Bridgewater Associates Reviews

Pros

Overall, I feel very grateful that Bridgewater was my first job out of college. I had unparalleled exposure to senior management, was able to take on as much responsibility as I could handle, and I learned more about management and running a company than I realized until I went and founded my own company. At the time, I wasn't always sure how relevant all The Principles and The Culture was to quality management. Now, that I am out of my own I am much better able to navigate ambiguity and complicated decisions because I have a universal framework I can turn to to help me sort things out. The practical application is even clearer to me now, then it was then. Business insider has a great article talking to the CIO Bob Prince that's worth reading if you want to better understand the relationship between the culture and business outcomes. Beyond a ton of learning, the Bridgewater community is what I cherish most about my 5-years there. The culture of openness and honesty lends itself to extremely deep and meaningful relationships. When I left, it was the people that I was the most sad to leave but it's the people that I have stayed in touch with and make me still feel connected to Bridgewater. And I don't just mean who you would traditionally call my peers, I still keep in touch with my first managers who are almost twice my age. It is these unexpected friendships, and the perspectives they bring to my life, that I really treasure.

Advice to Management

At Bridgewater, I was part of the inaugural Management Associate (MA) class and spent my five years there as an MA working in multiple different departments across the company. One of the main reasons I left Bridgewater was that I felt disconnected from the bread and butter of the business - i.e. if I did well, my manager was happy and if I did poorly my manager was upset - but how I did didn't really affect Bridgewater and it's bottom line. I wanted my actions to be more connected to business outcomes. Since I was so early in my career, this was by and large is reasonable but I think there were ways Bridgewater could make Management Associate roles seems more integrated. For non-investment professionals, I think there could be more specific industry training around the basic fundamentals of how to think about markets in order to help bridge gaps in understanding and ensure people understand the business they are working to help run better.

Pros

Smart people, high standards, honest feedback

Pros

When I reflect back on who I was prior to coming to the firm 6 years ago, I was lost. I had no idea who I was, what my values were, why I cared about the things I cared about, why I got upset about the things I got upset about and what my purpose was in life, as a husband and as a father. Bridgewater taught me the art and power of deep and meaningful reflection. It has taught me and enabled me to recognize how wrong and overconfident I am and that no matter what I think it’s most critical to have top of mind the fact that I might be missing something and that it’s probably a good idea to worry about that and engage others on that to help me. It’s pretty genius and simple but yet most of the world (especially traditional hierarchical corporate America) does not think or operate this way. In short, here is a sentence from one of our principles “it pays to stress test your thinking, even when you're pretty sure you're right.”
At Bridgewater, we are all pushed to be excellent at everything we do. This is a reason that people don’t end up making it here and also a reason why people (like me) value being here even if we don’t have to. In order for me to achieve my own goals and find meaning and purpose in my life, Bridgewater is the place that will get me there fast. By way of others holding me highly accountable to a virtually unachievable standard every minute of every day, this is what enables me to grow.
There is no such thing as a pure, 100% idea meritocracy as people are people and imperfect by definition. However, our ideal and value of being an idea meritocracy is true and not lip service and when debates come up, the idea meritocracy approach always wins. The people that speak up with the problems are the heroes. The people that can then practically solve those problems are the ones being promoted to solve more difficult problems. I’ve sent sharp feedback emails directly to Ray, other CEOs and senior managers and instead of getting fired I’ve gotten quality and thoughtful engagement.
The hierarchy here is upside-down vs. most companies. As a leader gets higher in the organization they become more open minded. They recognize that the problems they are dealing with do not have easy solutions, that there will typically be a sharp divide among what people think is the right approach and there are big 2nd and 3rd order consequences no matter which path is chosen. Instead of having closed door meetings or just making a rash decision in their corner office and expecting everyone else to fall in line, they seek out the advice and opinions of others, even those at the very bottom of the organization. Sometimes these are the people that know the problems and consequences the best. This is why they listen to you and care about your opinions. If you are wrong, then it reinforces them being right. If you are right then they now have more work to do. Speaking up is always a win-win and is an easy thing to understand intellectually but actually doing it is the big hurdle. Most people come to Bridgewater with this being a weak muscle. They key, though, is each person’s values. If you value harmony, the path of least resistance and when you come to that fork in the road you know that speaking up is the best approach but you choose not to – you are not going to enjoy being here and won’t be successful (an attribute that we call tolerating problems – if you see the problem but don’t care enough to prioritize fixing it or ensuring someone else fixes it). If you recognize that speaking up is the better approach, you give it a try a few times and see how powerful it is. This muscle gets stronger and stronger until it’s just part of the way you think and navigate problem solving. You’ll see the successful paths you are paving and you won’t want to leave because you’ll see how fast you are growing and that most of the world doesn’t operate this way.
The last big pro is our justice system. At any time, if you have a disagreement that you can’t resolve with the other person you escalate up a level for a more wise judge to understand the situation and provide their opinion. If you still disagree, you keep escalating all the way up to the management committee. These are done out in the open and often times others agree with you. These are the important cases to go through slowly because a lot is learned not only about the actual business problem needing to be solved but about the people involved, what they are like and how they deal with and work through such tough situations. This process includes the cases where you feel your grade does not reflect your performance or when you think you should stay in a role vs. be let go or move to a different role. One of the key questions I have for people that highlight key problems in their online feedback is whether they raised the issue or not and if they did, did they keep fighting up the chain or give up?

