Pros
- Vacation and sick time off are based off of European ways, so basically, you will never run out of sick or vacation days ever again - The Digital Marketing and PR teams are probably the only teams I would recommend to anyone, and probably Brand Management. DM has their stuff together and are well rounded and do solid work. They also seem to genuinely like one another. The PR team, while they don't have a lot of power or sway at Ubisoft (at least compared to other PR teams I've worked with at other gaming companies) have GREAT leaders who want to grow their team--they care about mentoring and doing a good job. Brand is chaotic but they hold most of the power, so I would recommend it as a good starting point for someone looking to go into Brand/Marketing. - If you're looking to get your foot in the door at a game company in an entry level role, Ubisoft is a good place to start. Get your name on some AAA titles then reevaluate once you hit the 2 year mark. - You get a lot of free swag and get to go to some cool parties (they are a French company so the booze is often prime)
Cons
- Everything is cookie cutter--little innovation or interest in trying new things. Ubisoft is very much a "follower" company, not a "leader" company. - The company needs some serious pruning. It's amazing how unprofessional some of the Managers are (how they communicate and interact with others) which is probably because they aren't actually adults (ie. mature enough to not breed drama and negativity). The people at the company are generally awesome, but the handful of toxic people there just ruin it. - Pay is mediocre. You get free swag and get to go to some cool company parties (the company literally throws money around so people who don't need to be at certain events can go), so you really give away a good amount of what you could be making for these luxuries. So it really depends on what you want. For a year or two, these novelties are great, but it wears off pretty quickly. - Promotions seem to get handed out randomly. A LOT of people who do great work seem to get stuck in some sort of undertow and end up frustrated. They leave only to get a better job that's the equivalent of 1 or 2 promotions with a nice salary increase. It's easy to get stuck at Ubisoft if you're one of these people, and Ubisoft seems to feel that it's easier that these potential star-employees just leave than take a look at issues running deeper within the company. One friend of mine was actually told by her VP that due to the high turnover of her bosses they couldn't evaluate her properly, that this wasn't anyone's fault but unfortunately, they needed to review her again. She left for a way better opportunity. Basically, if you feel you can do bigger, greater things and need more challenges, Ubisoft probably won't give you that, so look elsewhere. - It's rare for contractors to get hired on full time and many of the contractors that I knew felt like outsiders - For larger gaming companies, it's not unusual for the majority of employees to have zero knowledge of games. The same is true for Ubisoft. The Sales, Digital Marketing, PR, pretty much every team except for maybe Community and the Sales Analysts are at all versed in games, or show any respect for games as anything more than a sales number. It's so bad that a game room was made to help provide access to games to help encourage more people to play, but only actual gamers use it. The Recruitment efforts haven't changed so more and more people who don't know games nor care about games are hired.
