Most Likely a Pass - Research Associate GLG Employee Review

2.0
May 12, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As with any job, the coworkers you're surrounded with are a key component of your overall experience. This is an area where GLG wins out - historically hiring bright and driven individuals with impressive pedigrees. Much of the talent funnel overlaps with the bank/consulting recruiting pool. This benefit extends beyond professional development as the cohort model brings tons of new grads all together where making friends (in a new city!) becomes a lot easier. I still am friends with many former coworkers. Further, many of the individuals leaving GLG really do 'level-up' to really cool jobs and companies - startups, F500, management/tech consulting firms, financial services - and prestigious graduate programs. GLG is a decent starting place for those who are entirely unsure of what they want to do career wise. Soft skill development builds while gaining a mile-high understanding of the various industries dominating today's global economy. Soft skill city - you'll spend a fair amount of time on the phone, by nature improving your business communication skills. This is often used at a con when discussing workplace skill development, but hands down is one of the most valuable and transferable skills out there. THAT SAID, one could argue that you'll also develop these skills concurrently with a more challenging job. Pay is great out the gate but quickly ends up on the less-competitive side 1-2 years out of school in today's economy. This gap widens as you progress with the company.

Cons

Bottom line - there are truth in the numbers here when it comes to the negative reviews on glassdoor. While many are clearly biased, there are a few key clear cons to highlight: - The work itself - the work at GLG is incredibly monotonous. The ever-changing metrics driven mandates create an inherent disincentive to dive deep and engage with the work you're presented with. Leaders respond to this almost entirely with platitudes, avoiding the subject all together. -Middle management and leadership - "the blind leading the blind" - It's very clear that many of GLG's top leaders are leftovers from the previous 'GLG generation.' It seems that Paul is working to change this out, but in general a lot of lackluster leaders collecting paychecks (looking at you Jim Sharpe). This issue pushes down to the very large layer of middle management at GLG - where strong ICs are promoted to management positions with little to no guidance on how to lead effectively. This leaves a lot of young talent with tremendous potential out to dry at a time where they need coaching the most. -Lack of change management and follow-through - So many initiatives are rolled out on a regular basis without a formidable strategy in place. Most of these initiatives last a few weeks to a few months but nevertheless are exhausting. The change fatigue is unreal and leads to overall distrust and exhaustion with the company's direction.

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GLG Response
7y
I’m sorry to read about your experience here. We hear your concerns about metrics. As with many companies, we’ve found them to be helpful in gauging the success of our business. But we’re also aware of their limitations. That’s why we’re working to set clearer measures of performance in the fairest and most transparent way possible. We’re glad you saw improvement in your communication skills while you were here. We too believe it’s among the most valuable and transferable things you can learn as you move through your career. Sorry it didn’t work out for you here. We wish you the best of luck in your new role.

Explore other reviews about GLG

5.0
Mar 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing people - lots of reviews say that because it's true. You'll work with smart, genuine, hard working humans. Good benefits and perks. Interesting events and opportunities to learn. Overall, a good place to start your career!

Cons

Very fast-paced environment which definitely isn't for everyone. Lots of necessary change.

1.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Not applicable at all (truly)

Cons

Genuinely I don’t know where to start. I’ve submitted and deleted two reviews in the past 3 months alone. On the surface GLG seems like the place to be to learn from members and executives, but just give it a little bit of time and you’ll quickly see how obvious the cracks are. The culture here is so toxic, managers either do not know or don’t want to delegate project work so you’ll find yourself getting whiplash just trying to get information related to your job from your OWN BOSS. At the same time everyone you interact with is the epitome of “that’s not my job”. The executive leadership team is a mean girls club made up entirely of friends of friends who have their direct reports working well into the night to pull things together so that they look good. The “motivators” the executives use is truly bullying (like constantly pulling up your job description to purposefully make you look and feel small) any other organization would identify making your employees purposely feel stupid and shut down as straight bullying. It’s truly no surprise that you will regularly see employees crying in the hallways. I have never seen a leadership team this incompetent.

3
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