Some great people, fun projects, sparkly campus, but at its core, its a rotten company.
Pros
My perspective is the sum of my personal experiences at Riot over 4.5 years there as a manager. I left on my own accord and on good terms. Your experience may be entirely different. Choose your adventure wisely. - The executive team and the entire company has really focused heavily on changing Riot for the better when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and it definitely shows. (I don't think this would have been the case though unless Kotaku broke the article about it. Leadership at Riot is entrenched.) - Really fun campus to work at (if you work in Los Angeles) - There are some of the most amazing individuals I have ever met and worked with there. - Working on games is fun. - You will grow a lot at Riot. - Riot pays well. - Fully subsidized coffee and food! - A lot of opportunities to speak directly to the company leadership if you are comfortable asking questions in front of the entire company. - Play games at work is fun. - Great open schedule with as much time off as you want.
Cons
- The smart but inexperienced often get put in charge (if they're popular "yes" types) of the seasoned experienced people and subject matter experts, which leads to infinite cycles of grey hairs, screaming into the void, and tears. - Raising real concerns about issues when it directly calls into question decisions leaders make is a big no no. Quickest path to nowhere at Riot on most teams. - Riot can be pretty clique-y. - “Business Unit Leaders” / departmental heads battle with one another constantly and the CEO is too new and inexperienced to make calls to rectify problems. - Prepare yourself for lots of politics. - Finding anything (assets, knowledge, etc...) in the company requires Sherlock Holmes level investigative techniques. - A group of original people who started at Riot with minimal outside experience have been promoted to director/VP levels - They are pretty much immune to being fired, short of being the subject of an expose by a journalist. They are entrenched. Some of them are bullies. Some of them have no social skills. Some of them are grossly incompetent people who only surround themselves with "yes" people. Some of them create or have created highly toxic workplaces. "good ol boys club" mentality is still in full swing at Riot, even if they're not sexually harassing people anymore. - Riot doesn't do a great job at aligning goals from the front lines up to the CEO. There is no OKR type system, so things can get really messy and confusing. - The "product" and "delivery" disciplines are in charge of everything, yet they are the most unorganized group at the company. - HR/Talent is a dysfunctional organization. They are not your friend and they are not invested in YOU as an employee. They are purely there to reduce liability for Riot. They operate in total secrecy. They report to a department leader, not to someone in charge of HR which is an inherent conflict of interest. Don't trust them. - Culturally, you will be expected to “be positive”. It reminds me a lot of Theranos or the Fyre festival. (Watch those documentaries, they're good!). This comes at the expense of leaders finding out what’s really wrong with products or teams and doing things about it. Or if they know, they don't care to change. The majority of the time, most concerns or problems have the feeling of being “swept under the rug”. - If a leader is at fault, problems are usually not addressed without anything short of a public outcry. This often creates a secret toxic environment you should be very aware of. A lot of leaders within Riot want "Yes" people, not people who challenge their thinking or raise issues. If you want an example of this, Riot's sexual harassment culture didn't change until a string of Kotaku articles embarrassed leadership publicly enough for them to change things. This is endemic to Riot's senior leadership across so many fronts, its hard to count. - Steer clear of IPC (IP Creative, formerly known as CDev and IPSD - they've had to re-brand themselves several times. Make of that what you will.) They’re completely dysfunctional, have incompetent and abusive leaders, and will cause you a lot of pain. You will walk away with serious scar tissue if you work there. Their reputation is infamous within the company. - Steer clear of international publishing. It's a huge mess. There is constant infighting between all of the departmental leaders across Riot.
