BlackRock Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

BlackRock has a friendly working environment. Given the rapid growth of the company, there are more areas and more opportunities.

Cons

I think BlackRock provides relatively lower compensations to the employees. And when it gets bigger and bigger, there is more and more bureaucracy. Also people are not very motivated sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

Good leadership and they are willing to provide employees what is going on with the firm and share the firm priorities.

Pros

Challenging work, provides opportunities for learning and allows people to create impact within the company. Management structure is flat and encourages interaction between different levels.

Cons

Work/life balance is tilted heavily towards work. Management expects certain number of hours/week in NY office (similar to an investment management workplace). Compensation is muted due to nature of asset management business.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more mentoring of junior talent and provide clearer guidelines for achieving sucess.

Pros

Great resources and technology
A lot of smart people work there
Interesting view of the markets
Reasonable hours and pay

Cons

Less comp than other financial firms
Not a ton of operational transparency
The work of junior people is not recognized as well as it could be

Advice to Senior Management

Make pay to junior people more competitive with the street if you want to attract/retain top talent
More transparency regarding roles and operations

Pros

Extremely competent people
Good work/life balance
"Small Firm" feel with "large firm" power
Dynamic management

Cons

Not the best compensation
Many structural changes constantly

Advice to Senior Management

Rumors of changes get out before announcing them officially, sometimes causing unnecessary confusion

Pros

- Well rounded exposure to the investment mgt industry including various asset classes, investment products, diverse investor universe and varying investment strategies/objectives
- Decent knowledge sharing across different investment teams
- Flat organization with numerous formal and informal networks and accesible senior management
- Good work/life balance

Cons

Where to begin!

- Overall firm strategy is aligned to be the biggest...not the most competent or profitable
- Varying degrees of expertise and competence across different investment teams in fixed income, equity and alternatives
- Lack of integration between various teams/offices thereby leading to a very inconsistent team culture
- Bottom of the industry compensation and terrible benefits package
- Lack of operational policies, upward mobility and career opportunities

Pros

Great reputation in other companies
Entry level compensation acceptable
Learn to work with limited resources
Learn how to order food late at night

Cons

Compensation much lower than industry average
Recent layoffs mean no security for anyone
Lack of any decent hardware means constant state of emergency
Any long-term visions or plans are always truncated due to emergencies
Politics at the MD level and above are complex and intrude on operations
No one will ever thank for anything you do, no matter how important
Any little mistake you make will be magnified and mentioned at comp/promo time

Advice to Senior Management

Buy some new hardware so that the constant state of emergency subsides long enough to move forward. Thank someone once in a blue moon.

Pros

Work is good.
Management encourage to do good work.
Will Learn about financial industry.

Cons

Salary and bonuses are less compare to another company and work you do for company.
Promotion criteria is not clear. You will not be promoted even you work hard. You will be promoted if MD recognize or know you

Advice to Senior Management

Promotion should be clear and fair and should be drived from proformance review not from other unknown factors.If promotion is based on unknown factor, change that factor to known to employees

Pros

Professional development and stable firm.

Cons

Generally a lower margin business relative to Wall Street firms, which is reflected in compensation potential.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is excellent.

Pros

Pay is more than reasonable, especially for employees in zero-risk-taking positions. Most people are easy to get a long with.

Cons

Firm is dominated by 3rd and 4th tier managers which leads to horrible group dynamics and growth. Most managers are legacy employees that would not make it anywhere else.

Advice to Senior Management

Implement 360 reviews so poor performing Managing Directors can be removed and good ones can be recognized and rewarded.

Pros

- Good people at Director and below
- Large company (10,000 employees) but can easily work between teams

Cons

- Getting promoted is a total crap-shoot (it's honestly who you know, not what you've done)
- Far from newest tech (still using 8 year old PCs)
- Management makes decisions on projects without any knowledge of work required

Advice to Senior Management

- Stop being a crony and actually think for yourself
- Get to know your employees, they get the work done not you