I was contacted twice by Accenture London in last two years through different external recruiters for a sales role in their banking and financial services.
Having formed a negative opinion about accenture and their way of conducting interviews the second time around I was coaxed into meeting two of their managing directors at the pretext that there was a change underway in Accenture and supposedly their previous high profile application services hires had not turned out to what they expected and hence they are back in the market.
My second time experience only reinforced my thinking about them and their general approach to treatment of candidates including complete lack of clarity on their own requirements besides a complete unprofessional way of conducting interviews and wasting time. I just hope their senior management puts in place a formal candidate feedback process in place to simply gauge the negative impression that their newly positioned managing directors are leaving because such unprofessionalism might become epidemic and may come back to haunt them and soon their arrogance which stems from being being invited to bid for projects just because of their brand instead of formally selling into a business might hurt them.
Back to my experience, first time the partner level guy who having spend almost 2 decades on the same account could not understand why people changed roles, so he felt I was not right fit for the sales role. Second time around, the meeting was with two managing directors who were out in the market looking to hire someone with 5 bullet points and seem to be still making up their mind on thier requirement during the interview. It was unflattering to be infront of one of the MD's who just appeared too sleepy for a 10 am meeting and couldnt avoild his stiffled yawns.
My sincere suggestions to Accenture (UK):
1. Start taking candidate feedback on interviews and interviewers.
2. Put in place a formal market facing grooming sessions for your Managing Directors, they represent the brand and not the other way round. Teach them basic courtesy, impress upon the importance of leaving a good impression, because the poeple they meet & interview might be hiring them for undertaking critical projects in near future.