Green Rock Consulting

Hi guys! This is the first time I am posting here. I've worked with these people and want to tell you few things that could be helpful:

I was contacted by GR team and attended 2 meetings in their fancy office in London for Business Analyst mentorship. I have been told that because I am a UK graduate they will charge me "only" 995£ course fee +200£ for processing or something like that.

The person in their office shown me a paper which stated that 95% of people once finished the mentorship get a job in 4-8 weeks. The chances that a desperate fresh graduate, like myself, end up believing whatever they say are very high.

Once I was enrolled, I started to work with a "Senior BA" and the only thing I knew about him was his name and email address. The company called Digital Banking Direct for which I was working for, wasn't registered anywhere and there was only a website at that moment, with different information according to which device you accessed. For instance: if you access to the link from your computer it showed 30 consultant working, with X years of experience and if you access to the link from your mobile the information were different.

The "work" I did with them, I realise that was not a real work but just some preprepared exercises and that's it.

So, at the end of the day I can say from my experience that they will try to charge you as much as they can according to your circumstances. Few were charged 395£ and others up to 2000£. The company you work for doesn't exist and you don't even have the guarantee on the fact that the Senior BA is even a real person or not.

I don't know if it is a scam or not, or what are the definition of scam according to the UK standards anymore. I am providing you with 'my as it is experience' so you can make a wiser choice than I did.

Good Luck!

Hi,

I was enrolled in Investment Analyst program with the same firm, Digital Banking Direct, where I worked with a senior investment analyst. The experience was great encompassing equity analysis and financial modelling basics albeit what this work experience covered didn't come even close to the description in Green Rock Consulting's brochure.as risk and bonds as a part of investment analysis weren't done and there was no time for it at all - 3 months is too short period for beginners to cover it all. But what concerns me now is the same thing as you mentioned. The firm does not appear in any register as I can see. Also, I checked their profile at Linkedin and I was very surprised to see that there are some 30 employees: two senior investment analysts without profile photo, one of them mentored me, one senior business analyst (he has a profile photo), one receptionist with a photo and one accounts manager with a photo, and all the rest "employees" are trainees, like us. Incredible, so there are about dozen of both business and investment analysts like you and me and only three professionals. Even more, all those trainees appear to have been enrolled with them in the last 3-5 months, all at the same time with the same firm, and non of them is Oxford or Cambridge graduate. If those are only pros working there how can they train so many people and do serious client work simultaneously?! What worries me even more is that there is nowhere a managing director to be found if he exists at all. Unfortunately I have no means to find answers to those worrisome questions, but I have learnt a painful way something from it - never trust anyone who has no team members with CVs listed at their website. Fees I payed bother me least. I don't believe this 3 month remote experience is a big deal to employers if you are a graduate from a lower-tier uni, or transitioning form other industry - as most those trainees do, especially if the company is not in a registry. With so many trainees added to in general plenty of people seeking entry to investment industry in the West, means the supply of jobs remains relatively short, at least I feel this way. Anyhow, equity analysis in Excel will be useful for my personal investments, at least.

Woah! But did you enjoy it atleast and complete your course? Also did you conduct your mentorship online due to covid

Yes, it was online. I don' believe anyone would be sitting there even if there were no covid, there are simply too many trainees, enrolled there all at the same time, the fact that can easily be verified at Linkedin, and who knows how many more trainees who don't have Linkedin profile, or were omitted in search, exist out there. Since my last message here I have found so far around 40 trainees, half of them having hoisted Digital Banking Direct exp., other having put on their profiles Green Rock Consulting. None of them appears to have found a job so far. To be fair, people sometimes don't update their profiles, and some of them are still enrolled. All of those around 40 trainees are either investment analyst, business analyst, or accountant analyst, almost at the same time, either Digital Banking Direct or Green Rock Consulting (I haven't seen accountant trainees at Digital Banking Direct, and that wouldn't surprise me). Creepy, eh?

It might be worthy to contact other trainees to get their impressions and who their mentor was, they will certainly be interested to share it when they realize so many people have the same experience. That would undeniably help to assess whether it was real experience, I mean real client work. If everyone had the same mentor, well then...

But I did enjoy the course, I love investment analysis, so much. This is in fact a light in the gloomy tunnel. The so called work experience (I don't feel currently it was any real client work, but simply detailed and sometimes challenging exercises with updated data) did taught me equity analysis, I built several complex models and comprehensively analysed several companies. You will learn the basics pretty well. The greatest value lies in the fact that I learned certain things that cannot be found in the textbooks, and a mentor - whoever he really is, I didn't do any skype with him unfortunately - knows his job well, and will teach a trainee. I had a lot of theoretical knowledge, and was able to do a lot of work in those three months. This is useful for my personal investment, and can say 395 pounds was not a big price for this experience, it was worth it, it will help my personal investments. But don't expect this to have any impact on employers. Especially if you are not from UK, like myself.

And I don't believe Green Rock team do any real effort to help you find a job. Even CV that they update for you is a bit clumsy, to be honest, I had a lot to modify. They do connect candidates with someone who knows the job, you pay for it, and that's it. Hope this helps.

