I relocated internationally for a job at Twitch. Unfortunately the company was moving and hiring so fast that I got sidetracked into fulfilling a need that was not really what I do, and I'm not particularly good at. I was yelled at a lot for not being particularly good at this thing that is not what I do.
Inside of the company is middle management hell. Emmett Shear is probably the smartest person I've ever met, and his corporate values are incredible, but they functionally don't exist. Middle managers have different agendas from other middle managers and sometimes these stack and are opposite to each other. By the time said directions reach workers it can be impossible to know which to follow. On more than one occasion I had been dealt with harshly by my manager for following the directions they gave me.
The reality is that everyone's so afraid of the culture being warped that they hold things very close to their chest. If you ever raise a problem in someone else's department as Emmett specifically instructs, prepare for trouble, abuse, and people lying about you to your manager. I grew more depressed, made worse by the fact that the food made me sick almost every other day. I stopped eating with the team to avoid diarrhoea. This sounds like a joke. It isn't. I discovered some less-than-ethical behavior and tried to see if perhaps there was something I'd not understood, and instead was treated with disdain.
This company will set you up for failure and then make it your fault when you do. It was utterly disappointing and an incredible yet awful experience. My volunteered time raised tens of thousands for charity, helped professional esports teams reach their goals, and spent as much time as any broadcaster was willing to input working with them to improve their show. But the time spent after work not wanting to speak to or see anyone from being burnt out more than overcame that.
Not working at Twitch is an great feeling, and it's very conflicting loving the site and userbase so much but having the back-end running of an organization be so depressing.
When people read this (and I know they will, having seen people publicly mock negative glass-door reviews of current employees), if they figure out who I am they will find ways to disregard this feedback by personally attacking me to invalidate the experience.
Maybe there was a time when Twitch knew who it was. Maybe Emmett's ideals existed when there were 20, 50, 100 people. At 500, they haven't for some time. Overall, I guess it was a good experience, in the way that terrible things sometimes are for the roller-coaster they put you through.
While there are many good things about the company, I cannot in any good conscience recommend a career here - only a job. No Kappa.
