Short presentation of Bloomberg : Bloomberg L.P. is a private held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Founded in 1981 by the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, the company was primarily created to provide real-time market data, financial calculations and other financial analytics to Wall Street firms.
Bloomberg constantly develops consumers with various platforms that make trading and understanding changes in the market easier. Bloomberg Terminal, the company’s key revenue earners platform, streams together real-time data on every market, breaking news, research, and analytics; Bloomberg PolarLake provides a solution for browser-based data management to help companies distribute data across their organizations; and Bloomberg Tradebook, a platform for agency broker and multi-asset execution.
Over the years, Bloomberg services and offers have extended to Bloomberg Media. Thus, the company also includes Bloomberg news, where journalists of 100 locations worldwide provide breaking news, Bloomberg Television, which distribute financial channels in 7 languages and Bloomberg Radio, the world’s only global 24-hours business radio. Additionally, the company operates a digital workspace catering to government affairs and regulations through many divisions such as Bloomberg Government, Bloomberg Politics or Bloomberg Law.
With 19,000 employees in 176 locations around the world and revenues hitting 9.4 billions USD in 2014, Bloomberg LP is a great stepping stone for the future of business schools students.
MIHA DAMJAN, Team Leader Equity Events Data :
Could you please tell us about your background and job?
I initially graduated with a Law degree and after I completed a Master in Business at GEM in London. I joined Bloomberg 6 years ago, starting with the data department where I joined as a data analyst, then I became team leader for different departments: corporate events and products.
Why did you choose to work at Bloomberg?
Because I’ve always been interested in finance and technology and Bloomberg has always been a mix between the two. Bloomberg is colossal for data, which represents the future nowadays. Since a lot of companies are involved with big data, Bloomberg has a long lasting experience with this sector, being able to derive analytics and provide tools to clients. The technology and finance combination constantly grow companies in terms of innovation to run new products. I’ve always considered important following companies progressions every year. I’m always asking to myself “what’s coming next?” Bloomberg is able to answer this question and so fulfils my expectations.
Could you please describe your typical day?
At the moment, I work as a team leader for the data team composed of 5 people. We are covering all corporate events on European markets. We go through new tools, we daily analyze data in order to understand which are the companies that are announcing in the following days. We want to make sure that we have all the data in the system and thinking about how we can improve them, in order to offer as much as we can to the clients. Looking on the everyday activities of people in my team I would say that the day is divided into 2 halfs. Half of the day is dedicated to exploring the news, looking at the data in order to dialogue with clients. Then during the other part of the day we work as project managers, dealing with the new products announced. Analysis always represents a part of our everyday activity.
The team is relatively free. It is encouraged to innovate, to bring additional value to the product. They get a lot of feedback from the clients about the product and they try to introduce this feedback through new tools, in order to provide the maximum satisfaction.
Corporate culture at Bloomberg :
The corporate culture of Bloomberg is really strong and unique.
There are a couple of values that are really important for us. We provide data to markets but we love to say that we provide transparency to markets and our culture follows the same idea of transparency. You can perceive it at the first impact, once you enter a Bloomberg office: there aren’t closed offices, everyone is in the same floor, the meeting rooms are made of glass, completely transparent as well. Since one of the most important values of the company is collaboration, we daily communicate with different departments and colleagues because when people collaborate , it is there that they get new ideas. So, the collaborative spirit is our first value talking about corporate culture.
The second important value is entrepreneurship. Everyone at Bloomberg is encouraged to think, to come up with new ideas. No one is going to stop you if you have a project. If you present something that can potentially work, you can get the resources and the time to try it out. Bloomberg is a very entrepreneurial and international company.
MATHILDE DESMAREST, Campus Recruiter EMEA, Analytics & Sales :
What are the different opportunities offered to students at Bloomberg?
– For students and recent graduated (2020-2021 class) we will have 2 insight weeks. One spring insight week (april-may) or a summer insight week. For these 2 programs we start recruiting in March. It is pretty competitive, since only 25 people will join us. We definitely advise to apply as soon as possible.
What we’ve been looking for summer and spring insight week is the interest in finance, technology, the knowledge and interest of one of the open positions in our departments. Joining the insight week allows to get the sense of culture of the Bloomberg group and to better know our offers in term of services and products for the clients. It is a discovery week, more than an acquisition of working skills!
– For people graduated in 2019 -2020 we have a 10 weeks internship program starting at the beginning of July or September. 50 places are available for the internship program in analytics and 50 places for Global Data. As for the insight weeks, the main goal of this program is to feel how being part of a Bloomberg team is. It is important to have an impact in the business during the internship through innovation projects, collaboration and interaction with other interns.
Speaking about competences, a strong financial knowledge and the capability to connect an economy situation to financial markets are essential. When it comes to global data we are looking to basic data functions, coding skills and of course being able to analyse and make a conclusion on datas seen. Language skills are essential as well.
– For graduates we have full time positions in both departments: global data and analytics.
In global data 130 people join us full time. The positions in Global Data are really variable: some of the positions are in the administrative sector, other are more technical and require coding skills.
– For the sales & analytics department, 160 places are available. Here again we look for an interest in finance and in technology but also communication skills because you’ll be dealing with clients.
Could you tell us more about the recruiting process?
- For the insight spring/summer week: First of all there’s an online application to submit. I advise to work on the Q&A because we don’t require a cover letter since the Q&A will answer all the questions we are looking to. There are questions on motivation, interests, availabilities and the role offered. Good answers on the Q&A will make the difference. Then we also look at the CV. Once the application submitted, you’re invited to the interview. The interview consists on a set of questions reviewed by our team. The questions are about motivation, knowledge about the role desired, and the industry. If you are successful at the first interview, the following step is the team leader interview.
- For the summer internship, the application process is the same, just adding an additional step: an interview with the manager after the Team Building interview.
- For the full time opportunities the Manager interview is followed by a final meeting with the head of the department (global data or analytics).
What are the necessary skills to work at Bloomberg? How can students be prepared for the interview?
What really concerns me, it is to get students even more prepared than they are now. We want to be sure about what applicants want to do. Research is very important. I advise you to keep up with our resources online, the videos we provide, our information on job teasers, the news about the company etc..
A key word to be prepared is networking. Creating a strong network from the employees is essential. This aspect is important even once you already work for Bloomberg. For instance, if you want to move from a position to another, we will be asking you to network, to talk to employees, to make researches. We really appreciate your networking efforts.
The necessary skills are technical skills on the side of Global data and more communication skills for customer facing roles. Language skills always essential in every case.
Then, it is important to be able to answer to some questions such as “Where do I want to be in 5 years?” “what excites me when I work?” “what motivates me?” what is the culture that I am looking for? what is the best culture that fits with me? once you can answer these questions, you’ll be successful for the interviews!
Thank you !
Interview by Rebecca Katerina Gutmann & Arthur Bernasconi for GEM Finance Society