BlackRock Reviews in San Francisco, CA, US Area

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – World's largest recognized asset manager

Cons – Large company, was not able to work on many projects.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at BlackRock full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Your co-workers are awesome, willing to help and you can learn alot and move throughout the company. Great bonuses.

Cons – Seems as though focus is constantly being shifted and there's poor communication between upper management and employees. If we're not aware of what the overall goals are how can we work to that end?

Advice to Senior Management – Engage your employees more, increase communication and make the promotion process more transparent. Currently the best way to move up is to just switch departments, you're losing that knowledge/experience.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than a year

Pros – Challenging work; smart people; hard working; no slackers!

Cons – Lots of re-orgs; shifting priorities; lots of "hoop jumping" to get easy things done

Advice to Senior Management – Minimize budget oversight and provide more cross career path opportunities --- all road should not lead to having to move to New York

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than a year

Pros – Colleagiate, tight knit, merit based (depending what you do). Overall the firm is solid and growing for the long hall. A lot of bright people. Enthusiastic driven CEO with a clear sense of direction.

Cons – Pay is in line with industry but at lower end.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at BlackRock full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Good for your resume. That is about it.

Cons – They seem not to value the people who really created a great business. Poor work life balance. Far too much politics and far too many people with non-client facing, non-essential roles.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay some actual attention to your team, you are losing great people for petty reasons, which reflects poorly on the entire firm. I have been promoted twice at a new firm I joined 2 years ago, so what is it they see that BR didn't?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Pay (initially)
Location relative to public transit

Cons – Closed, secretive management structure
Highly political atmosphere
Promotions and pay not tied to HR's performance rating system
Pay stagnates after hire, even for above average performers

Advice to Senior Management – The firm is showing cracks from growing too fast. People's focus has shifted from collaboration and client focus to corporate politics and promotion. Remove the emphasis on promotions and tie job titles to corporate titles, i.e. you need to be managing a team to be a Vice President and a group to be a Director.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than a year

Pros – Very well respected company within the industry with a fantastic breadth of resources available for choice projects.

Cons – Advancement is based purely on time spent at the company and has no connection to performance, skill sets or achievements within the company. If you are below Director level you will be treated with complete disdain as if you are an inferior human being to the Directors and above.

Advice to Senior Management – You can't live off of kids straight out of college who don't know that this is not what wit's like working elsewhere. Advancing people based only on their time with the company rewards those who keep their head down and avoid innovation while you push out those who would challenge the status quo and provide true, effective, long-term solutions that won't have to be fixed again down the road.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great benefits, especially for the financial industry.

Cons – Long hours sometimes difficult to manage.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – There are thousands of processes that need improvement. Take ownership of a few of them, execute well, and you can be a hero.

Cons – Though there have been improvements recently, BLK still appears to have a difficult time empowering middle managers to make decisions.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BlackRock full-time for more than a year

Pros – good for balance of work, life, and pay

Cons – bad for personal and career risk

Advice to Senior Management – good for balance of work, life, and pay

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend