BlackRock, including its iShares exchange-traded fund business, is the largest asset management firm in the world based on assets under management. It is also the most sought-after landing spot in terms of which fund shops asset management professionals most want to join.
Our 2016 Ideal Employer Rankings, which surveyed more than 6,500 financial services professionals globally, shows which employers people in the industry want to work for. The global asset manager top 10 list features seven U.S. firms, two Asian firms and two European firms tied for 10th place.
| Rank | Company | |
|---|---|---|
| (*) Global Rank View all Asset Management jobs Back to the top |
||
| 1 (5) |
| BlackRock |
| 2 (26) |
| Fidelity |
| 3 (29) |
| GIC |
| 4 (45) |
| Wellington Management Company |
| 5 (50) |  | Prudential |
| 6 (N/A) |
| Temasek |
| 7 (N/A) |
| Pimco |
| 8 (N/A) |
| Capital Group |
| 9 (N/A) |
| Franklin Templeton |
| = 10 (N/A) |
| Allianz |
| = 10 (N/A) |
| Axa |
Asset management giants
After BlackRock, Fidelity Investments is the second most popular asset management firm in the world to work for, according to our survey. Fidelity has a vast bricks-and-mortar presence across the U.S., a wide range of mutual funds and other business lines such as retirement services, discount brokerage services and wealth management.
Those two behemoths are followed by Singapore-based GIC, a private company-cum-sovereign wealth fund owned by Singapore’s government, and Wellington Management Co., best known for sub-advising investment strategies distributed by other firms such as the Vanguard Group and Hartford Funds.
Rounding out the global top five is Prudential Financial, an American Fortune 500 company with sizeable insurance and investment management subsidiaries, among other lines of business.
What makes BlackRock such a good place to work?
Our survey suggests the people who want to work for BlackRock value the firm for its high pay, the financial performance of the firm, the opportunities it affords to work with key industry players, the fact that it is perceived to be a leader in the industry, and the challenging and interesting work that its executives take on.
78% of respondents who wanted to work for BlackRock believe that it offers a competitve salary. This figure was up with the top two companies in our overall rankings – Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan – and 82% perceive it as a leader in the industry. This was the second highest score in the top ten, behind only Google with 84%.
BlackRock president Rob Kapito recently gave a bullish speech about job prospects over the course of this year. BlackRock now has 13,000-plus employees – an increase of approximately 800 people on the previous year, but average compensation ticked down from $313.8k in 2014 to $308k last year.
BlackRock funds pulled in $30.98bn of inflows in 2015, although Fidelity attracted even more – $47.53bn – last year, according to Lipper. Los Angeles-based Capital Group, which finished seventh among asset managers globally and offers mutual funds via its American Funds subsidiary, achieved $24.25bn of inflows in 2015, says Lipper.
BlackRock also performed well in the global top 10 Ideal Employer ranking and the U.S. top 10 list that include all types of financial services firms, otherwise largely dominated by the biggest investment banks.
View the complete 2016 eFinancialCareers Ideal Employer Rankings
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Photo caption: Andreas Wass/iStock/Thinkstock
