PSA: I notice a lot of people writing reviews saying “accepted position” when all they did was advance to the next round of interviews. This is not what “accepted position means”, ergo some of these interview debriefs are probably a little misleading.
There are four rounds to the job application process here, excluding the resume drop. I interviewed for Client Service Associate in Hong Kong in November 2020. The steps are as follows:
1) Automated video recording interview
2) HR interview
3) Project/case interview
4) Final interview
Anyway, I applied on the website and heard back very quickly, like on the same day. If selected, you’ll get a prompt asking you to do an automated online interview, which you’re required to submit within three day's time.
The online interview is administered via Convey IQ. It’s an online, automated interview, which means there will be no humans involved. You’ll get a prompt, you read it for 15 - 45 seconds, and then be required to provide an answer. There were a total of four questions in this component, two in English, two in your native country language. They are simple questions, such as why are you applying here, what do you know about AS, etc. These questions get uploaded, and someone at AS will view them, and likely get back to you pretty fast.
The next round is conducted by HR. They may ask you to schedule for two hours, but for me this round only lasted like an hour tops. An HR representative will ask you some basic behavioral questions, will ask you about the BREAD method, and ask you some general stuff about what you know about this industry, why you’re a good fit etc. The HR representative may also shift the second half of your interview to a different language, in order to see whether or not you can understand them and answer coherently (of the questions I’ve included below, all could be asked in your second language). After the HR interview is over, you’ll be required to take the language test portion of the second round. You’re gonna be required to write something very short just to verify your reading/written language capabilities. If you apply to the USA/London office, you may only get this test in English (or maybe not at all), but if you’re applying for a China/Korea/Japan/Europe office, the quiz will have components in both English and your native country language. To pass this, you need to have solid reading and writing skills.
The third round is the project interview round. It consists of two parts. Part 1 will be with a manager who will give you the case. He/she will present three briefs/cases (eg. a PE firm in Singapore is investing in the SE Asia app space, and wants to speak to an expert), ask you to pick 2 of them, and then give you 15 minutes to work on them. The cases are going to resemble real life business problems the company has to deal with, and you will need to think of experts to look for (using google, linkedin, etc). You’ll be under time pressure for sure in this step, so just do your best to find someone somewhat relevant. Afterwards, you’ll have to explain why you chose these people. Following this, you’ll be asked to deliver a mock phone call to a potential advisor (another manager will play the role). You have to deliver a convincing pitch on why they should work with AlphaSights. If you’re applying for a role which requires a second language, you’ll be required to make this pitch in that language. Once this entire step is finished, they will also ask you what you think you could have done better in retrospect.
The SECOND part to the THIRD round is a simple behavioral interview. They seemed very interested in getting to know me, and many of the questions revolved around my university experience. A lot of other very run of the mill behavioral interview questions here, such as where else I am applying, what fields am I interested in, tell me about your greatest failure, what did you like/dislike about your university, why did you pick your university, walk me through your background, etc.
The final round is an interview with the regional VP (I believe). I didn't make it to this round, so I can't shed any light on this. Since I messed up in the 3rd round, I would say I probably should have sharpened my interview ability in Chinese, and performed better on the project round.