Young, brash, ambitious, cult-like; best financial data machine ever invented - Reporter Bloomberg Employee Review

3.0
Jun 11, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Bloomberg makes the best financial data machine in the world and has a formidable news organization. It makes a ton of money (privately held, so actual profitability hard to gauge) and flaunts it: Modern, glass-walled, open, colorful, futuristic showcase buildings in the best part of town. The company is relatively young, the news division is a mere 18 years old compared to Reuters' 150 and its entrepreneurial spirit is largely is still alive although with rapid growth a certain bureaucratic mindlessness has set in. Pay for news reporters is above-average, but so are the hours. The focus is on hard-core financial news for financial professionals who can afford the $25,000 or so per year for the vaunted Terminal. The famous free food has been replaced by free snacks and coffee for several years now. Training is superior, beginning with an intensive introduction to the Bloomberg Terminal and the Bloomberg Way, the news formula that dictates how all business stories are to be written. Membership is exclusive: those who leave are traitors never to be re-hired.

Cons

In news, there is a huge divide between the top (the editor in chief and his direct reports) and the team leaders and line editors who handle the daily flow of copy. Yet the top dictates everything, down to the last comma and the semi-colon, giving the news a uniform, formulaic and stilted tone. A good place for young reporters hungry to learn about business news, a disappointment for journeymen who are smarter than the top editors but forced to ape the Bloomberg Way.

Explore other reviews about Bloomberg

5.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free food, good salary, incredible Pro Bono opportunities

Cons

Lack of flexibility around RTO policy

5.0
May 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Only a five-hour-per-week time commitment, which is very manageable with my class schedule. Bloomberg provides ideas for challenges and activities to host at my school, so I would not have to come up with everything from scratch. There is flexibility to choose when I table and to tailor the role around my schedule.

Cons

The budget for the program is tight, which is frustrating because advertising to law students is exactly how Bloomberg Law builds a dedicated user base. In my opinion, whoever makes the budget is not seeing the bigger vision. A lot of attorneys may not like Bloomberg Law, use it regularly, or ask their firms to purchase a subscription simply because they were never meaningfully exposed to it in law school. This is exactly why Lexis has taken over in such a big way: its presence and budget are felt at law schools across the country. If Bloomberg wants future attorneys to become loyal users, it needs to invest more seriously in reaching students while they are still learning which legal research platforms they prefer.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All