What's your job about?
BlackRock is a fiduciary duty to clients. We strive to help millions of people to save and retire with dignity and one of the ways in which we do this is by working with institutions and wealth advisors. We also make quality investing more available and affordable.
I work in a portfolio consulting team called BlackRock Portfolio Analysis and Solutions. Our mission is to help clients target their investment objectives via robust portfolio construction.
My work typically involves applying BlackRock tools (e.g. Aladdin – our proprietary risk platform) and differentiated insights to help solve for portfolio construction challenges that clients may face. The work we do ranges from building new portfolios, evaluating portfolios or evolving existing portfolios using BlackRock products (across index, smart beta and alpha exposures, including alternatives). On top of that, we also do other awesome things such as collaborating with colleagues to produce papers and education sessions centered around portfolio construction.
What's your background?
I grew up in Sydney’s inner west and later found myself going to a selective school in North Sydney. I then attended the University of Sydney where I studied accounting and finance. I started my career working full time in tax whilst doing part-time uni. I think deep down I knew tax wasn’t meant for me as I would be the only person at my firm more interested in talking about what’s happening in the stock market than tax. I then had the opportunity to intern at an asset manager through my university’s intern placement program in which I discovered my interest for this industry.
In my final year, I knew I wanted to be back in some sort of finance/asset management role, so I applied for BlackRock’s graduate program. When I was asked ‘Why BlackRock?’, I remember being super cheesy and talked about how it was only a few months ago, I referenced a BlackRock paper for an assignment on how they constructed their smart beta ETFs. It was all too surreal as I was interviewing for a company that I greatly admired. Somehow, my interviewers appreciated my honest answer and, here I am, full circle, at BlackRock!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely. I don’t think having a different background should ever hinder you from the industry or role you want to get into. It’s more important to have a passion and curiosity for whatever industry or role you are interested in. In my team alone, our backgrounds range from veterinary to astrophysics!
If you’re from a non-finance background and would like to get into the world of asset management, start off by researching the industry, how financial markets operates and who are the players of this industry and what roles do they play (e.g. research houses, wealth advisors, superfunds).
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The variety of work I do! Outside of building and evaluating portfolios, we also meet with clients, provide thought leadership through either publishing papers or hosting teaching sessions and even evaluate asset management competitions. Additionally, the problem solving we do on portfolios is very interesting and cool. There are several ways you can solve and build a portfolio.
I think what’s also cool is the global connectivity we have. You can easily reach out to a global colleague and they’d be happy to help you out. The collaboration and support we have for one another emphasise the brilliant culture we have.
What are the limitations of your job?
There is a lot of financial knowledge and technical mechanisms that I have yet to learn especially in asset classes I’m not familiar with. I think what university typically teaches is quite theoretical vs its real-life application which makes it hard to adjust your understanding at first.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...