software engineer

senior software engineer

producer

artist

senior artist

Blizzard Entertainment

I have worked at Blizzard Entertainment for close to eleven years in Customer Support. Though the job itself is full of introverts and encourages you to focus on your work, it is the extroverts that receive all the promotions. They do promote from within but any degrees earned, past experience, time already worked at Blizzard, none of that matters. You get one shot via an interview for positions that you may wait years for an opening to come up in and if you have any kind of interview anxiety, you will not get that promotion. 

Working in Support is a nightmare. Most of the people who work there for any kind of extended time end up with neurological disorders. We have military vets that did fine in combat that end up with anxiety, we have a large number of people that end up dealing with depression. You face customers that dehumanize you, scream at you, and basically hold your career hostage through the almighty survey system. These are customers that are basically addicts to video games and if you have ever dealt with an addict that is denied their fix, then you have an idea of how they can be. There are often Staff that cry on the job from the sheer amount of abuse that they take from customers  and because we have to sweet talk even the most meanest customer for a better survey rather than tell them what actually needs to be said, you have to ignore the constant fight or flight instinct telling you to either run from this customer or fight back. I do not care how mentally strong you are, you ignore this for too long, and your body and your mind will strike back at you.

These customers are asked to give a logical assessment of your work but the company sells an emotional experience via video games and that is the type of answers you get in your surveys which determine if you will stay employed or get promoted or be able to take advantage of certain programs within the company. Most of the time, the answers you will have to give to customers are predetermined but you will still be the one that takes the hit on your surveys which are not even mathematically sound. They also continue to raise the bar on minimum requirements for quality and right now it is so ridiculously high that I cannot foresee being able to stay employed there for much longer. One bad week can make it difficult to pass your metrics, and two bad weeks can bury you. They try to say that the ratio of good to bad customers evens out, but we are talking about people with different triggers, personalities, etc, that you get at random, and the only way for it to really balance out would be a larger sample size than just a few months. 

Your immediate Supervisor is great. They are helpful, but how much help and support you get from them is sort of luck of the draw based on which Supervisor you work under. Beyond them however, there is a disconnect and management staff beyond your immediate Supervisor do not care about you, only the business. They make all the decisions for better or worse, and if it is  a bad decision, Support has to live with it. I do not think they do this maliciously, I just think they are under-qualified to make the decisions they are making. If you want to bring in new technology, you consult someone who is an expert with the type of tech you want to bring in, if you want to change a system that will affect who gets fired and who gets promoted based on customer interaction, then you want to bring in the experts who make sure your decisions are sound. They do none of that in Support.

The only thing that Blizzard has going for them, are the benefits are fantastic, the games are great, and there is a great culture there. Blizzard as a company really does care for its customers, and that is a rare thing these days. The CEO cares for the company and its workers, which is also rare. 

All in all, Blizzard is a great company as long as you do not work in Support. If you are looking for a Support job, I recommend that you avoid this one. There are better places to work for out there.

As a game company I adore Blizzard, but having been an employee there for 3 years before leaving, I must say it was not a good company to work for in a Customer Support capacity.

I'm a dad, and I can tell you that working at Blizzard is just not something you can successfully do as a parent.  Work/Life Balance at Blizzard is terrible.  

Want a weekend day off?  You are punished with the worst hours imaginable.

Want a good schedule (i.e. day shift)?  You are punished with the worst days off possible.

I saw a good friend get let go in March of this year, along with a few others, because he had to take quite a few sick days to take care of his child.  Curiously, other people who got let go were parents too.  Hmm...coincidence?  If the attendance policy wasn't so ridiculous, where you are DISCOURAGED from using sick time, even if you are deathly ill, people would be able to retain their jobs here. It's absurd watching great people get let go because they get sick, or need to take days off because they need to care for their children.

I left voluntarily in April for a much better job...same type of work, better hours, and 50% more pay.  Let's break down a typical day at Blizz.

