was told....fingers crossed!

sozbox

Best of luck with the applications!

Tsaic

Hey guys, I have an interview for the consulting grad programme next week. What year in college are you all in? I applied as it said for FY13 so I presumed they are seeking graduates for 2013 but it seems a bit early to be going for interviews considering I have another 1.5 years to go in college. Does anyone know the start date for this programme?

sozbox

Tsaic wrote: »

Hey guys, I have an interview for the consulting grad programme next week. What year in college are you all in? I applied as it said for FY13 so I presumed they are seeking graduates for 2013 but it seems a bit early to be going for interviews considering I have another 1.5 years to go in college. Does anyone know the start date for this programme?

Just a note here, when they say FY13 they usually refer to Sept 1st '12 to Aug 30th '13, the Financial Year.
As I explained above, the start dates are not set in stone, groups start most months.

dylankay

Has anyone heard back yet about moving onto the second round?

johnny-fatality

dylankay wrote: »

Has anyone heard back yet about moving onto the second round?

Not me anyway.

tmc2307

Hi Jason 1984,

I have just joined this board and was keen to discuss a few things regarding Accenture- I can see that you have worked in Accenture before. I was offered a place on the technology consulting programme, getting my offer back in early february of this year. I have sent through all of the required documentation but I am still waiting on a start date- do you know when we might expect to receive details of this. Also, can you offer any experiences of the traing abroad. Chicago or possibly India I was told??

Any thoughts you might have would be much appreciaated!

Cheers
Tmc

sozbox

Can't really say anything about your start date as that is determined purely through a combination of client demand and/or the hiring of other grads. I wouldn't worry though, I was offered a number of start dates and they will keep you well informed notice wise as most hires seem to be from outside Dublin.

The training was fantastic, one of the most memorable things from my time there, it's expected that you engage with the rest of the training group and just have fun. There's usually 120-150 people there from every corner of the world, it was 2 weeks when i did it and we had the weekend off to enjoy the city, Chicago in my case. We were well taken care off and all expenses are covered, flights,food etc.

dylankay

Just wondering whether anyone has gotten a date for the second/final round interview in Management Consulting? I received an email last week saying that they would be a touch with a date and time but have heard nothing yet!

tmc2307

Jason1984 wrote: »

Can't really say anything about your start date as that is determined purely through a combination of client demand and/or the hiring of other grads. I wouldn't worry though, I was offered a number of start dates and they will keep you well informed notice wise as most hires seem to be from outside Dublin.

The training was fantastic, one of the most memorable things from my time there, it's expected that you engage with the rest of the training group and just have fun. There's usually 120-150 people there from every corner of the world, it was 2 weeks when i did it and we had the weekend off to enjoy the city, Chicago in my case. We were well taken care off and all expenses are covered, flights,food etc.

Hi Jason,

Just in relation to our training abroad- if graduates normally start every month, then how do they work the training abroad? are there multiple training dates or does everyone do the training first and then just start whenever they are given a date? cheers. Tmc

sozbox

tmc2307 wrote: »

Hi Jason,

Just in relation to our training abroad- if graduates normally start every month, then how do they work the training abroad? are there multiple training dates or does everyone do the training first and then just start whenever they are given a date? cheers. Tmc

Multiple training dates, the scale of the new hires globally means training is carried out almost year round. You usually train with your start group a week after your have started however that is open to change depending on project resourcing demands, almost everything will come down to that.

newell345

Hi guys, just have another question about start dates, I got offered a place on the technology consulting programme, and was told i will be starting sometime around sept/oct, but my graduation is in the last week of october and I really don't want miss it! Are they flexible about this type of thing?

tmc2307

newell345 wrote: »

Hi guys, just have another question about start dates, I got offered a place on the technology consulting programme, and was told i will be starting sometime around sept/oct, but my graduation is in the last week of october and I really don't want miss it! Are they flexible about this type of thing?

