I left Accenture (Italy) this january, after 3 years, and just like you I was hired right after graduation thanks to my 'mad' java skills, after about 1 year I wasn't writing much code anymore and SQL, Word & Excel became my only daily companions.
Negatives/things I didn't like during my experience in Accenture:
- Working 10-14 hours a day (^). If you were to leave at 6pm your supervisor
would joke about it ("hey, did you get that part-time thing?").
It's alienating and can be done only if you're young & single.
You are supposed to immolate yourself for the company.
- Procedures & timetables to fill: I were required to follow the
most cumbersome procedures even for the simplier tasks and file every
single small detail of what I've done in a form somewhere for monitoring
purposes.
While this is a good practice in general, what was going on there
was beyond absurdity. I spent more time reporting what I was doing
than working on the actual task.
- Dressing code = compulsory business attire, Suite + tie (!)
- Managers overlydramatic speeches. Laughable attitude.
- Strong pyramidal scheme. If your non-technical supervisor closed a deal
with the client on a specific feature, it didn't matter if it was technically
unfeasible and risked to put in jeopardy the whole system, you were -ordered-
to do it. obey. Reworking was then very common.
- What matter isn't the quality of your work, it's the amount of time
you spend on it. You're consultants and your company charges the client by
the hours you do. The more you stay in the office, the better is for the company.
Optimization? who cares.
- Most of my coworkers there were really, really, really bored.
Their life was sucked into the office, and the only thought they had on a
typical monday morning was how to make it through the next weekend.
- I found some truly talented people, and I learned lots of both technical
and people skills.
- You get to learn some self-discipline, especially when it comes to schedule
your time to reach specific goals.
- On a professional point of view, I grew up a lot, it's a good 'gym',
an eye-opener.
(^) I don't mind working 10-14 on my own stuff, things that I'm crafting with my hands and that I find exciting. Pretending to work 14 hours on a bi-monthly report just because you've got to leave at the same time as everybody else is another thing.