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