A typical day at work - Days start off with 15 minute "huddles" which allow you to catch up on any news or immediately relevant info, and allow you to gradually settle in before the tickets start coming in.  Then the works starts...the tickets come rolling n, 70% whining crybabies, 20% nice folks, 10% trolls.  On an average day you're expected to be able to resolve 90 tickets, though the average person gets about 60 - 75.  Two breaks (15 min each) and an hour lunch, staggered for most teams (especially "hybrid" teams which are combination game master and phone support teams).

What I learned - That with hard work and dedication, you're only as valuable as the numbers you produce and how much can adhere to the attendance policy, which has some absurd quirks.

Management - depends on who you get.  Some are clueless, some are great.  Good managers will work with you to get you recognized by the higher ups, or try to get you promoted.  Others will say "Hey, that's great, let's work on moving you toward that direction in the company" and you'll never see any of that come to fruition.

Co-Workers - various.  We're all nerds.  But you get the obnoxious nerds who like to hear themselves talk, the angry nerds who are confrontational and not friendly, and the jaded nerds who will only say "Check Wowhead" if you propose a question to your team.  The balance is more in favor of the obnoxious and jaded rather than decent folks.

Hardest part of the job - keeping up with the myriad changes that take place from month to month.  Want to get promoted?   Sorry pal, you did great last quarter, and your numbers definitely would put you in line for promotion...that is, if we were still using last quarter's numbers, and we're not.  Changed again.  Good luck next time.   There are 4 tiers of CS, then Senior, and I know people who have been Tier 1 for 5+ years simply because they change the requirements of promotion so much.

Most enjoyable part of the job - Blizz caters food, has company outings, throws a big holiday party, and you can play games at work while on break or lunch.  



Blizzard is extremely open minded and accepting of their employees. I did not see or experience any kind of discrimination, it is truly a "One Family" kind of vibe there. Your coworkers will be "Gamers" and you will meet a ton of great people with similar interests. You can decorate your desk and the artwork around the building looks amazing.

The company is also as transparent as they can be. You will receive emails from people throughout the company which makes you feel apart of something bigger than yourself. 

There are also times throughout the year when you can give your own feedback about the company and tell them what you would like to see improved around the office. They will listen and do what they can to make it happen. That meant a lot to me.

Blizzard is a global company and every day you must be willing to give 210 percent. Do not expect any "Easy Days". Do not expect any "Free Rides". 

There is a lot of competition internally and externally, anything short of excellence will not get you very far. You cannot be "Somewhere in the middle" and expect to be promoted. You must be extremely hardworking and will often find yourself in stressful situations such as finishing a "Project" or "Assignment" within a short amount of time. The company is constantly growing, every single day you must learn something new. You will experience "Change" very often and you must be able to adapt to new policies or time constraints. 

You must be open to criticism and have "Thick Skin". Your supervisor / Manager / Boss will be giving you constant feedback to help you learn and grow. Depending on your job, Customers or the "Gaming Community" can give you feedback about their interaction with you or about something you built / designed. Not all feedback will be positive and you must be willing to digest and take away what you can to become better at your job.

In my opinion, hourly wages and salary could be increased. There are much smaller companies that pay more for the same "Job".  On a positive note, as a full time employee you will get some bonuses and "Goodies" throughout the year to help compensate for this.

There are two sides to working at Blizzard, and which side is more important to you will determine if you have a good time there. First is the company/culture itself. My time was from 2012-2016 and I only left because I had to (moved), I didnt want to leave. The company side loves to make its employees feel like they matter. Some of these things are like: Usually 2 big events (outings) in the year where they rent out places (like an entire Main Event or Dave & Busters), and 2-4 events where they provide food and drinks with 60-90 mins to check out some "stuff" (cant say per NDA), and plenty PotLucks, team outings, and even time to play the current games/expansions so we are up to date on the in-game knowledge to better help our players. Being a Call Center, you can dress how you want, you can eat at your desk whenever (but you cant leave the desk unless your on lunch/break/bathroom). I personally kept snacks in my bottom drawer. During my time there, the place was fun and very great. 

