Prós
* The developers are some of the best and talented people you'll ever meet * You can get a lot of experience/boost your credits in a short amount of time (but you'll suffer for it)
Contras
* The Peter Principle is in strong force here * No hybrid or flexible working, with a view from management that being in the office is better than WFH. No consideration of individual preferences * Developers had to return to the office even while Covid cases were rising, forcing people to move to Wakefield when they could have easily worked from home * Pay doesn't meet industry standards and promotions are inconsistent * Performance reviews are agonising and rife with favouritism - if you work here want to be promoted, play politics rather than focusing on having talent * You don't get a say on what you work on so you can get stuck doing something that doesn't benefit your career * Too much work and immovable deadlines, and zero recognition of burnout * No time for personal training as a result * Management is seeped in toxic positivity * Staff are leaving in droves, meaning even more work for those who remain, including handling the burden of training up new very inexperienced devs * Constant changing process and 'strategy' that adds to the overhead of already convoluted and outdated process rather than addressing the root cause * Old tools - no Jira, so be prepared to drown in spreadsheets and inaccurate data * Growth mindset with no recognition of reality and no acceptance that this is going to get worse before it gets better * Focus is on shareholders and not on staff * Gradual decrease in the quality of games we're making due to all of the above, leading to low morale in the trenches * First party IP is tied to bonuses but not everyone works on it, and recently has been a disaster with projects that are set up to fail due to impractical commercial constraints and the belief that we can do anything despite obvious skill gaps * This is a porting studio now - only a special few get to work on first party IP * Despite making profit in 2021 the bonus for staff was lower than usual * There is sexual harassment here but reports will be minimised, ignored and then denied.