Connections Associate - LA Office - September Start 2023

At Third Bridge, we’re a primary research business providing professional services to Private and Public Equity Investors, Investment Consultants, Investment Managers, and more.

We help those investors understand companies and the issues they face. We build and share intelligence on key industry drivers and the latest sector trends. And we offer the kind of critical knowledge that’s regularly overlooked by conventional investment research, and which investors won’t find anywhere else on the planet.

Put simply, we’re creating the world’s largest database of human insights — and we’re the architects of an incredible ecosystem that fuels better and faster investment decisions.

Together, we're on a mission designing, building and delivering a different kind of future. It’s all about creating a space where people are empowered to make bold moves. To explore new ways of working. To go where no-one has ever gone before.

Connections is a fast-growing, fast-paced, performance driven environment. As an Associate, you’ll be the person driving revenue by enabling our clients to connect to the industry experts that will help them. After your initial training period, where you’ll hone your skills targeting, sourcing and screening relevant industry specialists, you’ll start directly managing your own book of business. You’ll spend much of your time on the phone, both with your clients, to unpick what they need from an expert, and with industry specialists, to find the perfect match. Ultimately, it’s about uncovering what our clients need, and digging deep to find out whether the experts we identify know the answers to the questions our clients want to ask.

Responsibilities

• Understand client needs and the most relevant experts that could help them.
• Engage with these individuals by reaching out over the phone to understand whether they are the right fit for our clients.
• Negotiate and persuade experts to connect with our clients at short notice, scheduling calls as soon as possible, whilst operating within our industry leading compliance framework.
• Deliver excellent client service by being a fast, responsive, thoughtful and proactive research partner

Development

We are committed to helping everyone at Third Bridge grow and develop, this starts from day 1 and continues throughout your career. Our comprehensive onboarding program includes both classroom-based and on-the-job learning that will teach you the fundamentals of our business, how our clients think, how to sell our value proposition to secure experts and how to explore a multitude of industry sectors in order to provide an excellent service to our clients.

You will also learn how to identify industry experts as well as developing your communication skills to engage with industry specialists/senior professionals over the phone.

Typically, but not exclusively, after 4 to 6 months in your Third Bridge journey you will have mastered Specialist Management, you will then progress to our Client Engagement Learning Programme to take on client relationship building and project management responsibilities. You’ll learn how to engage with investor and management consulting clients, drive business results and lead project delivery teams.

The next step in your Third Bridge career could be:

Your promotion to a Senior Associate is based on achievement against performance goals. At this point, you will have the opportunity to choose your career track: either;

• Manager Track, where you start our Emerging Leaders program to develop your leadership skills and have the opportunity to apply for a Connections Manager role.
• Individual Contributor Track, where you will continue to hone your client engagement skills and unlock greater bonus earning potential.

In your first year, you will sharpen your skills in...

Commercial Acumen: understand and navigate corporate structures, sector value chains, and key stakeholders. Learn to identify key drivers and dynamics to understand your client’s knowledge gaps and engage with industry experts. Gain an introduction to the world of investment and how decision makers in this field think.

Sales effectiveness to develop your Persuasion and Negotiation: learn how to effectively pitch to senior industry executives, persuade them to engage with clients and negotiate terms. You’ll also learn how to persuade your clients to speak with the experts you know would be a great fit to support their research.

Relationship Building: increase your network and build relationships with clients and industry experts by delivering a high-end customer experience throughout.

Time Management: execute on multiple projects at a given time, manage competing priorities and changing client requests. Prioritisation and context switching are key in order to handle the fast-paced environment we operate in.

Stakeholder Management: sharpen your interpersonal skills as you collaborate with others to share knowledge and develop sourcing strategies when executing on client requests.

What we look for:

The work is fast-paced – you will be working on multiple requests each day, with tight timelines and high standards so you’ll need to organise your time well, have great attention to detail and adhere to our compliance framework.

Our services are in high demand and we all work to targets so we need people who are excited by a hands-on, high performing and results-oriented role and who are driven to exceed expectations for our clients.

Your projects will span a wide variety of industries and geographies which you will need to understand at a high level. It’s important that you enjoy learning, are able to quickly understand key information and use this to find the right experts for each project.

You’ll be responsible for building relationships with our clients as well as a wide variety of industry experts across different industries and seniority levels, so you need to have great communications skills (both written and verbal) and be able to adapt your communication style effectively.

Teamwork is essential - you’ll be collaborating with colleagues locally and internationally when executing on projects.

With a culture centred around feedback and open communication, we look for people who are open to continuous professional development.

Strong academic credentials and/or extensive experience in a client-facing role.

Rewarding your hard work. We offer a range of incredible rewards and benefits. These include the basics, which are:

• Competitive base salary of $67,000 with access to our bonus scheme after just 1 month.
• In Year 1, an average performer can expect to earn between $77,000-$82,000 OTE but our top performers make more!
• 15 days of vacation (which increases to 20 days after 2 years of service) plus US Holidays

We're very supportive of your career development here in Third Bridge:

• We create flexible career and development paths, with opportunities to gain a wide range of transferable skills.
• We've created comprehensive onboarding and training programmes and in the first 2+ years there is access to our Associate Training Programme, Client Engagement Programme, Emerging Leaders Programme, D&I Awareness course, Breaking Bias course, Manager training Programme and Mentoring Programmes run by our Executive Leadership Team.
• We also provide a Personal Development Allowance to the value of £750 per year, which can be used for any learning programmes you feel would be beneficial for you.

We also focus on your health and wellbeing:

• A variety of insurance plans
• Health coverage by Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield - Medical Insurance, Dental insurance and Vision plan
• A personal HSA (Health Saving Account) and Medical FSA (Flexible Spending Account)
• Modern Health to focus on your mental wellness with free coaching sessions, online therapy sessions and meditation resources
• Monthly social events
• In-office perks, including snacks, weekly lunches, coffee, tea and drinks

Your future and family is important to us, so we offer:

• 401K matching up to 5% of your base salary
• People Development Allowance to help you in your role or in your wider career aspirations
• Life insurance
• A long term disability policy
• An Employee Assistance Program
• Dependent Care FSA
• Pet Insurance

As well as looking at your work-life balance:

• 2 annual volunteer days - so you can help a charity or good cause of your choice
• 2 personal days - for when life throws you a curveball
• Summer Fridays - so you have more time to enjoy the weather
• Work from Anywhere - visit family or extend your holiday by working abroad in approved countries for up to one month each year

And finally, real-time rewards which concentrate on outstanding performance and teamwork using our colleague-to-colleague recognition programme. Watch your points grow and spend them on:

• Savings on hotel stays worldwide
• Gift cards for major retailers including Amazon and H&M
• Donations to charities
• And more!