The initial interview was held at their office with two members of staff - one in the room with me, one by video conference from the US. I was expecting more of a competency-based approach (because the agency told me that's what it'd be) but, in fact, it was a set of relatively informal interview questions with the purpose to assess suitability to take forward to the next stage (typical interview questions and discussion - talked about what I'd done in my career do far, what I wanted to do in the future, why I wanted this role etc). This interview lasted around 50 minutes. A few days after the initial interview I was informed they'd like me to come back for a second interview in a couple of weeks, which was scheduled to be a 5 stage event all crammed into one afternoon. The day started with a Brainbench 'Programmer/Analyst Appitude' test - I was given a laptop and left alone to to complete around 30 to 40 questions within the hour time limit. I took around 45 minutes, and the questions weren't especially difficult (I found out afterwards that it seems to be an off-the-shelf test that you can buy online, it didn't seem to be customised for BlackRock). I was keen to know how well I did but it doesn't tell you your score at the end, sadly. Once finished, I had to just sit and wait until the hour was up until someone came back to take the laptop away. Shortly afterwards, two existing members of staff came along to do stage 2 - a panel style interview, both asking fairly standard interview questions... nothing too taxing. Both were fairly personable and easy to talk to. This stage was due to last 45 minutes but with around 5 minutes still to go, the 3rd stage interviewer walked into the room without introduction before sitting herself down which seemed to signal stage 2 needed to wrap up. Even though the time was almost up anyway, it did feel a bit premature - however, the two stage 2 interviewers wrapped up and left the room. The stage 3 interviewer finally introduced herself, and even though this stage was only meant to be 15 minutes, I don't think it even lasted that long - it was perhaps only 10 minutes. She asked a couple of questions related to some specific scenarios, but didn't seem interested in anything I said - incredibly, she spent most of the time 'playing' on her phone (I couldn't see what she was doing - I'd like to hope it was some important work issue rather than Candy Crush, but I'll never know). I did at one point wonder if this was a test - should I say something, should I ask if she needs to leave to attend to something? I didn't and, in hindsight, perhaps I should've because it was clear she was not listening to my answers so there was no point in either of us being here. Having already discovered that this person would be my manager, how could I work for someone who thinks this is acceptable behaviour? I've never witnessed such rudeness in an interview scenario, so I'd now pretty much mentally resigned myself to this not being the job for me - all thanks to this one particular interaction. This stage was mercifully short, the interviewer left and I waited for someone to collect me and take me to another room for stage 4. Stage 4 was a video conference with a member of staff in the US for 30 minutes. It was relatively informal, more of the style of stage 2. I'm not a huge fan of video conferencing, it seems to lose something that you get compared to being there in person, but it seemed to go quite well. This stage wrapped up and I waited to be collected and taken to stage 5 but, when I was collected, it was to show me out. What happened to stage 5? I'll never know - I could've asked but, frankly, I'd already decided I didn't want to work for a company whose senior staff think it's acceptable to treat candidates in the way I'd witnessed - it hints at real problems with the organisational culture and not something I'd want to be part of. A few weeks later I got some feedback that they wouldn't be offering me the role, which was a relief, because I wouldn't have accepted it (the feedback was apparently that I was a good candidate, but they weren't convinced I really wanted it - which is very likely true, I'm sure having mentally checked out during stage 3 it would've come across in my subsequent answers). Would I apply for any roles at BlackRock in the future? I'm not sure I would... did I get a glimpse of some of the real organisational culture in stage 3, or was it just a bad day? At the very least, I'd have to give additional consideration whether I'd apply for anything at BlackRock in the future as what I saw this time around was not particularly attractive.