WMS Gaming Reviews

Pros

Great company to work for

Cons

None. Great company and culture

Pros

always open to new ideas

Cons

layoff ahead of company being sold

Pros

enough opportunities for code dev skill

Cons

shaky industry and projects could scrap anytime.

Pros

Freedom to build and create Great atmosphere

Cons

After being purchased buy a company that was almost a polar opposite, everything went downhill

Pros

i getting good salary as well culture is very good

Cons

no cons and learnt how to behav ewoth the client

Pros

Some great people who care about the company and want things to get better but Sadly they aren't - no one seems happy to be at work anymore

Cons

So much ego in management, poorly run, don't listen to others. "Culture" isn't what you think it is, your employees are functioning adults, treat them that way. Management has their favorites and will protect them, despite multiple employee complaints and obvious issues (obvious to everyone outside of management). If you can "manage up" you're safe, even if you make everyone else's life hell and you're not good at what you do. If you somehow convince management you should be a favorite, you apparently become untouchable.

Pros

4 years ago, this section would have been filled with pros but the company has drastically changed it's culture and work environment in that short of a time.

Cons

- outside of CEO (B.Gamache), upper management cannot be trusted - nepotism runs rampant - the company lost its identity with the hire of a number of senior level mgrs from big corporations - HR is ineffective - the company has worked lean since my start there (I don't know how anyone is getting anything done now that they've had 2 rounds of layoffs in Summer 2011) - no work/life balance which has gotten progressively worse over last 2 years - company has started to strip away the small things from employees (ie sport leagues, employee events, etc) which will eventually, as it always does, become more significant things - department heads no longer work together but spend time finger pointing other groups for mistakes to upper mgmt - Even though mid level and upper mgmt say they do this... they absolutely do not listen to the voice of the employee

Pros

- State of the art facilities - Excellent cafeteria - Talented coworkers

Cons

- Location is difficult to get to; no easily accessible public transportation. - Morale is at near zero. There has been intense pressure to hit quarterly numbers, with veiled threats about the looming next round of layoffs. The general mood seems to be that nothing we do will matter in the end anyway. - Significant feeling of betrayal: SG's acquisition of Bally only a few months after WMS has appeared particularly suspect given the new CEO's close ties to that company, and the curiously high price per share paid to acquire it. - Benefits and perks slashed: "Thank You Days", extra holidays, we're eliminated. Bonuses were changed to put more emphasis on overall company performance than individual performance. Cafeteria costs rose as the company subsidy was cut (or eliminated, don't know for sure). Benefits were cut *significantly*. - Totally rudderless management: roadmaps change monthly, miscommunication runs rampant. Priorities seem to be shifted weekly. - Zero training budget: And I mean ZERO. Transitioning to an extremely complex new tool? Hope you can figure it out on your own. New hires don't even get a tour of the facilities any more. - Poor processes: Company pretends to do Agile development when in fact it is utterly ad-hoc chaos disguised with some Agile buzzwords. Documentation for software frameworks and tools is totally nonexistent, or worse, outdated and incorrect. Culture of diffusion of responsibility means that nobody ends up being responsible for anything, resulting in a horrific mismatch of pet design patterns, scripting languages, and API conventions.

Pros

Fun co-workers, good work environment with great break room (pool tables, video games, Foosball etc.. ) gym, cafeteria.

Cons

Very little to no room for advancement. Company outlook does not look bright. Ever since the company was acquired by Scientific Games things have gone down hill at WMS tons of talented, loyal people have been let go in all departments. Management is not in tune with the employees and are making all the wrong decisions. As more and more people are let go, more is demanded from the employees and very little is done to show appreciation to the employees. Company outings were very common in the past but now it is rare to have one in a year.

Pros

* Flexible PTO. * Decent benefits.

Cons

* Way too much middle management. Most do not have engineering backgrounds. * Poor communication among disciplines. Various groups are stand-offish with each other since no one talks directly enough (ie: it's always through managers). * Development environment is a travesty. The tools and libraries are very ancient. There's never a concerted effort to pay down technological debt. * Upper management seems to genuinely want to improve the work environment. Unfortunately, they only seem to communicate with middle-management and not the people who actually develop. * Unqualified people are promoted way too often. The Peter Principle is in full play.