Job Responsibilities
You report to a manager and meet with them formally every six
months to gauge you performance. First 10 weeks is a formal
training (C, UNIX, etc.) to get you up to speed on how they work
over there. Then you are assigned projects by your manager and
you are expected to meet their deadlines.
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Job Requirements
I graduated from Cooper Union with a B.S. in electrical
engineering. This is one of the toughest schoools in the
nation, namely because it gives a full tuition scholarship to
everyone who attends. When I applied to Bloomberg, the only
C.S. class I had under my belt was an advanced programming class
(its not as hard as it sounds). Most of my other programming
experience was self-learned as a hobby. I also read that book
on programming interviews, which helped greatly before the
interview. At Cooper, I would be enrolled in ~20 credits every
semester with some project-based classes that made it seem like
40 credits. Spent a lot of time in the lab and studying.
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Uppers
Excellent pay for entry level. Open/free snack bar. Fantastic Christmas
parties. Never had a layoff in its history and doesn't seem like it will be
outsourcing its jobs anytime soon.
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Downers
Can get boring doing software and sitting around a computer all
day. Everyone is very smart and make you feel incompetent when
you first start.
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Lifestyle
Hours are 8-5. They have offices world-wide so travelling is definitely
possible. Sometimes they might relocate you to other countries if you agree.
The dress code is non-existent and you can wear almost anything. The company
holds multi-million dollar end-of-year parties for its employees. It also holds
parties for other occasions (i.e. Easter). It's a very diverse environment as
you have people from all over within the company.
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Compensation
Base starting $70k. Signing bonus: $5k. Subsequent bonuses are
$10-30k/year depending on performance. Health, Dental, and
Vision plans are included with your benefits package at no cost
to you. Accidental Life Insurance. 100% 401k vesting within 3
years of joining the company.
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Advice to Jobseekers
When you come to Bloomberg, you will have experience in the
technology field as well as finance. From there you can either
move into the financial markets field of some of the biggest
firms (Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, etc.) or you can stay in
technology and do back-office work for almost any financial firm
in NYC.
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