“Loved it...until I got fired for not being trained by my supervisors properly. ”

Comp & Benefits

Work/Life Balance

Senior Management

Culture & Values

Career Opportunities

Former Contractor - Anonymous Contractor in San Francisco, CA (US)

Former Contractor - Anonymous Contractor in San Francisco, CA (US)

I worked at Ubisoft as a contractor (less than a year)

Pros

Got to work on a great title, good collaboration and support among immediate contracted teammates, learned a lot about what goes into producing a AAA title. Various people I met around the office were friendly.

Cons

I was a contractor hired to create additional downloadable content. I succeeded two rounds of interviews/tests to be one of the few hired yet was terminated two months after starting because, as the producer said, "We have an idea of how fast you should be in two months and you didn't achieve that." This was a gig that involved proprietary software that you can't learn in school--it was being developed as we were being trained on it. I put in solid 40 hour weeks, furiously taking notes on my tasks, dealing with constant bugs in the system that created more work and lost it on multiple occasions. My supervisors were in regular rotation, dealing with their own chaos and deadlines in the building next door. One would tell me I was doing something wrong, I'd fix the problem and the other would tell me I should have done it the way the first supervisor had told me to avoid. I was given no warnings or advice on how to improve my performance and better contribute to the team. I quit my job for this seven month opportunity and found myself escorted like a criminal to the street two months later, one of the most humiliating experiences of my life.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

My conscience is clear. I worked hard, learned from my mistakes and took part in a unique project. But I can't help feeling like I was set up to fail, management playing a numbers game where their plan all along was to keep hiring and firing people every few months until they found whatever they were seeking. I was never given any documents on proper operating procedure, as all the complex information was given verbally and later attempts at clarification were often delayed as they dealt with their own tasks, preventing me from completing mine. Maybe I should have been tested on more skills than the ones that were a fraction of the overall job? Maybe management should have been more involved (and patient--I was just starting to get a handle on things in that second month) in my learning the ropes? Because I was thrilled for the chance to work at Ubisoft and now I'm left feeling like the hero you finally get to meet is actually pretty cruel.