This kind of puts me at ease as I’ve seen sooo many mixed reviews. I hope to get a graduate Business Analyst role once this mentorship is over. I am due to start this course soon and I hope it works out because I have 0 experience In this subject so I’m hoping with the skills I build I can apply to Entry level BA roles that require some sort of experience. But As you mentioned that they connect trainees to jobs, is an interview guaranteed? From reading some posts it’s seems as thought the people behind aren’t real or something which sounds weird 😳🥴🥴

I have checked every trainee profile at Linekdin I could find (well, I'm an analyst by heart! ), and they have very few experience, most of them are trying to break in the industry from other fields and have started of finished MBA recently or some other financial degree, from some lower tier university. So, I believe, anyone who pays will get enrolled. I didn't have any real interview, perhaps a 5 minute talk by phone two times, two different persons if I recall, but voice seemed identical, perhaps I'm wrong on this. Perhaps I became paranoic, but style of writing my CV by GRC, seems quite similar to Linekdin CV wording and style of Digital Banking Direct. But perhaps this is all farfetched, I don't see too much logic in this scam, since I did get real value, I was not robbed. Hope this helps as well.

Thank you! Everything does sound promising and it’s only recently that I’ve come across strange things about it whether if it is a scam. But like you said you didn’t feel robbed of your money and received a good mentorship which is brilliant!! Are you currently in employment now that green rock helped you with?

No, still seeking employment and I feel it will be difficult as hell. Most of companies never reply to emails.

I agree, to me things started to look very weird recently, when so many trainees showed up. I did raise some suspicions when I paid for it, but those evaporated as soon as work started. At that time, there was no a horde of trainees out there and all seemed fine.

Ergh that’s the thing, I’ve been seeking roles for about 4 months now. I thought what better way to get a job by getting experience first? Which will save me all the time where I’m doing nothing in.

Would you say GR plays a big role in your experience part of your CV to get your future role? I come from a very basic background of customer assistant jobs so I feel like I would have to deeply emphasise mentorship on my CV for future Business Analyst roles

I believe so. I don't think any online course or textbook with simplified and stereotyped exercises can substitute real examples. Even if this was no real client work, It was a challenge because I had to work around real time obstacles and do a lot independent study and adjustments to accounting data to analyze companies' statements. For this you need a 1:1 format with a good mentor. He was a bit slow with responses though and I could have done even more work, but that was probably due to so many trainees at the same time.

Tbh this does sound great, definitely up for some brain work! I’m due to start very soon, any tips on how to prepare? Would I need a notebook or anything are their lectures/videos before starting tasks?

Tbh this does sound great, definitely up for some brain work! I’m due to start very soon, any tips on how to prepare? Would I need a notebook or anything are their lectures/videos before starting tasks?

UPDATE:

Not pretty.

Digital Banking Direct, it seems, was registered under some other name, still not appearing in the FCA registry. Furthermore, I spoke to other trainees; it turns out all of us have been assigned the same tasks, identical. All having the same mentor (the only one, likely). Complete scam, not a real work experience, not even a course since you have no idea who your "mentor" actually is. He might very well be some bigot who have received all materials from some third-party and learned something on his own. In my opinion now even a "discount" of 395 is not worth it, grossly overpriced since you have online courses elsewhere for few bucks, conducted by accomplished instructors. I still think there is a small value in this for someone without any exp., but all those information should be considered.

If you still decide to apply at least insist on those few things: contract, GDPR policy and a list of companies Green Rock has a proven and legitimate deal, if they have it at all. Ask for proofs and check everything before you start, especially authorizations and licenses for work. This is no joke, as it could damage your reputation and career before it even starts. I'd give it a wide berth, if I were you. I have way decreased my rating for them.

No way?! May I ask who was your assigned mentor? I checked out their LinkedIn and seemed pretty legit with photos and old experiences listed down, hope to do those following searches though thanks

Dylan... The DBD says on its website they have 30 consultants, yet only two senior business analysts and one investment analyst, receptionist and one more exist at Linkedin. If you sign in for business analyst course you will likely get Damian or Andy, only two that exist. It is unlikely that the company with 30 business professionals will have so few of them at Linkedin, even more unlikely CEO or any executive is absent. Leaders cannot be found anywhere, which is very worrying.

Those Linkedin profiles are fake. They have no activity, no soul, no skills, no endorsements, nothing. I'm monitoring their connections, nothing changes, day after day. Few of them have photos, but those are no real portraits, likely some photos of less known actors.

The worse of all, in the working files and feedback files they provided to me, they forgot to remove an author, and it turned out there were a few persons of middle east background communicating behind those emails. There is no Dylan Weber, he does not exist just as DBD does not exist. Complete scam.

Investment analysts are very busy people working 60-80 hours/week. It is impossible often to have even one trainee, let alone 20 of them. Nonsense. If those things were possible the way Green Rock organizes, that would have existed already in a legitimate way with a contract. Big companies sometimes do take interns, for a 12 months, and pay them.

I am also beginning to get sceptical. Did you leave it on your CV?

I have deleted it from my CV.

I got partnered with Digital Banking Direct, which is not registered anywhere or on the FCA website. I will advise those who want to move forward with this to do their due diligence on the company and the one they partner you with, as it can have serious repercussions on your future career.

Tbh even if the entire company is fake whatever, I guess on your CV you can mention that you worked on an entire project and demonstrate what you learnt from it etc. Idk how the other courses are but I am on the BA course currently working on a project. Lots of grad jobs out there do like to see practical work ie working on a project and have some kind of experience as to what a BA or investment analysis does. So in some way it is a plus if you haven’t been able to get this kind of learning experience anywhere else. It shouldn’t matter if it’s a project you done based on real client work or not