Zynga Reviews

Cons

I feel very optimistic about Zynga’s future.

Cons

Like everywhere, it might take some "butt-licking" in order to get promoted. They certainly took their sweet time to promote me after years of hard work and dedication but it happened eventually.

Cons

Culture, however, has shifted way too corporate with a failed HR org and cost cutting. Here are some examples:

1. There are at least 3-4 different head of HR in the past 2 years
2. Mid year review officially cancelled in 2017 to delay promotions and pay bumps
3. Stock comp changed from 2 to 4 year vesting. (Pool is much smaller too)
4. Most/all sr management are external hires. Very minimum promotions from within to top levels
5. Product manager promotions require committee approval. On the surface, it may seem a fair approach, it actually just means your promotions are delayed unless you are on super high profile projects or are friends with people on the committee
6. Constant cost cutting. Most central teams are stretched super thin while c level compensations are among the highest in tech
7. No longer has vision statement or corporate identity. New management is slowly turning the company into electronic arts (where all new executives came from) but without the same rev, profit, resources to support the change
8. No longer have any cool projects in the pipeline to keep talented employees excited
9. No annual salary inflation adjustments. Salary bumps based on "merit". This is usually ok if merit adjustments are fair. The truth is merit adjustments are usually fairly minimum. You would be lucky to even get a 10% bump when you get promoted to the next level.

Overall Zynga started feeling like a portfolio management company living off existing titles with slow to zero growth on both the business and culture

Cons

Poor communication from management team. Management team makes poor people decisions, often in a rush and without context or care for employees. Management team does not seem to care about partner teams or understand their value.

Cons

Not a lot of attention is given to remote offices (non-San Francisco). They could do a better job of giving those locations special attention.

Cons

Not sure about the prospect of the company

Cons

I do not own a dog that I can take to the office

Cons

-Layoffs and frequent cost- cutting measure are now the norm
-MVP mentality and overly aggressive release cycles ensure poor quality and lackluster production values.
-"New" game features are often reskins of successful features from previous games
-Titles being developed in the SF studio have drastically dwindled (with Poker and WWF being the bulk of the development staff) so options to work on new projects there are extremely limited.
-Poor stock performance

Cons

Waste of resources, waste of people skills many times over

Cons

work life balance challenging, performance feedback often unpredictable