Pros
- People are all great humans - I'd rather hang out with Bridgewater people than most of my actual friends. They are also really smart - basically 0% chance I go anywhere else in the world where people are on aggregate smarter than they are at bwater. - Benefit of the culture, you always know where you stand with everyone - there's no BS, there's no talking behind people's backs, etc. Great camaraderie among the people there, although occasionally someone will be sacrificed in the name of the principles. - people are generally really good at their jobs there or they leave. So there's probably less crap to put up with than at other places in that respect - great place to learn a lot about yourself, how you think, how you like to work/operate, etc. Free candy everywhere. If you like candy you are going to love Bridgewater. - Great parties, company events, all that stuff. Fun atmosphere
Cons
- lots of company related homework/chores to do that have little to do with the actual doing of your job - really high turnover - as my friend said, "it's hard to get the meaningful relationships part of the 'meaningful work/meaningful relationships' tagline they use if they keep firing all my friends." - principles/culture probably started out organic and great, but they're being instituted across the company in ways that are clunky and can be ludicrously bureaucratic - the culture is great but pervasive to such an extent that people over think doing pretty basic stuff - imagine spending days trying to set up a meeting and then Lord Dalio spends half of the allotted time haranguing someone over how he phrased a sentence. That kind of stuff happens way too often... lots of time wasted for low value conversations. But then again he also has 15 billion more dollars than me so what do I know. - people help each other out less - really long hours for everyone - I basically - it's in CT, the worst state in the union