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Comment by cscurmudgeon | Hacker News Reader

I had the most unprofessional interview experience of my life with Bridgewater.

They contacted me out of the blue and had me go through one phone interview, their culture introduction and quiz on their website, a HR round with a recruiter, and a coding project. After I passed all these, I was put in another phone interview. (Note: I am in the West coast.)

Remember, these clowns were trying to recruit me. I was at that time working as a Research Scientist in X in one of the big firms over in the West coast.

A good part of the interview was spent by them disparaging X. Then they ended the interview with "We have all the information we need, we won't be calling you."

I felt like I had been hazed by a couple of dimwits who were not even that good at it.

This article assuages my worry that I was being unreasonable.

View on HN

I had an incredibly positive experience with Bridgewater. I didn't get an offer, but I witnessed their celebrated "radical transparency" first-hand.

Everyone was respectful and courteous throughout, from the recruiter to the CCO who interviewed me.

The moment I'll never forget: when the CCO came back to the conference room to tell me they weren't going to give me an offer. Most people would stop there, maybe say sorry, and send me on my way. Nope. He asked me, "what do you think?" and "do you think this is a reasonable decision, why or why not?" and "how could we have improved the process" etc.

I reasoned with him. We had an amazing, rational, open conversation. I learned why they rejected me. They learned how their process could be improved.

Remember: this is with a C-level executive of the world's largest hedge fund, not some rinky-dink middle-manager. A similar conversation took place with the recruiter as she walked me out.

We complain so much, on this forum especially, about how flawed the recruiting process is. Yet we almost NEVER ASK FOR FEEDBACK. These guys are doing that, with every candidate who walks through their doors, and they're finessing their process bit by bit. It shows.

Perhaps all parts of the company aren't like that (it's quite large, especially by hedge fund standards), but I was thoroughly impressed with the side of Bridgewater I experienced.

What is a CCO? There seem to be a lot of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCO

In the context of hedge funds, I'm assuming compliance.

Yah—Chief Compliance Officer.

I don't think it is fair to say "we almost never ask for feedback". Every dev I know asks for feedback during the interview process. They rarely get it because of strict company policies on not giving out feedback. Simply asking does not make a company give feedback. I've found feedback can be gotten from even the strictest companies though but it has to be "hacked", for example, by asking somewhat indirect but still very feedback-related questions to your interviewer at the end of your sessions when you get 5 minutes, etc.

I think the grandparent was referring to the other side of the table; despite being aware that the recruitment process is flawed, companies rarely ask interviewees for feedback on making the process better.

BINGO.

I would pay a surprising amount of money for that kind of interview. I interview quite a lot, having my ear to the rails pretty much all the time, and to keep my interview skills up to par. I interview perhaps once or twice every couple of months, or less if I don't have the spare time, since it is expensive to do this much interviewing. I have yet to interview at any tech company -- literally any tech company -- that has made good on their promise to tell me why I was rejected when it happens. Not a single one that has ever rejected me has ever gotten back to me. I should say that I'm rejected probably a couple of times a year. It happens more regularly than you would think. I should say that I don't mean I want to pay one of those interview boot camps. I want the kind of interview you've just described.

It was memorable. I'm not sure it taught me how to interview better, but it have me a first-hand glimpse of elements I will integrate into my company/team the first chance I get to run one.

In spite of its flaws (which company doesn't have flaws?), Bridgewater is an exceptional company.

Pinterest gave me helpful feedback.

I can also recommend a service called gainlo.co that organizes mock interviews with interviewers from big tech companies and a YC startup called pramp that matches you with a peer for free to interview each other.

Facebook is actually pretty good about giving feedback.

Many companies interview for competitor intelligence. Did you consider that they wanted to get some idea about how one of the big firms was doing (in) X?

Yes, that is a possibility that I considered going into the interview. But coming out, I was fully convinced it was not the case. Why? They had asked me no more than textbook questions about X. It is commonly known my firm uses X.

It was really quite comical (from a third person perspective, not from mine though, :D).

I believe a lot of very good people do get hired over there (I know one extremely good person there), but the culture of "radical transparency" turns them into asshats quickly. As they subconsciously think if they are not being an asshat they are not being transparent. Shame though as Ray Dalio seems like a nice guy from his interviews and talks.

You probably weren't a culture fit :P

I actually prefer getting feedback about why someone chooses not to go forward with me as it helps me improve. For that reason I think interviewing at Bridgewater can be valuable as you can explicitly ask them what you did right and wrong and they'll tell you without sugar coating it.

And don't forget, the reason most companies don't give this kind of feedback is to prevent any allegations of discrimination, so they're not exactly heroes either.

It wasn't just that they didn't give him feedback -- it was the overt snarkiness of the interviewers' closing remarks that seems very telling about the Bridgewater culture.

I think this is a large part of why Finance pays so well. You pay more when the environment sucks, so people who want to be paid well have a large incentive for continuing the trend. Sadly, it works because having an unethical staff and an incentive structure can pay off when tricking customers is the #1 way to make money.

Ex: Do you know every fee pulled out of your 401k? Most people I asked did not even realize there where any costs associated with their company's plans.

PS: It's not just the poor/middle class falling for this. Look at average VC returns with and without their 2/20 fee structure.

Most interviews I've ever gone through could easily be characterized as hazing. At least these guys told you right away NO rather than doing the typical passive aggressive "Silicon Valley Silence" routine. Another commenter here mentioned that he was actually provided feedback on his interview performance, which is a huge plus.

Dissing X was probably a way to test your fitness with their culture. If you answered neutral and political correct stuff, you failed their test.

(This is only speculation I have never interviewed with them and only know them through customers).

In my experience HR in big organizations doesn't always tell interviewers if a candidate is an applicant or being recruited. Always fun when you ask a question that reveals a lack of communication like that.

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