So, you’re going to work for Bridgewater, are you? Contrary to what various know-nothings will tell you, our nation’s greatest hedge funds are not soulless, interchangeable institutions that you can just bounce through like a bunch of cheap whores. They are delicate flowers that need to be finessed if you wanna make it past day one. If you’re not familiar with what makes Hedge Fund A (where crotchless panties and a mastery of BJ skills are required) different and unique from Hedge Fund B (where failure to really get in touch with your feelings re: 1-stock funds is seriously frowned upon) and Hedge Fund C (where it’s ALL ABOUT THE CHICKEN), the various company policies can come as a shock. For instance, if you didn’t know anything about the Bridgewater’s Tao of Dalio, which requires all employees to “probe” their colleagues (boss’s included), you might find yourself asking “WTF is this shit?” What this shit– the Culture of the Probe– is, is the secret to B-water’s success, the tenets of which comprise “Principles,” the hedge fund’s unofficial handbook, written by founder Ray Dalio. Some people, who were not familiar with the “Principles” prior to joining team BW, would not count themselves as fans of the Tao of Dal.
Ray encourages employees to live by the “Principles” and everyone is encouraged to quote them and use them in the day to day goings on of the company. “Culture carriers,” as he likes to call them, are those that commit the 200+ principles to heart and quote them in meetings and emails. The principles are pretty cult-ish, as is the culture of the whole company. At one of our town halls he handed out personally signed copies of them to everyone. The firm castigates anyone who doesn’t worship Dalio.
Most management meetings and department meetings are recorded, both the business and tech side, as are individual quarterly reviews or any meeting at managements discretion. Often if a manager or Ray thinks something is worth educational value they will email out a meeting recording company wide, these usually involve the individual getting shredded publicly for the greater good of the company. An example would be like when former COO Hope Woodhouse was shredded in front of the management committee and the sessions were sent out to the company to learn from (she was brought to the point of crying in the recording). Everyone is encouraged to given open and honest feedback so meetings often resort to public shaming and the demolition of people. 360s end up being everyone’s chance to totally dig on and destroy other individuals and say whatever things all year you’ve hated about people, 90% of feedback received in 360s is negative.
From the outside people think it’s a nice wholesome principled place that wants to cut through the corporate BS but it’s anything but. Ray’s hyper realism (in “Principles”) is insane. Once you read it you’ll get the idea– it’s all about adherence and indoctrination.
But that’s just, like, his/her opinion. Some of my best friends love the Principles! Regardless, that’s not the point. The point is that because there will apparently will be a quiz on these bad boys, we should probably take a look see.
A few of Ray’s Rules:
Be the Hyena. Attack that wildebeest.
Chapter 1: For example, when a pack of hyenas takes down a young wildebeest, is that good or evil? At face value, that might not be “good” because it seems cruel, and the poor wildebeest suffers and dies. Some people might even say that the hyenas are evil. Yet this type of apparently “cruel” behavior exists throughout the animal kingdom. Like death itself it is integral to the enormously complex and efficient system that has worked for as long as there has been life. It is good for both the hyenas who are operating in their self-interest and the interest of the greater system, including those of the wildebeest, because killing and eating the wildebeest fosters evolution (i.e., the natural process of improvement). In fact, if you changed anything about the way that dynamic works, the overall outcome would be worse.
While all this sounds very philosophical and removed from how to behave at Bridgewater, it is integral to how we operate. Bridgewater is based on the core belief that everyone here is evolving together. How well and how quickly we do that will have a huge effect on our well-being and the well-being of all the people we have contact with (e.g., our clients, our families, etc.). Those two things are inextricably linked. Further, to be successful and happy, not only do we have to be excellent, but we have to continue to improve at a surprisingly fast rate. Bridgewater also operates consistently with the belief that to be excellent and improve at a fast rate, we must be hyperrealistic and hypertruthful. We therefore need to overcome any impediments to being realistic and truthful.
CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?
