Product Strategy Intern - Fixed Income Review

The internship was really enjoyable, a good place to work and learn about finance.

The team I was in were quite small so very close yet still made me feel welcome and genuinely appreciate the work I did for them. They all encouraged me to attend intern events and learn as much as possible about all areas of the company during my internship. Also encouraged me to stay in touch when I leave.

At BlackRock we had a line manager who assigned tasks throughout, a buddy who provided support in the department we worked and a mentor from a different area of the firm. My buddy was very friendly and let me sit down with him to see what he did, my mentor introduced me to different people in the firm along with helping me with any queries I had or issues throughout- which were few. My line manager introduced me to everyone I came into contact with a encouraged me to learn as much as possible in the 10 week internship.

I had several small projects every day. I think it would have been good to have also had one big project as other departments did. However lots of little tasks are really useful in providing an overall view of the team and how they operate so this was very useful, however I sometimes felt I could have been given more work.

As an intern I was given simple tasks initally which increased in difficulty as I developed a better knowledge of the team. I was also allowed a lot more independence as time progressed, so although I was a far cry away from running the show, I felt valued as the work I did actually contributed to the work the team produced.

The skills learnt during this internship I have found invaluable. The people I have been exposed to and the training BlackRock have put on, along with the confidence I have gained in financial knowledge, presenting and generally meeting people are skills I will take away with me and have already found myself using outside of the work environment.

Very friendly, everyone is approachable at all times and the atmosphere was really nice to work in. A quiet level of talking as on my floor there is a lot of interaction within and across teams.

I would have liked to have had some more information on where I would be working, (I knew which division but not which team) so I could have researched the position more effectively. Other than that the work placement has been set up brilliantly. There are lots of intern events and the campus recruitment team are with you throughout the internship for support and a friendly face, they did a brilliant job of making the internship enjoyable and exposing all interns to every part of the business

We had two presentation training sessions which were so useful at learning how to come across well in a business environment. We received Bloomberg training in my division and training of the BlackRock software - Aladdin. We also had a 3 day induction perod which included an overview of the business and how things work.

There is a strong push on the possibility of a graduate position after the internship - I have yet to leave but am told I will be given feedback on my performance and potentially a job offer.

For me the social scene was perfect. The interns frequently met for drinks after work and there were social events most weeks.

Expensive - but you are in the centre of London so things are not going to be cheap

Lots of pubs and bars around work.

We were invited to several out of office activities which were really good along with in work activities in the evening such as Multi-Cultural Networking events and WIN events