I applied online. I interviewed at Bloomberg in Mar 2015
Interview
I submitted my resume online and a recruiter reached out to me the next day with a generic email asking me to fill out the answers to 9 questions. I wrote back and they set a phone interview for 2 weeks later. The phone interview was easy and they set another interview two weeks later, and then another... now it's been yet another two weeks and I still haven't heard back from anyone. They just fell off the face of the earth after a 1.5 month process. The lack of professionalism is unbelievable and they don't value your time at all. Also, if you're an experienced hire, the interview is really not a good measure of how much you know because they ask you college level economics definitions. If you're a normal person then all that rubbish fell out the side of your head as soon as you graduated (which for me was 8 years ago.) They don't ask you any finance questions at all. They will ask you why bloomberg about 10 times with every interviewer. And they will harp on your reasons for wanting the job each and every time too because you're an experienced hire and this is basically a glorified help-desk role.
All in all, they are very disorganized, very unprofessional, very impersonal, and they don't give you a timeline on anything. I applied for an April opening and they didn't get the ball rolling until March. Mind you, I applied February 1st. They said they were considering me for July the last I spoke to them. I'm due for round 4 interview but with no contact in sight. When they make me the offer, I will be glad to decline it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why Bloomberg? Role play with an angry client. Role play with an Equity Viewer problem. Test your language (if you are multilingual they will ask you to explain your last job or something in that language). What is your approach to sales. What is the most difficult thing about the role play. Randomly chosen questions to define two economic terms (these are ridiculously random and out of econ or micro / macro 101 classes). Absolutely NO finance questions. Can you explain the role to us in detail (they want to make sure you know this is help desk without saying it is a "helpdesk" position because they still need to sound fancy.) It is a glorified call center but pitch it as something prestigious.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY)
Interview
phone interview --> interview day (about 30 other candidates taking tour of office and doing two speed dating style interviews with other applicants in the room)--> shadowing of a Bloomberg employee who currently holds position and then meeting with two managers (one sales, one analytics)...mostly behavioral questions about what you've done and if you have previous sales experience. don't say you have interest in anything other than what you're applying for they'll hold it against you if you say you want to be at a big bank, hedge fund, etc.
I applied online in October for the January 2015 Product Sales & Analytics position and received an invitation to do a phone interview several weeks later. Following the phone interview, I did not receive an invitation for the second round, in person interview until late November/early December. The second round was a "career day" feature of the company which included a tour, a Bloomberg terminal overview and two sequential interviews with current employees. Several weeks later I was invited back for a third round. This consisted of a 30 minute shadow opportunity of a person currently working in the role followed by a 2 v 1 group interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Second round: Explain a difficult financial concept (to the interviewer) and pretend they had no experience with finance/economics.
If you could only choose one, would you rather do sales or analytics?
How do you handle sequential customers who are not interested in the product you are selling?