Enzyme testing labs

While I am grateful for multiple reason of my time at Enzyme, and for helping me lay a solid foundation and confidence for my future in the world of QA. After further experience in other studios and feedback from friends that left & those that are still looking to leave the studio. I can't fully recommend with peace at heart Enzyme. There is clearly some things that need to be looked under the scope: employee retention is clearly something that need to be done in a healthy manner, which is not the case at the moment. It's easy for someone to be stuck under a loop and see no use to progress further as; visibility & advancement are sometime, from my experience, to individual in situations where charisma is at play. The focus is often toward results in a strict manner, and not focused on how we can all go forward as a team, rapidly creating a unhealthy mindset revolving around a common term among tester "bug count". 
It is good for a company to take the time to know their employee and form teams that works well with the strength and weakness of each, to achieve optimal result. Something that I had not being able to see outside of very specific teams. There was also a lot of time where some would be held back from taking additional steps forward, which doesn't help to create a flow where everyone can be autonomous through delegation and dipping their toes in something out of the "routine". It is something that with time, I wished I would have seen change while I was present, and that from various feedback, seems to still persist to this day. 

It's a good entry level QA job, a place sadly that I can only call a springboard toward other places in the gaming industry.

First i want to start off that i was fired via no ones fault but my own, working here took a huge toll on me financially greatly impacting my morale making me miss time leading to me getting rightfully fired.

Number one issue with this place was the ridiculous job security, i was with co-workers that were living off 2-week contracts scared for their job every pay check seeing if they will be renewed.

Lower management there was amazing, the leads were appreciative and carried about your health and well being.
Upper management on the other hand was repulsive, they don't bother to know who you are nor care for the effort you put into your work they only see you as a number.
"Oh we just lost a couple good testers lets replace them with 20 more testers"
This was the kind of mentality they had.

I put in a huge effort into the company regardless of the low pay and no benefits, and it all payed off on my last day where my manager brought me into my office with a big grin on his face to say i'm fired with no thank you for hard work.
Don't bother with "HR" they are actually "MR" management resources, doing whatever is best for the company.

Needless to say enzyme is a big company with many clients this was referring to the WB office i do hope it's better elsewhere in the company.

PROS: working with video games.

CONS: 
- Outdated facilities. Not a single window anywhere (dungeon-like) and limited room space for anything (everybody starts working at same time, imagine the rush and crowded space in the locker room). Old, really old chairs and equipment (almost for garbage).
 
- Not a place for career advancement or security. Either working by contract or on-call, there is no way to know how much work (and salary) you will get. The schedule is updated less than 24 hours in advance every time, it will be hard to keep 2 jobs. You may do more money at other minimum wage jobs. When they need you, then they will force Overtime with very short notice (and again, no opinions asked).

- Supervisors do not care about your progress there or tasks you do, but they demand everything done without offering minimum of assistance. No opinions asked, authoritarian sometimes. They have their OWN interests in mind, which is to look well with the clients, not the quality of their projects. To advance, they have to like you, more than the work that you do.  It will be through co-workers that you can accomplish the tasks of the job.

- Benefits? What benefits?

If you don't need to rely on this job, it is a great opportunity to meet interesting people and to have an glimpse at the video game industry. Also the 'dark side' of it.
You will learn that your oppinion is not asked.
You have to work, not improve. It is expected that you do everything for the job but noone from management will do anything for you, if you need help.
You learn from your co-workers, they will help and explain and you will make friends but this job is very unstable and as soon as there are no projects, people will get layed off immediately.
It doesn't matter where you are from, what you actually can and what your job was before. You are 'just' a tester, exchangable anytime.

Most of the day is spent on the computer, looking for language-related bugs in video games. Once a bug is found, a bug report needs to be filled out.
I learned a lot about the video game development process.
The managers have your best interests in mind and want to make sure you do a good job, so they are always available for help.
Co-workers are fun, funny, and most importantly, helpful.
The hardest part of the job is following testing instructions. Sometimes instructions are vague and it is difficult to figure out what the client wants, specifically.
The most enjoyable part of the job is playing video games, obviously.

Hires at entry-level position FQA testers. Train you during your first week. Second week you'll be assigned to a project and will have a coach to help you. Great management and fun work environment. If you have a good team, you'll really enjoy working here. Teams can change pretty often which is a great way to expand in the company, meet lots of people with similar interests and get your name out there.

Lack of hours during the winter season can really ruin your day.
But regardless, having worked here for nearly a year is a really great experience, never in my life have I thought I'd work in a video game industry.. Sure, it's not Ubisoft or Nintendo but I'm still a part of them... in a way.

And meeting new friends that actually do play games is a great thing since out of the places I worked in my entire life besides Enzyme, I only met one person that actually do play video games.. and he plays CoD all day.

The opportunity to grow is advertised but not always clearly available. Most of the Leads/Managers are great, however there are leads who do not always demonstrate their ability to lead, resulting in a lot of organization problems which further leads to redundant work being done.

The office is great, with fully stocked fridges for drinks, pool tables, ping pong tables, gaming stations. The atmosphere is great.

I worked for 2 years straight (with some stints before that) and don't think I could have had a better team. Also, the promotion opportunities worked out very well for me, event if I know that it frustrated some more senior colleagues when the administration decided to lower the salary ceiling. Anyway, I loved doing the training for the new members of the teams, the tasks that everyone was involved in (even it got chaotic a couple of times). Honestly, I would recommend it to a good friend.

 If you like to play games and don't mind poor pay then this is a good job.
 Overtime occurs regularly from 10 hour shifts to weekends. If you refuse overtime then will not call you for work.
 Pay scale is very poor starting at minimum wage to a max of $13/hrly. 
 Layoffs occur once any contract is finished. No real job stablilty.
Great job if you are young and live nearby and like to play games.
 

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