AlphaSights reviews

3.5

55% would recommend to a friend

(2,026 total reviews)
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Max Cartellieri

81% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

AlphaSights has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 2,026 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The AlphaSights employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Administración y consultoría industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
5.0
Jun 3, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AlphaSights has a winning value proposition that clients love. The company is growing very quickly and there are opportunities for people who are willing to work hard and move the team and firm forward. The company’s core offering has made it the second largest player in the market behind GLG and the company has a clear vision of becoming #1 in the industry. As the world moves to a sharing based economy, there is no question that companies like AlphaSights will be will positioned to grow in the coming years. The company is run by two former management consultants who met at Stanford business school and have a history of starting and running successful companies. Despite the previous reviews on this thread, in my experience the VPs & CEOs at AlphaSights are more agile, caring, inquisitive and dedicated than people twice their age at other companies. What they lack in experience they more than make up for in enthusiasm and commitment to their teams. Experienced hires can find the ignorance of direct hires from undergrad frustrating (Examples: Why are there only six flavors of cereal? Why was I not promoted in a year?) The sense of entitlement can be astounding. I was nervous about moving to a high growth company that was smaller than my old company, but have been happy with my choice overall and think most experienced hires can thrive at AS in the right role. If you are interested in a role that does a lot of analytical work (especially with spreadsheets), AS is probably not for you. But for people that are hungry, excited to learn about the business world and have a strong commercial mindset and good hustle, AlphaSights is a great place to cut your teeth right out of school with transferable business skills after having exposure to a bunch of different areas. It’s a particularly good place for liberal arts grads to get marketable business skills while gaining great exposure to the business world. The company emphasizes learning by doing and everyone (across all offices globally) are incredibly fun and smart which makes coming to work every day more enjoyable. For the work and industry, compensation is fair (one of the changes made recently) and AS employees are going on to Ivy league business schools and other top tier options.

Cons

The company is a victim of its own success. As the company’s growth exploded, the infrastructure to support surging client demand took a backseat to client requests. Any company that grows from 4 people to 300 in such a short time span is going to have its growing pains. I’ve seen a major shift from it being a “start up” (blow out parties, unclear career path) to a professional services company (redefined org structure, career path options, less of a boiler room type environment). Weekend work is generally non-existent but client requests can be demanding and the “always on” mind set starts to wear on you after a couple of years of long days (usually 8 AM – 7PM, but these are improving for some teams as leadership owns that the company accepts it is not a consulting firm or investment bank). The leadership team knows this is an issue and have been working aggressively for the company to be a place good employees want to be. There are still internal issues the company is addressing but the most recent changes since one of the CEOs relocated to New York have been noticeable and impactful (redesigned org structure, revised comp plan, agile performance reviews, elimination of ambiguous firings, updated office, less of a face time culture etc…). That said, there is still work to be done and the VPs, managers and CEOs would all be the first ones to admit it and are always ready to listen to ideas to help make the company better. Criticism with no productive ideas is frowned upon (rightfully so). Overall, the rate of growth of the organization and opportunities that are available for hard workers offset any drawbacks in my opinion. There are other issues that could be discussed at length (wrong hires in previous years, ineffective onboarding for experienced hires, dismissals gone wrong, lack of career path, wrong talent story, etc…) but the major problems are in the rear view mirror and the company has a promising future. Incoming classes have been hired under a different lens and should drive the company forward into an exciting new chapter.

5.0
May 27, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

When I joined AlphaSights 4 years ago it was a true startup and over that time it has evolved into a high-growth firm with a clear mission and vision and a very compelling business proposition. I have watched the office grow from 20 to 50 to 100 to 150 people and at each stage it has faced new challenges and evolved. Some challenges were met head on and dealt with swiftly and smartly and others were, admittedly, flubbed. That is the reality of working at a growing company. Things change every day. The second you make a plan it becomes time to adapt it to the new landscape within and without the firm. This can either be exciting or overwhelming, inspiring or frustrating, and sometimes all of those things at the same time. This is not a unique AlphaSights problem but a high-growth problem. I have vented and moaned and then reflected and learned. I have been a guinea pig for change and a standard bearer for change. I have been able to see how the organism that is a company morphs over time and that is undoubtedly the biggest lesson I will take away from my time here. I encourage everyone working there or anywhere else to open their eyes and try to analyze the dynamics unraveling around them: How does your talent story impact who you hire? How do those people engage with the value prop of the company? How well equipped are your managers to illustrate that value prop and tie it to their direct reports' day-to-day? How does the skill set you learn in month one prepare you for the one you'll need in year five? How do you keep everyone aligned to the same vision? How do you provide your sales team with the right tools, technology and training to execute on all cylinders? These are all questions AlphaSights is still asking itself and answering in stages. It has come a long way in the last 4 years and I'm excited to see where it goes in the next 4 years. So here are the pros: - For a first job you get a crash course in business. You learn what roles are responsible for which tasks. You learn what questions people in product management, marketing, sales, strategy, operations, and HR grappled with. You also learn what questions companies ask when evaluating an acquisition, entering a new market, reorganizing a division, benchmarking an internal process, evaluating a vendor, or analyzing their competition. Finally, you learn how to break down the value chain of a market quickly. - You learn commercial skills that will help you for life. You learn how to work with senior professionals and communicate with them effectively. You are able to receive a problem from a client and find a solution for them quickly. - As a manager you are responsible for the daily execution of your team, the development of your people, and the growth of your accounts. - You meet with clients and upsell your services. You think through creative new solutions for them and have the opportunity to create brand new offerings or sales collateral. - You have a voice at the table. If you work hard and prove yourself you are taken seriously and your ideas are heard, no matter your title or seniority. -Lastly, the people. This is probably the most cliche AlphaSights comment but the people are just amazing. They are bright, driven, sharp, funny, warm, and inspiring. They are an amazing network of young professionals and I am really grateful to have been able to call them my colleagues and my friends.

Cons

As mentioned above, the company is young and it is still figuring out a lot of things. It continues to run into issues of professional development and resource provisioning as the company grows, roles change, priorities shift, and people come and go. The company is constantly sprinting to keep up with its own growth and this creates friction in the process. I caution everyone to ask themselves if they REALLY want to be working at a high-growth firm before they join. I also ask that they have patience once they do join. No firm is perfect but AlphaSights is pretty great and extremely committed to striving for excellence. It is always working to being better tomorrow than it was the day before and because of that I'd recommend it to any ambitious young person looking for a job that stresses front-line execution and autonomy.

5.0
May 23, 2016

Punchy

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AlphaSights is quite similar to the real world: it doesn't have many frills about it, nor does it cocoon you from reality with soft furnishings. With that in mind, it's about your own mindset and energy. Lots of my tasks are menial and friends have been unlucky with really bad managers - but delivering the actual product itself is pretty cool, and the service has huge universal value. Some of the younger colleagues don't seem to appreciate how their tasks add up to the bigger outcome - when you notice that, you realise it's a great company to be working at. But you have to be positive and try your hand at projects outside of the role.

Cons

would love the chance to travel to see more clients but not the done thing here. the company also needs to be brutally clear to people about the bigger value of the service. Client can get expert insights very quickly by working with people here but the associates don't seem to see how powerful that is.

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