Riot Games

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.

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.

There is far too much hiring of leadership from outside the company. Bringing hotshots into the company is awesome, and I appreciate every one of those people. However, there needs to be a path to make leaders out of high-performing, competent, and charismatic current employees as well.

Otherwise, it feels like growth is artificially capped.