Cons:
(1) Extremely poor exit opportunities. The only companies that recruit from AlphaSights are ones that are looking to hire for positions that do the same exact that that you are doing. AKA emailing / linkedin searching people. AlphaSights is a fantastic place to start a career in sales or relationship management. AlphaSights is a horrible place to start your career in ANYTHING else. Expect to start completely fresh with no help and no resources at all if you don't want to continue in sales/relationship careers.
(2) Long work hours. It's not about the pure numbers of work that you do. You'll be doing around 40-60 hours a week, depending on your location and team and manager. That doesn't sound bad, but its the type of work that you do, that makes it feel like you're pulling 60+ hours a week. You're doing the exact same thing, everyday, every week, and every month. You're not learning anything of value and you will stop learning VERY quickly. You will be forced to be on high alert 24/7 in the case of client emails and be forced to hop on the phone at crazy hours due to time zone differences. At face value, the hours don't seem long, but all things considered... you'll be working sparatic hours and VERY efficient (when you're working... you're GRINDING) hours. There is no break at AlphaSights because there is always more people to email + call. Keep that in mind.
(3) You do not learn ANYTHING OF VALUE outside of sales/relationship/account management skills in this job. You will not learn anything about the projects that you actually deliver for. Client is looking to diligence computer chips? Yeah, you're the person who's going to do the scheduling and paperwork, not the actual research. If you truly care about your career and your long-term learning, AlphaSights is the wrong place for you.
(4) You will be a "whipping girl/boy" (as another review aptly called it) for investment firms. If you happen to have bad/mean/rude clients, you will learn what it means to be a modern day indentured servant. You're expected to smile when a whole days work is thrown in the trash because a client doesn't want to speak to the advisors you've sourced. This is just the nature of the job. Be prepared for it if you decide AlphaSights is the path for you.
(5) You will learn to be a nuisance to others. This is the only way the job can be done sometimes. You will learn that this job is impossible if you don't pester/spam/cold call people. If you think about it, you're litearlly paying someone to take unapproved time off their normal day jobs to get on a call with a client to share information. Its a dirty and thankless job sometimes and you MUST get used to it.
