Graduates

Alpha presents an exceptional opportunity to work in a high-performance and meritocratic environment that values diversity, wellness and inclusion. As a graduate, the company provided me with everything I needed and more to kickstart my career. Since joining, I have been on one large client project (13 months long), and one shorter project (4 weeks), both of which have been completely different – the first comprising a back/middle office vendor selection and implementation for a UK-based asset manager, and the second focusing on developing dashboards and tooling to help a team at a European asset manager adapt to newly-implemented Agile ways of working. Despite only having one year (and counting!) of experience in the industry, the responsibility and trust placed in me from my very first day here has been exceptional; from delivering challenging and complex messages directly to a client’s COO to managing intricate project proposals, you are thrown in at the deep end in the very best way possible.

Everyone at Alpha gets involved with business management as a way of contributing to broader company life – this can involve anything from organising firm-wide events to developing wellbeing or diversity & inclusion initiatives to roll out to the company. For me, working as part of a team to help create a strategy and develop a new practice area has been a real highlight of the past year and is demonstrative of the sheer amount of opportunity available to make a real impact on the company, no matter what level you are

After trying my hand at different placements and internships during university, I didn’t yet know exactly what I wanted to do, but I did know what I wanted from it. I wanted to find a company that was small enough to treat everyone like they mattered, somewhere that offered exposure to different cultures and ways of working, and somewhere that I could make a difference from the start.

Alpha offered all of these things and more. After completing my induction and gaining the Investment Management Certificate in the first few weeks, I was soon exposed to senior members of prestigious firms, delivering work that provided genuine value. Since then, I’ve worked across a number of different areas and gained amazing experience in each, from strategy to implementation projects, with focuses on everything from investment to compliance, data, digital, and M&A.
Outside of projects and client work, we also help run many parts of company itself. To this end, everyone has one or two Business Management roles alongside our client facing work. For example, I have supported the Events Team, and the M&A Team.

What really separates Alpha though is the culture. From socials and karaoke sessions that occur unplanned as often as not, to events like our famous Christmas party, end of year dinner, and not to mention our Summer Session abroad, people truly become invested in each other and Alpha. That means there’s no such thing as getting to know someone for the first time on a new project, only to never meet them again. You’re more likely to have already been on holiday together and to end up lifelong friends

Prior to joining Alpha’s graduate scheme, my only experience of the world of work was gained through internships I had completed at multi-national organisations. Therefore, with Alpha’s team at the time still in the double digits it was with a degree of trepidation that I first applied, with a host of questions as to what building a career at this small, unfamiliar firm would entail. 5 years later, I have a much clearer perspective on the answers.

Through the interview process, I was told consistently of the high level of responsibility I would get at an early stage. Upon joining, this became immediately apparent as I found myself participating in a workshop with the COO of a leading wealth manager on my first day. This level of exposure has continued in a similar vein over the last 5 years, during which time I’ve had the opportunity to participate in, and lead, some of the most interesting and transformational programmes in the industry. Working for a specialist boutique consultancy has allowed me to enjoy a wide variety of different engagements, ranging from regulatory & compliance, through to digital, sales & marketing, safe in the knowledge that all of them were contributing to my knowledge of the industry in which I have chosen to specialise.

Whilst Alpha provides great professional opportunities and experience, it is in the culture that that really the firm apart. In combining the stewardship of a listed company, the entrepreneurship of a start-up, the support of a family business, Alpha offers an unrivalled foundation upon which exciting, accelerated, and most importantly, sustainable, careers in management consulting can be built.