Bloomberg LP

• Pay is okay.
• Easy to coast; work-life balance is good.
• Health benefits are good.

Coworkers are pretty mediocre and do not care about quality. The brightest people who actually care tend to be new-grads who don't know how bad things are because it's their first job. Things are done in the most backwards way possible, with no real technical leadership (imagine layer upon layer upon layer of tech debt spanning decades). There is an insane amount of process to do the most simple of things. Pushing a Docker image to a repository requires submitting numerous tickets, privileging oneself, etc., likely a day or two of process just to run a single command. Bloombergers seem to pride themselves on doing things the backwards way, with onboarding material conditioning new-hires to expect doing things the backwards way ("Don't bring up how your past company did it, we do things differently at Bloomberg!" ... so you don't care how other companies do this because ... why?). Do not expect to use common industry-wide practices, tech, etc. You will use old, outdated tech, libraries, and practices. As a result, you will learn Bloomberg-only skills and you won't be as hireable at other companies. They dogfood the Bloomberg Terminal everywhere. Instead of using normal software like Slack or a normal email client, you have to use 1980s technology (the Bloomberg terminal), which runs in a Windows VM and crashes (literally) 4+ times a day. There is a minimum of 2 years before you can change teams. I was hired for one thing and they put me into a different role I have 0 interest in doing, which is detrimental to my career. They're oddly cheap about a lot of things; no free lunch, the snacks they do provide are simple things like Doritos. Laptops are old and worn out, with a long process to get something not 3+ years old. The company is so big that decisions are made by non-stakeholders on the other side of the company who have no clue what is going on.

Modernize your stack and start following industry best practices.

Get rid of the lifers who are just coasting.

Hire people who care and are competent.

With the reduced technical headcount, provide better amenities.