Bridgewater Associates Employee Reviews
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Great place to learn about your self objectively
Customer Service (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – June 9, 2018
A lot of other places I've worked, you could coast by doing the routine stuff. Not at BW, constantly challenged and learning about yourself and others in a very open and honest culture.
Pros
Free lunch, Great benefits
Cons
Long hours, Long commute
Not for Me
IT Procurement Associate -Software/Hardware (Former Employee) – Norwalk, CT – July 18, 2018
The company tended to focus more on psychoanalysis and fault-finding than mental health of their employees. Although the culture is fully transparent in regards to its structure and expectation, the individuals there seemed programmed to believe their culture was ideal for use outside the company.
Pros
Free Food, free car service
Cons
Culture
The most transformative experience I've ever had
Chief of Staff + Special Projects Manager (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – July 12, 2018
I describe Bridgewater as an incubator for personal and professional growth. I couldn't recommend it more highly. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
Not for everyone
Lead Technology Recruiter (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – June 5, 2018
If you are special and can pass the interview the growth is exponential. If you choose that you are happy as is and do not want to grow. This is not the place for you.
Pros
Free lunch working with very talented individuals
Cons
Lack of caring about people.
A great place to work if you can fit into the culture
Facilities Coordinator/Assistant Building Manager (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – April 10, 2018
Bridgwater is known well amongst people in the financial world. They are known not only for their success as the number 1 rated Hedge Fund in the world, but for their curious company culture. It was hard for me at first to adjust but in my opinion every company should be run the same was as BW. The culture was simple if you understood what the goals were. Just getting to the best information possible, the best possible outcome, the best results require ULTIMATE truth, transparency, and not letting your emotions get in the way of constructive criticism. There is more to it than that but there was a set of 200+ principles that employees are to understand and try and live (or at least work) by those standards. These principles make sense. For example, principle #9 "Trust in truth" while truth itself may sometimes be scary (like you are bad at something) it won't change reality and it will allow you to deal with it better. It always leads to the best outcome. This may seem a simple obvious concept but it's not in reality. People who are one way on the inside and believe that they need to be another way outside to please others become conflicted and often lose touch with what they really think and feel. It's difficult for them to be happy and almost impossible for them to be at their best Thinking sole about whats accurate instead of how it is perceived helps youth be more straightforward and focused on important things.
Pros
great culture, great benefits, great salary, great pad vacation, free lunch daily (quality food too)
Cons
long working hours but that isn't necessarily the companies fault, it could be how your handling your position.
Accommodating
Administrative Executive Assistant (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – April 6, 2018
Supplied food, gym, dry cleaning pick up and delivery service and meditation rooms. Lots of perks. Very smart people work there and for the most part, a pleasure to be around.
Pros
Supplied food, gym, dry cleaning pick up and delivery service and meditation rooms., and community celebrations and events.
Cons
Long hours
Culture is very unique.
Sr. Employee Relations Associate (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – April 4, 2018
Be sure to do your homework on culture expectations before applying as it is not for everyone. Long hours. Excellent benefits & compensation package. High turnover but not a concern of the company.
Great place to learn about and better yourself
Service Manager (Current Employee) – Westport, CT – March 23, 2018
My time here has been the most valuable experience in my life. The best thing I have learned is about my weaknesses and strengths and how to leverage them to my advantage. This isn't the place that you should go to try and learn new tech, or really evolve your skills, but more a way to learn how to manage, cut through in logical ways and think about things in ways that others usually don't - ways that will help you to not just look at the thing in front of you but how to best achieve the goals you are really looking to achieve and what the down stream effects of that call is. Honestly the things that I have learned here will help me in the next chapter of my life - which honestly is only because I want to move coasts.
Pros
learn about yourself, leverage logic and common sense over all
Cons
mgmt at times is all over the place
To be successful, try not to be a human.
Program Manager (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – March 11, 2018
The culture, in theory, makes total sense - get to what is true, root cause analysis and then fix that, be honest with each other, and strive for the best you can be. If only all companies could be this way. But, to be successful, you need to be like a robot and not have any emotional reaction to being criticized (a lot). So, if you are sensitive, you will not do well, if you have no emotions, you will have a head start.
Pros
Free food, great parties, good pay, values family.
Cons
Negative working environment.
All about the culture
Technical Associate (Current Employee) – Wilton, CT – February 26, 2018
Incredible growth opportunity, great for fast-paced learning about yourself and your abilities.
Be prepared to be analyzed and to analyze, but all for personal growth and advancement. If the culture doesn't seem right to you - don't come to Bridgewater.
Be prepared to be analyzed and to analyze, but all for personal growth and advancement. If the culture doesn't seem right to you - don't come to Bridgewater.
