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    Glu Mobile Reviews

    Updated August 6, 2018
    188 reviews

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    3.5
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    Approve of CEO
    Glu Mobile President and CEO Nick Earl
    Nick Earl
    49 Ratings

    188 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "Work/life balance is great here" (in 28 reviews)

    • "Fun company culture and work environment" (in 9 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Upper management don't know what they are doing" (in 14 reviews)

    • "Pendulum of control and C-Suite love has swung a bit too far toward game studios leaving central functions in eclipse" (in 7 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons
    1. Featured Review

      Helpful (1)

      "A good place to work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Software Engineer in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Software Engineer in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Glu has been as good as any other place to work. Environment is nice. Compensation is nice. People are friendly. My schedule is manageable. I thrive on success and as long as Glu and I are both succeeding, I am happy.

      Cons

      My big concern is that people making fundamental decisions are not creatives and want to make informed, data supported, games. But in an industry as fast paced as mobile, that doesn't make a lot of sense. By the time you've cloned Clash of Clans, it's too late. You have to have new ideas.

      Glu also has the unique and dubious history of cloning it's OWN games, which makes zero sense to me. I remember they had two Tiny Tower clones back in the day.

      Advice to Management

      1. Make new games quickly, but build teams slowly. In mobile, you can make a prototype with 3-4 people. A prototype team doesn't need to be bigger than that. In fact, more people with dilute the core vision. Eventually, if the game is fun, you can move it into full production.

      2. Stop cloning games. Especially your own games. Diner Dash is not a genre.

    2. "Glu is the greatest!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time

      Pros

      Glu has come a long way from the experience of previous employees! I can definitely say it is an brand new Glu! I see great things ahead in the upcoming years! It is an open and collaborative environment with lots of opportunity for growth. Upper management cares very much about keeping a positive culture.

      Some perks include:

      -Lunch catered 5 days a week
      -Great work/life balance
      -fun work events once a week

      Cons

      Gaming culture is not for everyone. If you don't like being a part of a close knit team and collaborating with your coworkers, then it may not be a fit.

      3. Join the Glu Mobile team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. Helpful (1)

      "A Brand New Glu"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      New office, new CEO, new culture.. I read a lot of the older reviews and was initially concerned... but it appears the new management has learned from past mistakes and is keen on putting employees first. This means a beautiful new office, catered lunches (yum!) 4 days a week, lots of cool perks... It's an exciting time to be at Glu, and the feeling seems to be mutual across the office...

      Cons

      The previous model of acquiring studios would naturally have some issues, especially if the prior investors didn't take care of their employees during the transition. From what I've learned during my tenure, they're hoping to move away from that model and build studios internally in the new HQ... the partnership with Disney being an example. The company has been around for a while and surely has some baggage, but this recent shift seems like a fresh start... fingers crossed!

      Advice to Management

      Keep up the good work, and please stay true to your pledged values and intentions. it will guarantee happy employees and a bright future for everyone!

    4. "Great Place with the Right Studio"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at Glu Mobile full-time

      Pros

      The PlayFirst/GluPlay studio is the gem of the entire company.

      Cons

      Culture outside the PlayFirst/GluPlay studio was vastly different and more button-down.

      Advice to Management

      Ensure Glu Mobile staff are readily available to assist the most successful studio under their umbrella at anytime for any needs.

    5. Helpful (1)

      "Keep at it!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Lead UI/User Experience in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Lead UI/User Experience in San Francisco, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      The current GLU leadership seems to legitimacy care about transparency and building a strong foundation based on trust and respect.

      Cons

      GLU is a game company intent on making money more than making fun games. Though making money is understandable, even desirable - many goals place the bottom line over player satisfaction, game creativity.

      Advice to Management

      Keep at it! Your open dialogue and transparency is vital for a healthy organization. We all want to make awesome products - let us do it and we will all win!

    6. Helpful (3)

      "Steer Clear"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Glu Mobile full-time

      Pros

      They paid me a reasonable amount. Benefits weren’t great but not bad.

      Cons

      Worked on two teams. I took on a lot of work and was given glowing reviews when I had them on my first team. Mismanagement all the way up the chain made that game set up for failure and it was killed shortly after being released. This is a very common theme there. My next team wasn’t much better but now I had a few people on the team that didn’t want to help the new team members (myself included) to get up to speed on the (already largely made game) codebase. I remember the boss one crunch night commented on how our team was the best because “we make the funniest jokes and are the meanest”. After being on the team a while I was suddenly fired because “I didn’t care enough about the game”. I was given no warning or way to change my ways... even tho I was acting like most of the others on the team. The team already had really low moral since we had been crunching and the game was unstable. They claimed that I was committing lots of bad code but I had already talked to my boss about how I was being given half finished and buggy code to build off of and had one guy breaking my code (aka setup for failure). I was just the last person to work on the area and management was so poor they didn’t check anyone’s work before me (since it was the last part). I assume I was actually fired because they were short on money since my lead told me that I should stop asking why I got fired since it “is just business”. Coward. Liar.

      Advice to Management

      Listen to your workers when they’re saying there’s problems instead of sticking your head in the sand.

    7. Helpful (3)

      "Don't believe angry former employees"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      I've been at Glu for 5+ years, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Is it my dream job? No. Is it a horrible company to work for (like the angry reviews here)? Absolutely not. Glu's had some tough times with a lot of layoffs and changes but more and more I feel the company is going in the right direction and you can feel the vibe in the office. It's a much better place than a year ago but we still have ways to go.

      Cons

      We need more rewarding. And please don't wait years to let go of B players.

      Advice to Management

      Continue listening to employees

    8. Helpful (1)

      "Awful"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Glu Mobile full-time

      Pros

      Great creative team, talented people.

      Cons

      Awful higher up decisions that led to the closure of other Glu mobile studios, putting tons of great people out of work

      Advice to Management

      There will never be another Kim Kardashian game phenomena

    9. Helpful (6)

      "Good company, some bad managers"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Glu Mobile full-time

      Pros

      - the company is awesome, we are doing really cool stuff
      - people are friendly
      - good environment in general

      Cons

      I really don't trust my manager. My manager is that type who takes credits for other people's work. While everything else at Glu is great, my manager is the reason I keep my resume up to date

      Advice to Management

      get rid of bad managers

    10. Helpful (2)

      "Glu blows around with the wind"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Senior Software Engineer in Burlingame, CA
      Former Employee - Senior Software Engineer in Burlingame, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Glu Mobile full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      - They attempt to make their employees happy.
      - Just about every office is a smaller company that Glu acquired at some point, so each office has an individual culture and structure.
      - My office had free lunch every day, but most other offices don't.

      Cons

      - Lack of a real unifying vision, most past visions didn't make money and had to be abandoned.
      - The culture and working experience is very different depending on which office you happen to be in.

      Advice to Management

      Administration is too large, they spend too much of their time creating unnecessary policies around hiring, purchases, and going to conferences and implementing those policies.

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