… Truth is Essential: Understanding, accepting and knowing how to effectively deal with reality is essential for
achieving success. So …9) … Trust in truth. There is nothing to fear from truth. While the truth itself may be scary (e.g., you are bad at something or you have a deadly disease), that won’t change the reality, and it will allow you to deal with it better. Being truthful, and letting others be completely truthful with you, allows you to fully explore your thoughts and exposes you to the feedback that is essential for your learning (and is crucial for getting in synch with your colleagues-which we discuss in another section). Being truthful is an extension of your freedom to be you; people who are one way the inside and believe that they need to be another way outside to please others become conflicted and often lose touch with what they really think and feel. It’s difficult for them to be happy and almost impossible for them to be at their best. Thinking solely about what’s accurate instead of how it is perceived helps you to be more straightforward and focused on important things. Being truthful is also essential to being an independent thinker and obtaining greater understanding of what is right. It exercises your willingness to hold independent opinions regardless of what others think and exposes your beliefs to the challenges of others. Most people will know whether you are truthful and reward you for it because it is in their interests to embrace truthful people and shun those who aren’t. Having truth on your side is so extremely powerful in so many ways that I believe it is better to have blind faith in it rather than being expedient about when to use it. In other words, I believe that being truthful and being around people who are extremely truthful are so healthy and productive that you shouldn’t think twice about it.
19) … Don’t believe it when someone caught being dishonest says they have seen the liqht and will never do that sort of thing again. Chances are they will. The cost of keeping someone around who has been dishonest is likely to be higher than any benefits.
Make sure to look people in the eye and tell them they suck.
12) … Never say anything about a person you wouldn’t say to him directly. If you do, you’re a slimy weasel. Badmouthing people behind their backs shows a serious lack of integrity. It doesn’t yield any beneficial change and it subverts both the people you are bad mouthing and the environment as a whole. Next to being dishonest, it is the worst thing you can do at Bridgewater. Criticism is both welcomed and encouraged at Bridgewater, so there is no good reason to talk behind people’s backs. You need to follow this policy to an extreme degree to be in harmony with our culture. For example, managers should not talk about people who work for them without those people in the room.
When telling them they suck, don’t beat around the ‘you suck’ bush. Really lay into their ass.
25) … Don’t depersonalize mistakes. A common mistake is to depersonalize the mistake, saying “we” didn’t handle this well rather than “Harry didn’t handle this well.” Again, this is because people are often uncomfortable connecting specific mistakes to specific people because of ego sensitivities. However,since individuals are the most important building blocks of any organization and because individuals are responsible for the ways things are done (e.g., someone created the procedure that went wrong or decided we should act according to that procedure), it is essential that the diagnosis connect the mistakes to the specific individuals (and/or responsible parties) by name. Doing this is one of the greatest tests of whether a person will put improvement ahead of ego and whether he or she will fit into the Bridgewater culture. At Bridgewater we reward people who find mistakes and accurately diagnose them.
38) … Not all opinions are equally valuable so don’t treat them as such. Almost everyone has an opinion, but they’re not all equally valuable. Many are worthless or even harmful. So it is not logical to treat them as equally valuable.
Speaking of asses…
…Probe Deep And Hard: One of the most essential and difficult things YOU have to do is making sure the people who workfor you do their jobs excellently. That requires constantly challenging them and doing things they don’t like you to do (e.g., probing them).
No idea.
Pages 58-62 in the PDF
Machines.
You are designing a “machine” or system that will produce outcomes.
Push It! And Dance, Puppets, Dance!.
… Push through! You can make great things happen, but you have to MAKE great things happen. There will come times when the choice will be to plod along normally or to push through to achieve the goal. As Lee Ann Womack’s country and western song says, when you have a choice between sitting it out or dancing, I hope you’ll dance.
and people say our chick/dick policy is weird…
-SAC
Interviewed with them while back, definitely a “different” place. They look for very extroverted people that like to debate and argue a lot, but it seems like they valued the quantity, rather than quality of the content.
