Graduate Companies...

[harmless loony]

Hands up if you still haven't had an interview from any of the companies you have applied to?

I'm getting sick of this applying for grad jobs business - one company went as far as to tell me that my application for a management consultancy post was rejected on the basis that St Andrews did not feature on their "prestigious universities" list.

WTF did i come here for then - if I'm not getting a job? My CV has been looked over by careers, by friends and by other management consultants - with the latter telling me that if I had another uni name on there (say oxbridge) I'd have no issues.....stupid dumbass system........

I will be a management consultant and I will be a good one - 2 fingers to all the companies who reject me I shall not give up.....gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh........

[Mathilde Piard]

that's fucking ridiculous! i couldnt care less about management consultant, but if st andrews isnt prestigious, who is? (i mean, aside from oxbridge). so your cv is great aside from the name of the uni? argh, i feel your frustration. fucking morons. it's their loss

[Paranoid]

If you ask me you cant aim higher in the management consultancy world than Accenture, and they absolutely LOVE St.Andrews!

I applied for the internship programme in 3rd yr and lost out in the final round, but turns out the process is exactly the same in the graduate programme (every single question is the same) so I re-applied in my summer before 4th year and had a 40 grand contract in my hands by November! A graduation ceremony, and a 3 month trip to Oz later I'm ready to join! )

Seriously, Accenture are a really friendly and professional company, their culture reminded me so much of St.Andrews (Even down to the detail of Accenture workers marrying other Accenture workers...sound familiar?) Give it some consideration

....which company said we weren't prestigious enough? If your not getting a job with them you might as well name and shame!

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[flarewearer]

Why is it that it seems to be easier to get onto a high paid cushy job with a graduate employer than to scrape, bribe, claw and beg your way into pitifully paid academic or environment work?

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/elgar.png

[harmless loony]

Paranoid, thanks for the tip about accenture - I was going to send them an application but was unsure about what other people's experiences had been with them - I may give them another look over then.

As for naming and shaming the company I have been advised not to do that until careers have had a look into it.

[Paranoid]

Fair enough.

Can't say I've found any bad stories about Accenture yet, and just remember I haven't actually started with them yet, but thus far I've been very impressed. Gave me my number one choice of department and operating group, as well as 1st preference of work location. Now I'm looking forward to 5 weeks training in London (with a central hotel all paid for), and then another 2 weeks in Chicago all expenses paid!

If you need any help with the application let me know as I kept a record of all the questions they asked me over the two years I applied, thus far 4 other people have used them and made it to the final assessment round with this to help them. I'm more than happy to pass it on to anyone else...

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[Fionnlagh]

I didn't, but then you know that already.

I was given 4 interviews from my 6 applications. Only one job offer though, but I expect that's just because I'm crap at interviews. None of them seemed fazed by me coming from st andrews. In fact, a few made very positive noises about it.

Having said that, the careers service here is about as uselful as a chocolate teapot.

[Big X]

Quoting Paranoid from 01:07, 21st Dec 2005
If you ask me you cant aim higher in the management consultancy world than Accenture, and they absolutely LOVE St.Andrews!

I applied for the internship programme in 3rd yr and lost out in the final round, but turns out the process is exactly the same in the graduate programme (every single question is the same) so I re-applied in my summer before 4th year and had a 40 grand contract in my hands by November! A graduation ceremony, and a 3 month trip to Oz later I'm ready to join! )

Seriously, Accenture are a really friendly and professional company, their culture reminded me so much of St.Andrews (Even down to the detail of Accenture workers marrying other Accenture workers...sound familiar?) Give it some consideration

....which company said we weren't prestigious enough? If your not getting a job with them you might as well name and shame!

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

if you think that you cant aim higher in the management conclutancy world than ACCENTURE then you clearly have no idea about the world you are about to be joining. McKinsey and LEK are miles better, accenture are just a the company which happened to emerge as a result of the anderson saga.......not great pedigree

[hr]

"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[harmless loony]

I got rejected by McKinsey yesterday so that's them over with.

[bdw]

In fairness, was Accenture not formed a few years before the Enron meltdown?

[KayBee]

I have friends who work for Accenture and all I can say is their experiences would put me off applying (if management consultancy was my thing...)

[harmless loony]

Kaybee, would you be willing to go into why?

[Cain]

Quoting Paranoid from 12:17, 21st Dec 2005
Gave me my number one choice of department and operating group, as well as 1st preference of work location. Now I'm looking forward to 5 weeks training in London (with a central hotel all paid for), and then another 2 weeks in Chicago all expenses paid!

Having decided against management consulting, i had better get a lot of job satisfaction out of teaching.

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Midget]

Your'll end up being an interesting person with a life.

How can you go straight into consultancy anyway. I wouldn't consult some idiot with a degree and a bit of training I'd want someone with years and years experience in management etc. Surely you can't go straight into consultancy? Doesn't make any sense.

[hr]

IMAGE:img9.imgspot.com/u/04/241/18/160019.jpg Too far.

[Big X]

Quoting bdw from 17:30, 21st Dec 2005
In fairness, was Accenture not formed a few years before the Enron meltdown?

enron and accenture/anderson have very little to do with each other

[hr]

"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[chills]

Quoting Midget from 20:50, 21st Dec 2005
Your'll end up being an interesting person with a life.

How can you go straight into consultancy anyway. I wouldn't consult some idiot with a degree and a bit of training I'd want someone with years and years experience in management etc. Surely you can't go straight into consultancy? Doesn't make any sense.

Thing is you don't actually do any 'management consultancy' if you join Accenture as a fresh graduate. As you pointed out there's not much a fresh grad can teach in this respect. So instead you do the bitch jobs for 18 months for the guys who actually have some experience. Its a good salary but a shitty introduction to working life. I'd rather be on a lower wage doing a job that was rewarding.

[Paranoid]

If you think Accenture is a result of the Arthru Andersen/Enron scandal you are sorely mistaken! Accenture WAS spun off from Andersen, but back in the late 1990's when it was found Accenture's 'department' was actually working against the rest of Andersen.

I never said Accenture was the top of consulting (and if I did I apologise for the exaggeration), however, in the UK Accenture is has a very high profile of clients and as far as I was concerned I was looking for a company offering a good, clear structured career path, good wage, friendly atmosphere and encompassed IT as well as management consultancy. I looked at McKinsey, KPMG, PwC, and CapGemini and hand on heart I have to say Accenture came out top in my estimation. But hey! The guy was complaining of a lack of interest from management companies in St.A, I only offered my pennies worth in suggesting Accenture, I'm not gonna start debating who has the biggest dick here...

Quoting Big X from 15:25, 21st Dec 2005

Quoting Paranoid from 01:07, 21st Dec 2005
If you ask me you cant aim higher in the management consultancy world than Accenture, and they absolutely LOVE St.Andrews!

I applied for the internship programme in 3rd yr and lost out in the final round, but turns out the process is exactly the same in the graduate programme (every single question is the same) so I re-applied in my summer before 4th year and had a 40 grand contract in my hands by November! A graduation ceremony, and a 3 month trip to Oz later I'm ready to join! )

Seriously, Accenture are a really friendly and professional company, their culture reminded me so much of St.Andrews (Even down to the detail of Accenture workers marrying other Accenture workers...sound familiar?) Give it some consideration

....which company said we weren't prestigious enough? If your not getting a job with them you might as well name and shame!

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

if you think that you cant aim higher in the management conclutancy world than ACCENTURE then you clearly have no idea about the world you are about to be joining. McKinsey and LEK are miles better, accenture are just a the company which happened to emerge as a result of the anderson saga.......not great pedigree

[hr]

"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[a]

http://education.guardian.co.uk/mba/sto ... 59,00.html

And they all talk the same and think similarly. Partly that's because in Britain they've been head-hunting middle-class Oxbridge white men for years. Now they recruit middle-class white Oxbridge women too.

would you really want to?

[Paranoid]

Yup there is a hierarchy you got to work up, as you say consultants are the ones with experience, but obviously you got to start somewhere!

So yes you start off (having graduated) in an Analyst position, and then within three years move up to Junior Consultant, then Senior etc etc.

My research on the graduate programme is solely from Accenture so don't start having a go at me from being one-sided or whatever, but with them its an up-or-out policy, so even if it is a dogs-body job to start with, its the career I've wanted to do now for 4 years and so I'm willing to go through the rough to reach the smooth. If you seriously believe its an easy ride to reaching your dream job/position you are either a) Dreaming of stacking shelves in Safeway or b)completely out of touch with reality

Quoting chills from 22:58, 21st Dec 2005

Quoting Midget from 20:50, 21st Dec 2005
Your'll end up being an interesting person with a life.

How can you go straight into consultancy anyway. I wouldn't consult some idiot with a degree and a bit of training I'd want someone with years and years experience in management etc. Surely you can't go straight into consultancy? Doesn't make any sense.

Thing is you don't actually do any 'management consultancy' if you join Accenture as a fresh graduate. As you pointed out there's not much a fresh grad can teach in this respect. So instead you do the bitch jobs for 18 months for the guys who actually have some experience. Its a good salary but a shitty introduction to working life. I'd rather be on a lower wage doing a job that was rewarding.

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[Paranoid]

also very intrigued to hear more... )

Quoting kaybee from 17:46, 21st Dec 2005
I have friends who work for Accenture and all I can say is their experiences would put me off applying (if management consultancy was my thing...)

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...