Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Irvine, California
Process
It took about 2 weeks to first hear back from someone, and my initial phone screen was about 2 weeks after that. It was half behavioral (talking about past job experiences) and half standard technical questions (algorithm runtimes, etc).
It took a week to hear back, and I was given a 4-hour at-home coding test. It should be pretty simple for anyone with a few years of experience. I did 'extra credit' since I finished the initial problem in 2 hours, which may have helped.
After another 3 weeks of waiting, I had my on-site interview. It started with a 2-hour coding test with seemingly simple, yet deep questions – they were easy to answer but tricky to optimize, especially with the timer ticking.
Afterwards, an hour was spent going over the answers with 2 lead engineers. This part was really enjoyable, as we were able to discuss each question and how it could be done better and more efficiently. It's a way for you to explain what you were thinking, and learn a few things yourself, which is much better than just getting a "no" and going home.
After the technical interview was a lunch interview with management, an interview with producers, and an interview with peers. These were all roughly the same personality-type questions about how you approach problems and what you've been doing at your past jobs, etc. As this was a UI-related role, there was UI discussion about the game team I was interviewing for. Overall, the whole process took about 7 hours.
It was a great interview process, but it took about twice as long as I had hoped. Expect to wait at least a week in between all conversations for scheduling. At the end, I was called and told what the team liked and disliked about me and why they wouldn't be moving forward, and their feedback matched up exactly with how I felt (I should have applied to a non-senior position for a significantly higher chance). I'll probably try to apply again in a few years.
Questions
What are 3 words your co-workers would use to describe you?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 11 interview experiences for the Blizzard Senior Software Engineer role in Irvine, California.
Success Rate
Blizzard's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Irvine, California is on the easier side as most engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Blizzard's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Irvine, California.
Blizzard Work Experiences
- 3.0The pay is mediocre, but the name is... you know, marginally tarnished?Senior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeIrvine, California, United StatesSeptember 21, 2023Pros: People accost you with their WoW opinions, unprovoked.Cons: You're abused on social media for working very hard.
- 5.0Great Team, Lower SalarySenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeIrvine, California, United StatesJanuary 5, 2024Pros: Equal opportunity, trustable colleagues, and focusing on the products.Cons: Less salary than other giant tech companies.
- 1.0It used to be fun for the family, but it's not the same anymoreSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeIrvine, California, United StatesFebruary 10, 2019Pros: There really aren't many pros anymore. Blizzard used to have a real family feel; people would hang out after work together, play board games, have a few drinks, and work late nights without even caring. It felt like we all had each other's backs, and management was trusted. Now people come to work, do the required hours, and leave. The passion has been fading slowly. Now it's just a job. Right now, the only pro is saying, "I work at Blizzard." Or maybe, "We have statues in the office." The pro is most definitely not the pay, because it's terrible compared to any comparable tech company. Basically, if you move to Amazon, Google, Facebook, or Netflix, etc., you have a good chance of more than doubling your money. You may get the chance (if you're on the right team) to work with good and passionate people. However, recently, the best people have been leaving engineering positions like rats leaving a sinking ship.Cons: So many cons. There is a "good old boy" form of leadership who have risen up to senior levels across the company because they're friends with other old school Blizzard guys. These people think that because they were involved with WoW or Starcraft back in the day, it means they're geniuses and everything they say or do now must be the right thing. However, they don't realize that the games industry and tech in general has changed, and they have not adapted to the changing times. These guys might be good in individual contributor roles, but they are terrible at senior management. This is the "Peter Principle" in action as you watch in astonishment. Levels of incompetency that are so ridiculous it looks like something you might see in "Silicon Valley" or some other comedy show. These guys enjoy their senior positions while making terrible strategic decisions, not realizing that huge amounts of talent is leaving the company and huge amounts of money have been wasted due to poor decision making and investments. The pay is terrible. If you compare salaries for any form of enterprise engineering, whether it's for data engineering, backend, front-end, infrastructure, network, SRE, etc, you will earn 50% less or worse when compared to other tech companies. There is poor transparency over salaries and salary bands. Any discussion of individual salaries is deterred, probably because there are people earning 100k here who could be earning 200k+ at Google. The engineers earning 180k at Blizzard could be earning 300-400k total comp in San Francisco. This isn't hyperbole. This is the "Blizzard tax." It used to be that people were willing to pay this Blizzard tax to work at a fun and family-friendly company, the company of your dreams. Well, Blizzard isn't like that anymore, and so if you're no longer going to work at a place of your dreams, why keep earning significantly less? Depending on your team, you could work in a toxic environment. Some teams are better than others in this regard. Other teams have a terrible reputation across the company... *cough* Battle.net *cough cough*
