Good in some ways, bad in others - Software Developer Bloomberg Employee Review

4.0
21 Mar 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good training program for entry level people. Quite a few smart people around. Great offices to work in - very attractive, good location, communal kitchen, lecture theatres etc. Office in general feels quite busy & bustling. Lots of perks like free theatre/exhibition tickets, events etc. Good amount of responsiblity from early on. Good pay. Good name to have on the CV.

Cons

Lots of the codebase is pretty antiquated - Fortran code, old 1000 line C functions from the 1980s etc. Lots of proprietary stuff you have to learn that isn't transferrable, so you run the risk of getting a bit institutionalised. Also, Bloomberg often unnecssarily has it's own little version of something (file I/O libraries etc). Senior management have their head in the clouds & are fairly political - many have been since the dawn of time and have an outdated view of how the company works, and they will push through initiatives that they have 'sold' to their superiors even if they just don't make sense at ground level. One of those companies (and there are many) that sell themselves to applicants as having a 'flat' structure, when what this actually means is that hardly anyone ever gets moved up. There is also lots of bureaucracy and a culture of micro-management - every working hour must be ticketed, accounted for etc.

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5.0
7 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People you work with are great

Cons

Linear growth not much opportunity outside of department

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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