Accenture Management Consulting to top-tier MBA or M/B/B
I was wondering if anybody on this forum was able to (or knows of someone who was able to) go from Accenture Management Consulting to a top-tier MBA program (M7 or something of the sort). I will soon be a first-year analyst at Accenture, and although I am excited to start work there, it seems the firm doesn't command much respect (at least around these parts); will my future career there hinder my ability to get into a respectable business program?
In a similar vein, has anyone experienced any success in moving from Accenture to McKinsey/Bain/BCG or one of the I-Banks (BB or otherwise)? Is this even possible before getting an MBA (i.e. as an analyst/consultant/associate consultant, whatever the title may be), or is an MBA a pre-requisite at this point?
Lastly, how hard is it to move laterally from ACN management consulting to the strategy group? Is this even a possibility?
Thanks!
Where you going to be working with Accenture?
I've been on their grad scheme(UK) for 18 months now.
I want to work in equity sales or research and have been trying to find answers to the same sorts of questions you are asking. I think you can get into a good business school after Accenture and from there it's more of a level playing field again.
I've seen profiles on LinkedIn where people have moved from Accenture, Deloitte etc to MBB, so it seems doable. Management Consulted also has an article about this. You might have to take a bit of a step back, but I think it's worth it. Ex: a second year analyst at Deloitte might have to accept the salary and responsibility of a first year analyst at MBB.
The other option is to crush it at Accenture, go to a top tier school, and try to land a job at MBB.
I used to work at Accenture, and yes, it is possible to move to MBB or an MBA business schools ">M7 MBA. If you're interested in more details, PM me - I have direct experience with one of the two. Also, assuming you are starting in MCDP, it is fairly trivial to get into the strategy group, provided that during your MCDP years you push for strategy projects. SI&T is a different story, but still doable.
Take the people on WSO talking down about ACN with a grain of salt. Sure, it's not as prestigious as MBB, but I work alongside former MBB consultants all day and nobody has ever said anything negative about ACN. ACN isn't necessarily worse than MBB, but it is quite different. Not really apples to apples. Keep in mind that this forum is filled with "gunners" obsessing over prestige that haven't started their first job out of college yet - something that everyone should take into account is that your personal brand is 75% your accomplishments, and 25% the names on your resume. Not sure why people here seem to think it is the other way around...
Because the latter is seen as a strong indicator about the former.
well said, buddy.
Accenture to M7 & MBB is easily doable. I've seen it happen quite often. The candidates who make this move are usually ones that could've gotten into MBB the first time around. For whatever reason, they didn't..but they keep trying & eventually make it.
Then again, ACN also recruits a load of average people from tier-2,3 universities, who will never stand a chance at an MBB. Especially in that 'Talent & Org perf' divison.. which pretty much does HR consult & Change mgmt. On the plus side, that team is mostly staffed with pretty hot girls.. depending on which country your in
I did the following filter on LinkedIn:
Former Employer: Accenture School: 12 MBA Programs (M7 + Duke, Yale, NYU, Dartmouth, Haas) Location: United States
Of the 6000 profile matches (the same result gives 7000 for McKinsey, for what that's worth), the most represented MBA programs were Kellogg, Booth, Wharton. For McKinsey it's H/W/S (as expected).
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