On the Wednesday 24 November 2010, our class went on visit to Bloomberg headquarter in London. The atmosphere was very friendly. It was made possible for me to invite four of my friends, who were allowed to join the class for the visit.
There are three major parts in which I was very interested.
Bloomberg TV
We had the opportunity to see a journalist, who was presenting a show on Bloomberg TV. We could see the TV set, teleprompter, journalist and camera. It was very interesting to see this journalist in action. I already watched Bloomberg TV, but I think I am more interested now because of being able to see behind the scenes of this TV show.
We have seen this TV set during our Bloomberg visit
Demonstration of Bloomberg Terminal
I already went to the Bloomberg terminal at the Regents College, but I learnt more with this demonstration. With the terminal, we had access to so many options like real time evolution of stock, last news related to the company, analysis from independent financial analyst or calculation of advanced financial formula, etc.
The host made fun of the ‘Dine’ function, which helps employees and clients to find a good restaurant, with feedbacks to read about it.
The last thing was new services offered by Bloomberg, which integrated satellite map, it was possible to see in real time, the evolution of the oil spill (BP) or to see where a boat shipment is.
This chart was made by Bloomberg and I used it for my course on Risk Financial Management
Source : Bloomberg Terminal at the Regents College
General information about the company
I liked the general presentation about Bloomberg and the visit of the different floors. It was interesting to see that each floor was dedicated to a specific department, with specific colours, which are suppose stimulate employees. Moreover, Bloomberg uses a lot of recycled material and they own one of the largest company’s private aquarium. I learnt about the history of the company and work opportunities at Bloomberg. I do not want to work for Bloomberg because I am more interested in Bank or a hedge fund, however, I will certainly use Bloomberg Terminal for my future work.
Our visit ended at the Bloomberg’s cafeteria to have coffee and fruits. Bloomberg employees are treated by their employer, which offers them coffee, hot chocolate, fruits, chips and cereal bars for free at the cafeteria. The disadvantage of this cafeteria is that there is no place to sit, what I think is intentional, because board directions do not want their employees to have too long breaks.
It was a good experience for my friends and I and I will surely watch more news on Bloomberg TV.