They run elimination-style interviews where they knock people out as they go and it seemed the kids that literally won’t STFU will make it through along with people making coherent arguments to the topic on hand. I made it through the final round and got a no some time later w/o any explanation… even though they supposedly have a policy of explaining why you didn’t get an offer. Go figure.
Jesus! Did they hire a Citi trader to do 5,000 words on homo sapien centric bullshit and he fat-fingered “Word” up to 50,000 words??
I am the new president of Bridgewater
From this day on, the official language of Bridgewater will be Swedish.
ln addition to that, all employees will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check.
Furthermore, all children under 5 years old are now 5 years old.
Handbridge > Highbridge > that fat gerbil in Chicago washing down Zebra Cakes with milkshakes > Bridgewater
@3 “Did they hire a Citi trader to do 5,000 words on homo sapien centric bullshit and he fat-fingered “Word” up to 50,000 words??”
yes, and his name is Ray.
remember when bwater flipped out about the halloween pic on DB? this will end in tears…
i-viewed there post desco, and the little tool who was maybe 1 year out of harvard actually tried to tell me why david was nowhere near as smart at ray
of course, they are a msft c# windows shop, and that alone makes them re-tards vs. math-tards, considering their wannabe reach to the latter
Wow – I liked it better when it was in German and was titled Mein Kampf
Abe Frohman?
Sounds like Asperger’s paradise.
W T F is this sh*t?
@9 – at least it sounded meaner.
If you french fry when you’re supposed to pizza, you’re not going to have a good time.
-Ray Dalio
Our kind of company
- The Joes (Mengele and Stalin)
On my 10th interview at Bridgewater I was asked why I thought I was good enough to work for them. knowing that I only had a few minutes to make a good impression on this particular interviewer, I began my much rehersed “act”. I pulled an inflatable wildebeest out from under my suit coat and with a quick flick of a butterfly knife I began slashing at the inflatable wildebeest and naturally I sliced it open with a noticable fart-like noise and then I pulled off my silk tie and wrapped it around the limp deflated wildebeest and “choked” the thing until the veins inflated on my head and my face turned red. “Good or evil” I shouted at the interviewer!!!….GOOD or EVIL???” Then I laughed like a hyene and pulled a flesh colored dildo out of my pants at zipper level AND SET IT ON FIRE!!! Recovering I stated, “I made a mistake”.
Continuing, I said, “You know I want this job really bad and I think I might have over-reacted in my simulation of “good and evil” and the imagery of my superhuman strength and penile immolation may have been a bit much. You know, I go to Darden, bitch!! I might have probed further than you’d like to go at this point in the hiring process because frankly you appear to be a shallow person who would say things about me to your managers if I wasn’t in the room and you and I both know that isn’t right according to the “book”. Lee Ann Womack wrote, “I May Hate Myself in the Morning” but we both know that won’t happen here because I drive a Ford Probe, a deep Ford Probe and your opinion of that may be wrong or harmful from what I’ve read of the culture here. I am well versed in risk bucket VaR fluxes that are buttressed by semi-dimentional Gaussian curves with a Boolean skew. But that doesn’t matter here, today, does it??? No….you want to know if I can gut the wildebeest and make jerky out of it while all the time being critiqued by the chronic masturbators that live in this well paying Petrie dish if they’re not on the 5th level of Warcraft aand waving a flea market fantasy sword in the air while pricing costless collars. So when do I get paid and how much vacation will I get if I complain and probe A LOT?
Certainly gives “drinking the Koolaid” a different corporate connotation.
kill me
Welcome to Germany – circa 1939…
CULTure
Coincidence?
~you tell me~
Shit. This whole time I should’ve been categorizing, understanding and observing the evolution of the different parts of my machine/system through time, and synthesizing that understanding into a picture of how my machine is working and how it should be modified to improve, instead of buttering my li’l carrot, which is what I’ve been doing, mostly.
