| Topic Name: |
Accenture vs. strategy boutique |
| Message Name: |
Re: Name recognition |
| Date Posted: |
12/21/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I am currently working as an analyst at Accenture (in Paris) and have received an offer from a small strategy consulting boutique.
The work and clients at this firm is definitely very interesting: pure strategy work with major French blue-chip companies and US/French Private Equity firms. And from talking to a former consultant, the learning experience is tremendous, the level of responsablity is high and there is true value added to your business knowledge.
Obviously, the content is much more appealing to the crappy work I am doing now on my Accenture project. Nonetheless, the blatant downside is that this boutique does not have Accenture's name recognition.
It feel I should go to the smaller firm as I am actually interested in learning business skills that I could leverage later. Moreover, this would better fit my goals of getting a top US MBA and getting into the PE industry. Also, I fell I do not need a new brand name on my resume since I've got a Master from a top Boston-based University and some well-known companies on my resume already.
Do I miss something here? Does anyone have any suggestion/advice about whether accepting the offer? |
| Message: |
For the first point, Accenture doesn't have such a great name recognition as you might think. It's a big company, to be sure, and so are all the other big companies like Sony, AT&T, General Electric, Philips A.G., Citigroup, etc. But you don't need to have big company names on your CV to get ahead.
For the second point, you should truly keep in mind that working for Accenture is not exactly the most prestigious thing going, especially at the entry-levels of work. Believe me, it really means nothing. For one thing, the old automatic promotion business means that if someone is coming out of there with a senior consultant title or a manager title, everyone knows that it doens't mean too much of anything.
For the last thing, if you think the particular work you are doing at Accenture seems "crappy" to you and the work at the other place sounds like a better fit for your temperment, desires, skills and ambitions, then by all means go to the other place.
The "crappy" work you are doing at Accenture may be some less talented person's perfect cup of tea. One man's meat is another man's poison. If the grass looks greener on the other side, it probably is -- especially if there is mostly crab grass on this side.
To you I wish the best of luck in your career decisions.
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