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.
In spite of its flaws (which company doesn't have flaws?), Bridgewater is an exceptional company.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(This is only speculation I have never interviewed with them and only know them through customers).
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.