Thoughts 6 mo after leaving ACN.
TLDR: If you’re a high performer, don’t wait around for the promotion cycle to catch up to you. Go to industry and take on real ownership. You’ll grow faster being accountable for outcomes than waiting for a title to validate work you’re already doing.
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I left Accenture about 6 mo ago (right as I hit L9) and joined a… let’s call it fairly high-bar startup. Won’t say where in order not to dox myself.
I’m genuinely glad I started at Accenture. It’s one of the best places to learn how to think, communicate, and structure problems early in your career.
And honestly, the relationships are a huge part of that. Your start class very quickly becomes a big part of your social life. It’s a group of people all going through the same chaos at the same time, and you bond over it fast. Especially if you’re new to a city, it’s kind of a cheat code. You instantly have people to grab drinks with, yap about work and personal life, all relatively at the same point in life as you.
Some of my closest friends today came from that. I’ve taken overseas trips with people I met through work, and when I left, there were some genuinely emotional goodbyes. That part of Accenture is very real and something I’ll always appreciate. But stepping out of it made something pretty clear: a lot of the friction inside the firm is literally structural inefficiency.
By the time I hit L10, I had built a strong reputation within my practice. I wasn’t really hitting the bench after year one. Projects would proactively reach out to pull me in. Reviews were strong, feedback was consistent, and I was regularly told I was operating at the next level. And yet, progression was incredibly slow and after a point, just disconnected from reality. Anyone who’s been through it knows the line: “you were P1, just didn’t have the spots, some people had more time at level”. At some point, that’s no longer development. By the time I was at L10, it was pretty clear there wasn’t anything I was going to learn at L9 that was going to materially change how I worked.
The system around it doesn’t really help. The whole staffing model is wildly inefficient and antiquated for a firm that prides itself on reinvention. You end up with a system where high performers get pulled in through relationships and reputation, while everyone else is left navigating a tool that doesn’t really reflect actual demand or fit. It’s not exactly maximizing resources. It’s just adding friction.
So I left. The bigger realization after leaving: Accenture (and firms like it) don’t really own outcomes. You can build a perfect deck, align stakeholders, and tell a compelling story. But if the client doesn’t execute, nothing actually happens, and structurally, that’s fine. You roll off, move on, and the machine keeps going. From a business model standpoint, it works. From a growth standpoint, it’s limiting. And you start to see how that shapes leadership behavior. There’s a heavy reliance on messaging, frameworks, and buzzwords to sell work. Sometimes that’s necessary. But a lot of times it felt like the focus drifted toward “how do we position this” instead of “what have we actually done.”
The AI push was the clearest example for me.
Huge emphasis on training, messaging, and go-to-market. Constant pressure to complete internal trainings, adopt the language, push the narrative. But day-to-day? I didn’t see a meaningful shift in how teams were actually delivering work. It felt like we were being asked to sell something faster than we were truly building capability around it. I was on a call where a client cut straight through it: “this all sounds great, but what have you actually used this for?”
And the answer was a whole lot of sputtering. Honestly was embarrassed to be in that meeting.
Now with where I am, there’s no leveling buffer, no “time in role,” no separation between you and the outcome. You own the problem. If it works, it’s because you made it work. If it fails, it’s very clear why. No amount of polish or messaging covers that up. And by nature, you’re way less protected. There’s a much lower tolerance for mistakes, and there’s no layered org structure to absorb them. If I mess up now, our P&L feels it. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also the fastest I’ve ever learned.
The bar is also just higher. You’re surrounded by people who were top performers in their previous roles, and the expectation is that you operate at that level immediately, not after a year of proving it. And I actually use my degree now, which has been a nice change.
So if there’s any takeaway:
Accenture is a great launchpad. You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll meet some incredible people. But if you start feeling like you’re waiting for a system to validate work you’re already doing, or spending more time packaging ideas than proving them, it might be worth looking elsewhere. Because once you operate in an environment where ownership and outcomes are tightly linked, it’s hard to unsee the difference.
Curious how others are thinking about this! Especially those sitting in that L10-L7 range and have contemplated leaving.