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I am ex-Accenture. My wife is currently at Accenture. It’s a great firm. However, pay trajectory will be faster at Kearney. Also you will deal with more interesting projects and C-Suite clients at Kearney. Both are great choices but having worked at both places, I would choose Kearney without hesitation.
Is there a third option. Its like you are asking should I have chicken or pork, but in reality you want a nice steak
You should go where you liked the people best, and where you felt the best fit.
For context, I am a senior partner at Kearney and feel we are the obvious choice. Our consultants get a variety of experiences, but we run a market system...if you are good you get more choices than if you are less good...and some of those choices may be less to your liking.
I’ve also worked at Accenture in what they call “Strategy” (it’s not). And I get a lot of resumes from ACN strategy partners that are tired of the pressure to cross sell.
But I have a ton of respect for ACN the company, as I bought the stock at $24 and $40 and am up almost 10x. And my best friend works there.
But own your choice. Your attitude will matter, a lot, as to your ultimate enjoyment.
Yes. Though extremely carefully given Covid risks putting planning assumptions to the test.
Rising Star
Kearney.
Is this a serious question?
@A3 - definitely a huge factor. I liked the optionality of leaving consulting after 2-3 years without having to worry about debt.
Kearney. No question about it.
Accenture...if you're trying to work in a call center answering the phone 8 hours a day 🤣
Rising Star
Kearney, without hesitation.
Having worked with a lot of ex-kearney people. Go Kearney. Yes the work life balance is probably MBB level bad but the payday and more importantly the career growth opportunities is v v good.
They’re also really fun to work with but that could be because they’re now former kearney...
To be honest, I wasn’t happy with my ATK experience in terms of type of work, WLB, senior leadership. However, I’d probably still do it all over again for the progression, learning, and exit opps.
Thanks for the response K6! Happy to hear the grass is greener on the other side.
What level did you exit at? Trying to get a sense what the best time is, on average, for people to leave.
I did a lot of networking at both companies; for me there isn’t a comparison on any of these points.
You simply won’t have access to the same level of c-suite clients or real mgmt consulting at acn. The learning and mentorship at kearney is unbelievable. It’s a small firm, which means you get a ton of Facetime with senior leaders and more flexibility to find your spot.
ACN will probably have more project diversity - because it’s bigger. But is it the kind of project experience you want? For me, no.
For WLB, ACN probably beats kearney. Also, if you’re interested in digital design or digital work, ACN.
Made this decision in the past and didn't take long to decide on Kearney for me. The pay and exit opps are better and I preferred the firm culture from the people I talked to.
Also, in terms of project diversity, a lot of ACN Strat is focused in tech / IT. If that's something you're very much interested in, then ACN is the right choice - they're one of the best known firms for IT in general. Personally, I've enjoyed the projects I've been on and really liked the people at K - down to earth, don't take themselves too seriously, etc..
Ultimately, these sorts of decisions won't make it break your career. Talk to folks at the firm, reflect on what's important to you, and listen to your gut feeling!
Cheers
Clearly biased here, but this shouldn’t be a discussion. Kearney actually does full stack mgmt consulting (yes, not just an ops firm) with C suite clients, pay is better, career progression is better, and lots of private firm perks - not to mention better exits (everyone keeps leaving for Google and Amazon :( )
I can’t imagine why you’d ever pick Accenture over Kearney unless you have a particular passion for IT implementation (which somehow, I assume you don’t). Maybe we need to do a better job articulating our brand on campus.
In fairness, ACN Strategy specifically is supposed to be more like traditional management consulting (and my impression is that they do quite a bit of IT / digital strategy). It's still possible to get pulled into implementation though just given ACN's focus on that as a whole. That was one of my fears with ACN as a recruit.
Kearney is run more like MBB. Accenture is more like a Big 4. I would choose Kearney because it is one entity globally, which allows for more global experiences.
Accenture is one global, publicly traded company. The alliance of partner firms structure of big 4 is what causes international issues, and Accenture isn't set up that way. With that in mind, ACN is run like a big 4 in that it is a huge company with many layers of people and red tape. But it is not as hard to work across borders.
Chief
OP, I'd disregard any of the comments about doing tech implementations or Accenture being a body shop - we simply don't do that work in Accenture Strategy, our folks aren't staffed on those type of engagements. People above are speaking purely out of ignorance.
FWIW, I picked Accenture Strategy over a few other T2 offers and couldn't be happier with my decision. The main reasons being that people here are generally really enjoyable to work with and we have generally better WLB compared to the others.
This is awful.
Take Kearney, progression and comp wise it’s not a competition. You can be at a post MBA level within 2 years if you’re a high performer. Also, since we are smaller I would say that all of your colleagues will be top tier, not saying they aren’t at ACN, just will have a higher margin for error due to pure size. And one more, even during COVID we had fully funded bonuses and no one was laid off
We also do full tuition for B school sponsorship. If it’s the same as it was 3 years ago, ACN only covers 50k
Talk to ppl in both firms and ignore what others say here
I cannot speak to Accenture Strategy, but my project variety at Kearney has been amazing, from healthcare to FMCG to government to aerospace, both strategy and operations (I’m in Europe though).
The international opps are great, esp in the Middle-East (I know plenty of people from the US and elsewhere who tried it for a year and then decided to move permanently).
On the flip side I will say that I’ve found it very competitive, although not necessarily in a bad way: people are very nice and organise lots of cool events, but since we’re a smaller firm, everyone’s competing for airtime and partners typically already have their go-to people.
In Europe, Asia or Middle East, this decision is a no-brainer for Kearney. Only really in the US is Kearney vs Accenture Strategy a debate as the firm has fallen far and doesn’t really have as strong brand as it use to.
Accenture Strategy here and would choose Kearney in a heartbeat.
Project diversity - ACN
Learning - tie; you're more likely to learn a little about a lot at ACN vs a lot about a little at K.
Mentorship - tie. Depends on luck of the draw.
Exit opps - K
I turned down K for ACN during bschool because project variety was critical for me.
Is Kearney principal analogous to ACN strategy SM?
ACN is a giant body shop . Avoid if you can .
The good part of Kearney is you can both have both good industry exits or exits to other consulting firms. MBB, AP and A&M all love hiring ex-Kearney