However the otherside of this coin is the actual work itself. Its a call center, so your usually juggling either Phones, Live Chat, or "Tickets" (email support basically). Tickets are usually your most relaxing time as you can listen to music/podcasts, just cant be watching movies/shows. Make sure your still working and meeting metrics, and Ticket time is the best time. Phones are a loot box. Sometimes you get cool people, sometimes VERY upset people, and sometimes people who dont know what a keyboard is. its a grab bag but thats part of the job. Live chat however, is where it gets very stressful. Depending on requirements and metrics, as it changed alot over the years, you could be juggling 1-4 live chats at once. DO NOT confuse the customers because you dont want them to feel like they arent important. They are, its just that we have alot of work to do so its more efficent to work as many as you can. Upon my time, it was a choice to work 2-4 chats at once. I've heard different since I left, but I'll leave that for current employees to review. 

Overall, Blizzard Entertainment (Austin) is an amazing place to work as long as you can get through the actual work. 

Typical day in a customer service rep's job at Blizzard is fielding phone calls, webchats, and in-game tickets. You'll be trained for all three but since customers can contact about a large variety of topics, you'll need to rely on coworkers and internet tools to find the answers. Job performance is gauged on productivity, quality, and first contact resolution and you'll need to meet metrics in all three to maintain your job. 

Coworkers are generally pretty awesome. The workforce is largely very young though and for many this is a first time job so older employees may find the atmosphere immature. Company culture in the building is very relaxed, with no real dress code and employees will be expected to have a thick skin because you'll be talking to customers who range in age of 10-80 years and you'll get a variety of personality types to deal with. 

Some room for advancement although not much and internal hiring into other departments is rigorous and extremely competitive so a customer service position is not a great way to transition to another department. 

Medical/Dental/Vision benefits available and have good coverage although there is a small fee to be paid for coverage. Pay is ok, not the best but not the worst. Pay for highest tier rep caps out at $17/hr. Management pretty laid back although that'll vary depending on the person. You will be forced to change shifts once every year so you cannot be guaranteed to have a shift you want for more than a year. Hours for the building are 6AM to 2AM/7 days a week so be prepared for shift work. Shifts based on stack ranking so the better you perform, the better your shift.

Hardest part of the job is dealing with irate customers and the amount of talking you need to do if you're on phones for the day. Can be extremely stressful with very little appreciation from customers.

Best part of the job are the people you meet at work and some of the customers who can be awesome. Relaxed culture means a fair amount of fun which is good. Also, company gives out a good amount of free swag related to their games which is nice.

The company and upper management have good intentions and sadly trust the wrong individuals that recruit lower management. It is great to have a gaming community and so many dedicated employees but they have to realize that this is an organization that makes money and need responsible, qualified people working for them. Even and especially in the customer service field.
They have great benefits, health programs, fun events for employees every year funded by the company.

Low and Middle management are not experienced or qualified managers but people who have been gamers and worked there for years and have been promoted by how popular they are instead of having qualifications. Promotions are based on how much your senior/tm likes you and not about work performance, skills. Basically your popularity and butt kissing takes gets you a promotions. If you don't have that, you are targeted and suffer retaliation. Low paid dishonest people who are in senior positions are not professional at all, have poor grammar and the call center employees "steal" things. God forbid you forget your phone in the bathroom or your wallet somewhere. People come to work poorly dressed and have no manners.
The worst is how the reviews are done quarterly. The way you are evaluated for promotion is ridiculous and they do not seem to find the right people to get the metrics right. Worse when you are being evaluated under their instability and 'test runs" for metrics and cannot do anything about it.
Their evaluation is by the book and managers seem like robots that simply read papers to you. They have no idea of who you are or what qualifications you have.

I started at Blizzard back when it was just us and Vivendi and right before the release of World of Warcraft. Times were great back then. Work was enjoyable and I felt like I knew everyone in my immediate surroundings. Overtime was rare in those days and though profit sharing was enjoyable, it was never really fair for all. All in all life was very good and I loved the company.

