Insight Day Review

Whilst it may have come off slightly like a company propaganda event, BlackRock's Edinburgh office insight was informative and thorough. It offered vast amounts of information on all aspects of the businesses, including technology, finance, investments and risk.

We were made to feel extremely welcome by all of the staff. This was especially apparent during the informal networking portion at the end of the day, where we were able to effectively engage with all of the speakers from the day, as well as many of their colleagues.

As the day was geared towards those of us who may well be interested in applying to BlackRock for internships and graduate programmes in the coming few years, there was a lot of useful guidance on the application and interview processes, both from the formal presentations and informal networking.

As a politics student, I would say there is very little chance that the intricate details about BlackRock's application process and the things that make it unique as an asset manager will be applicable to my degree. However, I certainly have a clearer idea of what a career in asset management would entail and this will assist me greatly when I come to consider my options post-university.

The insight day was pretty seamlessly run. Starting with the introduction, it moved on to the divisional presentations, then to the question and answer panel and finally the networking at the end of the day, we got a good feel for many different concepts in just four hours.

The general atmosphere was welcoming and informal, and all the BlackRock staff were wonderfully friendly, open to questions and keen to offer their own insights into the industry. The atmosphere allowed for ease of discussion in the panel session and I'm sure it prompted people to speak who may otherwise have remained silent.

It was clear that we were valued as strong potential candidates and the helpfulness and willingness to answer any and all questions proved this. Given, that we weren't required to perform any tasks as such, there was less of a need for training or development. Instead the focus was on gaining a better understanding if the firm and its business.

To a great extent. Every presenter stood up and outlined their average day in great detail which was very useful. I got to understand the process that the investment team goes through when deciding how to proceed on a certain stock in the context of wider economic news and events and this is someting that was extremely interesting.

As mentioned before, everyone was extremely friendly and In the introduction we were given a great deal of information about how BlackRock sees its role within the industry and how this has a knock on effects on the people it hires and the way it conducts business. A cynic might argue that any company would say the sorts of things that BlackRock said about its values so realistically it may be fairly difficult to have a real understanding of the culture. However, it was a fairly good start.

It really helped confirm my desire to work in the industry. The skills required for success in the job are ones that I would love to improve upon and the real responsibility that even the most junior analysts are offered is a real selling point.

Reimbursement for travel was offered up to £50 but as I live in Edinburgh, there was no need to for me to claim any expenses.

There were indeed. An hour of the four was set aside after the presentations for discussions with many levels of BlackRock staff.

This was the highlight of the day, as all the speakers from the earlier presentations, as well as many other team members, joined us all on the BlackRock terrace for some drinks and food where we were able to discuss at length any and all questions that we had. The employees were very interesting and knowledgeable, as well as patient and understanding.

Aside from one vague comment that "BlackRock does allow for a pretty good work/life balance", made to me by one employee during the networking. The closest we really got to answering this question was the multiple times we were informed that the hours "aren't that bad for the finance industry". Realistically, i think most people at the event will have already accepted that they aren't wanting to go into finance for the opportunity to leave work at 5 and play ultimate frisbee with their colleagues. So this was probably something that wasn't on many people's minds.

I would recommend this to a friend. I think it was useful in equal parts as an addition to the CV and as an information event. There were parts that were overly sweet that did come off as little more than company advertising, but this was to be expected and it would be hard for a company to do anything other than sing its own praises in that kind of situation.