Electronic Arts reviews

Good benefits Good pay for higher designer and programmer Clean surroundings

EA is a mixed bag. The talent at the company is truly incredible! A majority of workers I have encountered are driven, enthusiastic, and friendly. Direct people managers tend to be equally skilled, supportive, and easy to work with. The middle management and up does leave a lot to be desired, however. VP and Director level management, in particular, seem to come and go in fairly predictable 2/3yr periods. As they are replaced, new focuses, values, and reorgs all happen. It can be jarring, especially when you pour yourself into your goals for several years just to have the plan change before you can reap the rewards of your efforts. A company as large as this really needs more like 5 years to succeed in such widespread initiatives, unless any upper manager has the will, vision, budget, time, and authority to push through definitive changes rapidly (and none really do). Much of your experience at EA will depend on what team you are on and who you work with -- specifically, if you are tied to a studio you will have a very different experience than that of a centralized team. This job is fine if you have a sense of how larger companies operate, and a good nose for shifts in the wind, politically. As with most game companies, crunch time is a factor. There are regular title launch cadences and they will absolutely take charge of your time no matter what is at stake. The crunch hours are not nearly as bad as they (infamously) were, but they are still a factor.