Blizzard

Great company to work for. People are friendly; everyone loves playing games. It is a 100% nerd environment.

VanPool is a great option for those who live in LA County, for example. I moved closer to Irvine a while back because they did not have a vanpool option. Now that they do, it opens options to move elsewhere if I wish. I likely won't, but it's good to have more options.

Freebies and swag are great.

Rapid growth means growing pains. I have seen other companies grow this fast, and it can be difficult to hold your core values as you diversify in talent.

Housing costs in Orange County are outrageous. It's about $400-800/sq foot, or about $2500-2800 for rentals ranging in the 1000 square foot range. This requires your base pay to be around $80k for a single person, more likely $100-120k for 2-3, and $130k for a family of 4. This means that both parents likely need to be working.

The health benefits are expensive compared to other companies and what you get from them. Though the recent changes are better, they are not as good as what most of my comparable industry friends tell me.

Bonuses are great and get slightly larger the longer you are at Blizzard. But the increases seem to have stagnated and stayed flat for a while now. It is still going up, but not at the same rate as the first few years I was working. This maybe an individual thing.

Food options on campus have just recently gotten slightly better. But expect to pay around $10 per meal on campus or in any of the locations in Irvine.

OC traffic has increased significantly in the past few years. A 20-minute commute consistently is now more like 40-50 minutes during morning and evening rush hour. This means population growth is rapid in the area. Just in my area alone, several condos and large rental units have been built all along my commute. Rapid growth means freeway and road congestion.

If it takes you 1 hour to commute and the pay is less than what you can get working in LA, for example, it makes it hard for new talent to consider employment. And as the commutes and cost of living rise, you risk losing great talent as well (already starting to see this happen).

Irvine also suffers from rapid growing pains. Many new companies are moving in. The landscape is changing at a significant rate.

Don't hide all the decisions you are making that affect the daily life of employees. This can be counterproductive and creates unnecessary tension.

Fix your review process. For two years, emails and surveys say you are doing just that. But the proposed idea is not much different than the current review process.

Some management say the review does not impact bonus. Be more transparent on exactly how the bonus and merit is calculated. Most people are ignoring the reviews for two reasons:

• The review, once written, can't or won't be changed based on feedback from the individual.
• Questioning the profit-sharing process is frowned upon.

It's fantastic we get profit sharing. But honestly, if we have a bad profit year or years, profit sharing would suddenly go away. Counting on a bonus to make ends meet, I'm sure, is not what Blizzard wants in the end. And some heavily rely on the bonus.