How does Accenture Strategy compare against T2/Big4 regarding compensation and exit opportunities in Germany?

Hey there,

So here's my insights:

Compensation (DE)

I agree with what you found on glassdoor. Its a good ballpark. Compensation will be ~30-40% lower than MBB and at par or slightly above BIG4. Please remember there is a broad range at every level and this becomes broader the more senior you go (Manager & above). There is room to negotiate sign-on bonus and other perks. Overall, from my experience having worked at Accenture UK, its a good pay master with great benefits but NOT at MBB level.

Brand

Its not a tech consulting firm anymore. The breadth and scale of Accenture has made it one of the most sought after companies in the recent 5-10 years. It now plays in Strategy, Digital Transformation, Marketing etc. Just check out Gartner/Forrester rating and Accenture pretty much leads all qudrants even beating MBB in Digital Transformation expertise for example.

Check out these links:

• https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/consulting/forrester-digital-business-transformaion
• https://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=6
• https://www.crunchbase.com/search/acquisitions/field/organizations/num_acquisitions/accenture

Note that Accenture Strategy is not at the same level & reputation as MBB, so you need to play the wider Accenture brand in your story i.e Accenture offers exposure to all those areas where MBB dont play giving you more experience in e2e business problems. However, they are fighting hard and investing a lot to boost the Strategy practice. I am also aware of many ex-MBB partners who have joined the Strategy practice in DE in past few years.

Exit Opportunities

Overall, good in my view but not the same level of pull as MBB. Its a global and well known brand, but you have to work a bit harder on your story & exit.  Get this right and you can make make big jumps. I did it and so have many others.

Good luck!

Hi,

I have limited insights into Accenture Strategy Germany, mostly based on discussions with a friend back at Business School, but it still might be relevant for you, so here we go:

1) Accenture Strategy is (trying to be) not Accenture but a semi-independent strategy house. Thus, they are trying to tap into the same candidate pool as most strategy consultancies.

2) Based on my experience, the salaries you quote would be somewhat halfway in between Big4 management consulting and strategy consulting (both at Big4 i.e. Strategy&, Parthenon, Tier2 and MBB). This would fit to a similar business positioning in between strategy and management consulting. It also fits to what I know from my friend. So, yes, the salaries you quote, should be correct.

3) With regards to positioning... well in my experience these rankings are not necessarily describing the market fully. Read up on the metric they use (if published) and you may find , that they are usually either very "soft" (e.g. based on interviews with selected managers/ purchasers in industry) or based on limited information (e.g. on estimated/ non-published or outdated revenues). Moreover, it really depends how you define the market for "Consultancies". Are you talking Strategy, Management, Technology, Business Process Outsourcing?

4) With regards to exit opportunities, I cannot contribute.

Hope my remarks help you to clarify some of your questions.

Best

Oliver

Hi there,

I would just flag that glassdoor is to be taken with a grain of salt. This is all self-reported, and different people answer differently (hard to trust survey data).

In this case, it does feel a bit high for Germany (I know the salaries are generally closer to 60k euro). That said, it's not unheard of to see some lower brand companies / new entrants paying MORE than MBB for example....this in order to attract talent and make up for lower brand/rankings.

Hi,

Glassdoor definitely knows more about salary than me...

In terms of exit opportunities, it depends. What are your interests? What will you do in the company?

Hope this helps.

Antonello

Hi,

Why do you think the numbers are too high? I think they are pretty much in line together and they are lower than MBB salaries.

At Accenture, you can also negotiate additional salary increase with various bonuses (e.g. additional bonus for the particular expertise)

Best

Hi there, I have been director in strategy consulting - for anybody new to the industry: Please go and check the rankings of Brand Eins/ Statista where clients evaluate consulting firms into tier 1/2/3 by type of work and industry sector, not the HR marketing departments of the consulting firms. Think out loud where you want to be in 5 - 10 years, and research which firm has the strongest footprint in this specific sector / field. You will be surprised that some so called "tier 1 powerhouses" will not be your top pick after this excercise. After this you can check if any change makes sense or not.

Hello!

Regarding salary and practicalities like that, I would recommend Glassdoor research and reaching out to people in the company directly, ideally ocntacts of contacts. 

Hope it helps!

 Best,

 Clara

Hi,

The numbers you found seems reasonable, but based on discussion with some friends, at every level there are ranges of salary, so a bit different with MBB's 1 point salary for each level. I had been approached by Accenture Strategy at some point in my life and they literally not even blink when I informed them my pay in BCG (probably poker face, not sure)

Exit opportunities really depends on the countries, in talent scarce country like Indonesia, there will be some good exits but cannot comment much about Germany.

Hi there!

I agree that these numbers seem a bit high. The thing is that it's not 100% like on Glassdoor, as the info is taken from people's reports.
So could be a better option to ask someone working there directly.

Experts have already shared some thoughts on exit opportunities.

Cheers,
GB