Pros
Few of the best reasons to work at Native is for the experience and also the team dynamic. Experience: I gained a lot of experience working on projects that I never imagined I'd have the opportunity to work on. I focused on automotive UI design which was a great experience esp. because I wanted to flex my design skills across a range of products. We had different projects come down the pipeline that presented different challenges which was great. Hours: In terms of the hours at Native, there were very late nights. There were nights where I'd take my work home and continue to rev on the designs til 4am for several weeks. After doing that for some time, I let the management know that I was burnt out, and the manager and creative directors immediately began to bring in freelancers to help balance out the work load. Culture: I think the culture at Native can sometimes be very serious especially when we are cramming to meet a deadline but overall, everyone were pretty hilarious and fun to work with. My direct boss who was the creative director was extremely talented, fast, and very knowledgable. He was very kind and chill.
Cons
In my direct team, I think planning is an area of opportunity. The ability to scope out the project, understand the speed/ability of the team doing the project, and working out a plan to meet those goals well is something that was missing during my experience at Native. With the creative director going on paternity leave and the lead designer putting in his two week notice when the project was just getting started, I look back and wished I had more help to execute the project.