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know. Finally, there are known knowns that should remain unknown, that is to say, creepy things we know that we wish we didn’t.
-Rumster
Bridgewater. We put the “cult” in culture.
We’re pretty much there…
“There will be terrible times in the last days. People will love themselves. They will love money. They will brag and be proud. They will destroy others…They will say they are serving God, but what they do serves only themselves. Have nothing to do with them.” 2 Tim 3:1-5
When this goes south, those employees will have a really hard time fitting in at other places – don’t you think?
“You need to follow this policy to an extreme degree to be in harmony with our culture.”
reminds me of a Big Love episode where the Mormon leader tells his the 3rd wife to obey the 1st wife to be in harmony with him
I.E. it’s a cult, a mean one…there I said it to your face
Nicely done @16
Just another rich hedgie who thinks he is different or better, having made a ton of money off dumb LPs
Fewer principles, more trading
On my third interview with Bridgewater, I was asked to flirt with Ray’s wife. As I walked up to her at the Firm reception, she had a twinkle in her eye, as she obviously enjoyed my broad shoulders and well-coiffed hair. She started, “My oh my. What a handsome young man!” Knowing I had approximately 30 seconds to return the compliment, I said, “How much saran wrap does it take to contain the cottage cheese leaking from your legs, you pitiful, wilting, melting bag of carcinogenic skin grafts? Furthermore, you might want to look down, as Felix the cat seems to be swatting your string.”
And just like that, I wasn’t offered another chat, but rather a desk.
http://www.chinacare.org/about/board
Thanks for getting me into Harvard Dad!
@25 Not to worry, they’ll do fine over at Scientology – fuck jobs
@16 Well done esp. the Lee Ann Womack reference.
But again, Dalio, WTF?
well said @28 but how bout less trades, more princpal?
Bess i hope you have good lawyers, they’re gonna come after ya’ll
Ray D’Alio is a failed, retread mutual fund manager, WTF does he know about investing?
“he knows even less about fornicating…”
“I read your goddamn”
@34…it would be “all y’all” in the plural tense of “y’all”.
Bess, I would be careful. There are a lot of mean litigious people out there. I’m scared just writing this.
-Nervous
Dalio you magnificient bastard, I read your goddamm book!
@36, you must work at Bridgewater. Southern slang has no proper grammar.
Well, there are two sides to every claim and each side gets to ask questions of the other. I’m looking for any damages other than the waste of some people’s valuable time. Should I sue the crazy man on the corner of the street because he curses me when I walk by? Well, I probably shouldn’t ask a lawyer that question!
My fiancee applied there. At the end of the interview they asked her to assess their strengths and weaknesses as interviewers. She was reluctant to do so but ultimately did (after prodding). She said they were both “above average,” which caused them to castigate her because it was statistically unlikely for both to be “above average.” Utterly ridiculous.
Interviewed there and all I can say: It was bizzaro.
When you are still a twentysomething (or a thirtysomething on your way out of your fourth and no-doubt final marriage), you can still be convinced that “getting a job at XYZ Inc” is worth sacrificing your first-born son for (which you would do, if your second wife would not swear out a restraining order against you first … which is exactly why she would).
@26 – I see what you did there
What a horrible, horrible place to work. Any org built around a cult of personality gets toxic really fast, esp when the core person is as big a jerk as this guy. With all the time he makes his employees waste on this nonsense, they could get actual work done.
Dialo sounds like a hefty D-bag with no life. Grandpa is getting Alzheimer’s
It is also statistically impossible that they all have little dicks. So how do you explain this?
DE Shaw
“be extremely honest”. Not just honest, extremely honest. WTF does that mean?
Fabrice Tourre should replace Dalio as Bridgewater CEO
wtf is up with their location, it cost me 70 bucks to get there round trip from grand central, only a cult would locate their HQ in the middle of the woods in the bumblefuck part of CT
Michael Saylor has to be affiliated with this place, has to be !
