Riot Games

The culture here is greatly suited to gamers. You are expected to enjoy games, and you can almost always have a good conversation about games with anyone that works here.

It's not a company that babysits and holds your hand. You're given a lot of freedom to work on things, which is great for engineers. Of course, sometimes this means people end up making mistakes, but Riot is very open to mistakes and owns up to them.

There's tons of room to work on different parts of the company, both in and out of your core competency. An engineer can choose to work on an engineering task that he wants to grow in. An accountant can shadow and attempt to work as an engineer, or vice versa.

Heavy feedback culture. People tell you what they think of you, which leads to great improvements in both your professional and personal life.

You're never counting down the hours until the end of the day. Most days I look at the clock and say, "Damn... I wish I had more time today!"

• Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle.

All the freedom people get tends to lead to inefficiencies in some areas.

• Heavy meeting culture. This is not true for all teams within Riot, but it's generally agreed upon that this is the case. Sometimes entire days are booked with meetings, and it's hard to find time to work on the things you want to work on.

• Work-life balance is something that is unique to each individual, so I can only judge based on my own experience. You spend and take on as much responsibility as you choose to. That being said, it's always expected for the person to raise the bar on their own accord, which leads to issues of spending too much time in the office working. Of course, this is something that is not always the case and can be managed.