C++ and javascript coding on your favourite amber and black color schemed terminal - Financial Software Developer Bloomberg Employee Review

2.0
Oct 3, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The FSD training class will teach you what you need to know about Bloomberg's proprietary technologies. Good opportunity for somebody straight out of uni, who knows C++ to a reasonable but not expert level. For those with a few years experience, getting the same pay and going through the same class is less appealing. Bloomberg's RAPID enviroment and BAS framework are easy to use and quick to develop new features on. Bloomberg work you hard but the satisfaction you get from getting a lot of work done can be addictive. Free snacks and drinks in the pantry is also a plus. Lavish summer parties. Nice new "lunch room".

Cons

Bloomberg are focused on being first to market with new features which means pressure and deadlines and a big tradeoff against writing good quality code. Business guys can be aggressive and look through you, and not enough time is given to planning or design. Compile and linking against all of Bloomberg's dependent libraries takes ages and sometimes fails. The architecture is somewhat dated due to this, plus the presence of legacy fortran code. Outages affecting development occur too frequently. You can befriend training colleagues but most people keep themselves to themselves. The initial training class requires a lot of work and staying late and has an 80% pass mark. Working hours 8am to 6pm or 9pm to 7pm.

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5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company, in this role you have the chance to learn about the financial markets, the terminal, and also you get client exposure.

Cons

Not really cons, culture is great.

4.0
Jun 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Opportunities to do lots of work with data and finance to apply knowledge in both programming and Subject-Matter Expertise (SME). Excellent Work-Life Balance (WLB) and extremely welcoming culture. You can reach out to anyone for help or just to talk, and they will get back to you (although management does require more scheduling in advance). Generous compensation (good wage) and benefits, including housing for interns. If you heard the rumors that the Bloomberg Princeton office has a great Bloomberg Pantry (read: company-provided breakfast and lunch), the rumors are true.

Cons

Not the place for those looking for cutting-edge AI. The company is not as fast with AI as the company prioritizes reliability and accuracy above all, and much of AI is not at an acceptable threshold for management to be willing to take that risk with financial data (at least in 2026). You may get a project to automate menial processes, which is really cool, but that tends to involve actually doing the menial processes, which feels unproductive. Princeton office is good but New York is considered preferable. Coworkers are not very reachable outside of work hours. Compensation is low in Data compared to Software Engineers.

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