Interesting place with poor work life balance
Analyst - Operations (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – February 11, 2018
Bridgewater Associates is a reputable place that has a long successful track record. However, work/life balance is poor. Also, employees are not compensated adequately for the extra amount of stress that the culture brings.
Pros
Free lunch
Cons
Work life balance
Unusual corporate culture, not for everyone
PMO Consultant (Former Employee) – Norwalk, CT – February 5, 2018
competitive, high end, challenging, own corporate culture, generous benefits and amenities, excellent colleagues, top drawer talent, inspiring place to work and grow
Great place to work
VP IT Corporate Applications (Former Employee) – Wilton – January 18, 2018
Loved the Principles and Culture. Lost of smart people. Great tools to assess people. Learned a lot about myself and others. Hardest part of the job -time spent on culture.
Growth opportunity
MANAGER, MEDIA PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – January 4, 2018
Incredibly smart, talented and accomplished people work here, and the experience is unique.
Much has been made of the company's Principles and the culture of radical transparency at Bridgewater. Adapting to the culture is challenging and not a good fit for someone who is not willing to embrace it and operate within it.
Love it or hate it, you will not come away unchanged by it.
Much has been made of the company's Principles and the culture of radical transparency at Bridgewater. Adapting to the culture is challenging and not a good fit for someone who is not willing to embrace it and operate within it.
Love it or hate it, you will not come away unchanged by it.
Pros
Lunch provided daily, Gym on site, Gold-plated benefits, You will routinely engage with extremely smart, accomplished professionals.
Cons
The culture adjustment can be very difficult, and turnover is high as culture fit is a critical success factor.
Excellent
Security Associate (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – December 25, 2017
Excellent place to work, loved the atmosphere and the quality of people always pushing you to advance. Lots of great friends made and opportunities to embark on.
Pros
Discipline, no nonsense
Cons
Unsteady hours
Incredibly smart people with a unique culture that's not for everyone
Sr. Manager, Engineering & Product Development (Former Employee) – Westport, CT – November 20, 2017
Bridgewater has a culture of "Radical Truth and Transparency" that is unlike anything else in the world. It's not for everyone, but either way it's a rare opportunity to learn and grow both personally and professionally.
If you research the company at all you'll see negative news stories (such as in the "New York Times"), but having actually been there I can tell you that most if not all of is is bull and not representative of what is an amazing opportunity to experience a working culture that is truly unique and mostly positive.
On the negative side, the culture and workload can be exhausting at times. Also, if you don't want to know what people really think of your work, it's probably not for you.
If you research the company at all you'll see negative news stories (such as in the "New York Times"), but having actually been there I can tell you that most if not all of is is bull and not representative of what is an amazing opportunity to experience a working culture that is truly unique and mostly positive.
On the negative side, the culture and workload can be exhausting at times. Also, if you don't want to know what people really think of your work, it's probably not for you.
Pros
Culture, People, Comp, Benifits
Cons
Hard to get things done, High turnover, Constant Restructuring
You must be open minded and willing to give/receive critical feedback on the fly
Treasury Manager (Current Employee) – Westport, CT – November 6, 2017
Bridgewater's unorthodox culture becomes a second full time job. Employees there spend more time rating, judging (and demeaning) each other, than they do on actual work. Employee's thinking abilities are constantly judged and assessed by peers and superiors who have no qualifications or background in psychology, analytical psychology or social & behavioral sciences. Yet this kind of subjective feedback is given by under-qualified individuals that ends up getting memorialized on record, that may or may not impact things like grades, ranking and compensation. The principles and ideas on paper look ingenious however when put into practice, they tend to fail in a spectacular way, as the culture is not uniformly implemented throughout the company.
***Save your sanity and please do not apply to work at this company as it's certainly not all it's cracked up to be.***
***Save your sanity and please do not apply to work at this company as it's certainly not all it's cracked up to be.***
Pros
Community, free lunch, challenging work
Cons
Culture becomes a second, full time job, Bureaucracy, Poor Management, indecisiveness, lack of advancement.
Distracted management, overbearing owner, heavy culture requirements
Employee (Former Employee) – CT – October 25, 2017
Historically great investment company but mediocre at best of late. Culture of radical transparency presents a heavy burden on employees. Terrible technology and overall poor at operations. Compensation and benefits are above average.
Pros
benefits, compensation, meals
Cons
culture, owner, technology
Glad to Work
ServiceNow Developer/ Administrator (Current Employee) – Westport, CT – September 26, 2017
Ease up on measuring everyone's work and stop evaluating people constantly. It's distracting. Plus, most people are perfectionists so they are holding themselves to super-high standards anyway
Overall rating
Based on 71 reviews
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Women's ratings
2.7
Fairygodboss Score
33%say women are treated fairly and equally to men
0%would recommend to other women
Fairygodboss provides free job reviews for women, by women.
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