| Topic Name: |
ACN and MBA |
| Message Name: |
Terminology confusion |
| Date Posted: |
02/20/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
A little confused here...if someone could please explain...
,p>Just wondering, since I've read on the board that ACN doesnt push for MBA or provide tuition assitance -- how is that an analyst with just an undergrad degree can move up to being a consultant, since a consultant usually has an MBA??
Rather, in order to be a consultant with ACN, is it necessary to have an MBA?
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| Message: |
The word, "consulting" has a very broad meaning. When you car makes funny noises, you go to your mechanic who can give you consulting on what the problem is and how to fix it. Former government employees join government "consulting" firms where they give advice on areas they have expertise on (e.g., which countries are safe to do business with, how to work around the govt. red tape in order to get a grant, etc.). JD/MBA types do tax advice consulting. Places like Bain, Deloitte, Adjoined, McK, E&Y do management consulting (and some of them also do IT consulting, which is something else, or financial consulting, which is also something else). Financial, audit and accounting firms do financial and tax consulting.
Accenture does "consulting", too. ACN does I.T., technical support and I.T. outsourcing planning ("transformational outsourcing") consulting as well as straight out, plain vanilla, I.T. services and computer programming work. Not only is an MBA a minor detail here (as opposed to, say, a BS or BSEE or MS in either computer science or, even better, in MIS) but, in the case of ACN, a MBA isn't really respected here.
So you are wrong to think that a consultant usually has an MBA. Sure, a financial consultant or a management consultant would usually have an MBA. But other types of consultants would probably not. A pharamceudical research consultant would probably have a Ph.D in chemistry and pharmacy (or at least an MS), but unlikely to have an MBA. Likewise, a computer services consultant would probably have a BS and possibly an MS in MIS or CIS.
One more thing. The word "consultant" is also often used in, yet another, sense: someone who works on a per-diem (daily contractor) basis. So, for example, let's say two Crystal Reports application developers work for company X. Programmer A is an employee of Company X. Programmer B works there on a "temp" contract. Both do the exact same kind of work and report to the same supervisor. Programmer A would be called "employer" and Programmer B would be called "consultant." It's just a colloquial or industry slang expression.
I hope this clears it up!
:)
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