Negative: *Favela-style density* We’re still nine months away from moving into our next office space, but we outgrew our current space many months ago. As a result, some people are sitting in aisle-ways and walkways, conference rooms are hard to book, private space for quiet thinking is rare, and environment-induced stress is higher than necessary. The new HQ looks like it’ll be a wonderful relief, and it cannot arrive fast enough.
Negative: *Recruiting difficulties* Our recruiting processes aren't something we’re proud of at present. Candidates report very long and drawn-out interview processes (sometimes taking many months), and hiring managers internally are often frustrated by some of the immature process and systems that we use to manage applicant pipelines. Some of these difficulties are typical of companies that have experienced hyper-growth, some of this is attributable to Riot’s extremely high hiring bar that results in a very low ratio of offers-to-applicants, and some of this is just a result of a recruiting and talent operations functions that are still lacking key leaders who can straighten things out.
Negative: *Immature middle management layer* Because of Riot’s growth, a lot of managers at Riot are first-time managers, and are making first-time management mistakes. This wouldn't be a problem if we had better training for managers and better mentorship systems that paired inexperienced managers with experienced managers to help accelerate the learning curve and minimize preventable mistakes. We’re trying to solve this problem by simultaneously hiring experienced managers (hence some complaints from current Rioters that they feel passed up for promotion) and by building out management training and mentorship systems so that we can successfully elevate more non-managers to management roles. I’m confident that we’ll eventually build a very solid management team, but the current situation is recognized to be suboptimal.
Negative: *Reputation issues* Certain aspects of how Riot operates are misunderstood by some gamers, some press, and some applicants. This is very frustrating to watch from the inside and is a job stressor for those of us who care deeply about seeing Riot recognized in a truthful fashion. Here are two common misconceptions that are particularly bothersome. These things will weigh on you and stress you out if you work at Riot:
(1) Some players doubt our motivations: perhaps because many for-profit businesses hyper-optimize for profit above all else and also because we move fast and make mistakes in execution, players sometimes attribute our decisions to a desire to put profit first. I wish we could invite groups of players in to our meetings where champions are designed, servers are configured, and decisions are made so that they could see that our teams universally put the player experience first.
(2) Some former Rioters who have taken to Glassdoor had bad experiences and believe those experiences are representative of the whole. Reading through some of the very negative reviews here, I believe that we genuinely disappointed these people (in part because of the “recruiting difficulties” and “immature middle management layer” discussed above). But I’m dismayed that these folks believe that the whole company is as bad as their narrow experience. I wish I could apologize to these people and help them understand the bigger picture at the company, because it’s distressing to see them paint the whole company with a broad brush dipped only in the small bucket of their experience.
