Pros
- High starting salary - Most people are friendly - Loved working on Pokémon GO - Niantic's mission is inspiring - Travel to work at company events (though not during COVID) - Prime office location if you're in SF (i.e. the Ferry Building) - The company is doing great things for progressive causes and diversity/inclusion - Stock options can be exercised within a 10-year window - Generous benefits and reimbursements for phone, internet, and wellness expenses
Cons
- Purports to have an open culture, but I found it to be secretive, cliquey, and judgemental at times. - Few opportunities for career development or transitioning to a new role internally. - Community sentiment and players' issues often aren't taken seriously unless it hurts the company's bottom line. - Lots of tech debt and "build now fix later" attitude results in buggy products and headaches for internal parties and players. - Executive churn and nepotism in senior management. Many people in VP roles are old friends of the CEO. - Top-down decision making and lack of transparency lead to confusion and frustration (though admittedly this is trending in a better direction). - Internal communication, while improving, is still quite poor. - Some teams and types of roles are clearly valued more than others. - Inconsistent policies around working from home (pre-COVID and probably post-COVID).