applied end of Dec, call end of January, interview 3 weeks later in London with a VP and a Senior Event Manager, call 2 days later with a VP in Frankfurt
The f2f in London was a normal conversation, no difficult questions. Up to the point where working from home was discussed. I was told straight away that for mothers there might be the option of wfh or a 4 day week - from me they would expect full office attendance. My reply to that was - I might not be a mum, but I do have a history and a life. I want to add here that I didn't bring up the topic myself, because I don't consider this part of a first round conversation. In general I do think in the year 2019 wfh should be no problem at all from time to time in a job like that. They also expect you to work and reply to emails when you are travelling, so it is possible.
When we said goodbye the VP wasn't even able to look me in the eye when we shook hands. So, I knew when I walked out there that I neither fit in this culture nor will I get an offer. (I want to add at this point that my experience and skills matched every single bullet point of the job description, except using a registration system they use, which I see myself capable of being able to learn within a couple of days). I was surprised to get another call scheduled with a VP in Frankfurt. I had a 40min phone conversation with her, which I basically led. She then made very clear that with the experience I have I should be responsible for the events VPs take care of and that this is "only" an associate position. Also, she ask me how independent I am. My reply to that was: what do you think after that conversation? I'm used to getting a huge amount done to the deadline myself. In my old job I hardly had anyone supporting me and noone asked on a daily basis "if I'm fine".
After that I heard nothing. After 10 days I contacted HR to then receive an email, that it's their fault, they should have been in touch, but it is a NO. Ok, no hard feelings there, I knew it. But what really winded me up and why I'm writing this review is the reasons they gave:
1. I have no knowledge of EMEA venues. - I find that interesting after working as an EMEA event manager for 3 different companies in London for 10 years. Tell me a city in Europe and I give you 3 venues in no time.
2. I have no experience in event production. - Interesting again. Every single event I have worked at I have built from scratch. I know what carrying around boxes means. I know what it means to fly out with a designer and make them create the impossible to turn a venue into something special. I know what it means to actually take a screwdriver and help them to fix something on stage last minute. Which clearly is not needed in an admin heavy environment where you spend more time getting approvals than actually working on events itself.
3. event registration - As mentioned before I consider this for me as something which I just deal with when it's there. No big deal.
So, basically this whole feedback is a joke. I would highly appreciated them having the courage to say what the truth is - they don't think I fit in the role and the culture. Fair enough - I even agree. For the simple reason I don't want to do an admin job where you spend more time waiting around for approvals than getting stuff done and also I'm not used and don't want to be working in such a narrow structure, where every breath I take is overlooked by a micromanager.
Just as an advice in general - don't advertise flexible working (including flexible time off) on your website and also through your talent acquisition team if the opposite is the case. Make the recruitment process shorter. No one has the time for that. And give honest feedback instead of making up disrespectful accusations. I'm not saying that this is the case for all of Blackrock, maybe I was unlucky. I wish the team and the company that they found a person who adjusts to the system.