Week 1 – AlphaSights

This week was my first week as an intern at AlphaSights in New York which is in the expert network industry. I am a Summer Associate on the Client Services Team, and I am working on a team with one manager, five associates, and three interns (including myself).  The main priorities of my role will be researching and calling/emailing experts/advisors to see whether they have the knowledge that our clients need.  If they do, I will connect them to our clients to help fill the knowledge gaps.  I will be working on multiple client requests at once in a fast-paced environment with the guidance of my trainer who is an Associate.  

After having completed my first week on the job, I have learned that AlphaSights highly values drive, results, emotional intelligence, humility, and adaptability in their interns.  First, the company wants their employees to have drive and motivation to deliver results for the clients, themselves, and the company.  Second, they strive for their employees to enhance their emotional intelligence when interacting with clients, potential advisors, and co-workers.  Lastly, they love for their employees to have humility and to always put the clients and advisors first, as well as be adaptable to a fast-paced environment that requires its employees to multi-task.  All employees at AlphaSights are on top of their game, but they are very understanding at the same time and create an environment that values growth.  They expect the interns to be very professional and hard-working, but they also expect us to fail in the beginning (in the best way possible).  For example, they wish for us to establish a growth mindset because no one is going to be perfect on the first day of the job; instead, they know that we will not be perfect but instead, we will learn from mistakes and grow from them, and they value that.  Not only do they teach us these values, attitudes and expectations during our onboarding, but our fellow employees display it everyday to the point where it will become part of our persona as interns.  

Along with their values, attitudes, and expectations, AlphaSights also functions based on their industry.  The expert network industry is a new yet successful industry, and the majority of their employees are on the younger side.  Therefore, employees can become Managers and Vice Presidents at the age of 24 and 26, respectively.  All of the teams are run by Managers and Vice Presidents, so I will be working with a team that is in a similar age cohort to me.  Additionally, something specific I have noticed during my first week at the company is the emphasis placed on client protection.  There is a large risk with compliance issues at AlphaSights; for example, insider trading is a large risk.  Therefore, they make sure that interns are educated on the client protection policies with training courses and a test.  Also, one of our main jobs is communicating with advisors, so they make sure that we have all of the information and practice we can receive before we make a big step and have calls with business professionals.  

Lastly, AlphaSights employees communicate with one another as equals and supporters of another.  For example, no one speaks down to or negatively against one another, but instead, they encourage each other and treat one another as equals, no matter the age.  To be more specific, they communicate via a messaging software downloaded on every employee’s computer called Slack or via email.  If the employees are in person, they are constantly working in teams and communicating with each other as teams’ desks are right next to one another.

Overall, I am really enjoying my internship at AlphaSights so far and am looking forward to the rest of the summer!