Bloomberg LP

I know the engineering department well; I am not too familiar with other departments.

• One of the most prestigious names in the financial industry.
• A rich number of opportunities to gain experience in multiple areas in finance.
• As in New York, Bloomberg pays well for entry/mid-level employees.
• One of the best benefit plans in New York.
• Offices are really nice (fish tanks, free food).
• Great work/life balance in some teams.

Again, I can only judge it from an engineer's point of view:

• Just so-so tech infrastructure among financial companies (not even counting some HFT firms). They use extremely out-of-date infrastructure that many had abandoned in the early 2000s. The key thing is: software engineering is NOT the money-maker; technical improvement is always secondary to "keep things working as they are because clients need foobar before next week." In fact, even among financial companies, Bloomberg's tech infrastructure is no more than average. You would be crying once you get into this company and learn what they're still trying to get on-board is something that mainstream has been using since 10 years ago. Seriously, take a look at what’s popular 10 years ago and you’ll know how slow and frighteningly Bloomberg moves ahead.

• However, compared to regular tech companies (not even to mention the big names), Bloomberg's tech stack is something that engineers may feel shame to talk about at their class reunions. In fact, this is the most critical thing for young engineers who'd like to keep sharp in tech. To put it in the simplest way: Bloomberg (at its best eng teams) offers great opportunities to make single-cylinder combustion engines. Other tech companies provide engineers with some engines (proprietary and/or open-source) and they end up making rockets and space shuttles. At its regular teams in financial divisions, the tech stack is just... It’s all about the business logic. NO TECH!

• No respect to former employees. Bloomberg never hires back former employees as loyalty is a key. So if you left, HR is not likely to take you seriously anymore because they know you’re not coming back. This happened to many of my colleagues who left the company. They got poor or even no support from the company for tax, health, immigration, and legal needs. Some of them got into trouble because of that. Just sad.

• Blame-based performance evaluation system (they'll tell you it's merit-based, but nope). Not too many chances/incentives to outperform.

• Work/life balance at some teams can be disastrous.

• Any fault is recorded. Low tolerance to faults, especially in divisions that make money.

• Pays much less than the top tech companies.

No advice.