Best Response
Anonymous1:
Hey guys,

Was anyone at PAG's Superday on saturday? How'd it go? Did you hear back yet? I'm still waiting. Anxiously.

Thanks,

Anon1

I wouldn't be too anxious. The PAG analyst job is very likely not what you believe it is. The day to day work is incredibly focused on technology with precious little actual finance. You will not learn much about portfolio management or even that much about risk management. Your main role is to make sure that a suite of risk reports is delivered daily to your client and when the automated technological process that creates these reports breaks, it is your job to fix it. Think of the position as more of a technological/infrastructure support role rather than a true FO finance based job. Furthermore, since the job is client facing, there's a whole "help desk" feel to everything (think about when you call Dell when your computer breaks). Good luck with getting an offer, but if you do get the job, I would recommend trying to find a position with more transferable skills. Oh yea, and your hours are like 6:30 AM to like 10 PM + weekends; banking hours but without the pay or exit opps.

 
Andalanx:
Anonymous1:
Hey guys,

Was anyone at PAG's Superday on saturday? How'd it go? Did you hear back yet? I'm still waiting. Anxiously.

Thanks,

Anon1

I wouldn't be too anxious. The PAG analyst job is very likely not what you believe it is. The day to day work is incredibly focused on technology with precious little actual finance. You will not learn much about portfolio management or even that much about risk management. Your main role is to make sure that a suite of risk reports is delivered daily to your client and when the automated technological process that creates these reports breaks, it is your job to fix it. Think of the position as more of a technological/infrastructure support role rather than a true FO finance based job. Furthermore, since the job is client facing, there's a whole "help desk" feel to everything (think about when you call Dell when your computer breaks). Good luck with getting an offer, but if you do get the job, I would recommend trying to find a position with more transferable skills. Oh yea, and your hours are like 6:30 AM to like 10 PM + weekends; banking hours but without the pay or exit opps.

Thanks for your response.

Yeah, I've heard similar descriptions. Did you work in PAG?

Oh, and one of my interviewers was saying that they were in the process of removing the groups "tech-focus." Know anything about this?

 
Anonymous1:
Andalanx:
Anonymous1:
Hey guys,

Was anyone at PAG's Superday on saturday? How'd it go? Did you hear back yet? I'm still waiting. Anxiously.

Thanks,

Anon1

I wouldn't be too anxious. The PAG analyst job is very likely not what you believe it is. The day to day work is incredibly focused on technology with precious little actual finance. You will not learn much about portfolio management or even that much about risk management. Your main role is to make sure that a suite of risk reports is delivered daily to your client and when the automated technological process that creates these reports breaks, it is your job to fix it. Think of the position as more of a technological/infrastructure support role rather than a true FO finance based job. Furthermore, since the job is client facing, there's a whole "help desk" feel to everything (think about when you call Dell when your computer breaks). Good luck with getting an offer, but if you do get the job, I would recommend trying to find a position with more transferable skills. Oh yea, and your hours are like 6:30 AM to like 10 PM + weekends; banking hours but without the pay or exit opps.

Thanks for your response.

Yeah, I've heard similar descriptions. Did you work in PAG?

Oh, and one of my interviewers was saying that they were in the process of removing the groups "tech-focus." Know anything about this?

I left just over a year ago. According to some of my friends who still work there, there is a movement to remove some of the more "tech" elements via outsourcing, but the job is still very tech focused. At its heart, the role will never be that finance oriented (at least when compared to an analyst role at other portfolio management firms). You're really there to make sure that these automated risks reports are delivered timely and accurately. You're not anywhere close to investment research (which I assume is where you want to be, because that's the interesting stuff). You basically learn to verify that fixed income risk analytics are correct on the reports. You simply verify and then send. Frankly, you rarely ever crack out excel. The remainder of the time is spent developing or refining features of the reports for the client. So, it's a very "unique" job that unfortunately is not nearly as finance oriented as your interviewers likely make it out to be, nor will it ever be, it's just simply not that kind of job.

 

I had mine today. My interviews were all extremely technical. I was asked about fixed income, swaps, and option pricing theory. This was pretty surprising, since my resume doesn't suggest in-depth knowledge of Hull's option pricing textbook. Luckily, I've been reading a lot in preparation for trading interviews.

Finally, be knowledgeable about markets. Know important rates, equities indicies, etc., and understand what they mean.

Anonymous999's comments are exactly the same things that I learned from today's interview. I'm not convinced that the skills you develop in PAG as an analyst are very transferable to other areas of finance. However, my impression is that people in PAG enjoy working at BlackRock and look for exit opportunities in other groups, internally.

Best of luck to everyone. Remember, always be closing. Telling is not selling.

 
Platinums:
I had mine today. My interviews were all extremely technical. I was asked about fixed income, swaps, and option pricing theory. This was pretty surprising, since my resume doesn't suggest in-depth knowledge of Hull's option pricing textbook. Luckily, I've been reading a lot in preparation for trading interviews.

Finally, be knowledgeable about markets. Know important rates, equities indicies, etc., and understand what they mean.

Anonymous999's comments are exactly the same things that I learned from today's interview. I'm not convinced that the skills you develop in PAG as an analyst are very transferable to other areas of finance. However, my impression is that people in PAG enjoy working at BlackRock and look for exit opportunities in other groups, internally.

Best of luck to everyone. Remember, always be closing. Telling is not selling.

Are you an MBA grad? Was this an analyst position you interviewed for?

 

PAG was mostly behavioral q's. asked about why blackrock, what's ur fav/least class. He did most of the talking/explaining. Some technical FI question. Pretty easy. what does yield mean, how do you price a coupon bond and zcb. I think overall, fit was really what they were looking for. key to note that most PAG analysts stay within the firm after few years.

 

hey i posted this on the other forums but i had the 10/23 superday and heard back today......except........I missed the goddamn phone call. HR left a msg telling me to call back and I did and left a message. Hope this info eases some sort of stress, in a bad or good way. Most of you are probably on a waitlist. As for me, I may have even been rejected

 

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