Where your career goes to die. Stay away if at all possible. - Designer 5th Cell Media Employee Review

1.0
18 Feb 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's in a somewhat good location for taking a lunch break (if you're able to) and head to downtown Bellevue for a selection of food. But I never got a lunch break due to constant and never ending crunch.

Cons

Management, all the way up to the CEO. The company as a whole lacks the empathy many other companies have for it's employees. Due to constant poor planning, lack of leadership and experience we constantly crunched and were struggling to meet milestones. The CEO doesn't even come into work, he works from the companies "work room" and is a persistent no show. The CFO is there only a few times a month, leaving a poor and in-experienced production staff to lead. All this culminates into a very harsh and toxic work environment. If for some reason you get on the bad side of any of the people in these positions or even your lead, they'll simply tell a higher up and you'll be fired the following week on the spot no questions asked. I've heard stories around the office of this type of behavior, but never thought it was real until I started working here. I myself have a family and was never able to see them due to the constant overtime that would come up. When I was hired I was told by the management "We don't do overtime here at 5th Cell..." which was an absolute lie. The first week I was hired I was in crunch. The company served us lunch and dinner, but it was just a way to mask the fact that they want their employees in a constant state of "on-call" at every hour of the day. One employee was called in from his vacation that he had put in for 3 months in advance. As my title suggests the creativity aspect here is non-existent. If you want to end your career, burn-out, and lose all your creativity, get hired at 5th Cell. You'll turn into a cog in a machine that has no say in anything that you do. They give the illusion of an "open door policy" but that's absolutely 100% not true. 5th Cell puts an outward face of "fun and games" but in truth it's a sweatshop of trounced employees and creativity. The leads and management are like a elementary school group of kids. You have to tip-toe around their rules or you're out. I'd never recommend anyone working here due to the terrible outlook of the company and the way it treats it's employees. The management (CEO in particular) doesn't care about making games and concentrates more on his "personal projects" , yet the studio is at the mercy of his final word. Avoid this studio at all possible means.

Explore other reviews about 5th Cell Media

5.0
21 July 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I love adapting to new styles and creating them during pre production and during production. Either we succeed as a team or we fail as a team, and I like to contribute to the success of the team.

Cons

I really enjoy wearing shorts and sometimes socks with sandals (I can sacrifice the socks and sandals if it's necessary). Please don't judge.

1.0
8 Mar 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They say "limited crunch" which isn't true, but it is still less crunch than other studios. Laid back at times. The actual workers in the trenches are nice, can't say the same for the leads and management.

Cons

Very poor communication in all departments really. Job security as well as overall moral are low. Management is so far outside of the actual work life it's hilarious. Ran by many big egos which shouldn't be in place as they've only really made one successful game. People in charge (both management and leads) lack the skill and the knowledge on how to run teams and overall output. Segregation of employees by management makes the company culture non-existent and very hard on moral. Outside hiring is basically they're only method. They say "once you're hired you're hired for life" which isn't true as they hand out pink slips like it's water bottles. One of the owners that makes decisions is never around and causes your work life to fall into the dumps due to having to always stay around and wait for his decisions. Again it's been stressed how terrible communication is and a lot of "behind the back" politics. Unfortunately it's a small studio ran with a lackluster corporate attitude.

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