What is the hiring process like at AlphaSights?

Great people - this is something that is really a benefit. Mostly very smart, driven and fun people to be around The business is perpetually understaffed due to stupid manager incentive systems, poor hiring practices and attrition, so you get great at prioritising to stay afloat The job and environment is thankless, so you develop a thick skin and a lot of resilience You do get exposure to some excellent commercial and people management skills (for which you will be woefully underpaid) If you want to work in a commercial role (e.g sales, account management, etc) you will be very sought after in the job market. You do develop a very strong proficiency in some great skills.

It’s actually challenging to find words that articulate just how horrendous it is to work at alphasights. If you want your physical health to suffer, your mental health to completely deteriorate and to live in a constant state of stress, panic, anxiety coupled with intense feelings of failure due to nothing you do ever being good enough, this is the place for you. Also would like to add I was a high performer, so please don’t disregard this as a disgruntled employee that was let go - read on and be really cautious before accepting a job offer here They rely solely on hiring young grads who don’t know any better - the reason for this is purely so they can exploit you as much as possible. You are massively underpaid for the work you do (which only becomes apparent once you leave) Absolutely 0 culture of trust - you’re expected to respond to emails and slacks in less than 10 minutes, at all hours of the day, which makes having any sort of work life balance or mental sanity impossible. Vps will literally berate you for not staying late - the FaceTime culture is ludicrous. The idea of leaving at 5 on a Friday was considered a treat Leadership is manipulative and unapproachable - they treat staff as puppets and literally gaslight you. Claim to be approachable and open to feedback - this could not be further from the truth. Do not be fooled when they say they prioritise diversity - They almost exclusively hire white Europeans, most of whom are privately educated and well off. They give themselves a huge pat on the back as there is a diverse number of nationalities/languages spoken - it doesn’t take a genius to figure out this is playing the system massively, making their stats look great and absolving themselves of any responsibility to combat the *actual* issues when it comes to DEI Leadership is tragic - their selection process for hiring leaders is so unattractive, and the role itself is so unforgiving, that most high performing managers find better things elsewhere, meaning those who are promoted (with the exception of a choice few) are mostly uninspiring, mediocre individuals If it’s not already abundantly clear, work life balance is non-existent Clients are disgustingly rude to you, and you’re expected to just lap it up. You will be made to think it’s normal and that you’re deserving of it (they worship clients in a really weird way) - again, it’s only when you leave that you realise no other environment would expect you to tolerate this kind of treatment If you’re thinking of applying/accepting a job here, I would urge you not to. For the sake of your health and sanity, it’s just not worth it. Once you leave you realise just how awful a place it is

everyone is very young and dynamic hybrid work model

they are not structured and all over the place, it started already with the application process and I should have known by then, that it will be continued that way, but I had hope. They massed up appointments in the recruitment process, no real explanations, I had the feeling, no one really knows the exact process etc. The onboarding was slow and very robotic, they kind of throw you in and hope you will figure it out by yourself. It is very fast paced and the payment is average. People are coming and leaving all the time, which makes it difficult to create a real team feeling and the fact that the fluctuation rate is so high says everything as well. I wasn´t happy and I hope you will not make the same mistake.

Great people, no outside hiring for leadership roles, great pay, flexibility within the role to get the skills you want out of it

None if you are motivated

I've read many reviews here, mentioning that the work is monotonous/ the company is a glorified call center - nothing could be farther from the truth. In my honest opinion, this mainly comes from a few disgruntled junior associates who couldn't cut it. - You get what you put into your work, if you own your development, you will end up learning a lot of real-world soft and commercial skills, which are transferrable to general management, commercial, and account management roles - Cold calling is a part of the job (just as other BD/ sales rep roles at different companies), but you're essentially building the skillset of lead conversion and ultimately knowing who to target for any opportunities (essentially what you would do in any commercial role) - Associates are often involved in account strategy/ team operations and are given several responsibilities such as training and building and owning client relationships from an early stage in their career (unlike most companies) - You have the opportunity to network and engage with several C-level executives as experts as well as talented clients within blue chip consultancies and investment firms (the onus is on the individual to benefit from these opportunities) - With their latest compensation structure, upon success and exceeding your KPIs - you stand to gain great bonuses on top of your base (overall compensation is competitive within the market) - Collaboratively work with a young, diverse, and driven set of people who all share similar traits (the way AS hires its people is truly best in class, having been involved in the recruitment process) - Given the industry-agnostic focus, you end up learning the basics of multiple industries and understanding how things gets done in the real world (if you're truly curious and a generalist, you'll appreciate this) - Introduction of policies such as MBA sponsorships and sponsored examinations such as the CFA, CPA, etc.

