Lucasfilm Reviews

Pros

Industry leading systems and technology, best projects, great people, constant employment, great location, good training opportunities, lots of perks, highly professional employees

Cons

Difficult projects often without clear parameters, long hours expected, frequently unclear or dishonest communications from management and supervisors, little to no positive feedback

Pros

Fun culture, casual dress code, alot to learn, great benefits, offer permanent roles instead of contract jobs, flexible and funky

Cons

annual leave entitlement can be increased, overtime working hours for artist can be reviewed accordingly, better communication between US and Spore.

Pros

After a first experience at Lucasfilm (5+ years) started out well and ended terribly, I went back and worked for them again on a consulting basis. The campus at the Presidio is very nice, and of course it is fun to go to Skywalker Ranch, and there is still a strong value to telling people you work at Lucasfilm.

Cons

The atmosphere at Lucasfilm has gotten progressively worse. What was once a dynamic, exciting, collaborative, though very hardworking, attitude has been replaced with one of marked paranoia, hostility, distrust and lack of focus or vision. In the past couple of years, inappropriate behavior, temper tantrums and open conflicts have become the norm. People who are meant to work together won't even talk to each other. The three most senior "managers" at the company are either oblivious or, more frequently, encouraging of this behavior. As level headedly as I can, I would not recommend Lucasfilm, ILM, Skywalker Sound or LucasArts to anyone but those who are most loyal to Lucas and the idea that they may be working in the presence of some sort of genius. George? Absolutely. He's actually a rather nice man, too. He doesn't have any awareness of the day to day operations of his company, though, and can you blame him? The "executives' who work for him, though, are not trustworthy and the overall environment is stressful, unpleasant and not recommended.

Advice to Senior Management

There is little advice I could give that I didn't verbally provide in my last go-round at Lucasfilm -- and it wasn't listened to there and won't be taken seriously here. But the biggest piece of advice goes to George and his board of directors: Clean house. Quickly.

Pros

Famous, cool and fun environment
Not to forget we have movie perks! :)
Good effort to bring up the standards of vfx and animation in Singapore! :)

Cons

Can't say for everyone.
Perhaps in Singapore is experiencing turbulance from the States.
Not everyone is happy working here.
But I guess everyone just need to cheer up and cheer one another working in the same company. :)

Advice to Senior Management

Better effort in to management?
Great leaders who can win people over, have vision and can rouse his employees with motivation and unite a team are hard to find.
Perhaps we can find more of them??

Nonetheless I believe we are heading there! Just need some perseverance!! :)

Pros

the other worker bee's, friendly, plesent.

Cons

Management that does not have a clue how the job should be done.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the the things that shouldn't be there. (Management) Let the workers do their job. Don't lurk around.

Pros

Beautiful campus and work environment -- fab view and movie posters. A great team of talented, dedicated co-workers. I miss them.

Cons

Feng shui masters came in to "clear" the bad spirits with incense -- I am NOT kidding. Wind chimes were put up to give the President "peace" and "tranquility." In the meantime, terrible management persists and paranoia reigns supreme. I get tearful phone calls almost weekly rfom someone close who still works there and must keep her job. Too many incompetent managers and directors while really talented, dedicated peons have run for the hills or have been let go unfairly.

Advice to Senior Management

Forget the feng shui and the wind chimes and other mumbo-jumbo and get REAL. Be more realistic and professional and oncentrate on respecting your employees and stop treating them with such total disregard. The same with Fans -- they made the company what it is today. Her fear and loathing of "those people" is legendary.

Pros

Nice location in the Presidio

Cons

The politics, the arrogance of senior management, the zero growth opportunities, the poor pay scale. This place operates like a boy's club from the dark ages. It is an uncaring environment, the management is unaware of how unhappy everyone is, which is bizarre as 95% of the people are miserable. Oh, and what's with the Feng Shui wind chimes hanging from the corridor ceilings???!!

Advice to Senior Management

Know the mass exodus of talented people is coming unless you change the management...stat! Don't reward bad behavior as everyone knows that is what is going on, hire people who can make good business decisions with their employees in mind, realize the employees are unhappy. Treat employees as you would wish to be treated - fairly and with respect, pay properly, engage more and don't expect employees to roll over and accept things like Feng Shui when it is sprung on them. Make sure the people leading are fully supportive of their employees and say buh-bye to those who are not and who think they have a job for life so can therefore treat people badly.

Pros

What the hell happened? This was my second time around at Lucasfilm, and the first time was friendly, collaborative, open and exciting. This time was paranoid, angry, hostile and frankly bizarre. About the only "pro" I can think of is that the salary was decent by entertainment industry standards (though modest by San Francisco standards). That and you still get respect of others when you say you work(ed) here. Oh, and the offices at the Presidio are swank, for sure.

Cons

What a freaky, unhappy, mistrustful, disrespectful place this has become. Maybe they just know "Star Wars" is finally over and they killed "Indiana Jones" a few years ago, and they don't really have anything else to work on so everyone is just killing time until the inevitable end. Whatever the case, there's virtually nothing pleasant about working here. This is the most highly political, divisive, combative, un-creative environment I've ever worked in, with some of the most unprofessional "leadership" around.

Advice to Senior Management

Time go get rid of a LOT of people and start again. No one wants to do anything that is remotely interesting, creative or risky anymore. Mostly, people don't know what they're doing and figure it's only a matter of time until someone calls them on it. My advice, starting at the top, replace virtually everyone. The last two years have had some of the most wrong-headed, unproductive decisions ever. I may not have liked the prequels, but I refuse to belive George Lucas is behind an operation this ridiculous and unprofessional.

Pros

Great place to put on your resume
Good infrastructure and supported equipment
Some supervisors and the general 'troops' are great to work with; lots of team effort

Cons

Extreme micromanaging, probably from the upper levels of management trickling down. My manager, who I rarely talk to, called me out of the blue and gave me a weird harassing phone call warning me about looking for another job. I've talked to several ex-employees who were walked to the curb within hours of private lunchtime interviews. They monitor email and webtraffic (gmail, facebook) If you are in there and fearful of the economy you feel safe and turn a blind eye to the unhappiness there; you get used to it. My supervisor would critique my work, not in a professional way, but with snide tones and harshness in his voice; it would have been better to hear: "I think this is a good idea, but it needs some work. Let's work on this with the team" or even "I don't agree with this" instead of "I don't like it; don't do it" I know of someone who was offered a growing position in another division, but was shot down internally by his manager/supervisor without discussion.

My salary has nearly doubled since leaving Lucasfilm.
;-)

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest with your staff. Encourage them to grow, not by whispered criticism, but with theirs and the company's best interest in mind.

Pros

Gorgeous facility, great benefits, fabulous subsidized cafeteria. Lucasfilm is a cool place to work. It's fun to tell people you work here.

Cons

Low pay, limited career growth opportunity, a lot of politics