Dalio = Landmark Education
@51
Yeah, that would explain it – Landmark Education is crawling with narcissistic creepy control-freak talk like that.
Neanderthals
I interviewed there once too… they gave me 3 topics to choose from, and 10 minutes to pick one and think about my stance. Then, 3 d-bags came in, served me lunch, and proceeded to grill me form half an hour while I tried to choke down a sandwich. I called the recruiter from the car on my way home and screamed at him for sending me to interview and an insane asylum.
he can’t handle my truth
i’m way more honest than that guy could ever be. didn’t used to be. it’s a choice
@49 why the f did it cost you 70 round trip? there’s a westport stop on the metro north. also, re: hf’s in ct? ever heard of SAC?
It all sounds so… Scientific.
Process:sadism::Taylor:Dalio
What is wrong with the people working there? Are they so desperate for work they would put up with this crap? If I had just started work there and someone handed me the “Principles” it would take me about 2 seconds to tell them to go f*ck themselves.
I interviewed with them on campus. They have the exact same interview for both management and investment positions: throw 5 kids in a room (doesnt matter which job applying for) with a tape recorder and see who can bullshit the most.
Literally everyone I met that worked there was a tiny jewish kid with a bad attitude.
@54 – At least they’re upfront about being freaking nuts. Reminds me of the time I interviewed with John Whorfin at Yoyodyne Propulsion in NJ.
@38 – The classics never go out of style.
best part about my interview with bwater – they have a bunch of couches around the receptionist desk, and everyone there is usually mid-20s metro-sexual indian type; little twink harvard guy comes out and starts yelling my name out, looking for me…he literally goes through all the h1bs, then the twinks, and finally, looks at me, and goes ‘you’re seaman bodine?’
I say, ‘yup’
he says, ‘you’re not what i expected’
I think you’ll find its 2wildebeast”
- Pedantic guy.
ooops I mean ” wildebeast”
-pedantic fat fingered guy…(see how easy it is?)
I bought 2 wildebeast when I only meant to buy one.
Mollox! or was that Bollox…
Re: Dancing or sitting it out. I think the saying is, you dance to the music until it stops.
- Too fuzzy to google it out whether that was Chuck Prince or someone else.
@56 the better question is how come they didn’t comp you. S500 picked me up at the airport.
Interview was a waste of a day. Nice to get out to CT though.
Bottom line: touchy-feely dorks that like to hear themselves talk.
@14 whatever Stan “Darsh”
You mean there are bigger a$$holes on the buyside? I thought the sell side had all of the high school level pricks, geez now I need to rethink my career plans…..
This guy and Falcone’s wife would make a kooky couple……
Wenn ich Kultur höre…entsichere ich meinen Browning.
If you work at B-Water and Ray Dalio passes out Flintstone chewables next time the Hale-Bopp comet passes, politely decline. Just say I already took my multiviatamin at home.
check out the dalio progeny http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2005/12/07/image1103221g.jpg
It’s interesting to note that everyone who is bitching about bwater didn’t get a job there. Because everyone I know that works there loves it. All of my bwater friends breathe a sigh of relief about the fact that they work in a place where you can actually be yourself, without all of the corporate BS and political backstabbing that exist at just about every other company. The next time you watch an episode of “The Office”, ask yourself what it would be like to work at a place that DIDN’T feel so god damn stale. Then you might realize that maybe, just maybe, there’s something to having principles.
@74 “It’s interesting to note that everyone who is bitching about bwater didn’t get a job there. ”
er, except for the guy who gave DB the handbook, and is quoted extensively at the beginning of the post?
I interviewed there for a random data analyst job, and it got very metaphysical. “Well, how can you truly know the data is correct?”
How can you truly know when a company is full of itself and douchy? When you need a Ph.D in Philosophy to succeed there.
some people are f-ing sick
@74 let me clue you in, 200+ point manifestos and mandatory video clips is the DEFINITION of corporate BS. now go back to buttfucking your greenwich yacht club friends for bar tabs.
