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> Juniors are getting fired if they don't have a project for 3 months When I worked for Accenture, I got benched for an entire summer. It was great. At the tim

> Juniors are getting fired if they don't have a project for 3 months When I worked for Accenture, I got benched for an entire summer. It was great. At the time the only resource to find a new project was this spreadsheet uploaded to Sharepoint, and there was 0 pressure from my HR rep to actually look for a new role. I eventually found a new job and quit, but I always wondered what would have happened if I just stayed on the bench while working at the 2nd job.

fhd2 1y ago
I'm sorry, what? I run an agency (still figuring the space out), but just so I get that part: They asked a junior to "find a project" from a spreadsheet? Don't they pair juniors up with seniors in existing projects? Before I'd "bench" anyone, I'd do that without charging for them, so they learn and can do realised billable hours later down the line. I'd feel so weird getting benched. I didn't know that was a thing anyone did frankly.
- dmoy 1y ago
  Benching is very common in any firm like Accenture, yea. It does seem weird from the outside I agree. It can also depend on the person, skillset, etc. Some people will never get benched just because they don't have any or enough other people with equivalent skills, so there's constant demand. (edit: skillset, not skillet, obviously your bench rate does not depend on your cookware)
- daxfohl 1y ago
  My experience was 25 years ago, but back then we analysts and consultants were making around 50-60K and they were charging clients 5-15 times that when we were staffed. So I'm sure having a good buffer of people waiting and ready to go was well worth it. Even during the dotcom crash, they didn't lay anyone off IIRC. Instead they offered up to a couple years unpaid leave with benefits and guarantees of a job afterwards.
  - waltbosz 1y ago
    I always viewed Accenture's main business was signing contracts, second to delivering a good product. I figured, they couldn't sign a contract without having people ready to staff it. I met a ton of people who were hired onto the bench and sat for months either without a project (just because they had skills that would be needed for future projects), or they had a project but were waiting for the project to start. I say second to delivering a good project: My job was application support. Half of my team was offshore, and they had very little actual technical skill, they just learned the problems that may occur with the software we supported. But they couldn't go off script and debug problems that we didn't already know how to solve.
    - daxfohl 1y ago
      Oh, absolutely. The only real career path they have terminates at partner, which is basically sales. There is formally an option to stay technical, but people will look at you funny and you're not going to grow or get paid much compared to an actual tech company.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  You can't do that in most projects without breaking security guidelines. There are contracts signed and NDAs for everyone that has access to customer systems. Although I also do conceed many offshoring companies forget about that, until someone that wasn't supposed to exist on the project does something that ends up on an escalation. It is very common in consulting and agencies, when not getting enough projects.
DarkNova6 1y ago
How long was that ago? I haven't seen any spreadsheet like this, but the internal tools aren't exactly the best (Accenture is too expensive to work for Accenture, haha). But the bench also provided great opportunities to do actual good trainings, certifications and upskilling of all kinds. But the company stopped investing into its future long ago. It's just about short term gains for those on top.
- lesuorac 1y ago
  > but the internal tools aren't exactly the best (Accenture is too expensive to work for Accenture, haha). I've always found this part to be so crazy. It's seems like both a politically bad idea to not dogfood your own stuff and just also a bad business sense to not get "free" testers using the products. Like, if you're buying a car and you ask the salesman which of these Subaru's they'd be and they respond with I'd go elsewhere and buy a Ford. Why would you buy one of their cars?
  - rjsw 1y ago
    I have done several projects for Ford, one measure of the status of their employees was how many trial Ford cars they got at any one time, the most senior people that I knew were on three.
  - d1sxeyes 1y ago
    Having worked for a company of a similar profile, I can perhaps explain: the only folks working on internal tools are those who are so weak that they can’t be placed on a customer account as a billable resource… which is not a particularly high bar.
- waltbosz 1y ago
  > How long was that ago? 2009 > But the bench also provided great opportunities to do actual good trainings, certifications and upskilling of all kinds. I did spend some of the time studying new developer skills. But on my own, Accenture didn't have any learning resources for that all they had was all management training stuff.

fhd2 1y ago

I'm sorry, what? I run an agency (still figuring the space out), but just so I get that part: They asked a junior to "find a project" from a spreadsheet? Don't they pair juniors up with seniors in existing projects? Before I'd "bench" anyone, I'd do that without charging for them, so they learn and can do realised billable hours later down the line. I'd feel so weird getting benched. I didn't know that was a thing anyone did frankly.

dmoy 1y ago
Benching is very common in any firm like Accenture, yea. It does seem weird from the outside I agree. It can also depend on the person, skillset, etc. Some people will never get benched just because they don't have any or enough other people with equivalent skills, so there's constant demand. (edit: skillset, not skillet, obviously your bench rate does not depend on your cookware)
daxfohl 1y ago
My experience was 25 years ago, but back then we analysts and consultants were making around 50-60K and they were charging clients 5-15 times that when we were staffed. So I'm sure having a good buffer of people waiting and ready to go was well worth it. Even during the dotcom crash, they didn't lay anyone off IIRC. Instead they offered up to a couple years unpaid leave with benefits and guarantees of a job afterwards.
- waltbosz 1y ago
  I always viewed Accenture's main business was signing contracts, second to delivering a good product. I figured, they couldn't sign a contract without having people ready to staff it. I met a ton of people who were hired onto the bench and sat for months either without a project (just because they had skills that would be needed for future projects), or they had a project but were waiting for the project to start. I say second to delivering a good project: My job was application support. Half of my team was offshore, and they had very little actual technical skill, they just learned the problems that may occur with the software we supported. But they couldn't go off script and debug problems that we didn't already know how to solve.
  - daxfohl 1y ago
    Oh, absolutely. The only real career path they have terminates at partner, which is basically sales. There is formally an option to stay technical, but people will look at you funny and you're not going to grow or get paid much compared to an actual tech company.
pjmlp 1y ago
You can't do that in most projects without breaking security guidelines. There are contracts signed and NDAs for everyone that has access to customer systems. Although I also do conceed many offshoring companies forget about that, until someone that wasn't supposed to exist on the project does something that ends up on an escalation. It is very common in consulting and agencies, when not getting enough projects.

DarkNova6 1y ago

How long was that ago? I haven't seen any spreadsheet like this, but the internal tools aren't exactly the best (Accenture is too expensive to work for Accenture, haha). But the bench also provided great opportunities to do actual good trainings, certifications and upskilling of all kinds. But the company stopped investing into its future long ago. It's just about short term gains for those on top.

lesuorac 1y ago
> but the internal tools aren't exactly the best (Accenture is too expensive to work for Accenture, haha). I've always found this part to be so crazy. It's seems like both a politically bad idea to not dogfood your own stuff and just also a bad business sense to not get "free" testers using the products. Like, if you're buying a car and you ask the salesman which of these Subaru's they'd be and they respond with I'd go elsewhere and buy a Ford. Why would you buy one of their cars?
- rjsw 1y ago
  I have done several projects for Ford, one measure of the status of their employees was how many trial Ford cars they got at any one time, the most senior people that I knew were on three.
- d1sxeyes 1y ago
  Having worked for a company of a similar profile, I can perhaps explain: the only folks working on internal tools are those who are so weak that they can’t be placed on a customer account as a billable resource… which is not a particularly high bar.
waltbosz 1y ago
> How long was that ago? 2009 > But the bench also provided great opportunities to do actual good trainings, certifications and upskilling of all kinds. I did spend some of the time studying new developer skills. But on my own, Accenture didn't have any learning resources for that all they had was all management training stuff.