Industrial Light & Magic Reviews

What are your colleagues talking about?
Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "This text field required me to write at least five words so I am writing this sentence because the only thing I really want to put here is Good Benefits." (in 11 reviews)
- "I would highly recommend looking elsewhere for work, VFX is a dead end industry that is failing due to poor management and outsourcing." (in 14 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Industrial Light & Magic and is not affected by filters.
- Race / Ethnicity
- Gender
- Sexual Orientation
- Disability
- Parent or Family Caregiver
- Veteran Status
Filter Reviews by Topic
Found 238 of over 319 reviews
Updated Sep 17, 2023
- Popular
- Most Recent
- Highest Rating
- Lowest Rating
- 5.0Mar 20, 2023VFX ArtistCurrent EmployeeNew York, NY
Pros
Good, good, good, good, good.
Cons
No downside, really, really, really.
- 1.0Jun 17, 2023ProducerFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsSan Francisco, CA
Pros
The campus is utterly, never-seen-before amazing. Your co-workers are also utterly, across-the-board amazing in terms of talent. Although the pandemic has made for very interesting configurations of desks and occupancy.
Cons
One single person is in charge of all aspects of your project, and this is the Visual Effects Supervisor. While this person is extremely talented with many years of experience and accolades to their credit, most often this individual is drunk on power. Workers are either directly targeted or witness to shame and humiliation and continual feelings of being less-than, at the hands of this individual. This is especially as deadlines approach. It is very out of control in this regard. Work hours will often extend well past midnight, especially so for projects with an extremely high profile and a deadline which is locked in. Because many people and managers who work at ILM have been there for almost their entire careers, they are often not aware of how negative their work environment is. It is unfortunately seen as normal. Indeed, infractions that in any other work environment would be considered for termination are at ILM, merely compared to previous ILM times, before #metoo, where things were very, very bad. In this regard, the culture has an almost, "back in my day..." war story element about it as a means to minimize current infractions. Managers are not aware that this only deepens the current problem. Pay is well below the industry standard - by 35% or more. Internally I have heard this referred to as the "Star Wars tax." You work on content that is truly beloved around the globe. The price you pay is in your take home pay.
3 - 1.0Jan 14, 2023Production AssistantCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
It's remote at least for now...
Cons
- The work is boring and is going to get taken over by AI asap - Low pay for the Bay Area - I was promised remote work and now we have to go back into the office - I was promised a promotion 3 to 6 months working at the company and that did not happen - ILM hires a bunch of people for low-level jobs with the expectation that they will burn out and leave the company. They burn through people to make their bottom line.
3 - 5.0Oct 19, 2022VFX Production CoordinatorCurrent EmployeeSan Francisco, CA
Pros
Company culture is incredible, and the learning experience is awesome. They really care about growing and cultivating talent.
Cons
The work can get really hectic
1 - 4.0Dec 27, 2022VP-CommunicationsFormer Employee, more than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
people and the perks too
Cons
office politics sometimes are difficult
1 - 2.0Apr 9, 2022Production WorkerFormer EmployeeSan Francisco, CA
Pros
get to work on great films
Cons
low pay for san Francisco Lack of diversity besides Asian and White. Though they preach diversity, inside the company the diversity is severely lacking. Most employees of color are at the bottom position and most end up leaving or getting fired within a year. Very unwelcoming environment. Very demeaning and "shut up and work" type environment. No opportunity to move up.
3 - 5.0Jul 6, 2022CGI ArtistCurrent Employee
Pros
good work environment and good employees
Cons
low pay and bad hours
- 4.0Mar 24, 2022Senior Technical DirectorCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
People are great, you can learn a lot from the best. If lucky, you can work on a blockbuster movie and have a life long story to tell.
Cons
-Sad to say it is a stepping stone but as we all know it takes dedication to keep up with this life work balance. Which wears you down when you do it for many years. -In between shows you are likely to have a unpaid leave since there are not as many projects coming in as it use to. (San Francisco) -Office is under constant change and shrink a lot. Most of the legends left the office already so there is a small team left. ( San Francisco) -The compensation is not competitive with SF salaries.
- 4.0Aug 2, 2022RiggerFormer Employee, more than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
Good compensation, nice perks, great projects
Cons
Long hours, but that's normal for the film industry
- 5.0Mar 4, 2022Texture SupervisorCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsSan Francisco, CA
Pros
Like minded people if you are a VFX nerd. Good benefits. Good efforts at promoting equality and diversity. Living wage or better.
Cons
Big company, increased globalization causes "key" roles to become less distinct.
Industrial Light & Magic Reviews FAQs
Industrial Light & Magic has an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5, based on over 319 reviews left anonymously by employees. 92% of employees would recommend working at Industrial Light & Magic to a friend and 73% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has improved by 3% over the last 12 months.
92% of Industrial Light & Magic employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Industrial Light & Magic 4.0 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.4 for culture and values and 4.0 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Industrial Light & Magic to be benefits, workplace, coworkers and the cons to be culture, career development, management.
Work at Industrial Light & Magic? Share Your Experiences
