Gaia Online Reviews

Pros

Good company with a lot of potential to grow. Expect to have a lot of opportunities to try new things.

Cons

There's not much career advancement here. The organizational structure is very flat, and the company so far has a trend of hiring management from outside sources. Because of this, it's a good place to build up your skills and then move on.

Advice to Senior Management

You've got to keep the creative energy flowing through the company. It's so vital to the company's success, but also the most neglected thing. This applies to Art, UI, Engineering, even Customer Service. If people aren't getting excited, the lack of creativity will find its way into the site wide events.

Pros

Very talented employees, fun group activities, and a love for the community.

Cons

Poor direction, no chance of advancement, blatant cronyism by some management.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes the problem isn't your employees, it's the people managing them. Give credit where it is due.

Pros

Lots of creative freedom is here, in regards to project details. The community feedback is great, and not something you see at a typical company. The company is still small in size as of this writing, although it doesn't feel or act very small. You get all the benefits and support of a larger company, but your team remains very small and focused. The knowledge sharing here is amazing as well, and everyone who enters leaves with a better skill set than when they came, making it great for advancing an individual career.

Cons

There's not much career advancement here. Management manages, and everyone else does specific task work. Part of this is due to the company size, but there's simply no opportunities here. If you're looking to move up your career towards a management / leader track, you'd want to look elsewhere. Another major downside is that Gaia has a hard time swallowing the Agile pill. They seem very scared of letting projects run whatever course the nature of the project dictates. As a result, there's still a ton of waterfall process here, without necessarily any indication this will be evolving / changing with time.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to put more trust and accountability into the low level positions. They were hired to be great developers, artists, and UI people, but are rarely given the tools to succeed in those roles.