@78, wait, WHO is the douchebag?
Kooky or not, looks like not one single person who interviewed got in. Just sayin’
@74 Observation bias, people that do work at bridge water have an economic interest not to badmouth it. Check out some of the feedback from wallstreetoasis, far from google-happy place to work. These 360 reviews apparently are essentially pissing matches and if you argue contrary to the consensus you’re being “deflective instead of reflective.”
The job interview was for that same data analyst position; not exactly missed opportunity of a lifetime…
I came, I saw, I was sorely disappointed. Good company…..so they are doing something right……..buuuuttt so are the Mormons. Mormons have major beaucoup in the bank…..or those guys who locked themselves in a cave for Y2K…..I wonder what happened to them???
Anyway my interview was okay….but i realized that it’s easy to sound profound when people want a job from you…..
I don’t knock the book either……every movement requires written word to inspire the minions.
Lastly, I saw one choice piece of tail that all the guys at BW stared at…….she had curly hair, nice hips, and a girlish smile. I wonder if she was the office slut……..I thought to myself during the interview. Can I sneak out and hit that in the bathroom………….just a thought…..
@80 “Kooky or not, looks like not one single person who interviewed got in. Just sayin’”
again, the person who gave the handbook to DB/is quoted at the beginning of the post worked/works at bwater. just sayin’.
Human nature is human nature….stupid is as stupid does……you can put lipstick on a pib……blah blah blah you’ll find the same bullshit here as you will anywhere else. She’s(bullshit) just dressed differently………I dont bad mouth BW i bad mouth all self absorbed companies who all eventually get their comeuppance
This is an interesting read. Ray’s philosophy: http://www.bwater.com/home/philosophy.aspx
I want to know what this guy thinks. http://www.bwater.com/home/careers/college–mba-hires/software-developer.aspx
@85 – Thanks. Great philosophy. Too bad more CEO’s don’t follow, particularly the part about investigating disagreements. I’ve seen so much BS as companies.
got a job offer. they are nuts. they had me listen to tapes of their meetings which were mostly tapes of Ray telling people they were idiots. He encouraged people to challenge him and then when they did he would use his landmark terminology to deflect legitimate criticism and they completely rip into people. he calls one guy “worthless” and then defends it by saying “at that moment you were worthless to me.” you can picture the rest of the people there nodding their heads in agreement.
Bess – I’m pretty sure it’s “know-nothing,” not “no-nothing.”
Although, the double negative for the BW group is probably a couple negatives too few…
I interviewed there a few years back. I can vouch that the interview process there is extremely rigorous and confrontational. I sailed through the first few interviews which just tested your knowledge of the field. The next “interview” / debate was about a topic I selected from list of 10. This one that decided my fate. I took one side of the topic and the interviewers took the other side. They were looking for me to convince the other side and win them over. I went for a Fox News style debate, I dug into my position and did not give up an inch. Needless to say I did not make it further in the interview process.
They are looking for people who are:
1. Good at what they do, be it technology, trading, analysis, math or whatever
2. Extremely confrontational and looking to challenge the status quo.
3. Can express your ideas lucidly.
People earn some money and then they aspire to be regarded as great philosophers. What a bunch of psycho-babble. Right up there with Soros’s theory of “reflexivity”.
They need to prep you for this stuff in business school. They need to tell you that the world is full of nut jobs, thieves and charlatans, and that chances are pretty good you’re going to end up working for some of them. Then they need to tell you how to slay dragons, overcome sorcery, and stay alive when everyone else goes over to the dark side. They don’t do that in business school, but they need to.
classic cinderella ;)
Who cares?
Do they pay as well as SAC and RenTech?
And they are more an Excel shop than C#.
@94 “Who cares?”
a lot of ppl, hence the reaction, and the response from Dalio today (see the new post on this topic).
“Do they pay as well as SAC and RenTech?”
no.
any other questions?
