Slashdot Mirror
Best Places To Work In IT
jcatcw writes "Computerworld's annual summary of the best places to work in IT lists companies that excel in five areas of employment: career development, retention, benefits, diversity, and training. According to the scorecard, the top five retention methods are: competitive benefits; competitive salaries; work/life balance; flexible work hours; and tuition reimbursement. Of the top 100 companies, 64 expect the number of U.S.-based IT staffers to increase in 2007, on average by 7%. Here is the whole list. The top three are Quicken Loans, University of Miami, and Sharp HealthCare."
My company is on the list, top 20 even, and I'm sorry but it's a joke. This is a miserable place to work, with most people answering these things positively because if they don't they get subjected to even worse "morale improvement" exercises.
Are we talking about OS diversity or what?
I really don't care what color my co-workers are.
I was expecting to see Computerworld in that list.
Here is a link to the one page printable version of the article.
Kinda like the drug surveys we had to take in high school. They told us that all results would be anonymous... the information was only to help people understand what the 'real deal' was with teens and drugs. Then two weeks later all the kids who believed them got their lockers raided.
Regards.
Is there a direct link to the "top 100" list and scorecards somewhere? I've only been able to read editorial reviews of the top 10.
My first IT job, went to a school that was partly funded by U.M. and ended up getting my first IT job at U.M. when i was 16.. man that job was awesome, low stress, nice work environment.. all good things come to an end i guess. They used to run SCO Open Server Netware and Windos 95. Luckily i never had to use SCO ...
jeff
Frankly, I've always enjoyed in smaller companies, because the beauracracy is far less annoying and you can be more personable with the people in the company. They never really include those companies, because if they actually tried, they'd have thousands of companies to interview and it would take too much time. But if they really wanted a list that made sense they'd include smaller businesses. Expand the definition a little more and stop making such a big deal about being a huge corporation.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
From TFA:
Why it's the best
"Celebration galas at this online loan company are star-studded: Kid Rock performed at the 2006 holiday gala and The Black Eyed Peas were featured performers at the company's 20th anniversary party."
Judging by that line-up of artists I wouldn't even want to work in an adjacent area!
On the beach, with my laptop, sipping a Corona, watching the babes.
And then I woke up.
Maybe my standards are different, but the companies on that list don't seem very interesting.
It reminds me many years ago ('97) when I and a coworker decided we had had enough of the company we were working for, and decided to make a top ten list of companies we wanted to work for. Both of us landed jobs with our number one choice, but our top ten lists were very different. Mine was a list of coolest companies to work for, and mostly startups (Cygnus Solutions being at the top of my list), and his were more "nicest" companies to work for (SAS being at the top of his list, they have a 35 hour work week, pianist in the cafeteria, gyms, etc).
Perks are great and all, but if the work is not intellectually challenging, or just patience-challenging, and I'm not pushing the envelope, I'm going to be bored out of my skull and not improving my skills, which is a terrible way to spend almost one third of your life.
Exactly what groundbreaking technologies are being developed at a loan website, besides finding new ways to get past my spam filters?
USAA Is on the list, and its considered one of the WORST places to work. My Company was voted #1 place to work in San Antonio, OVER USAA, and guess what? We're a TECH company (Rackspace Managed Hosting). I'm glad I don't base my career choices off of lists like these.
- Aetheral Research -
...like this reply. XP
Two industries not traditionally bound towards cost containment and heavily tilted towards less than parity salaries. So basically the best place to work is one that has lots of money and doesn't spend it on salaries. There sure as hell better be other perks.
R(k)
Are Oracle DBA positions still high-paying and in demand? I was thinking about getting OCP, but have been away from it a while and can't tell if it's worth pursuing. Can anyone provide some insight?
Appreciatively,
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
...in my underwear.
I worked for a Fortune 100 company for 25 years before retiring and starting my own computer repair business. I saw this company go from the best to the worst in that quarter of a century. I was one of the lucky ones and got something from them before they imploded; a mire shadow of once an industry giant. The last several years were tough, but by then I had too much of my career invested to leave voluntarily. I am much happier now that I can dance to my own tunes.
Then pack your bags and MOVE!!
I hear that one of the perqs at Philip Morris is free smokes for the whole family.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
"...top five retention methods are: competitive benefits; competitive salaries; work/life balance; flexible work hours; and tuition reimbursement"
Free World of Warcraft gold is conspicuously missing from the list.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
For a single fee of $5,000, we will investigate your employees opinions of the company. We're limiting the number of companies we're accepting to n so you can be sure of a place within the top n.
