Pros: - Coworkers are technically competent, passionate, and always ready to lend a helping hand. - Working on high-impact projects from the get-go. - High amount of responsibility. - Google-style TGIF meetings with good transparency. - Amazing view of the bay at the office. You think I'm overstating it, but it seriously energizes me. - We are actively making efforts to improve processes in order to mitigate growing pains. Cool benefits: - Free lunch. - All the Ito En tea you can drink. - 15 days PTO, 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time. - Reimbursements for gym, internet, and mobile. - 401k matching. - Insurance. - If you're in the Seattle office, a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Cons: Sometimes our goals are too aggressive, and we end up sacrificing quality for ship time. Experiencing growing pains, which are the cause of some organizational issues and underdeveloped engineering conventions/documentation. Sometimes it feels like we need to pull long hours because of our aggressive goals. However, I also just really like working on Pokemon Go, so that's also a factor. From what I've heard, experience varies quite a bit from team to team, with perception of cost center versus profit center. Despite our efforts towards transparency, we are not fully transparent, e.g., about upcoming project codenames. Meetings can sometimes feel a bit pointless for some attendees.

Pros: Management seems to care very much about your well-being and feelings. They've made it their mission to ensure people feel heard and that the company mission and direction are expressed openly and honestly each week. Throughout the Covid situation, Niantic has been extremely accommodating in the work-from-home environment. Niantic is a proactive tech company trying to lead the world in AR. They're also a game studio. Yet Niantic seems to handle this clash of two different cultures well. There is a firm belief in no-crunch. Health insurance coverage is great.

Cons: The LA office is not the best physical office and not in the best location. Compensation could be a bit higher as well. Hours for the LA office tend to start a little later than normal and therefore end a little later in the day than I desire.

Pros: Engineers are mostly friendly and helpful. I've worked with a few folks who are highly technical and very helpful. Before Covid, we used to play some of our games together, which helped to build close relationships with colleagues.

Cons: When I first joined the company, I felt great. I had friendly and helpful colleagues, and we were working like a family. The work was challenging but fun. I thought I made the right decision to turn down several offers that could have paid me more, if not significantly more. I even took a pay cut when I left my previous company. Even though I don't want to say I shouldn't have taken the offer in the first place, at least I should have left earlier. There are too many engineers who quit or are planning to leave soon. That's a very bad sign for the overall eng org. Promotions are not transparent and sometimes are simply ridiculous. Multiple engineers got promoted too easily/quickly, and some of them were also promoted to managers/leads with minimal working experience, let alone management experience. Their promotions cannot be justified fairly, given the fact we have many other better performers who are left out time and time again. Basically, some of the managers who have real power promote the engineers they like better, regardless of their actual contributions. Ironically, a few high performers also got promoted, but not before they showed their intent to leave the company. We lost some very good folks, including managers, over the past 12 months, and I am not seeing any sign to stop the bleeding soon. They left for different reasons, but when I joined, I heard only a couple of engineers left the company during the first several years. Now it has become a fashion. There are also concerns such as how the company could come up with the next hit game/product, culture, communication, etc. Admittedly, these issues exist in almost every company, though, startups or public companies. One day, if that day ever comes, I'll be very happy if the value of my stock options can be measured by counting green paper instead of white ones.