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Bridgewater Associates

Engaged Employer

Bridgewater Associates reviews

3.7

58% would recommend to a friend

(593 total reviews)
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Nir Bar Dea

66% approve of CEO

50% positive business outlook

Bridgewater Associates has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 593 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Bridgewater Associates employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

593 reviews
3.0
Aug 5, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-You will learn a ton about yourself and develop like crazy (if you can find your groove in the culture) - Generous comp (assuming you're in the right department) and great healthcare - Lots of amazing and smart people

Cons

-comp isn't standardized and highly dependent on your department. There is no universal definition of "impact" to dollars, so people can be paid way more than you, but have much lower expectations. - culture is deteriorating (and there are times that it seems like management is okay with it). It is their right to change the culture, but they should be explicit about it (both internally and to candidates) - Lots of "power" politics at play within senior ranks (people always angling for power/influence). If you're a junior person and your management is on the wrong side of "power", it could hurt your career and internal mobility prospects - The organization is always changing. Every time a new senior manager comes into a role, they almost always completely redesign the team. This is sometimes needed and other times just "another way to skin a cat" or managers thinking that nothing is good, unless they created it. This causes a decent amount of volatility for more junior people. Then, oftentimes when managers "fail", which happens frequently-it just becomes like an "oops"/learning opportunity and there is no accountability or acknowledgement of the chaos/disruption they caused to the team. This chaos oftentimes means people leaving/losing their roles, transferring to other teams, etc.. - very few people can make decisions and every decision takes a long time. The majority of people are just teeing things up for decisions - Level of transparency is decreasing, which sometimes causes distrust is how decisions are made (you can't sense check it for yourself) - They talk a ton about D&I, but the firm is still very white and male. It seems harder for diverse employees to reach top roles (its kinda a "guys" club). Success in the culture requires a certain level of confidence and ability to debate- I think this advantages a certain type of background (that isn't oftentimes a diverse person) - the commute (if NYC based) kills your work/life balance

2.0
Jun 21, 2018

Not for everyone

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Challenging environment, bonus structure, benefits

Cons

Not for everyone. Extremely negative and competitive environment.

2.0
Feb 8, 2016

Smart Loving People, Bureaucratic Environment

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I find there to be a really smart and engaged group of people. The research department feels like the "heart" of Bridgewater - there are many smart people who care a lot about each other. The actual culture (openness, honesty) is great. A lot of reasonable people telling each other what they really think.

Cons

Bridgewater is extremely hierarchical, bureaucratic, and rigid. It is an extraordinarily difficult place to try and get things done. Many people feel like their job was oversold, and you're not allowed to switch jobs in your first year or more. There are just way too many people. There are often meetings (several a week) with one analyst and multiple managers checking in. Bridgewater actually employs 3000+ people, about half consultants, many contentless managers, and the headcount appears to keep growing while the company more or less manages the same amount of money doing similar things. This translates to most people not feeling impactful. From the conversations I had, compensation is fair but not good or bad.

Viewing 67 - 69 of 593 Reviews

Glassdoor has 679 Bridgewater Associates reviews submitted anonymously by Bridgewater Associates employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Bridgewater Associates is right for you.