Overall great place to work, but needs focus + professional diversity
Pros
Codeplay has some great people, from a very diverse range of cultural backgrounds. There's opportunities to work on some really interesting projects on both client and research levels. There are awesome technical challenges and plenty to get your teeth into. Management make an effort to keep everyone interested and engaged by encouraging activities such as internal knowledge sharing talks, going to conferences, talking at conferences etc. Management will listen to you if you have problems and there's a mentoring system for your first three months to help you fit into all aspects of the company. The infrastructure team are helpful and friendly. An effort is also made to give everyone a chance to contribute to {hiring, activities, company location} - even if you are relatively new to the company. Regular (at least twice a year) social activities are arranged and usually paid for by the company. Other actives are always happening, too. Codeplay takes employee professional development seriously, and organises training in many areas that are enjoyable and useful.
Cons
Lack of focus on a goal. Codeplay makes money from customer contracting. Clear efforts need to be focused into pivoting to products if that's actually the goal. The cultural diversity at Codeplay is great and provides something unique that not a lot of companies have, but Codeplay tends to hire a very particular kind of graduate who is usually extremely academic in very particular areas. Since the hiring process has been opened up to the entire company the standard is extremely high but inconsistent. This has lead to a slight atmosphere of elitism and created a "hiring problem", when there probably isn't one. Other reviews mentioned the ratio of technical to non-technical staff being very high - this is true. It's hard to see though, how Codeplay can scale and move towards selling products when 95% of the company is extremely technical. Codeplay needs to think about how to treat employees who have served the company for a longer term. There are many things about Codeplay which are appealing to graduates and it truly gives a tech' company vibe - but some care needs to be focused towards more senior members of staff who may have different priorities and goals.