- Long hours, and often it's hard to separate work and personal life given the work intensity (this is probably true for the entire ENS industry) - Misaligned practices and compensation structure for middle management versus the associate role - there is a heavier focus on the associate pool as they're the firm's revenue drivers (while this makes sense in practice, it's not a sustainable long-term practice) - Need for an improvement in the firm's shared centers in all regions to reduce the load on associates and managers - Lack of flexibility compared to other firms (especially when it comes to WFH policies or the number of ALs taken in a row) - this is due to a high focus on employee productivity - High turnover given the industry nature, which can often be demoralizing for the wider associate pool given the slow training cycle

Sine moving to London and starting at AlphaSights I've been given the responsibility and opportunity to drive my own recruitment processes, university collaborations as well as internal and external stake holder management to enhance my networking and relationship building. I really thrive in AlphaSights environment and believe they offer one of the best growth trajectories for graduate employees, which has contributed to my everyday development and continuous learning that I will be taking with me throughout my career!

Being able to take on more leadership / management responsibility early on

short, easy and clear interview process as well as great compensation

Work hours can be long but you are surrounded by great people.

- you'll start with a class of smart young people that will almost all leave after 6-12 months.

I do not recommend working at AlphaSights unless it is truly your only opportunity. If you do end up taking the role, I would plan on looking for new jobs as soon as possible, as a large group of associates does not make it past the 6-month "integration" and those that do generally hate it. Of my class of associates on my segment after one year, 18/22 have left and the rest plan on leaving as soon as possible. 10 left in the first 8 months and more have followed since. The people that left were extremely smart, driven people - some were fired through no fault of their own, but because they were hired into underperforming teams. I know 2 associates of the 22 I was hired with who are interested in becoming managers, and only one has the numbers to do it. AlphaSights does not advertise this, but turnover is extremely high and firings are common. Furthermore, exit opportunities from AlphaSights are often scarce. The company operates with a churn-and-burn mentality. The goal of every single manager to is to squeeze as much mind-numbing work as possible out of each associate on their team. They do this by micromanaging everything you do, making hitting the bonus structure threshold required, and threatening your job if you miss hurdle once or twice. The bonus structure is based on a point system. The BREAD Process, which you'll know if you're mistakenly looking into a job at AlphaSights, is exactly what we do every single day. Every part of that process takes anywhere from 2-6 hours and we do not get paid for it. As you deliver experts, clients have no obligation to take any calls. If they don't take any, you get nothing for the hours of work you put in. Your success is purely based on the whims of our clients. The top 1-5% of associates are praised and everyone else is made to feel worthless, even if you are consistently hitting hurdle. Each month, your performance averages to your "insight score" which determines if you can become a manager or take on any additional responsibility. To give yourself a shot at hitting hurdle, you are often required to work well beyond 8am-6pm with compulsory weekend projects. Associates who choose to have no life and find a way to enjoy monotonous work that requires 0 critical thinking sometimes do well if they are on a well performing team. Almost every associate I worked with was too smart to be doing the associate job and quickly grew bored and sad in the role. Additionally, managers treat their clients like gods and expect you to do the same. They are consistently extremely rude and awful to AlphaSights managers/associates and we can do absolutely nothing. The power is 100% in their hands, and they, in many cases, abuse it. The reporting structure is equally fraught with issues. Managers are generally born from the associates who sacrificed their personal lives to give themselves a chance at success within the toxic bonus structure. They expect even more out of their associates. They micromanage everything you do, as that is how managers are taught to manage at AlphaSights. The feedback structure goes one way. You can never give feedback without facing retribution. Those that I know who tried to give constructive negative feedback to VPs and managers were quickly pushed out or denied opportunities which inevitably led to their exit. Managers and VPs are some of the most insecure leaders I have had the displeasure of working with. They have watched everyone in their classes of associates leave and still often treat their subordinates terribly. Additionally, in almost all cases they refuse to confront anything negative about AlphaSights. Their feedback structure works the same as associates', where upward feedback is not met with empathy, but with retribution. AlphaSights says that they hire for empathy, but the process of becoming a manager weeds out empathetic people. The associates that I've worked with have become some of my best friends, but everyone either leaves or becomes disheartened by the role and oppressive managers/VPs. Every single one of us is disposable. Still, AlphaSights treats every person terribly on their way out. I watched ~20 people leave during my time, and almost no one was thanked. Everyone, however, was belittled about their choice to leave with snide remarks about their next role or more direct insults. I am legitimately confused as to where positive reviews for AlphaSights come from, as <5% of people who started with me enjoy the role in any capacity. Listen to the long and thought-through reviews but, more importantly, reach out to any connection you have that previously worked at AlphaSights. Ask them about these reviews - it's a good sign you're doing your due diligence about a potential role. Ask them about retention rates, insight scores, TSCs, client-dependent bonuses, exit opportunities, client treatment, micromanagement, pay per hour, advisor relationships, and if they were happy at all. Ask them if the people around them were happy and how many made it past integration. Please do your digging.  If you’re a current Alphasights employee reading this because you feel alone, know that life is better in almost any other job and the expectations Alphasights sets are irrational and random.  And please, if you have the opportunity to speak with people interested in the firm, be honest with them and help them avoid what we didn’t.

