Niantic

The effort put in to make the world of Niantic magic is kind of special. Especially with the joy people have for Pokémon around the office and on desks, and seeing large groups of people go nearly daily to do raids in Pokémon Go. It's also great to introduce people to the world of Ingress and secretly form plans against the other Ingress faction. It's nice to really get to know the players of Niantic games because it feels as if they are being made for the people that make it.

The teams are still small, so everyone ends up with a lot of responsibility and feels a part of the team, even when you work with people that have been around since the start.

The amount of people responsible for some large task is sometimes one. It is the downside of teams being small, and it can lead to some very focused moments of stress or crunch. That is the responsibility of the individual to identify and hopefully spread out if there is anyone who is not already in that situation with a different task.

There was monetary compensation but no actual help in moving to work for Niantic. This bothered me, but I'm not sure how much of a greater issue this would be.

There is some disorganization in the way things get done that has not yet grown to match where the company wants to be. While this is getting better, it worries me how many mistakes could be avoided (but then again, hindsight is 20/20).

There are a few steps that could be taken to improve the relocation process.

Making it easier for people to get the right starting advice would go a long way, I think.