Vantaggi
Great dynamic between the members of the team, with no drama. The experienced seniors impart wisdom and mentorship, but the juniors drive innovation and challenge the status quo (seniors do that too!).
Any single employee with initiative, no matter how junior, has the power to make their work environment better, whether its switching to the best new development tools, improving on coding best practices or agile processes, or even just brewing some yummy beer for the team. Initiative and ownership are strongly desired and appreciated. I personally find myself working over the weekends just because I'm excited about the work, mostly because its a project I proposed. Many here do that.
Good culture of feedback, whether positive or constructive, between all employees. All employees go through feedback training and are encouraged to share their appreciation for each other. Nice open office that promotes collaboration and communication.
You also have the ability to learn about all the new major platforms, since Flixster is developing apps for everything: web, mobile web, iOS, Android, Xbox, Playstation, Windows Phone, desktop, smart tvs. You name it, we're on it. If you are passionate enough, you may be able to switch platforms if you get sick of your current one.
Upper management has always been very transparent to employees, whether its bad news or good, whether we've fallen short of our goals, and whether we've aced them. Warner Bros management has been very hands off, so it still feels like our pre-WB days (its been almost 2 years already). WB management has also very nice people to boot. Immediate engineering managers are intelligent and laid back, and the management approach is pretty hands off, because the employees are self-motivated.
I myself have learned more than just engineering skills here. I've learned entrepreneurial skills and the tradeoffs between engineering and business decisions, advertising considerations, interacting with 3rd parties, etc. Since people are expected to wear many hats, you can't help but learn these random soft skills. Very useful if I were one day brave enough to start my own company.
A lot of fun is had in the office: Beer, nerf guns, ping pong, poker nights, etc.
Svantaggi
No bells and whistles in the office. Not a lot of startup-y perks. We dont have our own chefs or free lunches or massages. Heck, two years ago, we used folding tables as desks. (Its much nicer since WB bought us, we got nice desks and Aeron chairs!). But still, those who come to work here must really be excited about the actual work, the product, and their team members, because theres not much else. (The positive to that is that its a good filter for those types of people who we actually want to work with, who only care about the work, the product, and their team members).
New HR practices are kinda tedious ever since the acquisition, but I'm only comparing it to our lax startup ways before. Compliance training, sexual harassment training, monthly work records, stricter expense reporting, etc. But I imagine its this way at all big companies.