Pros: Teams are truly cross-functional. Because you know everyone on your team is a rock star, it's easy to value and engage everyone's opinion. Everyone here is a gamer. There is no hate for other gaming companies or products. We like good games, and we want to make them and play them. If you are tenacious, honest, and talented, there is a ton of room for career growth, even in the company's post-startup phase. It is not easy or automatic, but the opportunities are there. There's a very entrepreneurial vibe here. See something that needs improvement? Start having conversations and make it happen. There is an open PTO policy, and I am constantly encouraged to take more advantage of it. There is a lot of intellectual desire to be good about work/life balance, but people do get caught up in the presumed importance of what they are doing and forget not to crunch. Sometimes crunch is even necessary, but I've never been on a team where this was true for extended periods of time. In short, Riot wants to have good work-life balance, and the tools are given to everyone to achieve that, but most of us fail to achieve it.

Cons: Because it is highly entrepreneurial, Riot can be an uncomfortable place for people who are not assertive and proactive. Alpha-type dominant personalities have a strong advantage here, and though efforts are made to include less forceful sorts in decision-making processes, they are still often left behind. No one is going to pick you up and put you in the awesome promotion you want. If you want to grow, talk to everyone about it, get allies, get mentors, and shadow people. Be the primary owner of your own growth. It's not likely that anyone else will do this for you. We're still dealing with growing pains and haven't figured out the most effective ways to function at the scale we are at. There is some disorganization, missteps, and overcorrections, but there is also an intense desire to improve and fix those underlying issues.

Pros: Working with Games: Great benefits.

Cons: Nothing that I can list as a con.

Pros: The best group of folks I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and I've been doing the software gig for a long time. Everyone, from summer college interns to senior crew, has insightful, relevant perspectives to offer to anyone willing to ask. I know that I can go to _anyone_ at Riot, President on down, with a question, an off-the-wall idea, or a concern and get a thoughtful, no-bullshit response from them. I cannot stress how awesome and valuable this is. Riot is fantastic at promoting personal growth. If you get hired in a position but decide you might be a better fit or happier elsewhere in the org, they go above and beyond to help you transition and succeed.

Cons: Not much to say here. Prior to Riot, I worked with firms where downtime or interruptions more than a couple of seconds long would lead to Very Bad Things. Sometimes we identify player-impacting problems with straightforward solutions that take, in my opinion, too much time to implement.