“BOTH: We are not a bank.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NOOR FARABY: There’s two more.
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: There’s two more.
STEVEN FELDMAN: We’ll have some more fun. All right. We’re ready. Go for it.
KLAAS ROBERTS: All right. Let’s see what we got here. My college major has blank to do with my current job at BlackRock. A little, a lot, a good amount.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: A lot. A lot, a lot.
MELANIE MANKO: Yeah.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: Just working on hard computer sciencey problems.
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: My college major has nothing to do with my current job at BlackRock. I studied Chinese and business economics in public policy. So it was more of a public policy major. But I wanted to do something different. And that’s why I picked sales and relationship management.
KLAAS ROBERTS: I was financial econ. It helps, but you just come to realize, when you get here, there’s so much you still don’t know.
MELANIE MANKO: The best part of being in the analyst program at BlackRock is blank.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: Rotating.
MELANIE MANKO: Yes, rotating.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: Doing four different teams six months each over two years, I mean, just meeting new people, networking.
MELANIE MANKO: Figure out what you like to do and what you’re interested in as well what you don’t like to do and what you’re not interested in.
NOOR FARABY: I love joining through the analyst program because I met so many people from different business functions that I never would have met otherwise. I still have friends who I keep in touch with in the San Francisco office, London.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: BlackRock stands out from the other firms in its industry because–
KLAAS ROBERTS: The focus on innovation. And you can see, it’s a large company, but in a way, all these little departments are almost like little startups in themselves.
MELANIE MANKO: BlackRock’s commitment to technology and exploring how we can use technology and data to gain an edge.
STEVEN FELDMAN: It’s backwards.
KLAAS ROBERTS: Three words the best describe the BlackRock culture are–
[LAUGHTER]
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: That’s really hard. Three words? It should be a paragraph.
STEVEN FELDMAN: Innovative.
KLAAS ROBERTS: Mm-hm.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: Restless. Despite our processes working great for us, we want to constantly improve upon them.
NOOR FARABY: Collaborative.
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: That’s fairly good.
KLAAS ROBERTS: Caring, too. I think a lot of people–
STEVEN FELDMAN: That’s a good one.
KLAAS ROBERTS: –here are not just about performance results but also about people results. They want people to be happy.
STEVEN FELDMAN: Yeah.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: All right. The most surprising part about working at BlackRock is–
MELANIE MANKO: You can wear your jeans and sneakers to work.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: And t-shirts.
MELANIE MANKO: And t-shirts.
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: You can be comfortable at work.
NOOR FARABY: How much technology is integrated with our company and our roles.
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: I would say the most surprising part about working at BlackRock is that we now have unlimited vacation days.
KLAAS ROBERTS: If you could describe BlackRock in three emojis, they would be–
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: I like the crying one.
NOOR FARABY: The crying laughing one?
CHRISTIANNE JOHNSON: The crying laughing one. It’s so fun to come in and be around all the people that are different than I am. And I’m crying laughing at them all the time.
STEVEN FELDMAN: Maybe I’ll do this one, the– because you’re kind of amazed about the breadth and scale.
MELANIE MANKO: Now is a great time to join BlackRock because–
THOMAS PICCIRELLO: Because of opportunity.
STEVEN FELDMAN: I think a lot of times people will say, oh, because it’s the largest asset manager. I think that definitely has perks, but it’s not the reason you’d want to join. I think the fact that we are innovators within the asset management space, we’re a tech firm and an asset management firm in one.”