Hi Newell. I had a similar problem with graduation and I spoke to a friend that I have in Accenture- I don't think it will be a problem!! It is probably better however if you make them aware of that as the training abroad may interfere, but they seem to be ok when it comes to things like that!? Just what i've heard though, I think it's best to check with them and see.
Well Done again on getting offered the place- where are you based at in your new post? I'm in Ireland,starting at end of Sept/Oct as well!:)

tmc2307

Jason1984 wrote: »

Multiple training dates, the scale of the new hires globally means training is carried out almost year round. You usually train with your start group a week after your have started however that is open to change depending on project resourcing demands, almost everything will come down to that.

Hi Jason,

I've been offered a provisional start date of late september/early october, but i'm really concerned about things I am hearing in the news recently, in particular the eurozone breakup. If something like this was to happen, do you see them going back on their original offers and not taking on any grads this year?? Can I ask when you joined and if it was in and around the time of the last crisis? did they do anything like this back in 2008? I have worked really hard to get this job and it would be heartbreaking to think that it might fall apart at the last minute??

Any thoughts?
Cheers
Tmc

C.D.

tmc2307 wrote: »

Hi Jason,

I've been offered a provisional start date of late september/early october, but i'm really concerned about things I am hearing in the news recently, in particular the eurozone breakup. If something like this was to happen, do you see them going back on their original offers and not taking on any grads this year?? Can I ask when you joined and if it was in and around the time of the last crisis? did they do anything like this back in 2008? I have worked really hard to get this job and it would be heartbreaking to think that it might fall apart at the last minute??

Any thoughts?
Cheers
Tmc

Grads of 2009 were still taken on and paid, but told not to come into work until December/January. Most of them went traveling apparently. Pretty nice to be paid and not need to work ^^

sozbox

tmc2307 wrote: »

Hi Jason,

I've been offered a provisional start date of late september/early october, but i'm really concerned about things I am hearing in the news recently, in particular the eurozone breakup. If something like this was to happen, do you see them going back on their original offers and not taking on any grads this year?? Can I ask when you joined and if it was in and around the time of the last crisis? did they do anything like this back in 2008? I have worked really hard to get this job and it would be heartbreaking to think that it might fall apart at the last minute??

Any thoughts?
Cheers
Tmc

I joined in 2010, iirc around 30ish grads were taken on that year, the lowest in recent years. Before I left I the hiring appeared to return to normal levels so I wouldn't be too concerned.

As mentioned, some people were taken on in 2009 and sent away for a number of months on reduced pay, things are much better now and hiring would be based somewhat on demand forecasts which may be projected into next year.

In my experience consulting tends to fair well enough in all economies, when things are going well, work can be sold as transformation and when things are bad it's called restructuring. Either way work gets sold.

I've people get their start dates moved forward and pushed out so don't worry and try to enjoy the summer knowing you have a job waiting!

C.D.

Jason1984 wrote: »

I joined in 2010, iirc around 30ish grads were taken on that year, the lowest in recent years. Before I left I the hiring appeared to return to normal levels so I wouldn't be too concerned.

As mentioned, some people were taken on in 2009 and sent away for a number of months on reduced pay, things are much better now and hiring would be based somewhat on demand forecasts which may be projected into next year.

In my experience consulting tends to fair well enough in all economies, when things are going well, work can be sold as transformation and when things are bad it's called restructuring. Either way work gets sold.

I've people get their start dates moved forward and pushed out so don't worry and try to enjoy the summer knowing you have a job waiting!

2010 was a very bad year for graduate recruitment. We took on 60% less than our usual intake compared to 2009 and 2011. If you are good, you'll get a job no matter the climate, you might just have to work harder for it.

KathrynH

For the final round interviews with the senior manager and senior exec, is it more competency based or general interview-chat based? Also, if you don't get through the final around are you put on a short list incase people don't accept Accenture's initial offer?

tmc2307

Hi Drogheda Gal,

I am also starting in Accenture but they have told me that my start date isn't until the end of October??

Really please to get the offer but would like to be starting sooner!

Are you in technology or management consulting?

Tmc2307