Zynga reviews

* The so-called Zynga speed? It's mostly hurry up & wait, especially on the back-end of Zynga's infrastructure & platform groups. (For game studios, it's break-neck speed). * We shifted direction too many times, and since we have priorities only for a given quarter (which is what your bonuses are based upon), making GOOD long term decisions for the company is not the priority. Projects that were a priority one quarter are dropped in the next; making your work meaningless. * Too many cooks in the kitchen; many teams overlap in doing the SAME THING and don't trust that other groups will do a good job. A lot of developer time & cycles are wasted * The HR process of hiring people is a joke. It takes FOREVER to get anyone through the interview process (let alone hired), and you lose a lot of talent. They are more interested in putting on high-school pep rallies for people who have "leveled up" or are being recognized for their contribution. (Seriously, they had high school cheerleader outfits one quarter...) Make "People Resources" actually about helping the people at Zynga...and not the high school squad team.

- The meritocracy is flawed between game teams. Two people doing the same position, with equal proficiency are awarded differently by how well the specific game does financially. - Too many bosses. Often a person reports directly to their manager, but has "dotted line" managers, who often conflict with the other manager, providing tension to everyday operations. - Long hours, exhaustion, some mandatory weekends that are arbitrarily chosen. For example, your game team may announce on a Monday that x amount of people have to work that coming weekend. - Hard to have an outside life. With the long hours and short notice for overtime, it's hard to plan a life outside the company. - The game teams do not communicate best practices with each other. A game will be made, the issues acknowledged and then a new group of people will make a similar game, without using the learnings from the last game. - Different technologies used on different games, sometimes changed mid-project. - After a game is launched, it goes into cadence. The detailed prep work to launch the game doesn't carry over into the life of the game.