Fast forward to the Blizzard of today and I will paint you a picture of a completely different identity. Just around the time of the Activision merger Blizzard Entertainment had become more machine and less of whatever it used to be. Overtime became mandatory and easily extends to over three fourths of the year. The standard work week now consists of around sixty hours and no more, because they do not want people going on double time. If I remember correctly there was a California state law concerning double time. I was not allowed to be a family man. My life consisted of going to work coming home sleeping and repeating the process again. This continued from Monday through Saturday or Sunday through Friday depending on which one we were assigned or got to choose from.

Advancement is available if you know the right people. You really have to luck out by getting a good manager. One of the horrible things about working for Blizzard today is that doing a fantastic job doesn't mean much. Management is hit or miss on the quality of the manager. There are some great managers there, but also some really poor ones.

I'm really sad for the path the company chose to take. The quality of life at Blizzard today is extremely low and the pay just doesn't compete with the costs of living in and around Irvine, CA.

This is not easy to write as Blizzard has always been my dream company and I am a huge fan of their games, but the company is a sinking ship. Been with them for a few years and the first year was amazing and exceeded all expectations for what one imagined what life at Blizzard would be like. But in 2020 it all started to go downhill due to constant changes and overreach from Activision. It sounds good on paper: they are trying to streamline things across the global company but the vision is unclear and implementation is horrendous. Certain decisions coming from the top (c-suite) make no sense with no explanation and I’ve seen it drive people out in droves. It’s heartbreaking for me to note that everyone I know at the company has left or is actively looking for a new job. And these are people who bleed blizzard-blue and never dreamed of leaving! And don’t get me started on the horrendous practice of hiring everyone as a contractor and extending their contract every three months with the promise of conversion. Contract life is cruel when you are forced to work 18+ months without access to benefits or PTO. No matter how you try to beg/convince upper management that you need to convert someone, it can never be done. And those who are hired as full-time are paid insultingly low. It’s impossible to hire great talent if we are unable to pay them competitive rates. 
I’m depressed to see such a great company fall but all I can do now is appreciate that I was able to experience the good times and hopefully bring that inspiration to my next job

First let me start off with stating I am not disgruntled.  Quite the contrary.  Blizzard Entertainment helped shape me into the type of employee I am today.  The people I worked with every day made the workload digestible.  The workload however is mundane and highly repetitive.  It wouldn't change very much from the day to day life.  Show up and clock in.  Send the same responses countless times for the same reason/requests.

The biggest thing I learned there was how to communicate effectively.  Unfortunately, that didn't help with advancing in the company.  They will say that you own your career, however you get locked in one department and have little opportunity from moving out of that department.

The pay scale was absolutely abysmal when I started.  However several employees made a huge fuss about being underpaid and they bumped everyone up to a more suitable pay band.  Close enough to a living wage as you'll get currently for an entry level position.  You'll still need a roommate or two to offset living expenses.

Management is going to be hit or miss.  It ultimately depends on if you get along with them and become friends.  But if you direct supervisor doesn't like you personally, you'll have a bad time working there.  Upper management was completely out of touch with reality by the time I left.  They were so focused one profitability and money, they lost sight of the company's mission.  To provide an epic gaming experience with epic customer support.  They found that automated support is more cost effective than having the human element.

- If you are younger than 30, have no family to care for and basically very little life outside of work, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t plan on getting ahead, having an actual career which will allow you to advance, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind having your work conditions (employment contract details) changed without notice by management, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind confusion, contradicting decisions, having your lunch hours shoved ahead or behind at will, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind that “every voice matters” means you should have an opinion, but should only voice it if you agree with everything, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind being verbally incapacitated to the point where any criticism or questioning of orders means you’ll fall in disgrace, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind having to work your behind off with very little chance to get ahead, then this is the company for you.
- If you don’t mind that any advancement positions are handed out on the basis of is “politically correct” not on the basis of previous experience and merrit, then this is the company for you.
- If you can talk for days on end why this or that Pokemon is better than the other, but see blank faces when it comes to any conversations which do not cover gaming, then this is the company for you.

If you have a problem with any of the points above, then stay miles away from the company.

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