Solving Problems/Improving Leadership – AlphaSights

I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship at AlphaSights thus far and really haven’t spotted a lot of problems/areas that need improvement; however, there are two problems that could use some improvement. The first area is an operational issue/ineffectiveness: the training program. The training program consists of a ton of presentations about AlphaSights with some hands on stuff such as mock calls, but the majority of the program is listening to presenters. These presentations/sessions are educational and helpful; however, I feel that interns and new joiners would largely benefit from more shadowing and hands on activities that would be completed during a typical day of work. For example, I noticed myself lacking attention during some presentations since I was sitting on my computer for the majority of the day listening to people speak. I talked about it with some of my interns as well, but I didn’t think it was a problem until I got lunch with some new joiners who started at the company two weeks ago. They shared the same issues that I had, and it reinforced these areas of needed improvement in my mind. Therefore, when I was talking to my manager and trainer, I voiced to them that the training program should consist of more shadowing sessions, mock phone calls, trial runs of projects, etc. rather than presentation after presentation. Also, I feel that I am enacting this change because I told the new joiners that now would be a great time to tell their trainers and provide feedback in training surveys that the training should be more hands on, because this will train new employees and interns more effectively and efficiently.

The second area of improvement revolves around teamwork and collaboration. AlphaSights does a great job of instilling a collaborative and team-oriented environment in the office; however, to stay on the subject of training, I feel that it could be beneficial for interns to be trained by multiple different associates. This could benefit the company in two ways: allow interns to build multiple strong relationships within his/her team and expose interns to multiple different working styles. First, I have a strong relationship with my trainer as I work on every project with him, but I would like to gain strong relationships with the other two associates on my team. I feel that we have a solid foundation of a relationship, but our team could be more collaborative and strong if everyone worked in an intertwined matter rather than sticking with one trainer for the whole summer. Second, I think my trainer has a great working style and ethic, but there are multiple ways to go about completing projects. Therefore, I think that experiencing and learning multiple different working styles throughout an internship/training would be extremely beneficial for interns and could create a lot of new perspectives and creativity. I have made a strong effort to work with these other associates on projects and ask them questions, but the expectation is that your trainer guides you throughout the internship. I will make this suggestion in end-of-internship meetings and surveys in order to get my point across from a first-hand perspective.