For a single fee of $10,000, we will carry out a more in depth analysis of the company. In this higher tier, we're limiting it to only 0.5n entries. We're confident a more in depth analysis will reveal greater strengths of the company, ensuring it a place in the top 0.5n.
For a fee of $25,000, we will additionally listen to executive feedback about your company. This gives us a greater insight in to your company. Whilst it would be unethical to promise a slot in the top 0.2n, this option is strictly limited and it is certainly very likely.
Finally, for a fee of $50,000, we will send someone to your offices to gather employee feedback. Only 0.1n companies will be accepted for this most rigorous of investigations. Again, we would never imply that buying such an in depth examination would guarantee a slot in the top 0.1n but it would certainly be a very good investment. Amazingly, those who cough up the highest fee get to put on their ads that they're in the top 10 places in their field to work. Whilst there's absolutely no way *wink*wink* that they could buy such standing, the thorough level of investigation they so kindly covered the costs for ensured that their best features came out and that really helped with the win.
This is also exactly how ClearChannel is rumored to get around "payola" claims. Instead of paying to play - which is illegal - music companies buy listener review sessions. It's pure coincidence that those who buy the most get the most airtime.
I really think it's an unfair scorecard. I work a major online outdoor retailer, and I really do believe it's the best job in IT. I mean, we have weekly training sessions, we're constantly innovating and working with new ideas, and the people who I work with are brilliant. I get paid relatively well also. However, that's not why I believe my job is the best.
The reason where I work is the best is because the company really encourages being in the outdoors. We're based in Park City, and we get free passes to all the local ski resorts. On our lunch break, you can catch any one of us running or biking local trails. Hell, they're paying for me to run the Wasatch Back Relay, and got a bunch of companies (The North Face, UnderArmor, etc) to sponsor us with gear (it's some great gear at that!).
Sure, I'm a geek, and I love my job. But really... there's more to having a great job than moving up in a company, or getting paid more.
The top 100 companies in terms of money and perks given to Computerworld.
The best place to work is your own, start a business.
...the best p[lace to work is Johnson's College. You get to program game code using a PS2 controller, and it's really clever stuff. You get to move the character 'this way'. Oh and use that same sound effect from the last level.
They don't tell you about the Red Bull-induced shakes after working 72 hours flat out because some dick in a suit (hi, Dick) promised this lackluster piece of crap would be out the day before the film hits theaters. Or when small companies go under, leaving you up that creek without that paddle.
Bitter? Moi?
I'm a top-tier UNIX support guy that supports a bunch of these IT groups in the list. We save their bacon when they have a "senior" moment and screw the pooch. Or our software breaks or fails. In that theater, everyone gets to earn their bones. You get to know "organizations" instead of individuals, because you are an outsider. You never get just one guy on the phone, crying in his mountain dew. The "system" may have from 3 to as many as 20 heads, all siloed in their perfect knowledge of "how it's supposed to work". This may be the first time some of them have met. On the field of desperation. The help you HAVE to provide a customer like this tells much about what they really know about "How it works". The list almost seems an upside-down chart of my most "clueless" customers to more and more competent. Really. It scared me. To Know that IT nirvana is inversely proportional to operational competence. And now somebody wants me to think that's good? My head exploded. Ya wanna know what scared me more? I was quizzed by the same rating company (ramdomly?) last week at MY company. I'm REALLY hoping this ain't a trend. It's too many years till retirement :(
"Computerworld's annual summary of the best places to work in IT lists companies that excel in five areas of employment: career development, retention, benefits, diversity, and training."
I noticed that OSTG isn't on the list. What's up with that, Taco?
After being with several corporations from small local companies to fortune 500, I have found the best place to work in IT is on your own. Make some business cards, invest in a van or other vehicle with room for parts, build an overhead of replacement parts and supplies, then hit the pavement and get the word out. Signage on a vehicle can be a good way to get the word out as well. I get most of my customers via word of mouth but have more work than I can handle most of the time. What I cant handle I pass on to others I know doing the same thing. Clients are happy because they get individual attention and someone to call that they can depend on. I am happy because they treat me like im really helping them rather than as some flunky who is beneath them. The money is much better than the average IT job and with the occasional unavoidable emergency, I pretty much set my own hours. It's not for everyone, you have to be self motivated, people friendly and confident in your skills, but its well worth it.
I'm all for Minneapolis, but honestly, how the hell does General Mills get on the list for Minneapolis, but they exclude other companies like Seagate? Where the hell is Honeywell? And what does General Mills do that qualifies as IT? I would imagine the Mayo Clinic would be more IT than GM, and much of a better place at that, and that's not on the list? Who's willing to place bets that these are companies that the authors' friends and families work at?
