Pros
- Passionate, awesome people to work with from pretty much all departments. Multicultural company with people coming from various parts of Europe and Japan. Lots of gamers, but not only. - Great management - flexible, friendly, funny, on top of everything. It varies from team to team of course. - Great office with lots of commodities (lockers, showers, gaming rooms, bike racks, etc.) - Flexitime: you work during core hours and then you catch up/spend your OT if you worked less/more than required - Good WFH balance compared to other companies (currently 1-2 mandatory office days per week) - Pleasant office culture. You can do socials, you can go to the pub, but people won't annoy you if you don't. - Free Square Enix games!
Cons
- Wages below industry average, especially for London. - No financial support for transports, which are not cheap, and it's not like you can afford anything in zones 1 and 2 (office is located in central London) - Very low career opportunities in lots of departments once you reach intermediary levels. You need to be there at the right place at the right time - if not, you can wait years no matter how hard you work. This was true before all the current layoffs in the industry and this is even truer now. Even then, promotions are centered around people management - there are pretty much no openings for specialists. - Poor communication between regions, and even between some teams of the same region. - Communication silos and low trust from the main office in Japan (which I think is partly the reason why it's the same in other regions). With a few exceptions, they are the parents and you are the kids. It can be pretty hindering and frustrating.