Great company to work for - Anonymous employee SPJA Employee Review

- Growth opportunities are vast if you take initiative. Great place to gain experience whether in a corporate setting or exposure to other departments. - Flexible working arrangements. Supervisors oftentimes will accommodate if provided adequate advance notice. - Collaborative environment allowing you to work with teams outside of your normal day-to-day. - Great benefits include medical subsidy, fully covered dental and vision, life insurance, 401k matching, reimbursement for professional development, etc. - You don’t need to be an anime fan to work here. - Company has a strong management team with remarkable expertise and extensive experience.

- Preconceived idea that it is all “fun” because of the affiliation to the Anime Expo event, especially for anime fans looking to get their foot in the door. - Event Management is a demanding industry and has a lot of moving parts. It is not for everyone, which explains the general high turnover within the industry; SPJA is no different. Frankly put, there is a lot of work behind the scenes to put on a successful mega-event and not everyone is cut out for the job.

You love anime, you love Japanese culture. This should be a dream job right? Dead wrong.

They will exploit your passion and love for the community: low pay, long hours, won’t celebrate your wins because it hurts their egos that they didn’t think of it first, no support when things hit the fan (And they always do, especially onsite). During the convention itself, be prepared for the most stressful time of your life. Many crying breaks are the norm or people just smoke like crazy to relieve the stress.