CrowdStar Reviews

Pros

- People are friendly, they really seem to enjoy their work and put effort in it.
- It feels like a big family
- Interesting activities. This makes it easier for you to get along with other employees.
- Shuttle for easy commute from SF

Cons

- Sometimes, I just can't stand Facebook games. I know that's hot these days, and working on games is one of the most fun job ever, but it's a little bothering and hard to think of social games as fun.
- You might have to lower your standards when you think about what's a good game
- When I first joined, I expressed my interest in doing more than just my engineering job, like evolve my position into game design, art, or management. This was perceive as a negative rather than a positive.
- I have to say, the free lunch perk, it's not that great.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know what i would change. It's hard to find anything bad to say about this company, when you see that everyone is so great and friendly. Perhaps I can be a bit worried sometimes that too many good things might make people less productive

Pros

Great employees with positive attitude and who come to work! CrowdStar Culture great...a lot of activities for employees to get to know each other. Free lunch everyday, employees have a good sense of humor and long joke e-mail threads happen almost daily. Cool artwork on the walls and free parking. Also health benefits really good.

Cons

Management has no idea what they are doing. Company direction changes week to week...first we make facebook games, then girl games, etc. Upward mobility is not encouraged. Some people are very unprofessional. But biggest thing is that it's unclear what we are really doing.

Advice to Senior Management

Figure out your direction and stick with it. You can't do anything great unless you stick with something long enough

Pros

Free yoga and lunch. Beware that this takes place in the same room. Social gaming is a new space, so it's cool to work something that can be considered innovative. Great place to grow only because so much is expected of the employees. Maybe if you land under the right manager this would be a satisfactory place to work.

Cons

No A/C. Some meeting rooms were unbearably hot. Give me A/C over free yoga/lunch any day. Some VPs needed major attitude checks. Like a previous reviewer said, the founders were constantly trying to flip the company. This might be a plus for someone who wants to cash out on equity, but I wanted to build a sustainable business. Games are buggy and slow. You don't feel great working here because it's obvious that you're trying to squeeze every last cent out of the users. No work/life balance for some teams.

Advice to Senior Management

Inspire your employees to create beautiful, user-friendly games instead of what you currently focus on.

Pros

- Relaxed and professional environment.
  - They provide free lunch and dinner
  - They take company trips
  - overall fun

Cons

- low pay
  - make ambiguous games
  - no true company goals
  - Seniors/Management have low skill levels

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees more and allow them to use there skills to the maximum. Don't do things like hire out of state people and try to pay them pennys. Share more company goals and allow employees to know whats going on a head of time. Overall, be truthful and let everyone know whats happening.

Pros

- Company about to launch many products developed externally and internally
- Move to mobile was the right direction
- Massive hiring was the right decision
- Good annual trips for employees (not the hordes of contractors)

Cons

- Rotating door below founders - CEO and VPs all replaced
- Terrible managers promoted to VP
- Founders always trying to sell the company
- Don't know who's running the company
- All new employees only hired as contractors

Advice to Senior Management

Build a sustainable business, not one you can flip

Pros

Lax atmosphere, great people to work with, catered lunches, fun work, challenging programming problems, creativity is rewarded, fun company trips, paid dinners when working late, schedule is flexible

Cons

Salary might be lower than expected depending...

Advice to Senior Management

This year has been great so far. Last year was a little rough, but the direction the company is headed now is great.