[mattnewport]

I don't think it's that weird, I've heard horror stories about working at many big companies - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Netflix... Typically there will be other people responding to the stories saying that they didn't have the same experience at those companies.

As I said in my original comment, a lot depends on your manager and your team. It probably also depends on your location (my experience was at the Vancouver studio) and when you were at the company.

While it does seem that some companies and industries might be worse than others depending on the culture, in general it looks to me like you're better off with the best manager / team in a 'bad' company than with the worst manager or team in a 'good' company and not everyone is going to have the same experience in the same company.

Being on a central technology team at EA I think meant less crunch than being on a game team with hard ship deadlines. Friends I know who worked on game teams at the same studio had more crunch periods but they also typically got more 'comp time' (an EA term for extra vacation time given after ship) and might also get bigger bonuses. I think they sometimes got more pressure to work overtime.

[Klover]

Thank you! I forwarded your responses to a friend who was interested too.