Alice Wu '23 - Summer Analyst Internship at BlackRock

This summer I worked at BlackRock as a summer analyst. I was in the technology arm of the firm as an intern on the Aladdin Client Services team. Aladdin is Blackrock’s end to end investment platform. The Aladdin Client Services team works with clients that include respected investment institutions to solve their problems and educate users to improve client experience and improve Aladdin. 

During the course of my 10 week internship, I gained an in-depth understanding of Aladdin, various Aladdin clients, and the investment management process. Besides learning about what the Aladdin Client Services team does, I attended partner team sessions with Blackrock’s various technology teams and engaged with senior level executives. I also collaborated with other interns to present on a major Blackrock client and pitched an enhancement to Aladdin. At the end of the summer, I worked with a group of other interns to give a Life of a Trade presentation, where I walked through the creation of a trade all the way to trade settlement in Aladdin. 

I enjoyed not only gaining technical knowledge but also being able to meet so many different people. My team was interdisciplinary so it was interesting to see how people chose to work at BlackRock and what their career paths were like. This summer experience opened my eyes to how technology can be used in the finance industry and gave me an idea of how being in industry is different from academia.