Walt Disney Animation Studios Reviews

Pros

ANIMATION IS MY CAREER

Cons

There was good environment. but i leave reason of only very far distance my native place.

Advice to Management

There management is good.

Pros

Good studio to work for

Cons

I have no cons to offer

Pros

-Interesting and challenging projects -Work with other industry leaders across the massive Disney corporation -Work with rockstar artists (do other artists have their own instagram hashtag?) and industry renowned technical folk -Ambitious future plans -Fun work environment: lots of relevant industry events, screenings, and weekly team building activities -Open environment for publishing work and ideas,... encouraged to attend various festivals, conferences, and industry shows. Open Houses to shmooze with other industry folk. -People generally seem positive and dedicated -Rolling opportunities to pitch new risky ideas -Decent compensation and benefits for the work-life balance, though not at the $$$ level with the 5 Big Tech companies. But at least you don't need to shower after slinging ads or selling/leaking personal information to nefarious organizations. -Work on movies at an iconic company with an almost 100 year celebrated legacy -You feel like the end product really does make the world a better place: at work are posted childrens' letters on recognizing bias and racism after Zootopia, Pacific Islanders visited after Moana to describe the positive impact it had on their communities.

Cons

-Loss of some good people over the past couple years, with some voids left unfilled -It's a big company and it can feel like one -Minimal QA and build support available for the technical folk -Diminishing bonus perks (like Disneyland block out dates getting worse) -Your friends will never stop asking you for cheap Disneyland tickets

Advice to Management

-Upcoming streaming business can help address historically stagnant career advancement opportunities -Minimize administrative overhead -Keep taking risks and trust your employees!

Pros

Fun environment. Nice building with art everywhere. Interesting activities, movie screenings, etc. People will be impressed that you work there. You're surrounded by spectacularly talented artists. You get to work on movies, and pretty decent ones too. Hours are good. You get into the Disney parks for free (well in theory -- there are a whole lot of blackout dates). Pay is OK. Wrap parties are fun. Some... opportunities to get sent to conferences and such. Some really, really great people here.

Cons

The artists are the stars here, and if you're not one you're second tier. It's not terrible, but you will probably be jammed in a weird corner of the basement, and you won't get a shout out at wrap parties or anything. This is a company by artists, for artists. The tech management over the last few years is a real problem from the CTO on down. They talk a good game about doing big things and I think they mean... well, but they're indecisive, there is a crazy amount of micromanagement, and they play favorites so you better be real good at politics. Quality of engineering is inconsistent. Chances for advancement or promotion are rare. Initiative is mostly not rewarded. There are still some really great engineers here but the quality of the staff is decreasing as many of the really good engineers have gotten fed up and left. It's too bad because this could be a great engineering org, but instead it's very medium tier and slowly getting worse as the talent leaves. If you're a mediocre software engineer, you could do worse. The paycheck is steady. If you're really good though, you can honestly do a lot better (not just a FAANG, you have lots of options), make a lot more money and work in a place that appreciates you.

Advice to Management

If you actually want a world class technical staff, show them some trust instead of trying to micromanage every tiny thing. Find the people who actually make impact, give them some room to actually do some useful work and support them, and get out of their way. If you don't care, then keep doing what you're doing. Lots of recruiters hitting up your engineers.

Pros

- family oriented - lots of resources within the company to help you grow as an artist - generous sharing of knowledge among employees across departments to help each other out - generally safe and respectful work environment

Cons

- hourly rate is lower compared to other studios

Advice to Management

- create more opportunity of growth for everyone

Pros

Some of the most talented and creative people in the industry work here. I learned a lot in short space of time and felt privileged to be a member of my team. Being at the fount of Disney's creative output felt very special and the company goes out of its way to make the studio an inspiring place to work. The perks were good (if often food-related) and employee bonuses were also welcome.

Cons

Coming from the UK, I found the 10 days accrued vacation and the endless overtime very hard to adjust to. While the latter was optional, I felt like it was needed to meet production deadlines and make the salary feel competitive.

Pros

Competitive pay. Creative environment and talented co workers. Nice perks .

Cons

Management fosters a culture of fear of losing your job. Very cliquish. Mixed bag of cool people and a-holes. Very corporate.

Advice to Management

Encourage creativity and cooperation and quit promoting psychopaths.

Pros

None. There is potential and the place is full of talented individual contributors. Management decisions are however shady and counter productive.

Cons

Way too much focus on feeding egos and too little on improving the status quo.

Advice to Management

Better accountability for top management.