Pros
There are quite a few benefits of working for Bloomberg: * Compensation is quite competitive for NYC. * Work/life balance is generally good. In fact you won't see many people at work outside of normal working hours and none on weekends. * Benefits are quite good as well. * Company is stable. * There is no dress code for R&D people.
Cons
Most of the drawbacks are a consequence of Bloomberg being a big company: * There is a lot of bureaucracy. Decision making is slow and inefficient. * A lot of incompetent and inactive people in the R&D department. They come to pick up the check and there is nothing you can do about them. * Technology is old and outdated. Nobody cares that it kills productivity. It's considered acceptable that Bloomberg pays you enough money to tolerate working with old technology. * There is a desire to hire smart people, but once hired they are not trusted to make any decisions, but often micromanaged. * Management is generally inept and inefficient. Employees' feedback is generally ignored. * It's claimed that Bloomberg is transparent, but it's not the case. As an employee you have very little idea of what's going on outside your area of responsibility or any say on important decisions that might affect you. * Since I've been here very few people have been promoted. The situation looks stagnant.