Linden Lab Reviews

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

Pros – Linden Lab is the most fascinating place I've ever worked. Super fun, quirky, and very interesting. Never a dull moment. The product is very unique, the people have many talents and interests.

Cons – A severe lack of application test coverage, with no desire to correct the issue. Lack of development standards and C-level leadership.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab full-time for less than a year

Pros – Lots of awesome people. Cool technology. Fun locations, now former locations. Scads of creativity. Good sense of humor. Company took good care of people until the moment when it didn't.

Cons – Trying to get stuff done here was like sorting cottage cheese in a tornado. Every little particle had its own direction and velocity, and every once in a while, a chunk would hit you in the eye.

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – One of the best teams I've worked with. Brilliant co-workers, very little political games, well designed infrastructure. Tools i needed to get the job done. Mentoring/learning opportunities every day. Interesting and challenging work. Work/life balance was great.

Cons – Didn't seem like the business was doing well and layoffs made things uneasy for everyone. It also seemed that for my position, it was really hard to get directly on staff. You had to work as a consultant for several years while you learned the position. Once that happened, you had to wait for an opening to come up before you could be selected.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – I was a customer service rep that actually worked from home, however I got to meet my team on multiple occasions, and they were amazing. Very low-key, management on our team was great, always willing to help and support whenever needed. Worked here almost 3 years.

Cons – HR are absolutely ridiculous. When I started, you used to be able to work anywhere in the U.S., however they changed that to only 4 states with the company's offices for tax purposes. I moved to a non-hire state, however someone was working in the state I moved into, so therefore all the tax policies should be set up. HR had made multiple exceptions (and it seems like they still do!) for other people, however I was not allowed this option.

It seemed like they were playing favorites with their employees, which is a real shame.

Advice to Senior Management – Get better human resources employees and actually try to keep your employees that are willing to work for your company instead of going out and finding new ones and having to train them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab full-time for more than a year

Pros – Fascinating work, amazing people - virtual worlds, virtual money and stock exchanges. really enjoyed the various projects and teams all around the world; being able to work virtually anywhere was a big plus.

Cons – Founder left, and the company started getting more political and insular. People were laid off, specifically women, in droves. Big layoffs to prop up profits. Instead of transparency, there were secrets, and cliques.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Linden Lab full-time

Pros – Very good if you want short working days and no deadlines.

Cons – Nerd culture, unfocused without any deadlines.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on building a new product that users want.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - Smart colleagues
- Cool product
- Work/life balance
- Decent salaries

Cons – - No clear strategic vision
- Loss of lots of employees who held the core values of working at Linden Lab
- Seemingly detached senior/executive level management

Advice to Senior Management – Please, whatever strategic direction you decide, follow through on it and make sure that all parts of the company know what part they play in that vision and give them the opportunity and means to execute that mission. Pay attention to the 'old-timers' at the company as well. They are deep wells of advice and history of what has and has not worked before, which will save you lots of energy and frustration later on.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Linden Lab full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – + Launching new product - we're not just SL anymore.
+ Large scale, big data tech issues -- fun problems.
+ Individuals can have a big impact on the business -- not limited by role/lack of seniority.
+ Loads of autonomy.

Cons – - Communication can be better from leadership.
- Remote offices feel unplugged.
- Slackers get to slack.

Advice to Senior Management – Get out in front of the employees more - we want to hear from you.
Recognize top performers and cut the slackers.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great product
Fabulous people
A culture of thanking people for doing the right thing rather than punishing them for doing the wrong thing., When things went wrong it wasn't finger pointing but "how can we make sure this doesn't happen again".
LOADS of autonomy - if you were willing to make it happen you could make it happen. It was great.
Excellent work/life balance. People do work overtime, but no one is ever asked to. It's a professional commitment those people are choosing to make. And it is the exception rather than the rule.

Cons – The tech is really crusty.
Understaffed to address all that needs to be done.
100% SCRUM all the time whether that fits the project or not (and mostly it's not)
The churn rate for employees is huge yet is treated as "normal" (2-3 people a week is NOT normal for a company this size)
I have nothing good to say about the HR department as it has nothing good to say about the employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a long hard look at your recent HR policies and the churn rate and ask.... "are these new policies really good for the company"? Stop letting good people go - with a minimum of effort you could keep half the people that leave. The knowledge drain is not making the tech better. Invest more in the technology that is your bread and butter. Stop leading from behind, get out front so people can see you.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Linden Lab full-time

Pros – Very competent co-workers; fun place to work; ability to "take ownership" of projects; ability to work on several different projects, not just what you were hired in to do.

Cons – Different groups were not coordinated; culture favored seniority, not always merit; difficult to understand what management wanted people to do.

Advice to Senior Management – Figure out what Linden's compelling advantage is, then press that. Is it virtual world technology? Is it the brand? Is it the community? In my time at Linden, we tried to be all things to all people and wound up spreading ourselves too thin.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company