Pros: For a developer: Good projects, great opportunity to learn UNIX/C/C++, some pretty smart folks, and resources to draw upon.

Cons: Stuffy and arrogant culture, "big-brother" mentality, rude managers abound. Definitely not a good place to stay for long.

Pros: Compared to other Computer Science job opportunities in New York City and elsewhere in the field, Bloomberg offers some pretty attractive packages. The benefits are great, the workplace is vibrant, and most coworkers are competent.

Cons: The biggest downside is that the company is divorced from Silicon Valley and its ways, making it hard for former Bloomberg employees to return to greener pastures. The projects are effectively managed by the sales organization, which is eager to please the customers. This often results in making impossible promises, rushing projects, and asking for shortcuts left and right. As a result, the code is chaotic and archaic, and in bad need of huge rewrites and lots more testing. Some of the projects are ill-conceived from the start. Several projects in my team that took months to develop received little or no use from customers. The salesperson that asked for the feature, having signed up the client, has no interest in pushing your product. Your experience varies significantly depending on who your immediate manager is. It may vary as far as the flexibility of your workday. Some managers expect you to be at work no later than 9:00, and some others recognize that the flexibility to choose, within reason, what time you come to work in the morning will affect your output.

Pros: - Junior hires are given a good load of responsibilities. - Salary and bonuses are good. - Free snacks are provided (better than Microsoft, worse than Google). - Customers are satisfied. Having worked at other companies, the high level of customer satisfaction is abnormal and deeply rewarding. - New York City is much more fun than San Francisco, Boston, or Seattle, but that's just my opinion ;).

Cons: - No offices. - Time not as flexible as other tech companies. - Expected to be on call after hours. For IT/networking/systems people, this may be normal, but as a software engineer, I was not used to this. - Culture of kissing up to higher levels (worse than other tech companies, but better than most non-tech corporate environments). Many superficial efforts are made to combat this, but it is still present. - No company cafeteria leads most people to eat at their desks rather than with co-workers. - No whiteboards (maybe that's a pro for some people).