@92 amen
I interviewed there, for a Compliance position. Beautiful campus.
On the day I went the place was deserted, which I thought was weird. I was interviewed by two very nice people, there was absolutely no confrontation or even a confrontational attitude offered by either one. Having said that, I don’t think this “culture” would suit me. Just my 2 cents.
@74, I beg to differ and wonder how many of your friends will still be employed there next month. I suggest you go try it out. Maybe, just maybe you’ll understand.
@ 36 and you’re wrong. Y’all is a contraction of “you all” it is only plural. Only yankees trying to make fun of southerners misuse y’all as singular.
GOOD DAY SIR! :)
@16 right on! When does this prophet get any real work done? He is on his 6th version of Principles and he isn’t done yet.
Am I the only one who thinks this place sounds totally fucking awesome?
Good thoughts. But can pathological self-interest always be a good thing? For example, Kim Jong of North Korea pursues self-interest and so millions of North Koreans people live in poverty, ignorance, gulags, and under fear in both his own country and those nearby. Also, his Hyena analogy works but only to a point – what if the hyenas are TOO efficient killers of prey? Then the prey is gone, and the hyenas starve to death in a population correction. Rampant self-interest may need to be modulated with the idea of general well-being.
I must have had a crazy good experience. I applied online while still working as a Temp at Goldman, had one day of interviewing with two nice guys, one douche bag auditor, and another nice guy and verbally kicked ALL of their asses (mind you I am a girl, too.) I never made a second trip back but got an agressive offer which I at first accepted then declined because I got one a week later from Morgan Stanley which is a MUCH friendlier place.
Never regretted the decision. My advice to anyone who wants to work there: go there, be agressive, don’t be too friendly, and don’t take their sh*t. They’ll seriously love you for it, and the offer will be on the table.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that there aren’t many people at bwater over the age of, oh, say … 35. At some point you’d have to be real with yourself and just say enough is enough. Life’s too short to be in a place like that everyday.
I worked there for more than a year and can say their culture is essentially pissing contest, the more you piss at others, the higher is your value. Whatever you actually know or do is irrelevant.
Ray Of Light(c) is the only “believable”, so whoever pisses on Ray is defective (vs reflective).
That is not to say you can’t learn something useful there (for sure not about the culture).
sounds like David Miscavige (ceo of the scientology “religion” would fit in nicely with this group
Where can I get the full pdf of this document? Other websites say that dealbreaker has the pdf, but I can’t find it.
I’d love to read the full extent of this hilariousness.
@107, http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf
After reading some of these senseless comments on here, it’s no wonder this country is in a shamble. It’s full of a bunch of idiots, with no morals. A little common sense can go a long way, “Never say anything about a person you wouldn’t say to him directly”, “Trust in truth”. Sounds like things I am proud to believe in, I don’t need someone telling me to live life that way because I already am. I think a lot of you folks commenting could benefit from listening, instead of mocking.
It’s very easy for a bunch of jackasses to make fun of the thoughts of a great and wildly successful man. If you read his principles, you’ll see that he expresses his uncertainty very clearly. Mr. Dalio has devoted more time, energy and, thought to trying to determine what makes for both success and a quality individual than all of his asinine critics combined. At least he thinks. That’s more than can be said for all the juvenile “joke boys” combined whose entire sarcasm hasn’t one deep thought in it. If you read his principles you’ll see that his effort is as enlightened as his critics are in the dark. I do not work for his company and have never met him or any of his employees, but it’s obvious he’s a brilliant man whether you agree with him or not. Get yourself educated by going to the actual principles.
http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf
Met the man, met his family, been to his house, did some minor business with him. It’s much worse than you think. Best comment so far: Asperger Paradise.
