Sorry to go against some of those who've already answered, but this account is fairly superficial. An intern is not going to get the full experience of employees at different levels. Further, Zynga has multiple studios, so I suspect one studio may differ from another. Also the "I spoke with a friend @ Facebook and they work more", one subjective data point.
I don't work at Zynga, I've heard stories like others, but you know what, I wouldn't assume anything about them until (if I did) I interviewed with them and inquired about a position I was interested in. In general, gaming studios work more than comparably sized non-gaming businesses.
This particular article/blog has no more merit than the stories of ZOMG ZYNGA IS EVIL AND WORKS THEIR EMPLOYEES TO THE BONE.
My experience in the tech industry is, an employee will have expectations, a company will have expectations. As the employee, it is your job to look out for yourself and make sure that what you are getting into matches what you want. You can easily get sucked into the day to day and forget or not realize what you are giving up, you need to be aware enough to take stock from time to time and ask "is this working for me?"
Just a minor (well major) nit... Quoting someone who says "my job is my social life" -- if most of those hours are in the office working, you need to get out and live a little. Especially if you are an employee and not a founder.
I don't work at Zynga, I've heard stories like others, but you know what, I wouldn't assume anything about them until (if I did) I interviewed with them and inquired about a position I was interested in. In general, gaming studios work more than comparably sized non-gaming businesses.
This particular article/blog has no more merit than the stories of ZOMG ZYNGA IS EVIL AND WORKS THEIR EMPLOYEES TO THE BONE.
My experience in the tech industry is, an employee will have expectations, a company will have expectations. As the employee, it is your job to look out for yourself and make sure that what you are getting into matches what you want. You can easily get sucked into the day to day and forget or not realize what you are giving up, you need to be aware enough to take stock from time to time and ask "is this working for me?"
Just a minor (well major) nit... Quoting someone who says "my job is my social life" -- if most of those hours are in the office working, you need to get out and live a little. Especially if you are an employee and not a founder.