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Does anyone know anything about working for Zynga - particularly at NaturalMotion (subsidiary of Zynga)? Do you find the work meaningful? How is WLB and TC? Any advice on standing out at interview? Applying for entry level rotational PM role at NaturalMotion YOE: 1 TC: €50k
I’ve heard many Zynga horror stories but I wonder if they’re all from years ago when our stock, products and management were garbage, or if my studio (Toronto) has a drastically different culture from the rest. No one with bad reviews about Zynga really gives too many details, so maybe try to see for yourself in the interviews. Everyone here is friendly, supportive, and our manager frequently makes sure that you aren’t working overtime. Most people here seem happy and the higher ups are very chill. Whether or not mobile games is meaningful work depends on the person. I personally think I’m wasting players’ time but others believe they are making the world a better place.
Thanks for the reply and advice. Glad to hear you like it! One question I wanted to ask - the role I applied for is Zynga but specifically for NaturalMotion. What is the dynamic there? Would NaturalMotion be treated very separately from the rest of Zynga or is it fairly integrated with the rest?
I haven’t had any contact with the NaturalMotion team, but from my experiences working with Rollic it seems like acquired companies mostly retain their original culture. Honestly, I feel like Zynga really lacks a definitive company wide culture due to numerous acquisitions and the fact that every team is working on entirely different products and will likely never have to work together. That leaves it up to each team to decide their own culture which could be for better or for worse.
I joined Zynga two years ago and the culture and wlb is amazing. Everyone is super helpful and friendly. I'm an engineer but I've worked with a lot of PMs here and they are very smart and easy going. As for NaturalMotion I never worked directly with them but their leadership is amazing and has worked on really big games before Zynga. The only thing I find it hard is to find thr work meaningful. The mobile games we make are mostly casual (and some are hyper casual) and that can leave you feeling you are not working on "making the world a better place" or whatever FANG feel they do. But the TC is very competitive so that's always great and the stock has more than doubled since I joined so I can forget the meaningful part :D
NaturalMotion is responsible for the new Star Wars switch game so that may help with meaningfulness 👀
Yes - that Star Wars release would be so cool to work on (if possible)!
Hey - current RPM at Zynga (NM): WLB is fantastic, really solid mentors. TC is very generous and higher than my other offers in Big Tech - the RSU in particular has been doing amazingly since I joined. I won’t disclose as I know it’s open to negotiation and there are only two of us here. Really significant and meaningful work from one month in - NM makes serious games and we’re currently developing some really exciting games including Star Wars: Hunters, a cross-platform combat game on Nintendo Switch and Mobile. I’ve personally had experience working on both a Live Game and a Game in development, which gives broad exposure across the different aspects of PM - from economy management and A/B testing to product roadmap planning and developing features. Advice on standing out the interview: know the games you want to talk about really well and have an idea of what their KPIs might be. Feel free to reach out to me for a chat here / on LinkedIn if you’d like any further info :)
What’s the TC like? interviewed for their internship program back in the day but decided to go somewhere else instead.
Garbage company
If you go into production you might actually like it. If Zynga kept any of EA's DNA (with all the producers and executives they have from EA it's very likely) then you will be in the only discipline that they think is making them money. I would not recommend going into development though.
Zynga’s pretty well known for their data-driven Product culture, I think it’s a long shot to say that production is the only discipline making them money..
Obviously production is not making them money, least the only one that is. This is why I wrote "that they think is making them money". I have worked in EA and have friends who worked in Zynga albeit long time ago. Both act as if developers are subhuman and the producers are carrying the projects despite annoying interference from the dev teams.
I'm currently at Zynga and on the NaturalMotion side. I'm biased, I'll admit, because I'm in a middle management position. But I'm loving it. It's been a great ride so far. My efforts to create a positive, sustainable culture for my part of the business have been met with support from leadership above me. The funding and patience to see results is there. I think the company genuinely cares. TC is good for me, I'm in the 200k range.
That sounds ideal - thank you for sharing! I was going for graduate PM but they couldn’t interview me since I graduated last year. Will for sure keep a lookout tho - thanks for positive recommendation!
They age discriminate in their interview and the Interviewers are rude and inflexible. Avoid these idiots.
Worked with some people that worked there. They were cancer.
Oh damn - not great sign.. do you know which office they were from? Looking at London specifically
Nah it would have been SF. But one of them was very high up there and I imagine the culture is shite based on the way he acted and the people he brought to the company