This will be the first time I’ve written a review for AlphaSights (despite what many Glassdoor writers seem to believe). I am writing this to give my honest view of the firm and a lens to the New Graduates considering AlphaSights. I joined AS a long time ago and have seen its many evolutions. Broadly speaking, a few things have changed (We have definitely professionalized) but everything is always changing with the goal to improve our client offering and talent proposition. Additionally, the opportunities AlphaSights employees have now after leaving are far superior than my opportunities many years ago. If you are reading this, I would encourage you to really ask yourself - what do you want your early career to look like? Careers are often measured in 5-10 year increments 2-year experiences don’t even make it onto a CEO CV. Look at any very tenured Executive; normally, their first role won’t be listed. If you want to grow a real career with high-end clients and high-caliber peers then AlphaSights is great. If you want to optimize for lifestyle flexibility (working remotely from Bora Bora), please do that. That said, in 10 years when you are considering having children will that career be one that elevated you into your thirties? Or will someone else sitting next to you at college who wanted to shoot the lights out be the one checking off major goals that you desire? Most entry-level roles will have a degree of monotony (Excel, PPT, Emailing, cold calling, etc…). This is why they are entry-level and relative to the org structure the lowest compensated. We continuously invest to make ours better both from a support and compensation perspective. The Pros of AlphaSights that I have observed are as follows - Our offering is best in class - AlphaSights consistently raises compensation based on feedback - The Employees and clients are high caliber - you form amazing relationships - Our Exit Opportunities and alumni keep getting better - the top AS Associates, Managers, VPs, land pretty amazing jobs. We have placed people in the top B Schools, put people on the client side in great roles, and had a few very successful startup founders cut their teeth at good ol 350 Madison (or 229 W 43rd). - AS continues to evolve for the better - we are taking feedback changing each part of org. Unlike our peers, we want to evolve and hopefully you do too. - Private Ownership is nice - Third Bridge has Private Equity causing issues and GLG is saddled with debt - let alone some of the other players. Being owner operated gives you more flexibility and chances to improve. - Results are valued - if you push and you create outcomes (beyond just our compensation system) it really will make you stand out.

The Expert Network industry is still evolving into its comfort zone with the reality that we are crucially important to our client's process and it is time-consuming. AlphaSights has always been at the front of this problem and trying to improve it. Like anyone, AlphaSights makes mistakes but we own it and try to improve it. Interview and prepare really good questions, I guarantee you the VP/ Manager will be honest about anything you want. The Associate role has high expectations but we believe we compensate fairly (other reviews point the numbers out) and we do aim to be the best. You also have some great peers next to you trying to help. Client Facing Roles are tough - you face rejection from experts and clients but if you can brush that off you will be great. Despite what reviews say, we are very transparent about performance management and the vast majority of people do very well here. Managers/VPs/SVP+ are very accessible at all times (they sit on the floor with you) and want you to succeed. If you want to build a great career in a client-facing role where you drive your results - I would recommend AlphaSights.

You are given a lot of opportunities for responsibility early on. You are given the opportunity to gain really beneficial experiences such as project management, client relationship building, managing associates, interviewing and hiring, etc. much earlier than most companies.

Less of a con and more so just important that when joining AlphaSights, it's important to know this is a client service role and that is something you are excited about doing. If you don't want to be in a fast paced client service role your experience might not be as fulfilling.

- MBA tuition support: AlphaSights sponsors 70k USD support with NO RETURN obligations for managers, and 35k USD for senior associates. A few of my colleagues and myself got sponsored to transition to top MBA programs - Superb career advancement: AlphaSights offers a lot of internal mobility options and very quick career progression. Within a span of 4 years, I worked both in New York and Hong Kong offices, have frequently travelled to Dubai, Korea, and Japan offices and rotated to multiple teams. I also got to be a manager within 2 years and the role is no joke - it involves everything from complete account ownership to people management and hiring decisions. - Fantastic work culture and management support: most of my colleagues have quickly become friends. Especially in our HK office as 90% of people are with international background. My VP and SVPs had constant touchpoints with me and I always felt heard and that my opinion mattered.

- Really not a cons as such - but the environment here is for hustlers. People who are willing to go an extra mile, work extra hard and learn VERY quick. If you like a challenge and thrive in results-oriented environment, AlphaSights will be perfect for you. People who didn't like it here mostly were simply not habitat fit for the fast pace of the role.