Pros
- Lots of talented people, had a great time working with them. - Depending on your department, the work-life balance can be good. For me it was great most of my time there, though Sledgehammer is pretty heavy on crunch for some disciplines.
Cons
- Pay was poor considering the cost of living. Bonuses were just large enough to keep me happy, but not large enough to help advance me financially. - Management is pretty "top down" and often feels disconnected from the rest of the employees and production. Weird requests and expectations were not uncommon. - There is an almost fascist attitude/culture regarding the work, depending on who you talk to. The higher up the person, the more they tend to advocate or expect that CoD is more important than your outside life, relationships, kids, etc. This is especially true of the COO. - This is a CoD studio. Half the people there believe CoD does everything right and the other half is frustrated at how resistant to change/growth the company is. - More or less true everywhere, but especially at sledgehammer I found that the longer a person was there, the more jaded, grumbly and unhappy they were. It is just abundantly clear that you are a disposable employee, not someone that they care about. Sledgehammer is fine for a while. It looks good on your resume, and most of the cons I described are a 'slow burn'. If you just want to be there for a year or two, I think it's good. Sledgehammer has a high turnover rate though because it's just not worth staying there.