Pros: Amazing benefits, super stable, unlimited FTO. You get to work with some very smart but humble people that are always willing to help. You can very easily seek a new challenge within when you feel like you want to step out of your comfort zone. Building some interesting things with unique challenges.

Cons: Lots of red tape, bureaucracy, and corporate politics. Not an engineering firm at heart; asset management drives a big portion of the engineering decisions.

Pros: When you join the BlackRock AQE team, once in a while you get to work with other teams, such as CSI. Those guys are great.

Cons: Within the AQE team (Aladdin Quality Engineers), all the managers care about is personal gain. A manager may sabotage your project if it is not in his interest, just so that your project fails and he gets to take over. At the AQE team, it is all about the annual bonus. Nobody cares about writing good software. I'm so thankful I'm switching to a tech company. If you ever do join BlackRock, trust me on this one: do NOT join the AQE team. The CSI (Core System Infrastructure) team, though, is pretty cool. But within BlackRock, it is quite hard to switch teams unless you are a rotational analyst. So, if you sign up as an associate, you are stuck wherever you start. In that case, please do not join AQE. The management chain is all rotten for many, many layers, so there is nobody you can talk to. CSI, BOES, CSO, etc., are all much better than AQE. Do not join! :)

Pros: Great atmosphere, with a good team and leadership.

Cons: Technical innovations can be done slowly.