Inside the Culture of Sexism at Riot Games
kotaku.com
kotaku.com
Oh well... Monoculture is a big problem.
My fatal flaw was that I asked about work-life balance. They had none. The team I was being recruited to worked 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week. They weren't programmers, or artists, or involved in the development of LoL in any way. They didn't even actually have the workload to justify those hours. They spent that much time in the office just cause. I think they framed it as "supporting the developers" or some silly bullshit like that.
I declined the next interview. They kept calling me for a few weeks after that. Apparently I had gone further than anyone else they had tried to recruit to that position in some time.
This is just insane.
It was just about being in the office "supporting" the people actually working. Presumably they were supposed to play LoL during that time, but I didn't care enough to ask.
Also...I work for another media company in the LA area now. I leave by 5 every day. The only people working past 5:30 are the designers, because they don't come in until after 11.
I know some people at Riot and this is exactly it.
I expect this is a team-to-team different. In my experience, I've had _more_ work-life balance than at any other company. I have more flexibility over my calendar. I can leave early to pick up my kids from school.
Whatever team you interviewed with isn't the norm and isn't healthy.
If they happened to also visit websites, that would be a plus that could be the deciding factor against an otherwise equally matched candidate.
It really depends, but if the person is tasked with automating server fleets or optimizing compile-time kernel settings, it makes perfect sense (except for the fact all important documentation is on the web these days).
That's an extremely toxic company culture.