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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

65% 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

4.0
Jul 25, 2021

Great company to work for

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people (some of the smartest in the industry) and awesome benefits (full medical coverage, free food/transportation, 401k, etc)

Cons

Lack of structure/career path, you need to work extraordinarily long hours in order to get ahead

4.0
Jul 25, 2021

Unstructured but smart people

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay Smart people Culture concerns are overblown Good place for end of your career

Cons

Too academic with decision making Unstructured in everything - decision making, comp, career trajectory Few people have actual impactful work. Rest is window dressing Diversity is bad

Viewing 178 - 180 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.