Everything You Need To Know about BlackRock
Given that BlackRock manages nearly $10 trillion in assets under management, on $22 billion of revenue, and is the largest shareholder for literally every global firm, there seems to be far less conversation about the firm on this site -- so much to the point that I genuinely don't know what people exactly do there on the job.
What type of job opportunities exist at BlackRock? Is most of their strategy passive/index investing or are they well-regarded for active management?
If passive, what type of job would that even entail for these thousands of workers? Are they just salespeople?
Most importantly, what is the compensation ceiling for the more competitive roles at BlackRock? What about work/life balance?
Any insight would be appreciated. I hope this thread can literally be a giant journal with everything you need to know about it from an employee's perspective.
Incoming SA and will try to answer this to the best of my ability.
Tons of opportunities are available through BlackRock the question is which side you want to be on. The Aladdin program has created hundreds if not thousands of new jobs that are more technology focused bringing in software engineers, account execs, risk, managers etc.
The the more traditional end BLK has both active and passive funds that have both small and large teams. In terms of passive the EII group (ETF, Index and Investing) is probably the largest. They work on passive funds either as researchers, client relationship managers or portfolio managers. This is split across regions or types of funds depending on your location or team. On the active side this is much smaller at the moment. There are only 4 active funds out of Blackrock so those teams are more lean but specialized. Ten trillion is a lot to manage and there is a strong need for smart candidates/employees to keep the gears turning. I get what your saying about not needing that many people for passive but from what I see BlackRock is a machine that constantly needs input from people instead of machines or AI algos.
In terms of compensation I think BlackRock is pretty up there. There clearly aren't going to compete with IB but my SA salary is 6 figures plus (pro-rated). Can't speak to seniors but BLK definitely competes on the street for juniors.
Was a SA last summer and I'm returning FT in the fall to the New York office. There's nothing really 'passive' about managing index funds. Lots of work goes into balancing the funds, maintaining the secondary market, rebalancing after changes to the underlying indices, and choosing which indices to track in the first place. Although there isn't too much active management at BlackRock, portfolios of passive funds are built for clients that give them tilts towards certain factors (strategic beta).
People are A+ and exit opportunities seem great (based off of seeing announcements on LinkedIn), but honestly a lot stick around. Met a lot of people at the VP-Director level that started with the firm, left for banking/HF/trading, and ended up returning a few years later. Sure comp may be a little lower than IB/PE, but hours and work life balance are dramatically better in most groups. Seemed like most people were genuinely passionate about the AM space and seemed excited to work. Genuinely enjoyed my time there this past summer, learned a lot, and am excited to return.
When you're managing 10 trillion, 10 bips is huge (average expense ratio is higher than that too). The scale of large AM firms allows them to pay decent salaries.
I can only speak for my comp because there's a wide spread across groups. Analyst base is 90-100k, with bonus targets around 25k. Comparable benefits too. Definitely not on pace with IB/HF, but when you consider that the hours often don't exceed 50ish, it becomes a lot more attractive.
Just started there and it blows my mind how little is known about this company. I did a ton of research and the things I could come up with were boilerplate stuff with no real info. I hope in the coming weeks I can update more and more on this thread to get more info out there.