DreamWorks Animation Reviews

Pros

If you're an artist and you're getting into computer animation, I recommend this job. It's quite fun once you get used to it.

Cons

Not much time off, some stress-related work, interns complain occasionally, and it's sometimes attacked by rabid squirrels, of course, but this is easy to deal with.

Pros

DreamWorks has some extremely cool, talented, and kind people, and I love being able to learn about their part of the pipeline and just getting to know them. The free food is awesome, as well as the art development events and movie-related perks

Cons

I felt that people are not as willing to take the time to teach you things as people often say, and didn't quite receive as much attention as I'd hoped.

Pros

The projects and teams are top rate. They really look after their people, by providing a number of external incentives such as free transport to and from work, they give us free membership to a fully equipped gymnasium with an outdoor pool, and they provide free breakfast and lunch. Management is constantly giving us movie 'swag' from before and after each movie release, and they are open and fair with their company policies.

Cons

As it is a big corporation, they can be very conservative with their work place practices. It can be a little corporate at times. The commute from San Francisco to Redwood city is a pain in the arse, as it is an hour and a half each way, to I spend a total of 3 hours in transit every day....Mind you, I don't own a car.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you're doing. It's a really great place to work.

Pros

Great campus, free food, yoga classes, improv comedy class, sculpture class, life drawing class, illustration class, speakers, benefits, great CEO, encouraging team, great people, lots of parties, tons of free stuff, postiive mindset. A great place to learn, grow, develop, absorb, express, seek, and flourish.

Cons

The salary I make isn't quite as high as I could get elsewhere, but it's still good. Lots of emails and some work flows are archaic, though we're working on improving them.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up what you are doing. Keep encouraging. We are very thankful for all the perks and benefits and the supportive leadership style.

Pros

Creative place. Great mix of technical and artistic people. Open culture and very flexible with work hours. Great perks of working at an Animation studio.

Cons

Work synchronization problems with offshore teams, across the world in India sometimes make you frustrated.

Pros

best place to work. free food. great people

best place for learning. very friendly fun place to work.

Awesome is the word to describe this place

Cons

very less pay compared to others

Pros

Free food!
Beautiful place to come to work every day
People are generally happy and friendly (when not in fear of being laid off after a bad movie release)
Some of the work is very cutting edge and once completed will move the company into a leading position when it comes to animation technology
Artists are typically treated very well and it's a wonderful place to be an animator
Many very bright people
Free food!

Cons

Not exclusive to this company, but not all Senior Managers are created equal
Unusual lack of respect from managers to subordinates. I find colleagues leaving teams of people waiting at a meeting because it's completely acceptable here
Meeting heavy, primarily because emails often go unread
Planning on the non-creative side (referred to as "Overhead") lacks systems and structure
At the higher levels, employee reviews are often not done - instead a bonus check is simply handed over with no words or insight on performance, development path, etc

Advice to Senior Management

1. Consider legitimate 360' reviews
2. Support the growth and development of all, but in particular, continue to TRAIN & DEVELOP the leadership skills of the Sr Management teams (everyone wins that way!)
3. The company updates are wonderful, but some of what's shared seems unrealistic and foolhardy
4. Define development paths for all - artists, engineers, etc
5. Don't believe your own hype - as we all know, the "Top Companies to Work for" lists are anything but objective. That being said, this is a good company that could authentically become a top place to work.
6. Sorry about this one, but.... take a hard look at the Sr. Leadership team. Having been around for X years, shouldn't be the only reason someone is kept around. Either help them develop, or have them move on.

Pros

-Paradise work environment, free food, ping-pong/foosball tables, etc.
-Best creative talent in the world
-Amazing release parties
-Lots of freedom to try new technology as long as it works
-CEO is incredibly transparent and gives daily email updates to the entire company

Cons

-Reviews are an afterthought, even at the highest levels. Even within teams, some get reviews while others don't. And when they do, they're rushed and based solely on the opinion of your manager. No examples even needed to back things up. Too bad it's not just a piece of paper either-- your bonus is largely based on it.
-For R&D, low pay compared to other tech companies. Raises are typically cost-of-living increases, around 2-3%.
-The Great Production/Technology Divide is far and wide. Difficult to bridge that gap and meet people outside your clique.
-Lots of $$$ spent on flying Voice Talent around the world and catering to VIPs. Would like to see that invested in employees not just VIPs.

Advice to Senior Management

Reviews are not just meaningless documents sucking up people's time. They directly affect employees' well-being and show employees you care about them and their future career growth. Do them. On time. Same for everyone. And elicit peer-to-peer feedback since managers don't always know details. And hold managers accountable if they don't do them. If there's "not enough time", make the time. It's that important.

Pros

free food, free drawing class and sculpture class, a lot of goodies, posters, books based on the in-house movies only, screenings every weeks.

Cons

Political place, to get promoted you have to be very "corporate".
CG sups need to learn how to manage teams.
Tools and pipeline belong to another century, they are outdated !
I work in this industry for more than 15 years, all around the world and professionally speaking, this is the worst place I've ever been... I didn't learn anything, there is no tolerance for you to do your job differently, sups are not open at all to other suggestions.
Sups have been working so long in this company that they are afraid of anything new, of anything they don't understand ...
Projects are far from being exciting...
Working at DWA was for me like pushing buttons, every day and every day, no challenge, slow tools and pipeline; that's the place to go if you want to be out of this industry.
DWA don't hesitate to get rid off people as soon as they don't need you anymore, they act like most of all the companies.
DWA do not deserve to be in the top 10 of the best place to work.
DWA workers are afraid to say anything and to lose their job, and there is no Union in Redwood city.

Advice to Senior Management

CG sups need to learn how to manage teams and to check what's going on outside their small world.
they believe to be the best in their field. It's the Skrek's syndrome.
Production staff should also learn how to properly schedule, and not doing it like at school.
New blood in the sups & leads would be good to stop the consanguinity

Pros

free food at lunch is good

Cons

low salary compared to other companies