Electronic Arts

• Good place to start after college.
• Good "team spirit", nice colleagues.
• You get to learn much-needed general things about development, project flow, source control, and other such topics.
• You get to work on big titles, and your name will be listed in the "About" section for your pleasure and the envy of many :)
• It looks very good on your CV.

• Pay is less than the market average for entry-level positions. For higher levels, you need to negotiate hard the first time, because raises are not consistent.

• You risk serious damage to your career if this is your first job and you stay here long enough. There is only so much you can learn when working on games, using SDKs written by others, and tools developed elsewhere (I am speaking specifically about the Bucharest studio here).

Don't fall into the "games need extreme optimization" trap. Games need specific extreme optimization that will usually not be applicable to anything else. Also, tight deadlines will usually mutilate optimization to such an extent that it will become the opposite.

• EA is a big name on a resume, and expectations will be high. It is hard to explain that niche development for a big company will not necessarily mean good generic development for any other company. This will be worse for higher-level employees.

• Back-breaking unpaid overtime before major releases.

• You can become "extinct" by another person's mistake in another team. That person will not become "extinct", but you will :)