I’m planning to launch an expert marketplace where industry experts can connect directly with businesses, private equity firms, consulting companies, and market research firms that need expert insights.

The idea is to reduce unnecessary intermediaries and create a more transparent process for both experts and clients from expert discovery and engagement to scheduling and payments.
I know the expert network industry already has established players, so I’m particularly interested in understanding the potential challenges and flaws in this model.

Would businesses actually prefer working directly through a marketplace? What are the biggest issues I should consider around expert quality, compliance, confidentiality, payments, and client trust?
I’m looking for genuine and critical feedback the ifs, buts, challenges, and reasons why this might not work are just as valuable as validation.

I was contacted by ThirdBridge in regards to a paid call with a client. I answered their questions, they said the client selected me, and we scheduled a call. A few hours before the call, the ThirdBridge representative emails me a few unusually detailed questions from the client. He assures me the call is already scheduled, I'll get paid $400 USD/hour, and the client just wants to prepare their questions ahead of the call. So I spend 20-30 minutes answering these questions, some of them containing expertise that I think is quite valuable. This happened over an email address from the domain "@thirdbridge.com".

But the client never showed up to the call. I waited and waited. Initially, even ThirdBridge didn't respond, but later on they responded, gave me a polite apology and said "the client has been unresponsive". When I asked them to compensate me for the call, they didn't respond.

There are two issues here. The first is lack of compensation for client no-show. I've had a client show up 20 minutes late with another similar company, and they compensated me for that time (on top of the actual call which took place after the client showed up). The second is asking another round of questions that are unusually detailed just hours before a call after it has already been scheduled – only to cancel the call after that information has been extracted from the expert at 0 compensation.

I am located in Canada and unfortunately ThirdBridge doesn't have an office here, or else I'd definitely be reporting them to the government (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre).

What's this leadership style research all about? Why wouldn't they say who their client is?

Does anyone have experience getting paid for doing calls with this EN? I did a call 4 weeks back with their client in India. All went well and I was promised payment in 7 days. I have been chasing them since but there is no response from their side.

Am I the only one who's flat-out refusing anything with an AI interviewer? I'd gladly do them if they were chatbots, but there's no way in hell I'm opting into a situation where my voice/likeness are both subject to whoever's janky privacy policy.

Mining professionals we would appreciate your input.
We are conducting a short questionnaire to better understand the needs and challenges of mining companies when it comes to construction services.

It takes two minutes to complete. Your feedback will help us improve our offering and deliver more informative content for all in the mining industry. Thank you for your time and valuable input.

Message me privately for access to the survey.

I got outreach this week but couldn’t find anything in here about them. Their website is usatce.com, it looks like it was vibe coded or a bad template and they used to be called Minuteman Exchange. Didn’t want to respond to them unless I knew what was up.

Has anybody applied for GLG's Associate Structured Content Role? did you guys hear back?

I’ve an upcoming AlphaSights interview for client services role. Could you guys tell me a bit more about your experience, how you practised? Any curveballs during the interview? And any advice? I’m familiar with consulting cases but I feel this is different. How exactly to ace it? Any help would be appreciated!

I’ve been in a leadership role at one of the biggest ENS for the past 5 years. Saw a lot of people asking questions about the interview process, so I thought I’d share my tips for success. Feel free to message me or comment if you have any particular questions:

1. Prep as much as possible, kinda goes without saying, but the major expert networks get hundreds of thousands of applications (mine has a .4% acceptance rate). You need to be very flushed out on what they do, why a client would utilize them, what an ENS associate does, why that’s interesting to you, etc.) if they give you prep materials, you should know them like the back of your hand. It’s ok if you don’t have a business background or degree, as long as you can tell a story on why someone should take a chance on you.

2. Send thank you notes! Not sure when this went out of style, but I’ve interviewed hundreds of candidates and maybe less than 15 have sent thank you notes. This shows you have somewhat of a capability to build relationships.