Regarding benefits, Bridgewater pays 100% of the premiums for a platinum medical plan. This is huge for my family.

Advice to Management

Keep investing in and hiring quality open-minded leaders and visionaries. Invest more in hiring at the junior talent level and career development. Open up a west coast office and keep relaxing remote work options.

Pros

Great friendships and working relationships
Free lunch and snacks
Really good healthcare
Good PTO plan

Advice to Management

Stick to trying to be the best Hedge fund in the world, and get rid of useless jobs (Principle Captain)

Pros

good learning experience if you are up for it
lots of smart people

Advice to Management

I think BW didn't scale well in terms of management.

Pros

Bridgewater is an incubator for personal and professional growth. It's one of the toughest places to work in the world, but it will completely transform your talents, insights, and effectiveness. I would recommend anyone who has the opportunity to work here do so - even if it's just for six months. It's totally worth it.

Pros

Not a typical "corporate" environment, get to speak more freely in some regards - i.e. you disagree with your boss. No need to be cloyingly polite all the time.

Advice to Management

You're seeing the impact of treating your technologists so poorly in the fact you can't hire. The best DBA in the word ends all his conferences with a slide about how he hated working at Bridgewater and since leaving I now highly discourage anyone looking for a career in enterprise IT from even thinking about Bridgewater.

Pros

This was my first full-time job out of college, so I know I don't have much of a basis of comparison, but I worked there for about 5 years. I learned A LOT over my time there and is one of the reasons I'm very happy I worked there. I learned a lot about myself (strengths, weaknesses, etc.). I feel like I learned much more about business, business communications, etc. than I did as a business major in college. I was a big fan of the tight knit culture. I consider myself a shy person, but I became tight with my teammates quickly in my first job there and the third team I worked on. They have great events throughout the year for employees and they have great benefits for employees (stocked kitchens, lunch, gym, bus for NYC employees, etc.).

Pros

Smartest people I've ever worked with (coming from HBS/ McK), and some of the most thoughtful, considerate, and "sparkly" as well.

Advice to Management

"Believability" seems to have no clear grounding in absolute truth, only consensus truth.

Pros

Challenging work environment that requires you to frequently operate outside of your comfort zone and allows you to reflect on personal strengths and weaknesses in a manner unlike any other organization. BW is full of brilliant individuals that have a wide array of backgrounds.

Advice to Management

Re-evaluate the principles and make less complex and detailed.