Process
My experience was not great. Initially, I had a phone interview, which was quite uncomfortable. My interviewer hadn't reserved a conference room, and the background noise from his desk made it difficult to hear him. Despite this, I handled the fairly standard questions well and was invited to their New York office.
The office itself was interesting, reflecting the flashy environment of their media business. My first interview was with two engineers, one of whom had a very annoying attitude. I felt he was trying to be overly smart and adopt a "bad cop" persona, making the process quite painful. They left the room at the end of their interview.
After a significant wait, two more people came to my room. I suspect there were long gaps between interviewers as they discussed whether to proceed with further interviews. If they decided early on not to hire a candidate, they would escort them out.
The second set of interviewers proved to be the least technically impressive I had ever encountered. Communication was extremely difficult. I felt they expected me to explain every single detail as if I were speaking to someone who had never coded. Even after doing so, they didn't follow the solutions I proposed for standard "Cracking the Code" interview questions. With about a dozen interviews under my belt at that point, I had never experienced such communication issues, whether on the phone, writing on notepads, or using a whiteboard. On top of that, we didn't get to use whiteboards and had to write everything on tiny notepads. I'm unsure if this was intended to test communication under constraints, but it was a very annoying experience. Clearly, it was a waste of time for both the company and myself, and I decided to accept an offer on the West Coast.
I would recommend Bloomberg consider providing larger notepads or allowing interviewees to use whiteboards. Additionally, interviewers should be asked to know at least two solutions for each problem they present.
Questions
Nothing was complicated. It was really hard to communicate with interviewers.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 194 interview experiences for the Bloomberg LP Software Developer role in United States.
Success Rate
Bloomberg LP's interview process for their Software Developer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Bloomberg LP's Software Developer interview process in United States.
Bloomberg LP Work Experiences
- 1.0Stay for the training, then leave if you're smart!Software Developer • Current EmployeeLondon, England, United KingdomAugust 14, 2010Pros: Good training program, free food. Good opportunity to make contacts. The male-female ratio is pretty good (on the female side). The summer party is outstanding.Cons: Very, very inexperienced managers, the majority of whom have only ever worked at Bloomberg. This cripples diversity. There's a bully-type American management style, like something straight out of a textbook. If a task isn't done now, the response is to shout louder or swear. Forget trying to understand the problem; just expect staff to work ridiculously long hours. From the software engineering side, work is rushed and the technology is old. Bloomberg thinks it can do things better by building its own in-house compilers and dev environments. It can't, period. Switch to mainstream/open-source software, which is peer-reviewed by thousands of skilled developers.
- 4.0This is a cool place, a pretty nice building. Very busy-looking, not much privacy because everything was made of glassSoftware Developer • Current EmployeeNew York, New York, United StatesFebruary 19, 2013Pros: I learned a lot about Mayor Bloomberg, who is a very nice guy, and that was cool. The interview was pretty standard, and they made me feel at home.Cons: It was very hectic and depressing.
- 5.0Great company, people. A caring companySoftware Developer • Current EmployeeNew York, New York, United StatesNovember 7, 2014Pros: The culture is work-hard, play-hard, with much thought put toward philanthropy and the environment. These altruistic goals really come from the top-down. There are great snacks and a great office/environment. A lot of smart people are present all across the board. The location is convenient. Great connections throughout the city are due to the CEO being a former mayor. There are lots of educational opportunities outside of the field, such as financial training for R&D folks and technical training for business folks. Payment is offered for further education. Sports teams are available to play on. Great healthcare and a great 50% match on 401k are provided, along with generous pay raises and bonuses. An awesome training program exists for fresh-out-of-college hires. It is 12 weeks long and has fantastic instructors for advanced C++ and JavaScript, plus a lot more. Great networking opportunities are also included. It is really well run. The whole company works like clockwork, from facilities to help desk to sales to software to the data warehouse. Quite impressive.Cons: A lot of proprietary software development tools. A lot of customers don't like change. Customers are paying a steep price, and thus often have a stronger say than they should.
Bloomberg LP Interview Questions
