Summer Intern Review

It has been extremely enjoyable throughout my internship at BlackRock. I really liked that apart from the main task that we have been given, we were also given the chance to have a hands on experience on portfolio management, think of something creative and realise our ideas in the innovation challenge. It's not all about work, but also fun!

My colleagues have been extremely friendly, approachable, and helpful. I really liked the two-way communication that I had with my manager and team. Not only did it help me feel at ease and bring out my best, I was able to fit in quickly into the team which boosted the entire team’s productivity and morale.

My manager has always been ready to provide me with any kind of support that I needed. Trust me or not, I have bothered my manager multiple times a day just to make small clarifications and he never showed any signs of getting tired of me! I can’t thank him enough for his guidance throughout, which led to my successful completion of the task during my internship.

Well, as an intern it is a natural instinct to work constantly throughout the day so as not to give a lazy impression to people around. But it’s certainly nowhere near as claimed by other interns working in certain firms, who had to stay overnight in office to impress their bosses. I was able to stick to usual working hours, and that did not prevent me from finishing my task and receiving encouraging feedback from my manager and team.

I was given the task to explore in a “new” area in which my team hasn’t had extensive experience in, and create working prototypes to demonstrate its value. While admittedly what I had been assigned was somewhat different to what my team has been doing, meaning there are new things and problems to be explored and solved, my manager and team always stood by me, and we approached people in the building and across offices in search for solutions.

Absolutely to the greatest. The entire project that I was assigned is completely relevant to my degree, and how much do I wish I could have taken part in this internship one or two years ago, which would have massively helped my coursework at university! Nevertheless it is not late at all to have had the experience now, and I’ve gained a valuable tool which I can further explore at my leisure.

I can’t rate the atmosphere in the office any higher. While on the surface everybody is in proper dressing, people are extremely friendly, sociable and forgiving. You can almost feel at home and enjoy the free teas / coffees that the company provide (hope this is not confidential). You can hardly judge how high in the hierarchy the person around you is just by his / her look and speech, since people as senior as directors are just as approachable as the other interns in the class!

The entire internship has been extremely well organised throughout. From the days of the induction where all the interns get to meet each other for the first time, to activity and events here and there during the internship to enrich our knowledge of the industry and meet with people from different divisions around the firm, they have all been timely to make sure we get the best possible internship experience.

I believe BlackRock has invested in me so much that I took away more than I could contribute during my internship. From the first day we have been offered a fun lecture on investment terms which gave me a whole new understanding of the industry as a technologist, a really life-changing presentation skills lecture that I’ve ever experienced. Even during the job I have been encouraged to explore, spend some time on research and development, alongside tacking my main task. I can’t emphasise how supportive BlackRock is on its employees to learn new things and equip themselves with new skills.

I can’t wait to come back! I believe it’s not easy to find a company out there that values the well-being of employees so much as I experienced. In particular there’s a rotation scheme for newly joined grads, meaning you get to try out different things to look for the best match before you start specialising in your favourite field.

The campus recruitment team made sure we enjoyed our stay and organised parties and drinks for all the interns. We got to know each other quickly and by the end of the internship I can say I have spoken to most of the class. I was amazed at how friendly all the interns were and how easy we got along with each other. It’s undoubtedly a reflection of the company atmosphere.

London is famed to be one of the most luxurious cities to live in, as well as having fabulous night activity in the central district. By spending wisely it is definitely possible to live a decent quality of life. It is extremely easy to get to a bar, but it’s just me that I’d prefer getting sufficient rest to perform for the next day of work.

Haven’t really gone out to the bar at night, I can imagine how fabulous night life is with all the connectivity of frequent night buses and night tube in future. I have yet to experience it when I have the time!

As an intern it is definitely an advantage to engage in activities outside of work, having not been assigned duties on weekends. I basically had the entire weekends to do whatever I wanted, without having to worry about work on Monday. I definitely had a great work-life balance, and I believe so did everybody else.