Life and career molding development opportunity
Pros
(1) People - Not one single review (even the more critical ones) fails to mention the unparalleled talent pool that exists at AlphaSights (great people, driven, ambitious, smart, etc.). I’ll add to that chorus. Read between the lines: great companies hire great people. (2) Development - AlphaSights took me as a young professional and gave me the tools to grow, develop and thrive. The list of skills and accomplishments I can list on my resume is unparalleled to my peers at other companies and that’s 100% because of AlphaSights. It’s hard, hard work (not for everyone), but if you have a growth-mindset, and you’re excited about the opportunity to grow a business, solve problems, and thought partner with clients, then AlphaSights will reward you with unlimited opportunities. Professional development is one of the company’s biggest investments because it’s a people-powered business. I truly believe the manager role at AlphaSights is easily one of the most hyper-speed development opportunities out there. It’s rare to have the opportunity to lead the commercial and talent development of a team or business unit two years into your career. Some reviews have complained about having young managers, but someone who is a first time manager whether they’re 24 or 29/30 is going to be the same regardless of age, I’d rather put my money on the horse who develops sooner and faster - AlphaSights gives you that, and develops some of the best management talent in the market today. (3) Company age and size - I came from two years experience at a large corporation. The difference of a big fortune 1000 company and a young high growth company like AlphaSights is night and day. Unlike larger and older companies bogged down in bureaucracy, AlphaSights is lean, constantly changing, agile, unstructured in some areas still, and growing like crazy. This is not for everyone as the fast pace nature of change (people movements, team restructuring, etc) can give some people whiplash, but I see it as a sign of growth. When a company grows fast, the people within it need to be growing just as fast. The nice thing about AlphaSights is that it is no longer in a startup phase either, so you get the high-speed nature of the growth but with more security and structure than a startup. (4) Client-facing and interesting work - this part is important to know beforehand. It’s a client-facing job, and these aren’t “easy” clients.. they work for the best consulting firms, PE firms, hedge funds in the world. So naturally, they are working on the biggest investment deals and corporate strategy problems in the world.. obviously that’s a recipe for demanding work. It’s important to understand this before choosing to work at AlphaSights. The negative reviews that talk about longer hours and demanding clients did not get that. Keeping it in perspective though, AlphaSights does not have consulting or ibanking hours, but it’s also not a 9-5 job. It’s an average 10 hr workday in SF and 11.5 in NY (time zones primarily cause this difference as very few people are online after 6/7pm PT). Additionally, if you’re driven and willing to keep yourself engaged in critical thinking and the subject matter of the projects, it’s quite interesting work and you can learn about a lot of different industries and their value chains. That’s IF you are engaged in the work. Otherwise, some people put themselves on autopilot and only see the associate role as a set of repetitive actions (which could be said for most entry level jobs). It just depends on your mindset.
Cons
AlphaSights is not for everyone and those who are simply not the right fit can sometimes stick around too long.. it requires the type of person who wants to be in a high-octane role, someone who has self-direction and willingness to take advantage of growth and development opportunities, and someone who thrives on the challenges that come with a client facing role. When the people who aren’t the best fit stick around too long, they can become culture detractors on some teams. Luckily, leadership and management have started to put in better infrastructure to better identify these situations earlier on to help these people transition out of AlphaSights to other opportunities better suited for them. If you want to succeed at AlphaSights, my advise is to align yourself with the people who are able to think longer-term/bigger-picture and can see the opportunity with AS.