I would have loved working for Bridgewater because the principles laid out by Ray Dalio are the same ones I’ve practiced for 32 years at my college. Since my employer espouses the idea that we should all go around being “nice-nice” to each other, that we should “criticize the process”–not the person, that it is OK to criticize a colleague as long as you don’t mention his/her name, I was labeled long ago as a “difficult person”. Its too bad I’m 63 and near retirement because I would love to work under Ray Dalio.
terrible place to work and i’m sure they are freaking out over this article being posted – they’re probably tracking down the i.p. address that this was posted from now
I interviewed there and the horror stories are all TRUE! It is a insane asylum. There so wrapped up in their Ray D Dogma they cannot think straight. Yes, I went to a Ivy League school, worked for Fortune 500 companies and some of the richest men in the world. I have never seen a business get so wrapped up in their own process. The ” Cultural Interview” is the last one they give you and you quickly learn that these mindless souls have lost their own identify. One person was a manager and when I turned the tables on him and asked him about himself, he could only articulate negative things about himself. They talk like it is group therapy. I have no problem with being open, open minded and accepting of new processes and new ideas…When they make sense. These people cannot get anything done the way the structure is designed. They care more about why you said that. We spent 20 minutes on was I being defensive with an answer. I told the guy I was being defensive, because the observation was inaccurate. They purposely try to piss you off. It is obvious in the first 3 to 4 minutes. The quicker you figure that out the better you are off. I started laughing at them and saying ” You know it takes you 3 to 4 minutes to ask a question” Just ask and let’s use this time better” They do not like it when you point out to them that their principles make them ineffective since it requires dissecting every word. This is a place to go to if you want everyone you work with to be your tough love Psycho Therapist. Personally it made me sick. In addition to my Ivy League education and all that opened the doors for me. I also served in the Army (full of B.S) but nothing like this. If every decision was second guessed under fire like these guys no battle would be won. Honesty is great, but it should some with accountability. An opinion means little coming from a wannabe Therapist.
#1 -Get the job done
#2 -Work as a team
#3 -Strive to improve
Those 3 core principles is all you need. No one needs to be told they suck. The guys I saw there had no confidence and they were lifeless. It was pathetic. If you like to submissive and team bullshit all day. Bridgewater is the place for you. If you know who you are and you are striving to always be better at what you so and as a person. Screw the money! Keep yourself respect and self worth and look elsewhere.
Jim Jones was also great with his Dogma
Most of the principles are rubbish and have little to do w/ the success of bwater.
Ray is a good person, however he is not very introspective or he would behave more decently (he’s not mean, just odd and blunt, aspergers perhaps?). There are a handful of people who make the investment decisions, they are simple, well thought out and have been tested over time. There is little ego that goes into the investment process and a lot of facts.
In theory, the principles are a work of art. In theory, they would work in an ideal society where there were truly no hierarchical structures holding individuals back. In theory, the world would be a better place if everyone was like this, but it ISN’T. The term “machine” is thrown around loosely, but Bridgewater is operated by people and unfortunately this is where the machine collapses. There IS hierarchy, while less than other hedge funds, and overall Bridgewater is not what it is on paper. A culture that prides itself on being organic, is instead excessively anal and snobbish. As the company is expanding, it’s getting worse. It’s a shame because Ray Dalio has a great vision, but I don’t think it’s being executed well.
Hi there,
I’m doing some research on BWater. I found this site that makes them sound horrible but I have not had any of the same experiences that other people have had, at least not yet. It sounds like working for Dr. House, being called an idiot but getting to the route of the sickness, hopefully in 30 min. or less. So far, on both interviews, I have only spoken to women but they were all very nice, however did insist on being very honest with people and self reflective. I have not had the pleasure to interview with guys as of yet, but maybe on the third interview. I’ve interviewed twice with them and going to my third interview. I’m wondering if anybody knows how many interviews there are with this company, is the third the last one and what do they do on the third one exactly? Reading some of the statements, I don’t know if they are joking with their answers or they actually did these sorts of things on the interviews. I’m hoping they are kidding, don’t want to make a pass at Ray’s wife, although my husband would be into that.