Third Bridge is a market-leading investment research firm. We provide integrated solutions for the world’s top investors and business leaders to help them make smarter and faster decisions. No other company in the world provides the same holistic investment offering: our superpower is the combination of human insights and unique investor-led content with a global expert network. We serve over 1,000 investment firms, offering clients 24/7 coverage through our team of 1,300+ employees located across eight offices.
What is Private Equity (PE)?
In a nutshell, our private equity clients invest in companies with the intention of increasing the value of their stake down the line. The insights they get through our experts and content become the basis of their decision to invest in opportunities, or to pass on them.
Associate, Private Equity Clients
As an Associate you’ll have opportunities to work with the sharpest minds in private equity funds. They will rely on you for access to the most relevant experts and content, which you are responsible for identifying and recommending to them throughout their investment lifecycles. To do so you'll gather a unique set of commercial skills that will help you deliver extraordinary results for both clients and experts, and grow professionally. The projects can be complex, but the impact is meaningful - every day you will get to hear directly from your clients, experts and colleagues about the difference you have made.
Would you like to learn more about our early careers Associate position? Take our free virtual job simulation and learn what it is like to work in this role.
The hats you will wear
- Salesperson: listen to your clients and tailor our offering in a way that best suits their unique needs. Use your negotiation and persuasion skills to create value for our specialists.
In practice: you will pitch our entire suite of products (content and expert calls) to investors in your book of business, and you will convince experts (from CEOs to technical experts) to speak to your clients about their industry. - Business developer: understand the drivers of profitable revenue and find your path to grow it. Work with your team to execute strategies for the accounts you are responsible for.
In practice: this could mean calling investors who have never used our services to build relationships and get business from them. - Problem solver: A client can challenge you with any company name and questions: you’ll break down an industry within minutes, suggest who they should speak with and what they should read.
In practice: you will search for relevant content and vet experts to support your clients at each stage of their research.You will not give them investment advice. - Learner: apply the knowledge and skills you acquire on the job to improve your productivity and find innovative ways to continue advancing our business model.
In practice: when a process gets in the way of your speed, you propose an alternate solution and speak with the right people to implement it.
Qualifications
Areas that play to your strengths:
- You must be able to deliver high quality work on a deadline. You will be working on lots of active workstreams simultaneously, but that doesn’t scare you - in fact it excites you, and you’re confident in your ability to multitask and remain organised. Private equity investors are under a lot of pressure to make decisions fast, but you stay calm and get things done. If at times your client asks you for help out of hours, or your expert is in a different time zone, you strive to support - your hours vary according to the client project you are involved in, but you prefer that to a routine job. There is no typical week as a Third Bridge Associate.
- The Founder’s Mentality completely resonates with you, as this approach is part of our DNA. You’re an independent thinker who feels energised by the freedom Associates have to come up with the best solutions for their clients, because you’re endlessly curious and often question the way things are done. As long as you are eager to learn, we’ll provide you with the resources and coaching you need as you bring value to your clients and experts.
- You’re a clear communicator who can create the right narrative to share your ideas with a wide range of people, such as introducing our products and services to new clients and experts. You find that conversations often lead to strong relationships with people because you easily connect. You always look for the most efficient way to get things done, rather than the path of least resistance - for example you pick up the phone to get an answer to your questions straight away, rather than send an email and wait for a reply. Cold calling doesn’t phase you - what matters to you is to get results, and fast.
- Your attitude is to roll up your sleeves and you enjoy being in the thick of the action. It matters a great deal to you to understand how your performance ranks against your own potential and against others, so you continuously seek feedback to make sure you can be at the top of your game. One of your clients preferring a competitor over you is not an acceptable state of affairs for you - you’re relentless in getting the data points you need to adjust your approach until you are their number one. With the soft skills gained on the job (hard skills are getting displaced by machines), you aspire to a future as a high EQ business leader.
Additional information
What our people love about being Associates in PE:
- Being surrounded by people they not only enjoy working with, but who also challenge and support them
- Partnering first hand with the leading investors in the world and being privy to their thought process with all the learning this leads to
- Building their career in business on a foundation of problem-solving, communication and commercial skills
- Living by “great minds think differently” in a diverse and inclusive team
Thrive at Third Bridge!
Expect your total first-year compensation to be in excess of £48,000, including bonus. Beyond pay, you can expect clear performance goals and to be recognised for your contributions. After ~2 years of strong results you could transition from being an individual contributor to managing your own team and P&L - a huge career milestone. Depending on your aspirations, you could also progress to a role in Sales, Product, or opportunities across our organisation.
We ensure every team member is able to bring their best self to work as well as in their lives outside - take a look at our benefits:
- Salary: Competitive base salary of £40,000 with access to our bonus scheme after just 1 month. Plus an increase of £3,000 on your base salary on your 12 month anniversary.
- In Year 1, an average performer can expect to earn at least £48,000 OTE but our top performers make more!
- Vacation: 25 days (which increases to 28 days after 2 years of service) plus UK Bank Holidays
- Learning: personal development allowance of £750 per year
- Health and wellbeing: private medical insurance and healthcare cash plan, a variety of health and wellbeing events to focus on mental health, Ride to Work scheme (savings on bikes and accessories)
- Future and family: pension contributions of 4% (increases with tenure) and life insurance of 4x of your base salary
- Flexibility: work from anywhere for one month per year, 2 annual volunteer days, 2 personal days when life throws you a curveball and 'Summer Fridays'
- Rewards: get points through our colleague-to-colleague recognition programme to spend on hotels, gift cards, donations to charity and more
- Social: weekly optional social gatherings, daily breakfast and snacks, social events
- ESG: CSR, Environment and Diversity & Inclusion (including Women at Third Bridge, Pride and Blkbridge)
- Frontline Innovation: your chance to share your ideas for improvement through Hackathons and other events
