Ubisoft Montreal: Good people, good projects, respectful management
Pros
- Management is respectful of the employees. Great work-life balance. - Editorial really wants to make good products. Willing to take difficult decisions to increase chances of product success. - Can speak to pretty much anyone at any level, no walls based on title. - There is a very positive and friendly culture at the studio and this obviously boosts motivation. - Access to an onsite clinic 5 days a week and access to VPN account to work remotely when life situations or sickness do not allow to go to the office.
Cons
- Obvious bad decisions taken on the creative side rarely challenged, often only corrected late in production, causing waste of time and money that could have been better spent. - Excessive team fragmentation can lead to lack of innovation and lack of proactive action as people simply focus on their direct tasks without knowing where we are heading as a team. - There is a complete incoherence in planning methods among managers on the same project, making the true cost of the project and of the decisions taken impossible to track. Managers who are former programmers tend to be the only good ones, in general. - The company should expand in the simulation field, but doesn't seem to realize how well positioned we are to do so nor anticipate how big that industry will get. Valve and Crytek will beat us to it and only then we'll try to play catch up.
