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Constant struggle to meet unrealistic expectations in a land of stunning visual beauty

Senior Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Disney for 4 years
March 18, 2015
Palo Alto, California
3.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Most individual contributors are genuinely good people, devoted to the team and hard-working.

Some of the low-level managers are sympathetic to their team members.

Some professional growth is available if you push hard for it.

Most of the artists are incredibly talented.

Great opportunities to work across disciplines and learn from a diverse set of coworkers.

Bonuses are occasionally available for performance.

The people at the very top of The Walt Disney Company organization chart are good people with good ideas who know how to steer the ship.

Corporate benefits at TWDC are excellent.

Cons

Managers of individual contributors generally mean well, but are not trained on how to get the most out of their team members. They are generally not provided with any resources to help them manage.

Projects are often started with half (or less) of the required personnel but still expected to meet deadlines. Petty drama between large-team managers causes numerous months' delay in the ability to hire new individual contributors.

Most of the struggle for profitability is borne by individual contributors working nights and weekends, but most of the rewards are given to upper management. There is very little room for professional growth.

Cross-company collaboration was extremely difficult and only open on personal back-channels. Few training opportunities exist, and those may take numerous months to get approved.

Engineers are not given the time to write stable code and are actively discouraged from writing test suites.

Advice to Management

Stop overworking your employees. Focus on your best asset: people.

Comp time is not expensive. Company swag is not a proper reward.

Don't expect stable/quality products from engineers who are chastised for and actively discouraged from taking the time to write stable/quality code.

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