Glad I got in early, feel like I jumped ship too late
Pros
I'm only giving Big Fish two stars because it used to be great for growth in the game industry. People in QA and CS were promoted out into other departments, shadowing was common and encouraged. I managed to get to a place where I had a launchpad to jump ship into a bigger role at another game company. The people I worked with, on the frontlines, were great as well. I've made many great friends that I still talk with today.
Cons
It's laughable how much this company pretends to care about their employees. Management wants to be seen so badly as 'the cool place to work', when none of the 'perks' (like a pinball arcade) even matter if you're feeling exhausted and overworked. Layoffs have been handled poorly. The first massive wave was hastily thrown together, where you either went to a hotel and survived the cut, or were told to leave the office immediately. Second wave wasn't much better. Claim to want more diversity, but most of the diversity I've worked with was cut in the second wave? Practice what you preach. There is no room for growth anymore. If you're not at executive level, you're not moving up. My position was considered 'essential' enough to survive both waves of layoffs, but not enough to ever be backfilled (per my old coworkers). Post-layoff mantra was literally "some work just isn't going to get done" and then expect the remaining employees to pick up the slack. Barely any COVID support. Only recently has started a low 'subsidy' for internet, ect. It ends in June. What's the point? More interested in sending branded swag to employees than actually helping with what they need: time off and monetary support. Multiple people, as well as myself, have been told to keep quiet about wages. I am aware of pay discrepancies in my department which are not addressed, specifically for those with the same level of seniority getting 2x the pay of others, and we are told to 'not rock the boat' by speaking about it. They are toeing a very thin line with these comments. It's obvious from these comments that they do not support the unionization of the game industry, and rather exploit the FOMO from those trying to get into it.