Pros
BlackRock is where technical excellence comes to die — preferably quietly, without making a fuss if its with a man.
Picture this: you’re a high-skill quant or AI specialist, with deep expertise, real results, and actual knowledge. You build, you ship, you lead. Your reward? A layoff. Meanwhile, someone with zero technical experience, but the right demographics and office code, gets catapulted into leadership — Global Head of “Innovation,” “AI Strategy,” or just "AI" after their 'head' or whatever the buzzword of the week is.
Yes, at BlackRock, you too can become the Head of Machine Learning Research… by being a product owner and website admin, with 0 mathematics or technical knowhow, and writing LinkedIn posts about your identity journey. No actual ML knowledge required. Just say “transformational” a lot.
Promotions are reverse meritocracy. Fail upward. Fail loudly. Fail politically correct — and you’ll be fine. Lead a project into the ground? Perfect. No roadmap? Even better. Speak at a DEI fireside while your team collapses? Welcome to MD, Head of all the AI!
The AI divisions? ha ha ha ha ha: i'm sure the DEI hires will lead it to excellence, good luck Larry, and watch out for some infamous offices in the east of europe - better run that google search on some of them 'leaders' before it is too late.
Cons
Fun and insteresting, until it hits your health and your bank account. Keep that in mind.
Honesty is your worse enemy, don't disclose, hide everything, that is how some of those guys got their head-of positions.
Extremely bad if you're: 1. a man, 2. not in product, 3. not sitting in New York or London.
