Pros
I started working for Third Bridge during the pandemic. I must say that the recruitment, on-boarding and training process was extremely smooth considering at the time they hadn't had much time to prepare. Originally after reading Glassdoor reviews, I admit I was hesitant to progress my application but the recruiter was really great. He listened to my concerns and we had a very open and honest discussion. Said recruiter is a credit to the company to be honest. I was sold on the role on the premise of working for a high-growth company, exposure to different client types, a great salary, good company benefits and a clear progression/development path for those who joined the associate program as I did. The company is also international and (in normal circumstances) offers employees the chance to complete secondments in our other offices which really interested me. Now that I work for the company, I don't believe I was mis-sold on the role. I have no regrets joining the company. Despite the fact I have not met a single colleague in person due to the pandemic, I have felt nothing but supported and welcomed. I personally think the culture is great currently and a far cry from what I have read on here (though I heard it changed a lot for the better not long before I joined). Management is approachable, ideas and feedback are listened to in the most part and we have regular town halls to be kept up to date with what is going on in the company. I also think the company is excellent at sharing each other's successes. Yes middle management is quite young but honestly I find this makes them more relatable and shows me I could progress to middle-management before my 40's. For me I find this a positive, not a negative. I have heard from numerous sources that the job is even better when the office is open due to the social factors. One of my colleagues told me that Third Bridge is a place where "friendships for life are made".
Cons
If I am discussing the company, I don't believe there are many cons. As for the role of associate however, there is a reason turnover is high to be honest. After a few months, the role becomes less interesting and you learn less and less. You start to wonder what else there is (myself included). Of course the company is looking into this and is creating new roles (upwards and side ways) to retain the best talent but I honestly think they would do better to make the role of associate a bit different from what it is. Most of the day is spent chasing specialists/experts via LI, cold-calling, email until you have managed to recruit (invite them to our network) and/or screen them. I feel like the role needs more substance though I am at a loss as to what to suggest. I feel that too many of our experts are not communicated with properly when they are not selected by clients and it can be very disheartening to hear about this. It is also not nice to deal with - especially as it is something we can avoid as a company if enough attention is given to it. Sometimes I think we focus so much on the needs of clients and don't pay enough attention to our specialists. It would be great if the new specialist associate role recently announced could really focus on specialist care and not be more of the same. I do sometimes feel like hitting targets is as much about luck as it is about hard work for associates and client associates/project managers - we rely so heavily on clients not cancelling/postponing projects, experts answering to communications and the workload we are given. When projects change angles, as often happens, it is very demotivating sometimes that all the work you did so far has come to nothing but then you have to quickly bounce back up and almost start over. While I appreciate that this is a fast-paced industry and not much can be done, it isn't great that our output doesn't always demonstrate the level of input we have made. There have been times where I have worked hours of overtime to ensure I hit target even though I think targets aren't unreasonable. There have been other times where I have hit my quarterly target with weeks to go and I don't think I worked any harder in the latter situation then I did in the former, I just think some days/weeks you are much luckier than others. Also holidays/sickness are verbally taken into consideration but are not reflected on our records which I think is a shame. I almost feel reluctant to take holidays despite the company encouraging me to do so and assuring me that they will take this into consideration. I do think there is a danger of micromanagement as more and more pressure is put on team leaders - especially with regards to specialist costs. Personally I do not like to be micro-managed and I really hope this doesn't become the go-to management style moving forward.
