Electronic Arts

• Working on a video game, guess what? It's fun.

• Lots of stuff to learn. One year at EA is like three years in other companies. They make you work hard, but at the same time, you learn a lot.

• Decent pay compared to other people on a yearly basis, but hourly, most people will be paid more than you do.

• Poor management; many managers don't know how to manage. Many who do know how to manage either were laid off or left for another company.

• Poor work-life balance; they make you work like a dog and don't pay you for overtime. Because overtime is not paid, managers don't care about proper task estimates. When a project is behind, they will just force people to work overtime. If you don't want to work overtime, they will lay you off or use other pressure to make you work overtime.

On many teams, the typical way you are asked to work on the weekend is like this: "You will be given next Sunday off, but to get that Sunday off, this week, you must work 12 hours/day and work on both Saturday and Sunday this week."

• Raises and bonuses are poor; raises are next to zero or below inflation.

• A lot of politics; people who suck up to higher managers get promoted. Many people who worked hard get laid off, while some people who play WoW all day get kept and stay on the job.

• If you get your stuff done fast because you use your brain, you are rewarded with overtime to help other people. On some teams, if there are bugs that need to be fixed, nobody on the team can go home until all bugs are fixed.

• Outsourcing to India or other countries is not because it's cheaper and makes sense; it's because there's a budget for outsourcing, and the team needs to spend that money on outsourcing.

Visit game teams often, and don't tell them when you are coming. Then you see what the team is really like.