Ideal for machines, not humans - Senior Software Engineer Bloomberg Employee Review

2.0
3 Mar 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent pay and bonus, but then again, no stocks/options/RSUs, bad 401k matching etc balance it out.

Cons

* Software engineers are "resources", machines that need to do ten different things literally at the same time. * Each engineer is supposed to be developer, full on QA, devops, Deployment into prod, First-line support, Second/third line engineering maintenance/bug fixing, while at the same time front-loading the design of the next round of features. * Bloomberg's secret motto is this - recruit them young, right out of universities, inculcate these "bloomberg values" (all of the above) on unsuspecting first-time engineers and have a loyal team-lead (who by the way has been promoted after putting in like 6-7 such "labor" years without quitting at Bbg) who shepherds this herd to the diktats of the Manager above him. * Each scrum group has atleast one person that conducts 2-3 interviews per week but they barely hire new engineers, resulting in each scrum group spending a *lot* of extra hours. Working at home after the day, in the evening/night is expected. * Btw, did i mention that the Engineer is also the "Operations group" in addition to all responsibilities? So, yes, one week every month you are on the on-call list for production issues. Yes, the console team can call you anytime, 3AM in the morning - not their fault though. (ofcourse this depends on different teams - some teams might have a separate group) * I have rarely seen happy people on these floors. Everyone is so tensed all the time,like they have the burden of the entire universe on them. See some ppl slightly happier in the floor that has snacks..well, good they provide free snacks, great. * Work env - rows and rows of desks with ppl in each others faces all the times, no privacy for a minute. Imagine a call center in other countries - little worse here at Bbg. God knows how can Engineers write code in this env but ppl still manage. * This is not a place for senior engineers - they are micro-managed exactly the same way as the junior engineers resulting in a lot of frustration. * Having said the above - a lot depends on the group you land in. Just one advice to anyone thinking of joining here - meet the entire team before you take the decision - typically the ppl that interview you are not the ones that you end up working with.

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5.0
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CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free food, good salary, incredible Pro Bono opportunities

Cons

Lack of flexibility around RTO policy

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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