DivX Reviews

Former Employee – worked at DivX full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – good benefit, insurance, and weather

Cons – need improve planning, food, office, and equipment.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – A lot of the people are really nice. Some of the benefits were very creative, although oftentimes deliberately inexpensive, which is fine, it just shouldn't be used to justify a lack of more traditional benefits.

Cons – Obscure, unkind politics. A very political, back-stabbing environment that pretends it isn't. There is a significant lack of sustained direction, and almost no professional management that really knows how to support employees. Overall, I regret ever working there.

Advice to Senior Management – Resign, and make way for adults. transparency and honesty are essential components of trust. When people don't get the facts, the rumor mill takes over which is incredibly destructive. There is a terrible "buddy" network that is destructive.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – 1. Work life balance is good.
2. 4 weeks vacation.

Cons – 1. Look at number of years of experience rather than how smart you are.
2. Not too much growth.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire some smart QA folks and get rid of useless leadership in QA management.

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – - Good compensation for the level of work required.
- Relatively ease of transfer from one functional area to another allowing for personal growth if desired.
- Global company
- Very favorable to work-life balance

Cons – - Stagnant company, not a lot of overall growth.
- Hit & miss on peers, as a lot are unmotivated
- High degree of internal politics amongst middle-level management

Advice to Senior Management – Challenge the work force to meet goals and allow employees to grow and take risks. Overall company needs to increase risk tolerance. But will see if transition to Sonic allows for this change.

Current Employee – been working at DivX

Pros – Capable and fun people to work with
Exciting technology
Good benefits

Cons – Management sold us out!
Just when DivX turned the corner and become profitable, management sells out to a company that doesn't post profits and whose stock is a complete roller coaster

Advice to Senior Management – Rescind the deal or find a better acquirer.

Current Employee – been working at DivX

Pros – We as employees get away with a lot here with all the benefits provided by DivX; sometimes almost too a point of taking it for granted. There are a lot of smart, driven, multifaceted individuals that contribute to one of the most talented teams at any company.

When we all eventually need to move on for personal growth, career growth, etc, we will realize how much we had it good.

Cons – UItimately, even the best team coached poorly produces mediocrity and mediocre products. A good team needs a good visionary, a good leader, and a good mentor... sadly DivX suffers from what many other companies have too. The worst part is, as a small company, mediocrity simply pays the bills, not build a future.

Compensation is ok but by far career advancement is tough and often, showing mild favoritism. With a lack of corporate growth there just isn't anywhere to move to at the moment.

Advice to Senior Management – Honesty, transparency.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at DivX

Pros – Flexible, good work life balance, decent benefits, relaxed environment, & cool co-workers

Cons – Poor products and the management is horrible! No vision, guts, nor potential. Snapshot of a DivX VP: spends all his time making presentations for upper management in order to approve projects that would never see the light of day because he spends too much time squabbling with other VPs and making aimless powerpoints.

Advice to Senior Management – I'm glad you have been bought out. So this message is to sonic. Fire all the VPs and start fresh.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – - Vacation time (PTO) - 4 weeks
- Casual environment
- Heart and passion from the workers
- Some fairly smart people

Cons – - Entirely too much politics
- No chance to succeed if you are part of the "in" crowd
- People are largely under utilized
- Extremely weak management

Advice to Senior Management – Take advantage of the heart and soul of your employees - they want to see success and growth and the management does nothing to encourage and/or grow the business. If you aren't trying to grow the business, step aside and bring others to take over...

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – When I started DivX was still in startup mode and I found the atmosphere exciting as well as a strong software challenge. There are / were talented people there and before the IPO lots of us really thought we were on the way to building a great company with real value to consumers.

Cons – When I left, it was a boring cynical place with lots of money rolling out to the executives and very little sense of what rank + file did or should do. Way too many projects killed in the final hour. In fact, I could've taken the last year off and in terms of the work would've made no difference to the team productivity b/c all we did was build, test, and delete projects. Lots of churn at the mid-management level just left too much spaghetti as far as vision and execution of projects. The executives are now mostly former lawyers + mba's so the competency seems quite low up top.

Advice to Senior Management – Cash out and let someone with a real drive to succeed step in. Go jump with the golden parachute and give the ring to some internet savvy leaders who can make decisions, be bold, and make some moves.

Former Employee – worked at DivX

Pros – Cool flexible place to work with a lot of very smart people. I'm sure a little bit of the old DivX is reminiscent, but it's seemed to have devolved into what is the competition doing, let's do that too. It has a nice open work environment.

Cons – It used to be an open and transparent place wtih lots of enthusiasm, but I think the mgmt now is too concerned with counting their money and playing it safe. They hire really talented people and don't let them shine. The place is ugly with gossip and politics and the "social club" promotions don't put the best people in the best positions. There is also a lack of leadership and decision making on projects. Plus, often work would get farmed out while senkior and competent people are stuck doing low level catch up work on the infamous DivX "fire drills". Almost all of the original visionaries are long gone.

Advice to Senior Management – Start recognizing talent. You're not Sony so start moving quickly like a small nimble company. Bring back transparency. Give people some authority to make calls on projects and lose the group decision making that generally leads to people casting doubts instead of building products. Maybe senior mgmt needs a shakeup. Move in a spirited direction that says DivX and let people shine instead of becoming generic copycat company x with a $3 stock share.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend