Internship: Accenture vs. PwC Consulting
Hi, just like to gather some thoughts and advice here. I have offers for summer internships in London for Accenture and PwC Consulting. Accenture may assign me to either management or technology consulting whereas PwC is definitely for management consulting.
I am interested in strategy consulting (MBB) when I apply full-time. Which internship choice would place me in a better position? Note that I already have past PwC work experience (assurance and tax) on my CV. Thanks!
accenture
After working in consulting in London I can say that:
a) My perception was that in London Accenture has a much stronger brand in consulting than PwC
b) The assignment to technology or management consulting at Accenture is only a soft alignment (all of the Analysts are in Consulting workforce) and essentially does not matter (especially for the internship). Analysts are allowed to move freely between all sorts of projects from the Strategy practice to Technology Consulting - depends on your skills, networking, business demand and career aspirations. Similarly for the graduate offer - you are part of Analyst Consulting Group and its in your hands what types of projects your are at.
a) Spot on. b) Completely wrong. Take the PwC offer if ACN tries to put you in Technology Consulting. You cannot rotate anywhere near as freely as is stated above. Source: I used to work for Accenture and switched from SI to MC. Switching from SI to MC happened sometimes (albeit rarely). Switching from TC to MC, on the other hand, I never saw once.
@Pissingtowind
Are you sure you are referring to Accenture in the UK not in the US? Because to my knowledge the practices in both countries are very different. I worked in London office for a year and there is no separate workforce for SI. There is Management Consulting growth platform and Technology growth platform encompassing both TC and SI.
"Within our Analyst Consulting Group (ACG), you will be aligned with either Technology or Management Consulting from the outset. The decision as to which of these two routes you take will be made during the selection process" - this is a quote from the UK grad website
Secondly, working on projects ranging from Strategy to Outsourcing deals I can honestly tell you that I met both Tech aligned analysts on Strategy projects as well as Strategy aligned on Tech projects.
What you said about the two growth platforms and Technology (TGP) being TC + SI also applies to the US.
Logically to me it would make sense to pursue PwC MC if you can't into ACN's MC growth platform. MC has a very different set of exit opportunities, associated respect levels, pecking order for interesting work, and caliber of people than TGP.
You very well may have met Tech Analysts on Strategy projects, but were they doing Strategy work? Even if they were (I was one of these) I'm quite sure that there are many more Tech Analysts on non-Strategy projects, doing non-Strategy work. If someone wants to do MC, starting in TGP is not the best way to go, assuming other options exist.
edit: Strategy Analysts on Tech projects is why I ended up leaving :P - unfortunate byproduct of Accenture, at its core, being a technology company.
So to conclude, I would recommend ACN MC > PwC MC > ACN TGP.
Hi everyone, thanks for your input.
@Pissingintowind
Problem is that Accenture London only assigns MC or TC after accepting the offer. So there is an element of risk there. They take into account my preference, CV and interview performance in deciding which alignment. There's a small opportunity to get into strategy as well (taking only 2 or 3 interns) and I would have to complete another round of interview. For PwC, it's just straightforward MC.
That's why I'm in a dilemma. Given that, Accenture or PwC?
If it's just an internship, I'd roll the dice with ACN.
Aut dolorum exercitationem aut libero. Est voluptas ut necessitatibus veniam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...