Accenture

Accenture has a great community, and you are surrounded by a lot of great people. The work is good but can be much the same if you don't speak up that you want a change.

Some great perks, but perks do vary depending on the role you're on and the client. For example, on-site Accenture offices have tea and coffee for all employees to use, while client sites may not. They have a great pension scheme as well as an employee share scheme. They also do random treats such as croissant Mondays, pizza deliveries, or cupcakes for great achievements.

Accenture is flexible to its employees' needs and will try to help as much as they can, but it is up to you to speak up about what you want out of your career. Yes, there are people in place to give guidance, and you have regular reviews, but if you don't speak up, opportunities won't just come to you on a plate here; they will go to those who are proactive and get involved.

The work here is cutting-edge, and you are really immersed in current tech. It is great, and you do have the chance to work on anything you wish. If it is new, Accenture will put the time in to train you. Their training is outstanding; they have a large portal of training and will also pay for external training and certifications if they are applicable to your role.

The communities here at Accenture are amazing! There are communities for everything. They actively support the LGBT community, mental health, health & well-being (sport and exercise), equality, disability, etc. They really do push these things and encourage you to get involved.

• Speaking as a software developer, you can get stuck doing the same role, or your skills can easily stagnate if you're not careful. Accenture places you in a role within the company based on the needs at the time of your joining, and not always based off your CV. It really is pot luck at the start. You need to be careful of this. Make sure you spend time learning in a role and as soon as you find yourself not learning anything technical, request to move role.

• Building your network. As with any large company, your network is everything; it opens up doors and opportunities. You need to build your network. Unfortunately, sometimes, it is the network you build which can decide progression here and, in some cases, it is very much who you know and how the promotion game is played as to your progression. My advice is not to give 110% straight away and just work consistently and to a high standard.

• Overtime here is paid at 1.0x the hourly rate for the first 37.5 hours of O/T per fiscal year, but after that, it is paid at 0.5x the hourly rate. This is meant to deter people from doing overtime, but with the high demands and sometimes all too frequent tight deadlines, people work overtime a lot, and therefore you end up doing work for half the pay. This needs reviewing.

• Try not to put the needs of yourself over the needs of your employer's progression. It's great to have a team member who's pulling out all the stops, but if they wish to move on to another role and try something new, this needs to be made easier for them. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to move roles, and often it is harder than it first seems.

• Promotion - Agreeably doing things outside your role is great for building your network and contributing. This unfortunately is a large factor in promotion, and for some, their role is very demanding and these side-of-desk roles cannot be completed unless in their own time. This forces people to lose their work-life balance in order to have a better chance of promotion. Current role requirements should be taken into consideration more and apportioned to the level of side-of-desk work completed.

• Pay your tech guys what they're worth - Consultants/Solution Architects are great, but when timelines are tight for delivery, it is the Tech/Software Engineers who do the late shifts, the overtime, and have to stay with the ever-changing tech. Reflect this in their salary.

• Don't paint your resource as more than what they are capable of. Often getting a sale is crucial, and expectations are set for a resource which is just not feasible, i.e., sold to the client as an expert when you've had little delivery experience.