Accenture

For me personally, the pros did outweigh the cons during my time at Accenture. Given my background, and being a fresh college grad at the time, Accenture gave me great exposure to the corporate, professional IT world. Everything was very much so in your hands, with no real standard to how you can define your career path there. In a way, that's a pro, and in a way it's a con. However, there are a few main points that I thought were pretty neat about Accenture:

• Flexibility when it came to projects. There are many projects to choose from, given you have the skill set to be accepted and staffed in a role.

• Your projects do not coddle you. You can end up working alongside some extreme personality types, although this was almost always exclusively on the client side. The work that would get pushed on you usually would definitely push you to a new level. If you survived and achieved, you were left with a stronger sense of confidence and a stronger resume.

• Travel. You. Will. Travel. And with travel comes many different experiences that lead to personal development, in some cases. Travel could either be relocation, which I would not suggest, or more commonly, Mon to Thurs workweeks.

As for the cons, what can I say that hasn't been said before? Work-life balance! Very poor work-life balance. Accenture desires for their employees to be "All About Accenture" during non-work hours, which, for obvious reasons, is problematic. Training for new grads or employees in general is poor. Accenture provides pay while on the bench (time spent not being on project), which is why salaries are usually low compared to the market. It can be extremely difficult to find work while on the bench, and if it takes too long, well, you know...

Redo your entire training policy!