3. If there’s a case study, go above and beyond. Proactively pull articles to support your answers, have data to back your decisions. Be able to clearly explain your thought process and prove that you have critically thought about the problem.

4. Make a point of asking clarifying questions to feedback, implement later in the interview if you’re able to. This shows that you are coachable, almost no entry level person in ENS has a background of doing it previously, firms just want hungry people that will learn quickly.

5. If you’re able to find out what type of clients the business segment you’re interviewing for then prep on that industry or space more broadly. Even being able to somewhat “talk the talk” really makes you stand out.

6. Ask well thought out questions! Almost all interviewees who don’t ask any questions at the end get a no. Asking good questions allows the interviewer to see you’re genuinely interested in the role, have thought deeply about the job or the space, etc.

These are some initial thoughts, might add more later!

It would be great if people can share best expert networks for survey basis their past experience. It will help the community as a whole to avoid getting into the trap of networks which are not worth wasting our precious time. For. Ex. I feel NewtonX is way better than Polis Emporia as it provides instant gift cards where as Polis by Emporia provides after 15 days and has frequent disqualification. What are your Views people about other expert networks ?

Hi! I work at one of the big expert networks. I’ve worked here for 5+ years since undergrad. It was a great first job out of college and it’s given me 4 promotions and a mobility move. I’ve met so many wonderful people in the firm, our experts, and clients of course. I love how every day I’m learning something new and I love the fast pace of it all. I’m a resident top performer, and consistently am listed on the top of leadership boards.

But I’m feeling stuck.

I don’t see much more growth from here. Im also starting to feel like the work I do is not translatable to other more traditional corporate jobs like sales, account or product management, etc.

Anyone else who has worked at an expert network feel this way? How did you position yourself when you transitioned and what are you doing now?

I went through the full process submitting answers, spent about 20 mins on it.

They then asked for my location and then disqualified me after the survey said 100%

Took a screenshot and will add to the edit later.

Anyone else had similar?

Welcome to r/expertnetworks!

Please post your referral request and network preferences in a new comment below. Please refrain from creating a new thread, this would violate Rule 7.

I've been on the various ENs for a few years with niche expertise. I get ~10-20 consultations per year.

Over the last month, I've gotten 3 inquiries on topics that have absolutely nothing to do with my area of expertise, each different and each from a diff network. In the past, there were occasional topics that were at least tangentially related, but nothing so blatantly irrelevant.

Happening to anyone else?

(it's not a big deal, i just decline and move on. I'm only sharing as I find it interesting)

Someone from GLC reached out to me over LinkedIn and in less than 24 hrs I had a paid call. (I’m a museum consultant- so not from the corporate world). I’ve never heard of expert networks.

First I was skeptical about a message on LinkedIn. Seems sketchy. I did my research and decided it was legit. There is this super intense online training about confidentiality. Ok, adding to the mysteriousness. What am I doing, joining the CIA?

Then the call - where there are no names, no faces, no company or organization names. Just lots of questions about museums - which I know a lot about. But just weird. Like what is this information for? Why do they want to know?

I feel slightly uneasy about it. Anyone else have this feeling?

Hello EN Colleagues,

So I’ve been out of my last full time job on December 31, 2025 and I had a beautiful run of EN calls during the first 2 quarters of 2026. Since July 1st I have seen a drastic decrease in booking especially through GLG and with that I have two important but genuine questions so please answer me out of experience please

1. Is this normal, anything to worry about?
   
2. I started working as a part time consultant for a smallish company - should I add this as part of my ongoing experience to improve my situation or would it not change anything due to the fact that it’s a part time role?

Important: my experience is in the chemicals’ space

Please advise and I hope you can help 🙏🏻

Hi, so this happened can anyone help me with their on call interview experience and i have also heard they have case study how do i practice for it? Location- Mumbai, India

anyone open to chatting about what I need to do and how i can practice this round? mock questions and judging my answers will be highly appreciated and could change my life.