DreamWorks Animation reviews

The quality of the food and other perks have taken a bit hit in the last year or two Less feeling of job stability lately in all departments Some teams are run with an iron fist, and engineers unlucky enough to be on those teams are given very little opportunity to innovate. Some managers use questionable means of evaluating effort/progress of individuals. Minimal opportunity to advance. Career progression biased towards seniority (years of service) rather than pure performance. Other than cost-of-living adjustments, no raises are awarded except for promotion to another engineering level, which can take several years. Engineering standards inconsistent from team to team. Some teams take great care to produce robust, well tested software that follows company coding standards. Other teams commit unfinished, low-quality, poorly tested code with no repercussions. Upper management sees no problem with this. Bonus program tied to overall profit of company, not merit based. Designed to pay out only when company does very well, and seemingly easy for company to manipulate numbers to avoid paying a bonus.

1) Tools/infrastructure is age old; after having worked in the hi-tech industry, it was kind of a shocker for me 2) For an engineer interested in working on cutting-edge technology, job scope scope is very limited. I am comparing with my experience in companies like Google, Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, etc (where either I have worked or interviewed with) and based on my experience & interest, I won't be inclined to work at Dreamworks (that being the reason I left relatively quickly). With that being said, Dreamworks might compare favorably with other movie companies (Pixar, Disney, ILM, etc) but I don't have any firsthand information on the same. 3) Compensation: doesn't compare favorably with hi-tech industry like the one's above. Minimal to zero stock benefits, no ESPP, minimal 401K match; the base salary is somewhat reasonable, may be a bit lower than the industry standard.