Sr. Con - Is that all there is to a consultancy? - Senior Consultant Avanade Employee Review

Travel is a non-negotiable requirement for most workforces in the company, but if you're lucky or in the right market, you may be able to stay local. Work/life balance shrinks as you ascend the company ladder. We are often subcontracted through Accenture, whose company culture tends to be dog-eat-dog and ignorant to the realities of driving technology change. But as far as I am aware, that's what consulting is generally like. For me, rather, the biggest con is that as the business grows, the more employees are expected to fit cookie-cutter, Type A roles. There's a strong emphasis on sales required to advance your career. In fact, you likely will not advance to higher levels unless you can demonstrate your ability to generate new revenue. This isn't an expectation until the manager level, fortunately, but this also means you're going to be level-capped unless you're ready to play the game. In my opinion we lose a lot of talented, technically-minded, albeit sales-averse people this way. Once they know their options are limited, they look elsewhere for work. Frankly, I'm only writing this review because that's where I find myself in this company, too. I like technology; I like problem-solving. But if I want to advance here, I have to be willing to sacrifice more of my work/life balance, reduce my technical emphasis, and drive that bottom line. This is a great place to get started in an IT career--but if you're genuinely interested in staying focused on technology, you may find that this job comes with an expiration date.