Pros
- Experience in Quality Assurance. This is huge for people that are fresh out of college or are finishing up college. The video game industry seems to be a very tight-knit group that likes to see previous experience from it's possible new hires. Digital Dream Forge provides a solid foundation for the resume of someone looking to move on to Quality Assurance in a bigger company. - You don't need previous QA experience to work here. This pertains to the first point. DDF will hire people and give them the tools they need to become excellent QA testers. - People are very friendly. The bro-culture exists to some extent, but women are treated well and nobody uses distasteful slurs. I felt a little like an outsider for the first week, but made friends with my team lead and my teammates pretty quickly. - Management is VERY approachable. Understandably, you're representing DDF and the management wants you to do well. But if you ever have an issue or a question, the management is willing and able to answer your question or help solve your issue. I never feel scared about talking with them when I needed something. - Nearly everyone is passionate about gaming and all things nerdy, so there's usually someone to talk to about the thing you're interested in. - Testers are sometimes hired by the developers of the games that they're testing. The developer gets to know and like the tester, next thing you know the tester is being hired on as an in-house QA tester. It's happened to two people that I know of in the six months that I've worked here.
Cons
- No PTO, but they are pretty understanding about people taking days off here and there. I've been able to take off whatever days I needed as long as they had floaters to cover for me. - The pay is entry-level. Definitely not enough to support yourself alone on, even if you have no debt. If you have debt, forget about it.