express your interest

Are you a strategic thinker who is naturally curious and loves to apply your learnings to make an impact?

The Garage Group is looking for ambitious Associates to join our project delivery team who are ready to roll up their sleeves and work fast to push our projects forward. Working alongside a Director and Researchers, you will be a critical part of the project team having ownership of several key pieces of the work, as well as, collaboratively building the approach and deliverables with others. As TGG tackles tough business challenges in the trenches with our clients, your time will be split between client-facing work with F500 clients and independent work behind-the-scenes. 

 

What’s in it for you:

You’ll be learning and growing with each custom project and will gain tremendous exposure to the day-to-day challenges of managing uncertainty in the volatile world of business strategy, innovation, and consumer behavior/insights. Through this experience you’ll: 

  • Learn new tools, methodologies, and approaches that will flex your associate thinking muscle, setting you up for a strong future in the marketing and innovation space.
  • Master the power of entrepreneurial mindsets.
  • Obtain experience that will develop your leadership skills, while solidifying your strategic thinking, problem-solving, and relationship management skills.
  • Earn bonuses, rewards, and recognition through an incentive program based on personal/project/company success.
  • Have the opportunity to contribute to and make an impact on some of the best Fortune 500 brands and products – that you can point out on store shelves and feel proud of!  

 

What you’ll help lead and/or contribute: 

  • From the proposal stage to the final deliverable, you will be a strategic thought partner in developing and executing the custom approach to solving the client’s business challenge. 
  • You’ll gather insights and data from shareholders, consumers, customers, and the market, then package it in a useful way using your strong writing & data analysis skills to drive smart, informed decisions. 
  • You’ll leverage various tools and methodologies to bring clarity and guidance to the process or if the current ones aren’t working, you’ll take the initiative to figure out how to tweak, build, or find new ones to keep forward progress.
  • You’ll work with diverse, multidisciplinary teams and will use your client-centric interpersonal skills to meet them where they are and bring them along the journey by building trust and delivering with excellence. 
  • You'll leverage your strong storytelling and communication skills to build robust decks that capture process, findings and key learnings.
  • You’ll roll up your sleeves and own critical activities such as developing reports, building decks, prepping Miro boards for sessions, doing desk research, being a liaison between project team and internal Research function, completing data analysis, and more.

 

How we’ll know if it’s working out:

  • Our Directors and Researchers will feel a strong sense of trust knowing that your work will be completed with excellence and on time.
  • Our Clients will see you take their business challenges on as your own which will result in high trust and credibility and lead to referrals.
  • You will be making meaningful contributions to the strategic thinking needed to push our projects forward, including creative problem solving as necessary pivots arise from the uncertainty. 
  • Projects will hit key milestones and KPIs. 
  • The broad TGG team will see you jumping in with a can-do attitude to help fill gaps when priorities shift. 
  • You are learning and growing with each project you complete. You are independently connecting dots and leveraging your experiences to make a bigger impact on each project. 
  • Your eagerness to learn, coupled with your courageous mindset, drives you to self-study methodologies, proactively reach out to others (internally and externally) for input and context, engages you in activities that develop your empathy and external perspective, and helps you keep a pulse on new products and trends in the market.   

 

What we’re looking for:

  • Client-centric emerging leaders with a minimum of 3-5 years of experience and a proven track record of making a substantial impact through the work. 
  • Relevant experience may include consulting, client-facing agency role, Bigco role similar to internal agency, Assistant Brand Management, Analyst, etc. (Food & Bev, CPG, or Financial Services a plus but not required). 
  • Someone who thrives in a work environment full of ambiguity and freedom. A self-motivated, initiative-taker who can manage their own time.
  • Someone who enjoys going heads-down to get stuff done independently as much as they enjoy working collaboratively with others. 
  • A self-described 'people-person' who finds ease and enjoyment in connecting with new people from any background and can build them virtually.
  • A natural storyteller with a knack for organizing complicated information in a simple way, using excellent written and visual communication skills.
  • Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights and conclusions.
  • The entrepreneurial mindset of hustle, natural curiosity, jumping in on tasks with humility (regardless of title), and a deep knowing that better results come from collaboration.
  • A flow-to-the-work mentality with the ability to flex your schedule as the project work ebbs and flows.
  • Ideal locations include Minneapolis, Chicago, and Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus.

Compensation Range:

  • $75,000 - $95,000 annual salary with benefits

A little about us: 

The Garage Group is a boutique consulting collective of smart, ambitious, mission-driven employees and contractors who are excited about solving tough challenges while unlocking courage in our clients. We work remotely – with a mix of both independent and collaborative work – and enjoy culture-building activities ranging from virtual happy hours to in-person quarterly team meetings. We’re on a high growth trajectory and are looking for folks who share our mindsets, exemplify our operating principles, and want to be part of a team that has fun while doing tough work that requires both courage and perseverance (and the ability to laugh & pivot when things go wrong). 

Associate Application