Game on! 7 reasons to work at EA Tiburon in Florida
ORLANDO — Having fun playing video games? Think about what it's like to work at a company that makes 'em.
A trip to Electronic Arts Tiburon in Orlando revealed a fun atmosphere.
Inside a beautiful, unassuming office building next to Charles Schwab is a Magic Kingdom of sorts. It's kind of the "Disney World of office culture." Gift shop in the lobby. More flatscreen TVs than a Best Buy. Comfy leather couches with coffee tables that you could write on with a dry erase marker. Seriously.
Then you look around and see shiny blue hammerhead shark balloons floating mid-air in a sea of office cubicles. The balloons are given out for employee birthdays.
At EA Tiburon, the roughly 750 employees there work hard and play hard.
"There's never a shortage of trying to get things accomplished," Daryl Holt, EA vice president and group chief operating officer, said, "but at the same time, if we're not having fun doing it while making a fun product like games, we're probably missing something."
Here are 7 reasons to work at EA Tiburon.
• No dress code. There was the super caz (as in super casual) "well worn" T-shirt and cargo shorts vibe. Forget the power suit, "business appropriate" high heels and stiff uniforms. Holt and Alex Chatfield, EA Tiburon director of central operations, wore jeans. At one point, there were seven guys who looked like they were hanging out at the comic book store.
• There's a game room in the lunch room. In a nod to its video game roots, the cafeteria at EA has old school arcade games such as Galaga and Pac-Man. One can shoot pool or mini hoops.
• Video games everywhere. OK, that was a given. But if you just need to chill to get those creative juices flowin,' then pick up a controller, sit back and play. While on the clock.
• Endless supply of candy, chips and soda. The traditional video game munchies found at a LAN party? Yeah, they're there. (A LAN party features multiple gamers with consoles and computers who set up a local area network for multiplayer games.)
• Company football game. Around October, employees engage in a friendly game. Instead of Madden NFL, they flex their muscles on an actual field. There's a company basketball game, too.
• Cereal bars. Not Special K or Nutri-Grain. I mean multiple containers of cereal and a fridge stocked with milk. Legend says one of the founder's moms came by, noticed they weren't eating, so she bought cereal. The founders ate it up — literally — and continued the tradition of free milk and cereal. Holt estimates the company goes through 2 to 2 ½ tons of cereal a year.
• Funnest conference room. EVER. There's a ball pit in the conference room and giant sliding tile puzzles on the wall.
Chatfield, who has been with the company for 15 years, sums up the fun office culture there: "It's about people not taking the world too seriously and not forgetting what we do. It is a cool job to have."
Follow Jennifer Sangalang on Twitter: @byjensangalang