Just been offered an experienced hire position with Accenture, got 3 years experience in Java/J2EE dev & consulting work with 2 of the big 5 IT consultancies, position is in the UK DC as a Technical Architect - Consultant/Manager. Just wanted to know if anyone has experience of or has seen experienced hires be able to defer their start date by up to 1 year for travelling purposes..?

Given how busy things are currrently at ACN, with all time high utilisation rates and attriction rates back to 30%, I don't like your chances. Its more than likely that a project has already earmarked you out for a role. Indeed, the role which you were eventually offered may have been created from a project need. ACN need people know, not next year. Who knows what the market may be like this time next year. There may not be a need for you by then. I'd expect them to say work out your current notice, give you maybe a week or two and then thats it. If you ask a year, they'll say thanks but no thanks and withdraw offer.

You'd be best of speaking to whoever is handling your recruitment at Accenture and asking them. I'd suggest that deferring a couple of months would be possible, but a deferrment of a year who basically mean reapplying when you're ready to join as that role may not still be recruiting in 12 months time.Alternatively join, then once you've worked for 24 months take a 12 month leave of absence.