To summarize, the on-site interview is quite an experience. I was on their campus from 7am to 11pm. I spent 40 minutes interviewing, and over 3 hours watching tapes about their culture. Commuting there took over 3 hours each way, not to mention staying over at a hotel the previous night, whose only dining option past my arrival time was a McDonald's across the way. This should summarize how much they really care about you.
From the beginning, the recruiter and HR people are amazing; however, the interview process was a complete disaster and can only be described as strange. Before even learning more about the positions, I was interviewed by an external consultant whose experience was in design. The external consultant did a good job of getting to know the candidate's experiences and asked probing questions. The problem was that she knew very little about the inner workings at Bridgewater.
I was invited to an on-site interview. A car picked me up and I arrived at the office at 6:45am. Most people were not in the office yet but the HR guy that took us around was very on top of his game at 7am. He brought me and 3 other people to separate rooms, where we sat around for hours watching culture tapes over a few trays of fruit, coffee, and finger foods. Literally hours. I was made aware of their culture tapes beforehand, but the severity of the cult-like behavior was shocking.
The employees worship Ray Dalio. Most of the tapes were about how an employee displayed initial resistance to Dalio's principals and teachings, but later realized that his methods were only to benefit them and that they are better people now. If that doesn't sound cult-worthy, I don't know what is. The company was more interested that I watched the tapes than actually getting to know me. They have a strong desire to figure out your weaknesses and to poke at them for your personal "improvement".
When we finally got to the "interview" portion, which was a debate with another candidate, it lasted at most 20 minutes. The interviewer was very cold and more interested in conversing with the other candidate, who has a relative that she knows who works there. I admit that I although I was organized, my thoughts were not consistent about the topic and honestly, since they like honesty, the off-putting nature of the interviewer already made me want to leave and head home.
For the next 20 minutes, a manager and an intern asked me about my weaknesses and why the previous interviewer gave me a low score for the debate. The intern was very aggressive, more so than the manager, about figuring out my weaknesses at my current job. This was also extremely off-putting, not only because she was an intern but I have been working full-time for almost 5 years and I have done well in my roles, having been promoted twice in the last year alone.
However, they will never know my accomplishments because all they cared about was that I complied with their assessment of the weaknesses that they conjured. I am pretty aware of my weaknesses and I am the type of person that works on improving myself constantly. Perhaps my biggest weakness is intolerance for nonsense, which I had no reservations about hiding. Not surprisingly, I did not make it to the final round.
I had never felt such a sense of relief and appreciation for my current job than I did when the car pulled out of Bridgewater's campus. This would have been the wrong environment for me and anyone else with a free-thinking nature. Do not expect to feel welcome. You are shuffled in and out of there, with no tours or interactions with employees aside from the interviewers.