Bloomberg (NYC and Princeton) | SWE New Grad 2024

I just got my offer from Bloomberg for their SWE New Grad role, and I figured I'd share my process with all of you!

About me:

Current Master's student in CSE
Top 10 CS school for grad school and the same school for undergrad
Interned each summer since after finishing high school. (Experience in back-end, full stack, algos.) Worked on project team doing C++ dev
Was a TA and now a GSI/GTA for 6 terms (including this semester)

I should note that all of these interviews were in-person, which I enjoyed a lot more than the online experiences. It felt that Bloomberg cared about the people they hired, and wanted to get to know me better. I had gotten a referral from a friend after I had initially applied.

Stage 1: Coffee Chat
This is a fairly relaxed interview. I met with a software engineer, and we talked through my resume, from experiences in work, to the classes I taught and took. We both went to the same school, so we had a good talk about which professors we had and what classes we enjoyed. I got to ask about Bloomberg and how teams are divided and the company culture at the end. Once the chat ended, I was notified I would hear back about the next steps in a few days

Stage 2: Technical Interviews
I received an email about setting up an in-person technical round. (Bloomberg had engineers fly out to visit our school) Once scheduled, I met with a software engineer for about an hour. We began with introductions and a basic overview of my resume and interests. From there, we got into the interview. I was asked two questions, one that was more OOP-oriented and another leetcode-style one. Both were not too bad, though we spent a bit more time on the first question. After those questions, I was given a chance to ask questions about the company. Once the interview concluded, I was told they wanted to schedule another one for the next day, which was promptly done.

The second interview was the same style. I met with two software engineers this time, as opposed to one. Introductionsa and some resume questions followed. Again, I was given two technical questions. One was a string related one, and the other was another OOP-style that reqiured some clever thinking. Both were not too bad, the second one took longer than I thought. At the end, I got to ask questions about their roles. At the end of the interview, I was told to expect an email from HR about "next steps."

Stage 3: HR and Senior Engineer Rounds
A few days after the second technical, I got an invite for a talk with an HR rep (hiring manager) and a senior engineer at Bloomberg. Once scheduled, I first met with the hiring manager. I spoke about my resume, my past summer work, my teaching work in college, and involvement. I went into depth as much as they needed. I was asked stuff like "Why Bloomberg?" or "What do you want out of a company?"

I was then led into a room with a senior engineer. Again, we talked about my resume, though more on the technical side of my projects and the design choices I made. I also was asked about what I gained out of my experiences, what topics like mentoring meant to me, among other questions. At the end, I was given a chance to ask questions about his role, how he had came to Bloomberg, among other things. Once thess interviews were donw, I was told I would hear back in a few days about my final decision.

Outcome:
After 2 weeks (not sure why it took so long) I was asked if I could get on a call the next day. The call stated I had gotten the offer, and that it would be sent to me in the next day or two. Once I received it, I had 2 weeks to sign it, but I asked for an extension since I was still interviewing with a few other companies.

Offer: Recevied at top of their salary, discretionary bonus, and a sign-on for relocation. I could only negotiate a bit as I only was interviewing with a couple of other companies, and did not have any other offers.

Tips for the Process:

Understand what Bloomberg does and their missions. Their commitments to programming standards (they are on the C++ and JavaScript Standards Committees) and philanthropy (they give about 1/2 their revenue to charities) really spoke to me. Be prepared to talk about "Why Bloomberg?" that isn't just something basic, have it connect to you.
Brush up on DS&A, and take a look at the Bloomberg tagged questions. There are some posts that have some of the questions they ask, as well. Additionally, some questions are not leetcode ones, so pure memorization may not always work. I was not asked anything about OS and Networks, but it does not hurt to study these concepts.
Come prepared to talk about a project/summer internship in-depth. You should know what you did, how you did it, what steps along the way did you fail at/have challenges, what would you have done differently, etc.
Be communicative and clear. This is especially important in the technicals when explaining the solution/idea you have.
Lastly, don't be too uptight! The company culture is very friendly, as were everyone in the interviews. I never felt I was being too harshly judged through any interview.

Best of luck in your interview process! I hope this helps you guys! :)