Electronic Arts

I have learned a lot in terms of quality assurance principles that I had not had exposure to during college.

The people I worked with in all teams were amazing. They were kind, empathetic people who really cared about the quality of the product. Notice that I am not talking about middle-high management here.

The facility is also great, with good office space, a good cafeteria, outside areas, a dog park, a gym, courts, and snacks. You name it.

The salary for this position is well below average for testers in BC, including game companies. The main issue is that the corporate level uses the passion and lack of experience testers have in order to offer a really low salary, since there's always a big competition for those positions from people who want to start in the gaming market.

Also, you need to keep in mind that this position is temporary. You either get promoted as an Associate Quality Designer after 18 months (which you are competing with every senior tester), or you are out in the street and need to wait 3 months before you can try another temporary contract again in the same company. This is not made clear when you sign the contract. A lot of people don't know this, even though it's a normal practice in BC, and I only found that out way too late in my contract.

In my opinion, this role is worth it if you are starting your career, are absolutely passionate with the game you're going to be working on to the point you don't care about how much you'll be paid or that it's temporary, and you don't have knowledge of software development (something you'd already have if you did a tech bachelors or a diploma in your life). Otherwise, you should try for a Software Engineer or something that leverages your education experience.

Management at the CEO level needs to understand that it's better to foster a centralized team, rather than opening studios in other countries just to spend less with employees and decentralize operations.

It just puts more money in billionaires' pockets and degrades the work experience and product quality for everyone.