Hi, I recently interviewed onsite at Bloomberg and I wanted to share my experience and get some feedback. A little about me, I go to a small non-target school and did one internship at a big non-tech company. I have also been doing LeetCode every day for about 3 months now and started to feel pretty confident at solving problems. Applied to Bloomberg and was invited onsite. The first interview, I solve the first problem with a good solution and then come up to the optimal linear time solution with some hints. The second problem, I am able to explain the entire thought process and how the solution could be implemented and the second interviewer told me that there was no need to write it up. I felt pretty good after this interview. The second session went even better, the first problem was a tree problem that I solved within 25 minutes and to which I answered all the follow-up questions. The second problem was also solved pretty quickly as I immediately had the right intuition. Answered all the follow-up questions and the interviewers left about 15 minutes before since they had no more questions. Felt pretty good, explained my thought process as clearly as possible, and covered test cases and edge cases. Right after my second interview, HR comes in and walks me out. I then receive a rejection email. I am really bummed about it and I am trying to understand what could've happened and what led to this outcome. I have more interviews set up with other companies and I would like to make sure that this doesn't happen anymore. Thanks!
Sorry, maybe you are one of them arrogant kids & they probably decided on the spot that you were not a good culture fit.
This. Culture fit is a pretty important part of the process. It seems like OP came across as a know-it-all.
I am sorry if I came across as a know-it-all, that was definitely not my intention! I was very grateful to have been given that opportunity first-hand! I do not think that I sent that impression but I assume I must not have been a great fit, thank you for your answer!
There’s a hiring quota and they found someone they considered better than you. Doing well on the interview doesn’t guarantee an offer. Just keep your head up and keep grinding. Edit: Didn’t read the original post carefully. If Bloomberg walks you out before the manager interview after lunch you just didn’t do as well as you thought for the coding rounds. Still, keep your head up and keep grinding.
Yeah I remember I was hiring for a position for a small startup. Only had one spot open. I really liked candidate A. Had a few calls with them and was excited to bring them onsite. Unfortunately candidate B just happen to apply right at the same time. I brought both onsite and both were great. Candidate B was stronger. I would have hired candidate A if he applied a few weeks earlier. It’s just luck sometimes.
Definitely, that was my first thought but wanted more pointers about what could’ve happened, someone must’ve aced it big time, probs to them! Thanks!
Ask the HR if they can provide you with any "pointers" that will help you when you apply again to Bloomberg. Instead of directly asking for feedback, which many companies have a policy of not giving. This way you might know what happened
Interesting, I knew about the policy but maybe asking for pointers for future applications can definitely get me an answer. Thanks for the idea!
Were you an asshole?
Even if he was, that's not a problem, it's about hiding it during interviews. This industry is full of assholes
Indeed. That’s why I asked ‘were you an asshole’, not ‘are you an asshole’.
Usually, most candidates code up two problems for both interviews for a pass.
same thing happened to me today...My code worked for all the test cases and I also coded up the follow up question, but I still got rejected. No idea why...
The key things here are: 1) you feel confident solving leetcode problem. 2) you have more interviews. You are in a great position. If I was you I would ask a friend with interview experience for feedback. But chances are you are already good at this, rejection happens, you will end up in a better place than Bloomberg.
Thank you very much for putting things in perspective! I appreciate it and I try to see it as experience that can only be beneficial!