This interview process took three months, 5 interviews, and 2 cases. I enjoyed the process, of course I was disappointed when I did not get an offer, but ultimately I recognize it was the right decision for me. I promised myself I would share my experience so those who come after me know what to expect.
Submitting your application: Alphasights, unlike many companies only requires your resume for the application.
Round 1: If they like your resume, they will send you a link to a video interview with no interviewer. The screen will show you the question and you have 60 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak. Just relax before because not having an interviewer can be difficult because you can't assess the persons reaction.
Questions: If you had a Saturday off, what would you do?
What does Alphasights do?
What do you do outside of academics?
How is Alphasights different from other roles you are applying to?
Round 2: This is a conversation with HR. The interviewer will ask you to introduce yourself, walk through your resume and ask you how your resume applies to the job at Alpha Sights. My interviewer asked me some behavioral questions like: What's your leadership style, what skills are you looking to gain? What is your biggest impact at school?
Round 3: This was a 2-hour case interview with two managers. In the first hour, I was sent a case via email and I had 15 minutes to find two experts for each case. I used Linkedin and I edited the search filters to include the location, former company, and job title. My feedback was that I needed to learn more about the value chain. For example, when they asked for a professional to give insight on the market for cheesy snacks, I gave them an expert that is in charge of buying all the ingredients for cheesy snacks, instead of the buyer at a retail store.
In the second hour, I spoke to another manager that asked me about the previous round, who I spoke to and which expert I felt strongest about. Then, I had to pretend to be on the phone with that expert and convince them to work with AlphaSights. My mistake her was that I simply explained to the expert what AlphaSights did, and she agreed to work with us and I hung up. Instead, I should have asked more probing questions to find out if indeed this expert was the right fit for the brief. After this portion, the interview asked me behavioral questions.
Questions: Tell me about a recent failure and how you overcame it? If you had a magic wand and Alphasights was not on the table, where would you want to work or in what position?
Round 4: This interview was with a VP. My interviewer was really nice! This was purely behavioral and he asked me a lot of the same questions from the previous rounds/
Questions: Tell me about your leadership style. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you hope to learn at Alphasights?
Round 5: For some reason, I got asked to go to a fifth round with two managers. This is not very common from what I learned. I was pretty thrown off by this additional interview, so do not let this happen to you! They asked basically all the same things from the previous interviews, I think this point I had a little bit of interview fatigue and I was trying to recall my answers to the questions to answer them the same way instead of letting the answers come out naturally.
Questions: Biggest failure and how you overcame it.?Strengths? weaknesses? why Alphasights? Top things you hope to learn? If you had a magic wand and Alphasights not on table, where would you work?
Throughout the process, HR was really incredible. They emailed me within 24-hours of every interview. I also got a call when it came to my rejection, I appreciated that because it gave the VP a chance to explain why they didn't give me an offer.
My advice to the next candidate, don't let interview fatigue get to you, be personable and clearly outline how your past experience relate directly to the job! Good luck!
