Pros
Open ended PTO, free lunch, dinner and unlimited snacks/soda/cereal if you work in Santa Monica. Basketball court, tons of gaming areas, well stocked pantries, good coffee shop, and so on. Super passionate co-workers. Benefits are very generous for full-time employees.
Cons
Do you like corporate spin? Welcome aboard, bro! Do you like dealing with people who can never give you a straight answer about why a terrible decision is being made in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is going to be a disaster? Do you like working for people who know less about your craft than you do but are in charge for unexplainable reasons? You'll get to experience managers or dev leads who are super at making convincing, Riot-buzzword-laden PowerPoints but have no practical experience in the departments they run. Do you like having the Riot Manifesto used as a weapon to shut down dissenting opinions? Managers will block real questions about a bad decisions being made with “Well this is what the players want and if you’re so misaligned then maybe you shouldn’t be here.” When their terrible decisions blow up and harm things they'll just shrug and say, “I guess that wasn’t the right call after all.” Zero consequences. Put that on repeat. Do you like getting reasonable, semi-regular raises? Sorry! Getting a raise is tied to the fear your managers have of pushing for and having to justify it to the same department heads that make all the bad decisions. Riot’s “meritocracy” feels like a way to say “If you stay in the same job you will NEVER get a raise.” Sorry, if you just like doing your job. That’s not enough. Oh, you’re doing more? Sorry, your manager didn’t want to fight for it. You aren't likely to get a raise unless you have a title change. This may work for some departments/roles but it makes no sense to use it across the board. Like being kept in the loop? Sorry! Riot's inability to communicate internally and get departments to work together is legendary. Want to duplicate work other teams are already doing? You're in the right place! Want to move from one department at Riot to another (aka Lane Swap)? Good luck! Unless you're a super-ultra-alpha-achiever this is a one-way trip out of the company. I have witnessed people get permission to seek other opportunities in the company from their managers only to have those same managers torpedo their chances in these other departments for political/personal reasons. Even if you do get permission to move, this process will take a minimum of 6 months to a year to actually happen.
