Dear All, I am a recent graduate and have future aspirations of owning my own business and so I wish to do an MBA at a top US Business School. I have recently been offered a job at ACN and was wondering if anyone has heard of ACN sponsoring their employees for their MBA, and also which Business Schools are ACN employees typically accepted into? Thanks for your help, Franky.

I can't believe the questions some people post on this site. For god's sake be original, that's probably the best piece of advice to getting into business school than following a so-called 'tried and tested' path of consulting to MBA. New business is supposed to be about innovation, not more of the same!

Thanks for the positive response. But I would appreciate it if someone could please answer my question. I would deffinitely need some kind of sponsorship to do an MBA, as i simply wouldn't afford it otherwise. So if anyone has heard of ACN sponsoring people to do MBAs i would be very grateful to hear from you. Franky.

Do the maths. There has got to be a RoI for someody, whether yourself or a sponsor. If it's "worth doing" - from whoever's perspective - implicit in this is that it is financially worthwhile. Plenty of people fund themselves and find the payback period to be acceptable; equally why should you expect a company to set you up if your future does not lie with them?Look up "free lunch".

Once again, thanks for the positive response. The reason I ask whether anyone has heard of ACN giving sponsorship for doing MBAs is because I know for a fact that BCG, Bain and McKinsey all do offer sponsorships, in particular Bain who specifically send a lot of their employees to Harvard Business School. I realise that doing an MBA is worthwhile, which is why I want to do one, but why pay for it yourself when sponsorship is available from certain firms? Once again I ask, if anyone has heard of ACN sponsoring employees to do an MBA, I would be very grateful to hear from you. Kind regards, Franky.

Accenture do not sponsor people through MBAs. It's one of the on-going grumbles within the firm, especially amongst S&BA ranks.

Rather than react to the criticism's Franky, take them as positive suggestions of how you should go about preparing to apply for business school. Trust me, you'll never stand a hope in hell of getting into any top school in the US or Europe if you go in thinking..."Yeah I've worked for Accenture/Bain/BCG/McK etc...therefore I think that I'm set up pretty well for business school now". Of course there are elements of truth in that consulting may...sorry..MAY...prepare you for business school, the best schools weed out the arrogant (most of the time) and most of the consultants I knew at my time at Stanford business school were the most genuine and self-depreciating folk you could meet. And in the end of the say I'd rather do and give business to a guy/girl who doesn't act like the sun shines out his/her arse.

Franky,ACN do not sponsor MBAs though it does allow people to take a Leave of Absence to complete one. It also recruits MBA graduates (but only from a few tops schools - INSEAD is one) offering them a significant sign on bonus to offset the costs of completing the MBA.

Thank you for all the help, insights and suggestions everyone, (particularly the last 3 messages). I'm glad to hear that ACN at least allow people to take a leave of absence to do an MBA, and also particularly pleased about hearing that the people at the top business schools are genuinely nice people, as to be honest I was starting to lose a bit of faith in the sort of people that consultants are due to some rude messages that people leave each other on this website. However, the last kind person to respond to my question has restored some of that faith, and I was hoping you might elaborate on the kind of attributes that a top business school looks for in a candidate, other than relevant work experience in a good firm, and the right personality traits that would lead to success. Any responses are greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Franky.