Method Studios Reviews

3.6

55% would recommend to a friend

(178 total reviews)

Ed Ulbrich

84% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

Method Studios has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 178 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Method Studios 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

178 reviews
1.0
4 Jan 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I touched more feature films there in the couple years I worked than I've touched in the rest of my career: they do a *lot* of notable features that really flesh out an IMDB page if you're able to float between them. I learned the worst possible ways to do SO many things while there that it made me positively bulletproof when I left - I can honestly say that in the four years I've been gone, I've been regarded very highly largely because I learned so many awful approaches to rule out instinctively. Method serves as the BEST bad example in nearly every area. Lots of offices around the world, and there seems to be some opportunities for mobility - it's not inconceivable to decide you want to work in Australia, for instance, or move to London for a year.

Cons

Method has an absolutely *toxic* command structure that makes meaningful mid-term and long-term planning impossible. Project direction changes almost daily based on who was the loudest person at the last meeting. They've been building a "unified pipeline" since at least 2010 - everyone I hear to this day (2016) still says they're doing this, as if it's a big new adventure they've just embarked on. The sad part is that there was never much of a pipeline to begin with, and every attempt at unifying the facilities was tackled in the worst possible way. When five or six years in, you're still trying to adapt a set of tools that should only take a few months to write in the first place, you should know the problem is ego and politics, not software or the artists. When I was there, they had some of the most backwards supes I've ever met - I've worked with some true champions, and none of those guys stuck around if they came on at Method. The guys that DO stick around are from the Donald Trump school of "call everybody else losers" school of management - horrible ideas, like hiring a dozen modelers to model boulders instead of one fx developer to generate them algorithmically. Guys that micromanage their artists based on how they did things the last time they sat on a box back in 2008... I was paid well when I was there because I came with a good pedigree - but I knew many artists making absolutely *HORRIBLE* wages and being denied overtime in patently illegal fashion. I used to keep a folder of emails wherein I had been given illegal advice on modifying timecards or reflecting different hours than those actually worked. They promise comp time but many people never take it because they're strongly discouraged from doing so. I hope these practices have been reformed in the last few years but it seems unlikely - friends who have worked there in the interim have reported pretty much the same behaviors. I was very protective of my work-life balance but still failed at it while there - I was called in on weekends and in the middle of the night so many times while I worked there, for reasons that were almost *never* necessary. They had zero respect for anyone's personal life - they genuinely didn't give it a second thought to call me in at 1am for something they could have easily planned for in advance or postponed until the next day. I made it a habit to ignore my phone because this was *never* because of an actual emergency - just painful incompetence.

1.0
30 Aug 2016

It's A Wonder They Can Still Find New Employees

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some decent artists but I'm only writing that because when I wrote "none" it told me that wasn't long enough.

Cons

No respect for work/life balance - you'll live in constant fear of the late nights and weekend work. Everything is about how they can make even the worst clients happy so the artists and staff suffer endlessly. If you complain it will be seen as an annoyance and they'd rather replace you than fix what is wrong. Make no mistake - they may seem like a small-ish studio, but they operate like the worst of giant faceless corporations. Only the people who stick it out rise to the top, making the leadership an assortment of the most backstabbing, uninspired, bitter and resentful people in the business. There are dozens of other places to work - go to any of them instead.

1.0
11 Jul 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free breakfast - that's about it.

Cons

Run by the most disgraceful, backstabbing, passive aggressive, unprofessional, greedy, evil, despicable upper management I have ever worked with (President, SVPs, Producers). Staff being let go left and right. Shady business practices, disorganized mess, constant meltdowns which lead to people working 24-7 and many without overtime pay. They are a company culture that treats people like disposable trash. Do not work here unless you do not care about professionalism, human kindness and respectable values. If you want to be miserable and work with some of the worst humans you'll ever meet, you'll fit right in.

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Glassdoor has 275 Method Studios reviews submitted anonymously by Method Studios employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Method Studios is right for you.