Bloomberg Financial Software Developer reviews

4.0

99% would recommend to a friend

(107 total reviews)
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Michael R. Bloomberg and Vlad Kliatchko

100% approve of CEO

96% positive business outlook

Financial Software Developer employees have rated Bloomberg with 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 107 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Financial Software Developer professionals have a good working experience there. Bloomberg is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Financial Software Developer professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

107 reviews
1.0
Sep 22, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The Location (New York, NY). Free snacks and fruits at the pantry. Perceived brand value in the job market. Networking with other people. The finance courses (most of them taught by Stuart Veale).

Cons

If you are a person who likes to be an independent contributor, technologically focused and be given some free reign on your projects -- actually, I'll go out on a limb to say that if you are a decent programmer, who expects a disciplined approach to programming (most of the code is haphazard and difficult to maintain) -- this company may not be for you. Bloomberg has a lot of ridiculous bottlenecks that would make any sane programmer cry with agony. I'm not understating this, you can get the hints from all the reviews up there before mine (at the same time, I'm surprised at some of the 4 and 5 ratings here!). These bottlenecks/annoyances are not just in your day-to-day development, but while you are in the building too. The badge-in/badge-out, the security making rounds around the office who stop you and sternly ask to wear your badge -- even while you are just going to get a coffee in the damn pantry (I've had to literally go back to my desk to get it), I encourage you to visit the premises talk to existing employees beforehand and get an idea of what you are getting into. No proper cafeteria area to eat your food -- the running joke was that the bigwigs expect you to eat at your desk and thus you will be around your desk to be called upon by your manager/peer during that time. You might end up in teams (from what I've learnt, this is most of them) where there is rampant micromanagement (including hints dropped about you expected to work on weekends/late hours to make an arbitrarily set, extremely tight deadline -- even for internal projects) I believe that the "thought worker" who takes pride in his/her work can't thrive in cultures [sic] like Bloomberg

2.0
Sep 18, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Bloomberg LP clients are the most important people at Bloomberg LP, without exception. Implements industry standard best practices and more. Various benefits as mentioned in many other reviews.

Cons

Frequent changes in library dependencies resulting in reduced productivity. Too much time is wasted getting your executable to link. There are an endless list of common technologies are used such as C++, Javascript, Unix, XML, SQL, and GTK, but there is still too much proprietary software and tools. In most teams, your performance is measured in terms of how well you are able to use Bloomberg-specific technologies, i.e. your mastery of Bloomberg-specific technologies.

2.0
Sep 10, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay and benefits top notch, bonus very good compared to a lot software jobs. The building is amazing. Snacks are ok (but they get you fat). Free entry into NY museums and cultural events. A lot of very smart people, and the work will definitely keep you busy. You get code into production fast compared to many software jobs, where the turn around on a project might be months to years. At Bloomberg projects many projects last weeks.

Cons

Technology is extremely proprietary. You're not working with open source technology, or even Microsoft tools. You're working with Bloomberg specific technologies, many of which date back to hacky solutions from the early 80s. A lot of the new stuff is poorly documented and in a constant state of flux. I often am jealous of my friends who get to work with more interesting technology, even though I'm better compensated. The management is a bit lacking. The structure is very loose (which can be a good thing), but sometimes things feel disorganized. They don't employ any software methodologies or process, so even though they use rapid development, projects are poorly organized and lack planning and testing. This also can make projects more stressful than they need to be.

Viewing 79 - 81 of 107 Reviews

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