An excellent company to work for
Pros
I had the good fortune of working at Big Fish for nearly 5 years. (4 years and 9 months to be exact). Hands-down, this was the best company I have ever worked for. It was also the longest stretch for me as I am a millenial and thus required to hop from tech gig to tech gig. During my stay at Big Fish, the company pivoted hard from PC/Mac and into mobile, with great success. Why did I enjoy working at Big Fish? 1) The work life balance was great. I have the personality to want to work 16 hours a day, if I could. My wife would likely serve me divorce papers if I worked 16 hours per day, which is why I don't. Big Fish office fills up about 9am and clears out between 5 and 5:30pm, not too shabby for a growing tech company. In our marketing org, we discouraged evening emails as well as weekend emails. Those who work nights and weekends were the exception, not the rule. From my colleagues who came from other local tech companies who will not be named, "the most hectic times at Big Fish were comparable to the most calm times at their prior gigs.". Despite many new product/game launches, the life/balance harmony was always present. It also doesn't hurt that as a result of the strong work/life balance, my spouse was happy that I was a BF employee. 2) Data driven- if you are seeking a workplace with politics and people throwing each other under the bus, do NOT work at big fish. There is a dearth of back stabbing/gossip. Everyone is focused on doing their jobs- with data being the only thing that matters. This tenacity to operate based in data alone starts from the company head (CEO- Paul Thelen) and is omnipresent in each department. In a data driven org- the hierarchy becomes rather flat. Numbers and stats are more important than tenure or seniority. 3) In light of #1 and #2, there is a lot of positive collaboration both within orgs as well as when working with external orgs (finance/product/legal/QA/CS). Employees are looking to do right by the customer and for the business. People who are toxic will not survive at Big Fish. 4) It's an ethical company. Never once did I feel that the company was trying to take advantage of anyone. Its ethics are both how BF treats internal employees and this manifests itself to how BF treats customers as well as vendors. Never once did vendors get shafted or treated disrespectfully. In 2013 - BF did a large round of layoffs. From colleagues who witnessed similar layoffs at prior stints, the consensus was that BF was exceptional at communicating and executing the layoffs in the most humane way possible...and respectful to those who lost their jobs. To understand if a company is ethical, you need to observe how they act during good times AND hard times. 5) Diversity- no company is perfect when it comes to diversity. When I left Big Fish, our marketing team was pretty much split 50/50 male/female. And 2 of the 4 business GM's were female. 6) Paul Thelen- I had the opportunity to report to PT directly for my final (and best) year and a half at Big Fish. PT, as we call him, embodies the core BF values: data driven, hands-on, moves quickly, takes calculated risks, learns from mistakes, humble/unassuming, balancing work and life, being respectful and honest. As a direct manager, Paul is the furthest thing possible from a micro-manager, in all the positive ways. He encourages you to do your job and moves out the way. It's that simple. And he is there to help in any possible way: strategy, working through roadblocks, brainstorming, giving feedback and most important- working through the numbers. Despite being CEO, he is very hands-on, again, only in the things that matter; is this working? why not? how can we fix it? how can I help? PT does not get caught up with the irrelevant details that do not matter- like some CEO's are wont to do. He leads by example. Trust me, I disagreed with him on many occasions; good chance more than any direct report he has ever had :) Still, having different opinions was encouraged- with the criteria that people need to be civil, respectful and ultimately allow the data to determine next steps. That's how I rolled with the boss man.
Cons
For someone who tends to be critical of many things, it's hard to leave this box empty! However, it's sad that I do have not much to offer here. No company is perfect. Just browse through Glassdoor to understand how messed up some companies can be. The important thing is: how big are the issues and how does the company address them? And is the company self-aware? The only downside I could conjure about Big Fish is that it is now playing in the mobile game space, which is not for the feint hearted. Mobile games is a hyper growth, hyper fail, hyper competitive industry. As a result, there is a lot of change. Always. If you are looking for a mature industry, I recommend staying clear of anything mobile or gaming.