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DreamWorks Animation

Part of NBCUniversal

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DreamWorks Animation reviews

4.2

82% would recommend to a friend

(119 total reviews)

Margie Cohn

78% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

119 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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2.0
Aug 9, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free lunch and breakfast Nice Glendale campus Easy to get a movie credit Low stress, in general it's a pleasant place to spend time.

Cons

Aging and inept software managers. The seat-warmers rule the roost - if you challenge the status quo with new ideas you're marked. Unless you come up with a great idea, which will be stolen and credit given to the "favorite" engineers. This happened to me at least three times in my 3 years there. Low compensation. Lame benefits. HR will try to lock you into a three year contract, which only Dreamworks has option to terminate. Old school Hollywood hardball negotiation tactics - check the news for "DreamWorks wage fixing". No opportunity for advancement. Only the golden kids have the good ideas, remember? Cliques - if you're not in, you don't exist, your ideas don't matter. Honestly, avoid like the plague unless: 1. You have a burning passion to spend your career as seat warmer in a old Hollywood dinosaur studio. 2. Or you're a recent grad who'd like some movie credits before moving on to the games industry, where you'll actually learn something.

4.0
Aug 5, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I love the perks, but stay for the culture. I've never worked somewhere so helpful and friendly.

Cons

A number of scandals, including participating in industry-wide wage fixing and an SEC investigation and class-action lawsuit over misstating recent earnings coupled with underperforming movies and a management structure that doesn't seem to be addressing the company's problems make me worry for the future of the company.

1.0
Aug 5, 2014

Worst job as a R&D engineer

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

One can get movie credits and see his/her name on the movie screen. Pretty thats the only brownie point I can think of from the perspective of an R&D engineer

Cons

I hope, this list doesn't get too long: 1) Very poor compensation compared to the other industries. I worked as a R&D engineer at Dreamworks and now work as a Software engineer in one of the big companies like Apple or Google. In 3+ years from the time I left Dreamworks, my overall compensation package (salary + yearly bonus + yearly RSU + 401K match) has nearly doubled (my current compensation package is ~1.8X times my last pay package at Dreamworks). 2) Minimal stock benefits: no yearly RSU's or any RSU at the time of joining; no ESPP or any other stock benefits 3) Minimal 401K match 4) Stagnant manangement consisting of people who have been around for 10+ years 5) Using computation and software tools from the previous millennium for development work 6) Stale maintenance work as a R&D engineer; no scope of being at the forefront of technology. 7) Some of the older colleagues (who have been at Dreamworks) for 10+ years are terrible to work with. I have checked with quite a few newer colleagues who have left Dreamworks around ~2 years and all of them have simile experience. 8) Of late, no job stability; regular layoffs as Dreamworks itself is in bad shape. To sum up, never work here as a R&D engineer; its enough to ruin one's career!

Viewing 91 - 93 of 119 Reviews

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