Cronyism is king - Anonymous employee Bloomberg Employee Review

3.0
21 June 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people and management structure at the top. The Bloomberg for Enterprise team was an extremely exciting area to be part of, and I am sure that will continue to be a rewarding place to work. Challenging and diverse work. There is a lot more flexibility and willingness to implement change in a dynamic manner than at other big organisations. Profit apparently goes directly to charity, and employees are encouraged to volunteer for a variety of charitable initiatives. It is very rewarding. Amazing summer parties.

Cons

There is little regard for work-life balance. The hours are 8am - 6pm in the London office, which is longer than either of the other two regions (APAC and Americas), and you will be expected to far exceed this. Whilst a lot of managers are happy to allow a degree of flexibility, there are a lot of managers who are very anal about time keeping. Badges mark when everyone is in and out of the office and makes it feel much more like a "big brother" society than the open culture they claim they are trying to cultivate. Prepare to live to work rather than work to live. The biggest flaw at the company is cronyism. There are a number of people who have got into middle management positions, with no relevant experience or credentials, other than being the hiring manager's friend. You can easily tell who they are, they don't actually do any work and delegate everything to their more capable team members, whilst ensuring that they take all the credit of course. They end up being far more a hindrance than an asset to the company. Whilst networking is an important and natural part of any job, the extent to which it counts at Bloomberg needs to be looked at. It isn't a widely spread problem, but it is a problem. The upside is that senior managers who are not directly in the same reporting path easily spot this happening and are adept at cutting said managers out of the loop so the work can actually get done.

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5.0
10 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good work life balance and generous company benefits

Cons

Upside in bonus was capped low. People with wall street experiences are highly valued than those who are with the firm longer

5.0
31 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Only a five-hour-per-week time commitment, which is very manageable with my class schedule. Bloomberg provides ideas for challenges and activities to host at my school, so I would not have to come up with everything from scratch. There is flexibility to choose when I table and to tailor the role around my schedule.

Cons

The budget for the program is tight, which is frustrating because advertising to law students is exactly how Bloomberg Law builds a dedicated user base. In my opinion, whoever makes the budget is not seeing the bigger vision. A lot of attorneys may not like Bloomberg Law, use it regularly, or ask their firms to purchase a subscription simply because they were never meaningfully exposed to it in law school. This is exactly why Lexis has taken over in such a big way: its presence and budget are felt at law schools across the country. If Bloomberg wants future attorneys to become loyal users, it needs to invest more seriously in reaching students while they are still learning which legal research platforms they prefer.

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