This essay is based on conversations with Dahlia Rose, a 27-year-old lawyer who worked as an intern at Ray Dalio's hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in 2017 and 2018. Her employment has been confirmed, and the following has been edited for length and clarity.
When I first watched the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive,” a show that depicts a world in which people are constantly judging each other, I thought to myself, “Is this really the kind of thing we do? Wait, I've worked in places like this before..
During the summers after my sophomore and junior years at Harvard, I interned at Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund. Its strict culture isn't for everyone: Founder Ray Dalio once said that about 30% of employees quit within the first 18 months.
While I certainly see parallels between my experience at Bridgewater and the “Black Mirror” episode, I remember my time there fondly, and if I hadn't gone to law school, I definitely would have worked there full time.
I was attracted to Bridgewater's belief in meaningful work.
During my sophomore year of college, I heard about Bridgewater from another student in my Harvard sorority: She had been hired as an investment associate and was looking for people interested in working there.
I did my research and was drawn to the fact that one of Bridgewater's core tenets is meaningful work and meaningful relationships, and she told me about the Managing Associate position and helped me send out my resume.
After applying, I had to take the Myers-Briggs personality traits test and a few other screening tests, then I had a full-day interview at the Bridgewater campus in Westport, Connecticut.
Authenticity is very important at Bridgewater, so I came to the interview ready to be completely myself.
I was first ushered into a moderated interview room with other applicants, and the rest of the day was spent in multiple interviews with managers, including a case study (kind of like consulting) and some really in-depth questions about who I am as a person. How did you grow up? Are you an only child? How do you think this influenced you? How do you think this influenced your work style in a team? What wakes you up in the morning? How do you deal with criticism?
The interviewers were incredibly empathetic and our conversations felt real and heartfelt.
A week or two later, I received the offer. When I saw the offer letter, I thought to myself: Wow, that's a lot of money There were also some great benefits, such as housing, transportation costs, and signing on bonuses, so it was a no-brainer for me to decide. I work there 100%.
The internship was a lot of fun
Most of the interns lived together in dorms over the summer, which was really fun and special. We did fun activities to bond, like group dinners, our own Tough Mudder, and treasure hunts.
Every day, we would arrive on campus by about 8am and leave around 7pm. I worked in the CEO's office as a management associate intern, basically working on any special projects the CEO needed. I worked on a lot of diversity initiatives and looked for ways to make Bridgewater more streamlined and accessible to employees.
At the time, Dalio's book, Principles: Life and Work, had not yet been published, so one of our jobs was to read the manuscript and provide feedback.
Grading each other was a big part of the culture at Bridgewater.
We ranked people each day using numbered “dots” that allowed us to see where everyone was in real time.
At every meeting, we had an iPad in front of everyone with a list of everyone in attendance. During the meeting, we gave participants a score for humility, calm, willingness to touch a nerve, generosity, positivity, etc. By the end of the meeting, the entire screen was filled with scores (red, green). It was distracting. Who gave me the number three? — but we choose to ignore it and stay in the moment.
We were always being judged on what we said, so I became very conscious when I spoke, and tried to convey my opinion succinctly and clearly, rather than just talking for the sake of talking, otherwise I would get negative marks.
This criticism wasn't just limited to colleagues and superiors: people were encouraged to give marks to their superiors, managers, and even the CEO.
The dot results were then displayed on “baseball cards” with information about each employee's role, strengths and weaknesses, helping to paint a clearer picture of who each of us is.
Everything was recorded
Radical truth and radical transparency were very important at Bridgewater. Everything was recorded. If I wanted to go back and find out why I got a certain score, I could go back and listen to what I said. Even if I wasn't in the meeting, I could look up my friends' scores and find out how they were doing day to day.
One time, my friend threw her water bottle in the trash instead of recycling it. I don't know who saw it, but someone gave her a negative mark. That's when I realized. Wow, people really do care on a subtle level and pay attention to you..
Pain + Reflection = Progress
At first, it was hard to receive such frequent feedback. Oh, that's toughIt's never a good feeling to be told you didn't do something right or that they didn't like what you said. We had a button on our iPad that we could press any time we felt pain and wrote a reflection on the situation. The idea is that pain and reflection will lead to progress.
Depending on the level of pain and what was happening, we sometimes had diagnostic sessions to get to the root of the problem, such as if someone's ego was preventing them from asking for help. Although these sessions could be uncomfortable at times, they were ultimately really helpful and led to growth and improvement in my day-to-day work.
I was really good at receiving constructive feedback, and my humility level was always very high. I preferred to think of improving and growing, rather than taking things personally. On days when I was a little sensitive or emotional, I didn't want to hear critical feedback. But when I was able to look back from a non-emotional perspective, I thought: Ah, yes, they're right..
Dalio challenged us to remove as much ego as possible from our work and to strive for a higher version of ourselves. We sometimes had to do something called “force rankings,” where we ranked our team members based on who was the most helpful and who was the least helpful. It never felt good to be at the bottom of that scale, but I've been there many times.
A lot of smart people who go to elite schools are used to being the best at everything and always being on top, but that's not realistic. Some days you'll feel great, and some days you won't.
In Bridgewater, there was no hiding that fact.
No gossiping allowed
It was a no-gossip environment. You weren't allowed to talk bad about other people. The big principles were to speak up, to say it to people's faces, to be considerate, and to be transparent.
If you're talking about someone in a work context, you should send the tape to them afterwards. When I got offered to join Bridgewater full time, my managers sent me tapes they were considering so I could hear what they really thought of me while I wasn't there.
I think this is really valuable, especially in today's corporate environment, where there's so much emphasis on hypocrisy and superficial niceties and people often won't be upfront about how they actually feel about you and your work.
At Bridgewater, that wasn't the case at all. It may sound counterintuitive, but the constant recording encouraged us to be more open and put everything on the table. There's no incentive not to do that.
I really appreciated your candid feedback. Now working in the legal field, there's a lot going on at times, so you don't always get direct feedback. Like most companies, feedback usually happens during annual or semi-annual reviews, but sometimes the issues have grown by then.
With the Bridgewater dot system, if there is an issue, you know the same day and it is diagnosed the same week. That's the part I miss.
The best idea wins
We were strongly encouraged to challenge our bosses and superiors, because one of our tenets was a meritocracy of ideas, where the best ideas would rise to the top, not based on the seniority of the person proposing the idea.
I learned so much from my colleagues because we were encouraged to debate and disagree with each other – I had my opinions challenged and I challenged theirs – and I can't think of another place where I could find this kind of growth and honest feedback.
My experiences have shaped who I am today
I'm sure the culture at Bridgewater might be a little different now, especially since Ray Dalio is no longer with us, but I can't emphasize enough how transformative and eye-opening my experience was — it helped shape who I am today, especially in how I think about feedback, work, and relationships at work.
I've never worked with such an incredible group of unique people before. We had poker stars, musicians, comedy writers, everything. We all did different things, but we all came together under the Bridgewater umbrella and brought our all to the job.
This experience prepared me not just for a corporate career but for life. It made me strong-minded and I rarely get shaken up now.
A few years after working at Bridgewater, I appeared on “The Bachelor,” and people scrutinized me and said a lot of mean, nasty things.
My experience at Bridgewater helped me understand that everyone has some judgement or perception of you, but you don't have to take it all in. We always said, “It's just one point.”
One dot doesn't make up the whole picture, there will be thousands, even tens of thousands of dots to paint, so take that criticism with a grain of salt.
A representative for Bridgewater Associates declined to comment.
If you have experienced an extremely challenging work culture and would like to share your story, please email Jane Zhang. janezhang@businessinsider.com.
