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      Certain Affinity

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      Certain Affinity Reviews

      3.7

      79% would recommend to a friend

      (56 total reviews)

      Max Hoberman

      85% approve of CEO

      72% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.4

      Work/Life balance

      4.1

      Culture and values

      4.0

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.6

      Career opportunities

      3.5

      Senior management

      3.5

      Compensation and benefits

      Certain Affinity has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 56 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Certain Affinity employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      56 reviews
      1.0
      14 Jan 2018

      #TIMESUP at Certain Affinity

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      What other reviewers say about this company is 100% true. They have awesome work life balance. They have good pay and benefits and perks. They have a mostly fun culture.

      Cons

      They forgot to mention the other dominant culture of this place. Rape culture. This is the type of place where lewd and sexist comments are allowed in company wide presentations even though complaints have been filed many times. But it gets worse. This is the type of place where individuals with a history of sexual misconduct are not terminated but are rewarded with promotions to senior levels. This is unacceptable and a completely backwards way of doing things. If someone is guilty of misconduct then that person should be fired - period. Also it should be said that many of the 4 and 5 star reviews on here are fake. We are routinely asked by upper management to post positive reviews and many of them are clearly written by upper management themselves.

      avatar
      Certain Affinity Response
      8y
      All feedback is extremely important to us, so thank you for sharing your experience. To be clear, Certain Affinity does not agree with this characterization of our culture, events, or that we have allowed unprofessional behavior to go unaddressed. We do not support behavior that unreasonably interferes with another’s work environment, specifically including the type of behavior described in this post, and we are absolutely committed to creating a transparent, collaborative and comfortable workplace for all of our employees. We strive to provide a safe and open environment where the door is open to express opinions and give constructive feedback. When informed of potential violations of company policy, the leadership team works closely with HR to ensure that a proper investigation is conducted, all employees are heard, and issues are addressed appropriately. If you would like to share more about your experiences, please contact me at mythoughts@certainaffinity.com so that we can set up a time to talk. Stephanie Letendre Vice President of Finance and Human Resources
      4.0
      28 Jan 2018

      That #TimesUp Review is Nonsense

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Friendly, respectful culture focused on excellence of work and ability to communicate with teammates. I've been here for 5+ years but am not in leadership or at a top level. I just wanted to write a review to say that the #TimesUp review is utter nonsense. Several things are untrue: a) there are not lewd or sexist remarks in meetings. It's true that very occasionally there's a throwaway remark that might be described as 'risqué' at most -- but we're talking about a Nickelodeon-safe level of risqué here. I've worked at previous games companies with actual misbehavior. By comparison, the other review describing CA as 'game development for grownups' is far more accurate. We don't have a bro culture, our development team tends to skew a little older for the industry, and many if not most employees here have families. The use of the TimesUp hashtag particularly amuses me, as anyone who has met the leadership at CA is aware of just how progressive they actually are. This is not a boys' club and the implication that this company is 'part of the problem' is laughable. One other certain falsehood from the other review is the claim that management regularly asks us to post positive reviews. I think the total number requests -ever-, and both made in the past year or so as we've recruited in order to get bigger, has been 2 requests. I also don't think that they asked us to post positive reviews. In fact, if you're curious, here's an ACTUAL quote of an email we got from leadership several months back: "If you're willing to share your views of CA and your experience here on Glassdoor please do - I'm confident that, as a whole, this will improve our image and help boost our appeal to potential recruits. I know we're not perfect, but I hope that our commitment to ensuring that this is a great place to work and making every day here better than the last is self-evident." That seems perfectly fair to me. I think that the lies contained in parts of the other review suggest that the poster has a axe to grind in general, and that the claims that they make should not be trusted. Obviously I have no idea about some other employee's private HR complaints, or their resolutions, but for my part I've seen no behavior to support that part of the review either.

      Cons

      The leadership has taken a conservative approach to risk in the past, choosing to protect cashflow from work-for-hire contracts over a riskier investment in things like marketing our original games. Yes, it can be frustrating when you're working on stuff and want to see it go bigger, but at the same time, we all still have jobs because this company is still here because it manages its money frugally and keeps risk low. When you look at how many developers in Austin have folded, it's a real accomplishment to be here at 10+ years. And as we grow bigger, I can promise you'll be hearing more from us soon about our own work.

      1.0
      2 Feb 2022

      Toxic leadership culture destroys morale and keeps company from reaching full potential

      Senior engineering director
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Certain Affinity is first and foremost a codev studio. They work on other company's games and not their own. If you're cool with that then there's opportunity here for you. As a new game developer you'll get the chance to work on some big titles. You'll also get to work with some seriously skilled talent. You'll be surrounded by great coworkers with a deep passion for their craft. Feel free to join on, learn what you can, beef up your portfolio, and move on to a bigger adventure. 3 years is a good stint.

      Cons

      The biggest con of working at Certain Affinity is the toxic culture at the senior leadership level. This toxic culture destroys leader morale, encourages politics, rewards unproductivity, and allows incompetence to flourish. The more productive you are, the less successful you can be as a leader here. The source of this toxic culture are the founders, Max and Mojdeh (a deeply distrusting husband and wife team). Neither one understands game development, nor do they delegate decision-making to competent lieutenants. Their ignorance of the business of game development affects every decision they make. Contrary opinions be damned. The best you can hope for is some lip service as they continue full steam ahead implementing whatever their next hairbrained scheme is. They don't lead... they micromanage, belittle, and otherwise cajole their leaders into executing ill-conceived plans that keep the organization perpetually off balance. This results in the company careening from one leadership crisis to another. There's never quite enough bandwidth to actually solve the issues that leadership faces. It's just fire after fire after fire. It's exhausting but it also ensures that the founders are front and center in any crisis. And they love that! This perpetual fire fighting is the main reason why Certain Affinity hasn't been able to ship their own games for over a decade. And, if you want to ship your own games, this company is absolutely not for you.

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      ReviewsCertain Affinity reviews

      Glassdoor has 64 Certain Affinity reviews submitted anonymously by Certain Affinity employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Certain Affinity is right for you.