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Valve Corporation

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Valve Corporation reviews

4.4

85% would recommend to a friend

(75 total reviews)
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Gabe Newell

86% approve of CEO

93% positive business outlook

Valve Corporation has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 75 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Valve Corporation employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

75 reviews
2.0
Jan 26, 2018

House of bullies

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

A lot of percs due to the constant money stream from Steam Great salaries High level of talent among most coworkers Used to make great games.

Cons

The place is run like a school yard without adult supervision. Bullies and loud people get the attention and rewards There's a definite, though unspoken pecking order. Several cliques. If you're not in the right clique, you won't have a good experience You can be fired out of the blue without warning, even if you're worked there successfully for years. They don't make games any more. You could work on developing a project for years and just have it dropped for no good reason other than one of the self appointed leaders decided he wasn't interested anymore. They sell you a real bill of goods coming in, that you'll have all the freedom in the world to do what you want , work on things that interest you and that they just want a lot of highly creative people to make great things. But after a short time there you start to see how the sausage is made and what you were told was an exaggeration at best

2.0
Jan 10, 2018

"Utopia for some but painful when the fit is bad" - emphasis on the "some"

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

In terms of fringe benefits, Valve has quite the impressive repertoire: - Good healthcare benefits, including onsite gym, physical trainers, a wide variety of food available - Great paternity/maternity benefits - Paid annual company trip - Laundry, barber and massage services provided onsite You get to work with brilliant peers and most peer interactions are generally very positive.

Cons

- The flat structure is somewhat a sham. There is a badly hidden hierarchy, and at the top are some very smart people, but there are also some bullies who do whatever they want - Awful communication externally and internally - Terrible system for feedback and compensation. Annual feedback collection seem to go into a void and not actually taken into account. There was some attempt to revamp this process this year, but unclear what is being changed - Constant anxiety to fit in. Everyone around you is anxious about their job and what they're supposed to do, often without clear direction. This gets worse as the end of the year approaches, as everyone prepares for the peer review process. Working with people who are constantly anxious about their jobs takes a toll on everyone, regardless of the great benefit offerings - Bleeding talent. With a combination of the reasons above, talent keep leaving in droves, adding stress to the remaining small teams - "Fit": This is only meaningful to company rock stars, but there are necessary tasks that comes with producing successful products that people are reluctant to pick up at times because they're not sexy projects

4.0
Dec 29, 2017

Great company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Working at Valve has been a great experience.

Cons

I don't have any cons about Valve

Viewing 46 - 48 of 75 Reviews

Glassdoor has 110 Valve Corporation reviews submitted anonymously by Valve Corporation employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Valve Corporation is right for you.