Pros
Please note, this review is very specific to the Scientific Informatics Analyst role at Accenture, under the ASIS division. Since ASIS is relatively insulated from the rest of Accenture, I cannot comment much on life at greater Accenture. This position did have some significant strengths. Firstly, they hire broadly for Life Sciences backgrounds with some computer science experience, so people with relatively weak technical backgrounds have an opportunity to join and build technical skills. The interview process is also pretty easy. The opportunities for learning and growth are probably the greatest part of this role. There is a genuinely impressive culture at ASIS for growth, if you are willing to put in the time and effort to pursue it. A lot of the senior management and more experienced consultants are truly great people that will put a lot of effort into helping you get where you want to go. Secondly, I think this role is fantastic for those that are looking for a way to transition or pivot in their early careers. If you have life science experience but would like to move towards computer science, data science, software engineering, project management, or other tech roles, this position is potentially perfect. There is an impressively wide range of roles that open up on client projects, and leadership is likely to help you in the direction that you are more interested in going, as long as you show initiative and capability. Thirdly, and closely related to the first two points, ASIS has a multitude of constantly ongoing internal projects that exist apart from billable client work. Think of them as extracurriculars. This offers a unique opportunity for people to start to build skills in new areas that they would not yet be able to find full-time jobs in. These side projects also offer opportunities to receive recognition and build relationships with leadership. These are completely optional, although strongly encouraged, projects but offer another growth area to those seeking it. Lastly, work-life balance is generally quite good. This is not a strategy consulting position, so you will not be working 80+ hour weeks like young consultants at other firms. This is a pro and a con of course, since it also does not come with the prestige of other firms. I very rarely hear of analysts working more than 40 hours. However, this may depend on the project/client that you're on.
Cons
There are two main cons for this job, and both are unfortunately extremely significant. The first is the compensation. Compensation for new analysts is ~60k per year. This was locked across all new joiners, although this may have changed by now. For those with stronger technical skills, this is pretty abysmal when considering that the same skills you're using at ASIS are easily worth 80k+ elsewhere. The second issue is required relocation to Orlando, FL. This policy has persisted through the pandemic, which is pretty absurd. There have been confirmed positive cases in the office. In-person attendance is mandatory for new joiners. One of the reasons is that some of the new hire training occurs in-person, but this seems like an excuse. A specific few in management are quite insistent in new hires coming in. This is actually a symptom of what feels like mistrust of new analysts. At times, it seems like some on the leadership team simply want to keep an eye on new analysts, which I found incredibly demeaning and patronizing. Besides the in-person training elements, pretty much nothing about the job requires analysts to be in the office, besides a couple very specific projects. 95% of the projects ASIS works on are fully remote, and most analysts have never met their projects teams in person. Ultimately, there is pretty much zero justification for requiring analysts to move to Florida. This if by far the biggest drawback of this position.