I'm going to start this out by saying that everything I'm writing in this review is based upon MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND OPINIONS. I am not writing this review in an attempt to slander AlphaBrook, or exaggerate what I found to be negative interactions, but rather to simply provide MY PERSPECTIVE to potential future employees.
Sorry for the disclaimer, I just don't feel comfortable continuing this review without one. I've also seen a lot of critical reviews 'mysteriously disappear' from this board, so I'm trying to cover my bases here.
To start with, my daily duties as a Research Analyst revolved around cold-calling government employees to gather information for reports. AlphaBrook insisted to me multiple times that what we were doing was not cold-calling, but that didn't change the fact that I was making well over 100 unsolicited phone calls a week to government individuals. In MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, I was instructed by my superiors to "hold these individuals accountable" if they attempted to end the conversation with me. I was supposed to remind them that it was ME who was the tax-payer, and THEM who was the public servant. When they still refused to engage with me, I was instructed to tell them that their "lack of cooperation" means that they are "showing favoritism" to industry members. In MY PERSONAL OPINION, that sounds like a sugar-coated threat, which is not something I am willing to indulge in. I was cursed at, and instructed to not call back by numerous individuals, but my manager still instructed me to call these officials back nonetheless. We were told to call "twice every twenty minutes" until individuals picked up the phone, which felt TO ME like harassment. Positive experiences through these cold-calls were far and few between, and I found the constant negative interactions to be extremely nerve-wracking, and, frankly, quite depressing.
If you do happen to get the information that you need, this insight is used to write your weekly reports. I didn't mind writing these, although I did find the formatting requirements nonsensical and tedious at times. During my time there--and I'm using past-tense here in hopes that something as changed--we found roundabout ways to answer questions that were not answered through outreach. This was occasionally done by reading online articles or watching YouTube videos to find quotable individuals involved with the subject of our report. From MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, I recall a meeting in which my manager instructed us to not use any roundabout information that came from extremely high-ranking individuals, as then "our clients will know that we didn't actually talk to these people." I don't know how anyone else felt about that instruction, but it felt TO ME like an encouragement to lie and be manipulative in my reports.
All of our reports were graded on a 1-10 scale, and your scores were available for public viewing by anyone in the research department. At the time, they used these scores to generate an Excel sheet that ranked us from "top researcher" to "bottom researcher." Everyone I spoke with shared my sentiment that this was an uncomfortable and unnecessary process. I've since been informed that AlphaBrook no longer ranks its employees publicly--I think--but that they do still grade each report.
The work itself aside, this felt like such a hostile environment TO ME PERSONALLY. The comfort of myself and other did not seem to be a concern for management, as we were often told to call back individuals that has previously been extremely rude to us. ALLEGEDLY, a fellow employee once politely informed a manager that something he had said made them feel uncomfortable, and that they would greatly appreciate if he avoided situations like that in the future. The next morning, that employee was fired, and ALLEGEDLY told that they "had no right to speak to a manager like that." In my time at AlphaBrook--which was less than a year--I can remember nine employees that were terminated or quit. Considering how small the research team is, that statistic speaks volumes TO ME. I've seen AlphaBrook insist that its turnover rate is normal, but I struggle to think of anyone who would agree with that sentiment.
I could go on and on for hours truthfully, but I'm sure this review is getting to be painfully long. PERSONALLY, if I had known what I was getting myself into, I would have chosen a different path. I fear that this review might get deleted, or commented on by an AlphaBrook admin in an attempt to discredit my own personal experience, but I feel called to express the truth of my time working there incase it happens to help anyone else contemplating this position. Keep applying, and if you do decide to give this company a try, I would triple-check your employee agreement before you sign it IF I WERE YOU.
Again, the opinion of AlphaBrook's employees (former and present) is unique to each individual, and I do not claim to speak for anyone other than myself. The above words are based upon my own feelings and interactions, and not intended to do anything other than describe my employment in an honest manner.
