Electronic Arts

Two cafeterias, free coffee and tea, 401k matching, free EA games, and free movie rentals.

Don’t get into QA thinking you can advance. They do some shady stuff to keep people down. And being a female does not make you equal at all. My male counterparts were promoted doing the exact same work I was.

As for getting out of QA, four people moved to dev in the eight years I was there. Not a lot of support for that sort of thing from management. And experience and knowledge mean nothing; they will let you go if you don’t fit into their mold.

To the new managers: listen to your direct reports and actually act on it. Don’t just listen, but actually help them do something good.

Stop hiring people right off their first contract. They tend to sit on their laurels after they get converted and don’t appreciate what they have.

Do things for the team instead of for the managers.