Mixed feelings - Associate Software Engineer BlackRock Employee Review

3.0
Jul 13, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- I know this could vary by team, but my team is laid back and chill - You get to learn a lot about financial stuff (if you are open to learn anyways) especially investing and money management - Good benefits including unlimited PTO, 401k matching and boost

Cons

- Pay is not that good compared to tech companies. I wouldn't have complained if that at least increased (a little if not a lot) every year but no. It'd be the same for several years and they don't care about your life changes, inflation, etc. EVERY YEAR they say the same thing "oh it's not been that good a year", even though the earnings are good? - Promotion process is a huge mess. I saw people bootlicking senior management get promoted even though they are unworthy and some talented and hard working people ignored because they actually work and not waste time talking BS and entertaining those senior management. This kind of culture is HIGHLY TOXIC and its high time people corrected it. People have taken cue and started working less and boot licking more. Also there is no clear path or definition to promotion or any measurement scale for the criteria. Its just too abstract and they expect you to already be doing the work of the role that you are trying to get promoted to. Why would I do that when I'm not getting paid for it yet? - Developer experience sucks - you get all kind of "security" crap installed on the computers that make them super slow for developers. If you don't trust software engineers to not click on stupid spam or get virus onto the computers, why hire them in the first place? The dev process becomes SUPER SLOW because of thousands of background processes running and becomes super irritating and you lose all the remaining motivation to code. How hard is it to have different policies for developers and non developers?

avatar
BlackRock Response
5y
Thanks for taking the time to leave a review. We are glad to hear that you’ve grown your financial knowledge and that you are enjoying our benefits. Regarding compensation concerns, we follow a pay for performance compensation model and aim to reward all employees fairly for their contributions to the firm. If you’re not satisfied with your current compensation package, we encourage you to speak to your manager and HR. Additionally, we follow a strict performance management process and promote all employees based on merit. Employees participating in our annual promotion process are nominated and evaluated based on their performance and contributions to the firm. Please reach out to HR or speak with your manager regarding our promotions process and about opportunities for advancing your career.

Explore other reviews about BlackRock

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great diverse experience with working across teams

Cons

Might have to work long hours

4.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Plenty of opportunity to work on project teams. Lots of exposure to senior leaders in HR and the businesses. Great collaboration in the One BlackRock spirit. Benefits to support employees and their families are good.

Cons

Workload can be challenging at times. However, you are gaining a lot of new skills in a short prior of time and the ability to work with leaders is worth it.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All