Pros
+ Awesome, incredibly smart, energetic and diverse people who are super passionate about gaming and what we produce. I can't think of a single person I don't enjoy working with, and I collaborate on a lot of cross-functional projects. + Office rocks -- my favorite thing is probably the PC cafe...it's great to be able to bond with coworkers by playing the game there. The people and environment are top notch. + You feel like you're getting quality work done, but it never feels like a chore to be at work. + I've worked at other companies that care about its teams, but never like Riot. It's so much in the leadership's core to treat its teams well and value us as the reasons for the company's success. Nurturing our culture is top-of-mind for leaders, without feeling like it's just PR or corporate BS. + There's a lot of trust and autonomy. There have been several times where I have an idea, bounce it off my team lead and (if needed) exec leadership, and then they let me run with it. Being able to have ownership of something and building stuff from the ground up -- it's exciting. I don't feel like I'm limited to only doing things the way they've been done before or only do what's in my job description. If I have a skill and it can be used in a valuable way for the company, it gets nurtured. + Perks and salary are good. Saw some negative reviews about salary, which I'm surprised by. I got a great increase to come over, and there are many perks I never had at previous jobs that help me balance work/life and save on costs. It also feels like the "people" team (HR/recruiting) constantly are looking for ways to make things better, like extending gym benefits to spouses or getting us a 401k, etc. + Flex working hours are awesome. Technically we start at 10 a.m., but they care more about you getting good work done than whether you're locking in the right number of hours. I'm here until pretty late every day, but most of the time it's because I took a long lunch or had an after-work Riot event or something. + Food. There's ALWAYS food (fruit, donuts, bagels, pizza, Seamless) and drinks available somewhere in the company. We also have tons of internals events, speaker series, food-fueled meetings, beer-powered Show&Tells, etc., so if you look hard enough, you'll find food somewhere. I could go on and on. Basically, I love working here and it's the first place in the nearly 7 years I've been working that I feel like I could see myself staying with for more than a couple of years. No BS -- I pretty much tell all my friends about looking for ways to join.
Cons
- Since we're scaling quickly, a lot of the infrastructure is still being fully thought out. It can be overwhelming at first to figure out who needs to provide feedback or approvals. - Santa Monica is expensive to live in, and traffic around the area is pretty bad, especially if you have to commute. - Initially, there felt like a bit of difference between the "old-timers" (people who have been here since the launch of League) and the folks who came after...it's faded over time though - Hours end up being pretty long, but a lot of that is just because it's so easy to stay at the office to play a game, or get a cup of coffee, or stay after for the gym or yoga, etc. - $0.25 soda machines = dangerous
