Vantaggi
All started with a short telephone interview with a developer of Forge of Empires, who was actually looking for a skilled dev to support his team. After this successful interview, I was invited to the old headquarters in Hamburg-Harburg for a face to face interview. When I arrived, I already had a very good feeling. The people I met were super friendly and very welcoming. I had several talks with Lead Dev, HR and Producer who inspected my personality and skills (including a small test). All went quite well and after two days I received a call that they wanted me to join them. They offered me to pay for expenses of my move to Hamburg. The company also rents at least two shared flats that are provided to employees coming from far away. They can live there for two months, so they have enough time to find an own place. At the moment I'm with the team of Rising Generals. The work at InnoGames is, and I want to point that out, "very professional". Colleagues are very skilled and you can learn a lot from each other. Only about 1.4% of the ~10,000 applications in 2014 actually turned into contracts. Basically there's no stressful work at all - I've seen a lot in former employments in the past. A specialty is the so called InnoDay. On this day, usually Friday, you have the opportunity to work on own ideas that can make it into the game. We've had some really cool features coming from InnoDays. To make life comfy, not only free coffee and drinks (juice, lemonade, etc.) are offered, but also lots of different fruits. On some days it can really make a difference :-) The company is really into people coming together, so on every Thursday, there's a "come together" on the 6th floor. People play table soccer, table tennis, chess, console games or just sit, talk and drink beer. You can meet lots of nice people there. But this is not all. InnoGames is also into sports. They offer company soccer after work, what is very enjoyable. On the 2nd floor there's the InnoFit - a fully equipped gym - where you can train your body after work (or before, if you are an early person). Personally, I find the management quite good. They're nice people and are always available, if you want to talk to them. For my personal career, this is it. It's by far the most exciting job and the best working atmosphere I've seen.
Svantaggi
One fact that has nothing to do with this company in particular, but is common in the gaming industry, is that wages are not as high as in other software developing industries. They are not bad though ;) But I think the work is much more fun.