Barclays Global Investors Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

BGI has always been a good place to work, employing smart, friendly people who are motivated to be all that they can be. A lot of that is due to it being a "west coast" firm, head quartered in San Francisco. Now we've become BlackRock we're an "east coast" firm, head quartered in New York. How will our culture change?

My experience on integration so far is that on a person level, we're all much the same, and a lot of the fear we've all had about losing our culture - our "niceness" - is groundless. That said, it does appear decisions are taken at a much higher level at BlackRock than BGI, and it'll be interesting to see if at a corporate level we become more JFDI than consensual....

Cons

We work long hours, but hey, we're in the city so that's par for the course.....

We're not great at keeping our employees informed on whats going on. And we've reached a size now where often the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing (there are lots of bits of BGI heavily siloed, doing essentially similar things without looking for synergies)

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the BGI culture going post BlackRock integration!

Pros

BGI was a nice place to work (it has now been taken over by BlackRock). There was a good work/life balance culture and decent compensation and benefits package.

Cons

There were people there who didn't do very much but still got paid well. Basically they rewarded tenure as much as they rewarded performance.
Also lots of politics need to be played to advance your career.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut out the political games and recongise people for what they achieve.
Don't let the new BlackRock culture completely take over from what you had at BGI.

Pros

Able to work with intelligent people who like to have fun. The environment has changed over the years but a lot of what makes BGI a great place to work is the tolerance for a mixture of the past and the future. In the main managers care about their teams and work hard to develop and reward them even in difficult years. You can be yourself - conformity isnt necessary but you must be great at what you do. Opportunities to develop knowledge, skill and your career are available if you perform well.

Cons

Senior management struggle with providing enough communication at the right level. They are working on this but more is needed. We are in a transition to BlackRock and whilst we continue to work hard to keep the comany successful its difficult to keep focused when the end of BGI as an independent entity is so close.

Advice to Senior Management

work hard to keep some of what made BGI great at BlackRock - make sure tht you reward strong performance. Keep working on how you communicate. Run an employee survey we havent seen one for 2 years - find out what is concerning people

Pros

intelligent people who want to get on with the job in hand
on the whole there is flexibility and understanding about work life balance
comp is Ok , but not the best - often its the relationships within the company that keep people

Cons

benefits are not great when compared to some other financial institutions
schism between London and and San Fran to the point where you do not have a career unless you are in SF. This leads to a one sided view of the world
there is a tendency of some who have been at BGI for a long time to want their way to win out rather than work as part of the team - often very detrimental to the ompany

Advice to Senior Management

make decisions for the long term and stick to them
invest in technology and process
don't play favourites - reward true acheivement

Pros

Provides learning opportunites and allows career improvement. Senior management are very co-operative and flexible and appreciate hard work put by employees.

Cons

Very focussed on asset management and restricted to certain asset classes depending upon the business unit you work for. Transition between units is difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow seamless transition between business units encouraging all-round growth for people new to the industry and also make bonus payments more transparent.

Pros

You will never get board

Cons

Poor leadership
US centric
Consensus decision making
Lack of trust
The DHL club
Over worked in London to cater for US normal working hours
Wrong people in the wrong jobs

Advice to Senior Management

Choose the right managers for the right roles
Lose the DHL club
Lose Singapore
Look after people
Make sure bonuses are paid this year to compensate for the our efforts

Pros

Good colleagues to work with.

Cons

If you consider yourself to be a good software developer, heed this warning: avoid BGI like the plague. BGI has major problems recruiting good software engineers, but it's track record of keeping them is far worse. In many parts of BGI - although not all - there is no difference between what a support engineer does and what a software engineer does. Work does not follow any sort of process and is not project based, and you would be lucky if you had a project manager, and even luckier if you have any BA or QA resources. Considering the amount of money this company manages on behalf of clients, this lack of quality assurance is disrespectful to clients at best or criminal at worst.

I used to call that random, unmanaged way of developing software "the bad old days", but trust me, it's carrying on live and well at BGI!

There is also an ethic of cutting corners in IT wherever possible, even if it means that quality will be lower or costs higher in the long run.

Advice to Senior Management

Sort out your IT, it's a disgrace

Pros

BGI is a well known industry name and brings with it a lot of prestige. Its Transition Management group is particulary well regarded. The overall compensation package is good, but by no means industry leading, having said that you are well looked after and when recognition is given the bonus package can be quite substantial.

Cons

The organistion as a whole is a victim of its own success, it that it suffers from unnecessary bureacracy, and more often than not your career within the organisation tends to be based on sideways movement rather than upward progression. There is also little chance to make your ideas and opinions heard and communication regarding the corporate strategic goals, barring 'Lyndsey's Blog', is not often forthcoming.

Advice to Senior Management

- Create a more structure career development program
 - More interaction with staff and various levels where possible