Accenture Strategy Q&A

There are two avenues for this. The first is to get an MBA and go through formal recruiting. The second is to try to lateral in as an experienced hire. Assuming your preferred route of entry is option #2, my advice would be to 1) network and 2) highlight good consulting skills on your resume. On the first point, we are hiring in most every practice and our folks are eager to connect with good talent. Would try to get calls scheduled with anyone you know in the firm or introductions if you don't know anyone. This is a much more effective way to break into our recruiting pipeline than the black box resume drop, where we get new applicants constantly. On the second, anything you can highlight on your resume that points to assessing a non-structured / complex problem, developing and then validating a hypothesis, providing a go-forward recommendation, etc. will help you stick out

And how comp at the Sr Manager level compares to other Sr Managers in the firm?

I'm going to lump both of these two questions together as they are related. Our position in the market, in my view, is that we are a solid T2 player that is a good choice for strategy-led enterprise wide transformation. In my experience, we compete most commonly with Deloitte, McK, BCG, and to a lesser extent AT-Kearney, Bain, and PwC.

The value of Accenture Strategy is that it can provide solid corporate and business unit strategy services and then back those up with an ability to execute and understanding of technology that you don't get at pure-play strategy shops like Bain, Parthenon, LEK. This is one of our primary points of differentiation.

most of our clients know that they need to embark on a 12-24 month journey to stand up new products and services, build new capabilities, take back market share, etc. But they are often unsure of where specifically they should make their biggest bets. This is the space Accenture Strategy plays best in. Much of our work involves putting together a 3 year vision then designing a roadmap to get there that involves 5-10 key initiatives and investment areas + a corresponding value case. From there, we partner with clients to build an execution plan, and other parts of Accenture often come in to help when it comes time to implement. Unsurprisingly, we also compete on price and are cheaper than our MBB counterparts.

The interview is typically one behavioral and 1-2 cases in both the first and second round. Cases vary widely but will always be interviewer led

Would still apply. These dinners often have only a few spots and can get filled entirely by students that have been on our radar for quite some time.

1. This is certainly a risk. There's an opinion amongst our leadership team that these two groups needed to be merged, and the reasoning for that seems relatively sound (better collaboration and in-market execution at clients, more closely aligned incentives for partners selling work, easier for clients to understand the groups, etc.) What is less clear is how we continue to maintain Strategy's reputation as a group with higher pay, better exits, and higher-impact work when these two groups move into one BU. If leadership solves for this and articulates it well to the legacy strategy group, I think the re-org make sense. I believe that strategy will continue to play this role but I worry that we have a lot to do to communicate this to recruiting talent at our target undergrad and MBA programs

2. Most common by a considerable margin are strategy and corporate finance roles at one of our F500 clients. These roles can sit within different groups including corporate development, internal consulting, strategic planning, corporate finance, or "office of the CEO" or "special projects" type groups. Also common is functional roles in supply chain, marketing, data analytics, or product. I've seen these at a wide range of companies but notable ones include Apple, Google, Nike, and Uber. Also common is "value creation" or portfolio ops teams at MM private equity funds and chief of staff type roles to executives at small and mid-sized companies

3. pay bands are standardized and publicly available thru managementconsulted

4. This varies by individual criteria as most groups are strong in different ways and the answer depends on what you are looking for. However, to give my two cents, I think most would agree that CFO&EV and Customer Insights and Growth Strategy are very active from a functional perspective, and CMT, Retail, and Consumer Goods & Services are high-performing industry practices.

5. Until business school then undecided about returning after that or not

Example: portfolio optimization / growth assessment at large food and beverage retailer. Culminated in 3 year strategic road map with 12 initiatives recommended for execution in order to achieve growth objectives. Sample initiatives spanned from "introduce product x" to "invest $y in marketing campaign to cater to customer segment B" to "develop digital capability z" etc.

In terms of advise for an aspiring consultant, see below.

-You need to build consulting industry knowledge. You want to learn about what distinguish each firm from another (e.g. L.E.K. does primarily PE due dilligence, AT Kearney does a lot of supply chain and operations work, Big 4 are "do it all" types of shops, etc.). For this i'd pour over WSO, company websites, etc. You also want to learn about what is taking place in the industry (new models, key trends, thought leadership, etc.). For this I recommend the McKinsey podcast

-You'll want to network. Attend company info sessions and meet consultants. Take their card, and follow up over email. Additionally, reach out to anyone you know in your personal network who may be able to connect for info/advice.

-Be precise about which firms you target. MBB is most selective and might be off the table. But "Tier 2" firms like Oliver Wyman and LEK become more do able. Other firms like Big 4, Accenture MC, solid boutiques, etc. also become a bit easier to break into than MBB

-Craft your story. Come interview day, they'll obviously ask about your background and why you're interested in consulting. String together a great story and it will really start the interview on a high note. Answer this question poorly and the interview is probably over

-Would also advise extensive case interview prep

Although we recruit most heavily from MBA, I've seen folks break in from one-year MS in Management, MS in Business Analytics, MS Electrical or System Engineering, and MPP programs

Travel begins w Monday morning flight to client site. Typically 7-8AM takeoff. Due to exorbitant status built from the job, usually or often fly first-class by way of complimentary upgrade. As a rule, sleep the entire flight. Work Sunday as needed (could be 4-8 hours) to ensure that the Monday morning snooze is feasible.

Once I arrive in client city, stop at airline lounge and take a free coffee to go. Meet up with coworkers (coming in from same or other cities), grab rent cars and head to client site. Arrive between 10-11AM.

After working Monday for the day, head to hotel. Typically stay at nice Marriot-owned properties.

In terms of dinners, could be going to a formally scheduled dinner with entire team (once every two weeks), ad-hoc dinner with a few other junior people on the team (happens 1-2 times weekly), or eating individually. If either of the first two, typically expense immediately to the project. If individual, will pay for it myself and then be reimbursed through per diem (meal budget). Either way, food is covered M-Th

When traveling, I pay for all corporate expenses with my personal credit card, and then I get reimbursed. This allows me to keep all of the credit card points that come with having 2k+ per week in corporate expenses. The firm is cool with this.