Video Gaming Technologies Employee Reviews for Software Engineer

"It has been a great ride, working with some amazing talent."

What do you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"Great opportunities to learn and grow in the craft of software engineering"

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Know your stuff and be prepared to work hard, but you will be working with great people."

What don't you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"Frequent shift in direction from senior management which caused a lot of delays in getting product out the door."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Listen more to engineering's perspective, especially when making engineering decisions."

What do you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"- Flexibility in hours.- Loose requirement on work hours.- Employees choice on how they wantto contribute to VGT.- Options for technology helpful to a growing company.- Former IGT experience to work on game design.- Scrum and all its benefits of greater team responsibility, increased communication, and regular demos to important decision makers.- Many good company-wide perks.Recognition for patent work. Annual holiday employee appreciation.- Regular employee training.- Shared product release plans."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Do not get comfortable working here despite how cozy they try and make you feel. Think hard about where else you can apply the skills that you are learning. The Virginia engineering department was closed despite assurances that there were no plans to do so. People fully expect the Reno department to be next when it fails to deliver. Jon Yarbrough will eventually realize that his best decision may be to simply close all of engineering and retire as a happy millionaire without any need to release new and successful products."

What don't you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"It is often necessary and difficult to persuade Jon Yarbrough, both CEO and owner, of things that do not fall under his expertise since VGTs large income leaves him unaccountable. The people that get to make the most important decisions at VGT are overly relied upon because of the trust they are given by Jon Yarbrough. Decision makers at VGT fall into two categories or can even be both.1. People who do not deserve to be in their position and rarely do anything to resolve problems.2. People who extend their authority and responsibilities beyond their original capabilities and assigned duty by dismissing everyone who disagrees with them.This leaves little room for anyone else to accomplish the things that they see needing to be done at VGT. Requirements for a products release are often overlooked at which point it is found that VGT lacks the capacity and resources to complete them in the desired manner. VGT makes long term goals but rarely succeeds at them due to unforeseen complications.Upper level management gives their attention to one company goal at a time and micro manages it while all other goals are given background priority and largely forgotten about. Under performing employees that cannot self-motivate themselves go unnoticed because they are placed on tasks that are not given enough attention by management. VGTs most valuable employees resign out of frustration.Universal solutions are applied to very small and simple problems at VGT. The analogy of using a baseball bat instead of a fly swatter is frequently used around work. VGT believes that all of its employees are a free resource that does not need to be factored into any expense. VGT will throw as many employees as it can at a problem and then blame everyone but their selves when there is nothing to show for it.Serious disagreements with someone at the VP level or higher have been resolved by removing the lower level employee from their responsibilities and often firing them from the company. Conflict and disputes between employees are handled by no longer allowing those employees to interact with each other.Sick days are combined with PTO so that employees have to sacrifice their vacation days to recover from illness. Contagious employees come in when they are sick and risk spreading illness to other employees to avoid sacrificing their vacation time."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"It is important that VGTs decision makers demand that a product first be in a releasable state before adding bells and whistles that generate the most exciting company buzz. Get rid of the rigid pecking order for decision approval unless there is an emergency so that you can trust people to do the job you appointed them for.Provide simple solutions to getting information, cooperation, and communication between departments instead of large cumbersome solutions that apply company wide. Stop trying to give management constant control and predictability.Have upper level management track and review the percentage of time they are spending on each project they are responsible for. VGT needs functional managers that can be responsible for success in their areas of expertise and not intrude on anyone elses responsibilities.VGT needs to pay very close attention to what their people know, take stock of their knowledge, and effectively manage it. Communicate with each individual employee, not the entire whole, what is expected of them and why VGT needs their knowledge. Encourage, but do not force, mentoring and coaching and job rotations ahead of time to plan knowledge transfers instead of waiting until it is too late. Calculate separation and replacement costs for losing and replacing a VGT employee so that it can be used to figure out how much can be invested in keeping them.Be honest with employees instead of pretending like you dont understand what an employee is talking about or treat employees like they are overreacting when they express concerns about the Virginia office closing. Keep suggestions to improve VGT moving instead of pushing the responsibility back onto the employee.The upper VP levels and higher also need to recognize that raising issues may just be an employees need to feel out whether they belong to VGT and where they stand in its hierarchy by breaking the ice and initiating conversation. The VP levels or higher should then only take action if the conflict cannot be resolved before the stress it causes begins to have physiological and psychological problems.Assume that everyone is working towards VGTs success until something is noticed. If it is doubtful whether someone is working towards VGTs success, immediately address it privately as if it is an individual and unique issue, instead of trying to resolve it company-wide. Pass down control of rewards instead of maintaining it at the top where it is harder to determine who deserves it. Use functional managers and team members to frequently identify important employees.Give employees the tools that they want to use for their job instead of forcing them to use tools that someone else likes. Make it easy for employees to validate their needs for an expense, especially if it has a proven greater return value for VGT.Give your employees sick days in addition to current PTO because you trust that they enjoy coming in to do their jobs and that they will not take advantage of sick days, otherwise remove the employees that you cannot trust instead of placing them on a less important project."

"Create exciting games using Flash and C#"

What do you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"I have the opportunity to make new and creative games for the casinos."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Do not do it, they shut down their largest development studio and offered some people transfers, knowing most would not go. Naturally, others they just showed the door and others that were not offered transfers were told if they stayed until October, they would get a severance package."

What don't you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"Upper management stalls every project until it dies on the shelf, I have written countless games that are have been complete for months and are still waiting on the shelf for a release date."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Learn to make a decision and stick with it and stop second guessing everything"

What do you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"It's a very relaxed company, with great people and it is a great learning environment."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Know your object oriented development basics, design patterns, and just have good communication skills."

What don't you like about working at Video Gaming Technologies?

"Sometimes things are a little too relaxed, and sometimes it feels like the things you are doing don't really matter."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Management should be more involved in the development that is happening, showing more interest."