Avoid - Avis employé Junior Gameplay Programmer Frontier Developments

* Management actively discouraged asking questions when you were stuck. You were expected to spend up to 1-2 hours to try and figure out a problem on your own (proprietary code base) even when the problem was trivial and could be solved by asking a co-worker within 5 mins. You cannot expect reasonable personal growth in such an environment. * The office culture was stagnant and intimidating. People would sit down with their heads glued to their screens (even when visibly not working), rarely talking to each other. * The people I interviewed with for the position were completely unrelated to the people I worked under (different teams). Had I have interviewed with my actual manager, I would not have joined Frontier. * My manager was insecure, non-communicative and very easily offended by any and all even slightly negative feedback. I don't believe this person is suited for management and should have remained a senior. * Salary is quite low for the living costs in Cambridge. Annual salary was £1600 for a location where a single tenant apartment costs around £900 in rent alone. * Standard 25 days holidays but no office closure over the Christmas period. =========================================== Personal story: I was hired as a Junior Programmer and asked to relocate to Cambridge for the role. The interview went really well and I was quite excited. Quickly fell afoul of my manager who would not discuss any issues out of HR mandated once-a-month meetings, extended my 3 month probation to 6 months, told me things were going well and the extension was 'just in case', then immediate dismissal with no warnings 3 weeks into the extension (this was the day that the DLC we were working on went gold). I was now out of a job, depressed and had a flat to pay rent on without a job and was liable for rent until a replacement tenant could be found. This could end up being you, avoid Frontier.