Mafia culture. Great for 1%, Ugly for 99%
Pros
* Be your own CEO: is true for most parts. Anyone (Designer, Artist, PM, Engineer, QA, Community) can impact the game by innovative initiatives. You will get enough opportunities to test our your intuition, and hone your game skills. * Fast moving culture: You do 1 years worth of work in 1 quarter. Thus have big wins weekly, monthly. You commit many mistakes and learn a lot in a compressed period of time. * Meritocracy: In most parts. Very numbers driven company. At least, an year or two ago, the person moving the bigger number wins. Good while things were growing.
Cons
* Meritocracy: Meritocratic culture is dying. Politics and finding the right God Father can help you better than your real value addition. * Nepotism: Lop-sided promotions. You will see many inexperienced Directors, VPs from the old-timer's list. If you are not in the inner circle, you are wasting your time. * HR has too much power. Probably the most hated HR team in the world. One wonders whether they work to make employee's life better, or celebrate themselves and their chief everyday. Its ridiculous. * Sign up your life for Zynga: You are a bonded labor. Forget the weekends, forget your family. Terrible place for married people. You will find enough thrill at the work-place, but kiss your happiness good-bye. You shouldn't promise your husband a dinner date. You can't live up to it. * Open ended vacation policy is actually awful: It results people taking much less vacation than the 1 week per quarter promised. * Week Analysis: The PMs are numbers driven, but I don't respect most of them. Doesn't feel like they really understand numbers. * They don't care: Zynga doesn't care really. The Execs don't care. Everyone works for the bonus, and the stock (which is no longer valuable). If it is worth it for you, then take it. If you can get into the 1% inner circle, then do it. Else don't waste your time.
