Pros: Inclusive culture Collaborative environment A great place to level up your skillsets

Cons: Lack of pay leveling, as folks had to resign and return to get the pay they deserve.

Pros: The benefits are great overall. Many, if not all, of the people you work with are super nice. Lots of swag for those who like free stuff. Also, some of the companies Blizzard works with have Blizzard-only discount codes.

Cons: Management needs to get a bit more organized. It's a hard balance, I know. But having more management does not solve poor management skills. Hire managers that went to school for a master's and have been managing professionally for years. Promoting from within is a good thing. But also take note of teams that avoid upper management. Good employees will be good no matter what their upper management is. This does not mean you can't ignore signs of bad managers. Pay overall is a bit below industry salaries. This is somehow supposed to balance out with bonuses. However, the bonuses over time have become flat compared to prior years for a number of valid reasons.

Pros: Cutting Edge software development (roughly a new thing here at Blizzard). Amazing staff and peers. You will feel like a family with your team, and Blizzard has tons of team-building events on most teams. Some teams are excluded from this by personal preference. Great and competitive pay for the SoCal area. It's not what you could make at a non-gaming company in SEA or SF, but it's definitely good for Irvine (engineering perspective only). Profit sharing is awesome. Everyone at Blizzard gets profit sharing if you are a full-time employee of Blizzard. The closer you are to games and the more seniority you have, the higher your share will be, but everyone gets something! On-campus classes to learn and expand your skills. This has been growing now for some time, with more and more classes becoming available. Tons of swag, access to Activision games as well, and being a part of the numerous Activision/Blizzard events hosted by the companies.

Cons: Large corporation politics: You will need to play nice and play fair, but also play the political game. Mostly meaning that knowing and befriending the right person can generally secure you a promotion. Hard work doesn't go unnoticed, but can be overshadowed due to nepotism or relationships. The numerous amount of teams and lack of alignment between game teams, services teams, and web and mobile teams can make it hard to know what is what. This also makes it difficult to incite change or purpose change due to the sheer number of dependencies needed. Your personal growth within the company can be a bit of a confusion. Most of your managers don't really understand growth within the company or your path for promotion. Most people will tell you to speak to your manager, but the managers themselves fail to understand the organizational structure, halting you dead in your tracks. If you want to climb the ladder here, be prepared to do your homework and proactively look for opportunities; they won't come to you.