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Bridgewater Associates

Engaged Employer

Bridgewater Associates reviews

3.7

58% would recommend to a friend

(594 total reviews)
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Nir Bar Dea

65% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

Bridgewater Associates has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 594 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

594 reviews
2.0
Dec 6, 2014

A very negative experience

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Starting salary was above average. The training program was well designed. That's about it (I'm not going to include the free food or the Friday afternoon "Happy Hour").

Cons

During my short time here, four people in my department left the company. Three were fired and one quit. The person responsible for training me was one of the fired. He had "lost his box" and was being "sorted". If you're like me, and need to have some sense of job security, stay away from here. Every mistake discovered, no matter how minute, is entered into an "Issue Log". I was once issue logged for failing to capture the letter "C" in the word Complete, when I C&Ped it from one document into another. Had I made this mistake a second or third time, it would have likely been selected for "diagnosis". This is where you have a sit down with a bunch of managers who attempt to "get past your ego" to the root of the problem. The least painful way to get through these sessions is to agree with their assessment that you lack attention to detail, have an insufficient level of paranoia, are inherently careless, and lack discipline. You walk away feeling like a loser, but at least they're in a great mood for the rest of the day. Your workload starts out manageable, and is steadily increased until you're struggling to maintain productivity. You start putting in more and more hours. You start making mistakes, which means more issue logs, more diagnosis sessions, more frustration, more anxiety. You start dreading going to work. Eventually, you're labeled as "not a fit for Bridgewater", and you are "sorted". On the plus side, it was highly amusing listening to kids fresh out of college (with this place being their first real word job) diving head-on blind into Ray's "culture", using as much (by and large) of the BW language as possible.

1.0
Dec 3, 2014

Friends don't let friends join Bridgewater

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Company is not about to go out of business, they have so much money that they don't blink when it comes to wasting it on the culture, principles, or technology. - Relaxed environment - Free food (but who cares besides kids out of college?)

Cons

- Lots of talking, not much time left for actually doing things - as political as any other place (despite claims to the contrary) - Say good bye to a future career in finance: they will enforce the non-compete (unless you go work for a lumber company, as they recently suggested), and many firms will not even talk to you because they don't care to deal with this hassle. - Emphasis on exploring failures and weaknesses, creating a very negative environment. Successes are rarely celebrated, and then only briefly. - Chronically unable to hire & retain staff (e.g. always understaffed), loads of consultants passing by - Technology is hopelessly obsolete. No investment in tech for years, but most crucially there is neither vision nor leadership when it comes to tech. - Hours of "culture" training to complete on a weekly basis (can be a Pro if you enjoy watching senior hires cry like babies) - Comp is average (only those being hired from college or out of finance think otherwise) - Offices located in the middle of nowhere - No sick pay (sick? take it out of your vacation days)

1.0
Dec 3, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great interesting work good money good food smart people

Cons

long hours HR blows sorting process is really messed up and leads to witchhunts principles are misused and abused for personal gain

Viewing 481 - 483 of 594 Reviews

Glassdoor has 680 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.