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Full-timePart-timeApprove of CEO
Evan Wells
27 Ratings
Helpful (1)
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"Very talented team. Amazing tools. Treated well."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Naughty Dog full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
There is something special about being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the industry. I love getting to work on a product I’m truly proud of.
Cons
The hours have can be long towards the end of the project though they are very generous with PTO. It’s also more of a culture of perfectionism than something that feels demanded.
Naughty Dog 2018-03-30 09:43 PDTHelpful (8)
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"Great place to work if you manage yourself well!"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Naughty Dog full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Good pay and great bonuses if you work here full time for more than a year! You get to work with the most amazing talent in the industry. I feel very comfortable working here, people are nice and welcoming, even when you get constructive criticism you can tell its all for the good of the game and not personal. Not that much backstabbing drama and fear as other places. Lots of PTO days and Sony discounts are cool too.
Cons
The only downside is the crunch is brutal most of the time, although they realize it and they are trying harder to fix it, which is nice. Lots of late hours and there's some pressure to stay late even though they can't exactly order you to stay late or come in on the weekend because that would be... maybe illegal for salaried employees and not only that it would be super lame and people would say eff that. Its all about getting your work done though, if you work super hard and you do all your stuff you can just leave whatever time you want as long as you're sure your work is getting done. Some people chat all day and night and stay late so it might look like they are working hard because they stay super late but it's their work that really shows whats going on and I think people can see that. But overall I think some crunch is okay considering they make it pretty easy on you the other times.
Advice to Management
Keep up the work getting things set up to minimize crunch and to have generally smoother schedules.
Naughty Dog 2017-11-02 12:01 PDT![Naughty Dog Logo]()
"Decent place to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Naughty Dog full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Great people, insane amount of talent.
Cons
Can earn more money elsewhere.
Naughty Dog 2017-10-31 23:06 PDTHelpful (2)
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"A place that takes employee concerns seriously"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Naughty Dog full-time
Pros
Being associated with incredibly high quality and critically acclaimed games
Company works with people with their life situations, and tries to be as understanding as possible of difficult circumstances.Cons
Difficult crunch situations about once every year and a half
Advice to Management
Quality will always require hard work, but with diligence maybe that hard work can be spread around more.
Naughty Dog 2017-09-23 19:34 PDT![Naughty Dog Logo]()
"Contractor"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at Naughty Dog full-time (More than a year)
Pros
seriously talented veterans , The studio has a great work environment and lots of opportunities to learn from co-workers.
Cons
On Contract and not yet knowing if you may be offered a Permanent Full-Time position.
Naughty Dog 2017-08-13 12:06 PDTHelpful (1)
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"Amazing studio to work for"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Naughty Dog full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Creative input, freedom, and world class artist to work with. It's a top notch company that cares for it's people and truly wants to make the best games out there!
Cons
Crunch can be brutal at times, and Santa Monica is a crazy expensive place to live. Salary is average, not fantastic but not bad.
Advice to Management
Keep it up! It's a great place to work and it's important to keep that passion and drive going
Naughty Dog 2017-04-09 16:06 PDT![Naughty Dog Logo]()
"Work is life"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
I have been working at Naughty Dog full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Work on amazing games with great people
Cons
Insane crunch hours, little to no recognition or acknowledgment
Advice to Management
Positive reinforcement works
Naughty Dog 2017-02-02 19:46 PSTHelpful (4)
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"Get ready to crunch and burn out."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
No opinion of CEOI worked at Naughty Dog (More than 8 years)
Pros
Best work in the business.
Cons
Exclusive, clique culture. You're either in the in club, or a resource to be used up.
Advice to Management
Stop treating your employees as disposable.
Naughty Dog 2017-01-18 16:23 PSTHelpful (3)
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"Great Games and People; Studio Has More Potential"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Naughty Dog full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
- Great people. Some of the most inspirational, passionate, and dedicated I've worked with.
- Games are second to none in their genre. Contributing to them was a constant source of inspiration and satisfaction.
- Benefits and and additional compensation were great.Cons
- Absolutely no creative scope planning and scheduling which leads to an irresponsible amount of crunch and waste. There seemed to be very little acknowledgement by studio leadership of this issue.
- Review and career development processes were clearly informal, and a bit of mystery.Advice to Management
- Be more transparent about studio wide issues and initiatives. Hold health surveys and more company meetings; give employees a voice. Be transparent about growth and improvement.
- More technical / tool development investment could improve art production flexibility and allow for iteration and change requests.
- Junior engineers on staff could free up experienced engineers and allow them to achieve more and not get bogged down by UI development and simpler tasks.Naughty Dog 2016-12-23 12:14 PSTHelpful (3)
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"Great Work, Terrible Crunch"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at Naughty Dog full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
The work is extremely full-filling. The people who work at Naughty Dog are some of the best in the industry. You will grow as an artist
Cons
The crunch is terrible. The people can be very type A and arrogant. If you don't mind your soul being destroyed by the crunch, it's a great place to work.
Advice to Management
Schedule better. Loosen the terrible crunch.
Naughty Dog 2016-11-12 22:20 PST
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