This is obviously a thinly researched fluff piece, considering it doesn't have National Instruments mentioned anywhere. It's been on the Forbes best 100 places to work list for eight years running. It's happy to send its employees to the University of Texas for additional education, and actively encourages its employees to move around within the company.
It is interesting that Google did not make the list. Google is always held up as being the best company to work for, if you believe geek lore. They are the pinnacle of the "nerf guns in the office" culture that was heralded in by the dotcom bubble. However, there are nowhere to be found...
Either something is wrong with that survey, or Google isn't as good as advertised.
I also don't see Microsoft on the list. Love em or hate em, they are also considered to be a top geek employer. I guess it might be because those stock options aren't as great as they used to be.
------
www.moneybythenumbers.com
I am sorry to hear that you hate your job. Maybe you should sniff around for a better one?
But what I really want to know is, what exactly does "Work/Life balance" mean? Does it mean that they only make you work 40 hours a week? Or perhaps that when you do work extra hours, they give those hours back to you as extra paid time off later? In my opinion, both of these benefits should be standard. The modern trend of excessive overwork (at least on the part of the technical staff) reeks of exploitation. THAT is the sort of thing that motivates me to describe a job as "miserable."
I know many (most?) Slashdotters don't follow sports to any large degree, however this one jumped out at me. From within TFA:
[Quicken Loans] founder Dan Gilbert, who also owns the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, invites employees to travel to Cleveland to see the team in action via the Cavs Express.
Ummm....the company is headquartered in Livonia, Michigan -- big-time Detroit Pistons territory. Might as well offer your employees tickets to see the Ohio State Buckeyes or Chicago Bulls -- equally hated rivals of Michigan sports fans...
[ObDisclaimer -- I'm a big Ohio State fan...give me the tickets!]
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
I'm pretty sure my company was on the list last year... but not this year. Too bad, we got free ice cream and an hour out in the sun. Yep, in the 50's last year... dang you ComputerWorld for taking away my ice cream!!!
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
for the same reason the Church of the Scientology doesn't.
Home.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Maybe having to work 60h/week and be active part of their "culture" is not so appreciated by people that are not socially challenged.
In all honesty I expected Microsoft up there, but of course after Google. All MS bashing aside, everyone I know that works there, or has recently, generally loves the place. In addition to brainwashing, they have flexible/short work hours (except crunch times), a really nice campus, good cafeterias, challenging and/or interesting work, salary(!), optional travel... Of course all of that depends on who you are, what dept. (most I know are in the xbox dept.), etc.
Ps - the brainwashing was a joke (i think they just put something in the water)
Our wealth breeds emptiness
I have found Intuit to be one of the most bottom line focused, difficult, and ruthless companies I've ever dealt with. A shame, they have good products.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
The current administration provides the best IT jobs... All you have to do is delete a few emails a day!
You probably work for google yourself, based on your arrogance.
...I'd say that we're talking about a Windows environment running a mix of Windows 98, ME, NT4 and Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The IT department consists of people with business degrees who have their main company database software coded in Visual Basic, Fortran and a bunch of undocumented obscure proprietary programming languages. The executives/bosses all use Apple Mac's because they think it looks hi-tech and in-the-know. The IT people sit around the coffee machine near a window 30 stories up, talking about Paris Hilton, Linkin Park's next concert, and who they are dating from the HR department.
On the other hand you have companies with pure Linux server environments. Formal training is not really as important, but some people have a few (what they'd call useless) certificates and maybe the odd degree in computer science. Everything is coded in a mixture of Perl, Python, Bash, C, C++, PHP and some other programming languages that were once the "flavor of the day". The executives/bosses also use Apple Mac's because they think it looks hi-tech and in-the-know. The IT people stand around the water cooler overlooking the racks of servers (2nd level basement) arguing over topics such as Perl vs Bash, FreeBSD vs Linux and who downloaded the latest Star Wars movie at the fastest speed. Twice a year the company shouts all employees a night out to hear the latest international DJs spin up some tunes.
I can't speak for quicken specifically, but at my job they thoroughly sell this about working there. It basically comes down to flexible hours. As long as you get your 40 in, its all good. Then again my company is more engineering than IT, so who knows.
Ubet
I just pooped my cute little pants.
Oh my freakin lord, that name comes up again. The most evilest, most disgusting pig of a company.
I work for a top-tier IT consulting firm, and while my company's not on the list (but all of our competitors, except our nemesis, IBM, made the list), I've actually worked on client projects in nine of the companies on the list. Save for one of the companies, I could not believe that these were the best IT companies to work for. Then I re-read the criteria -- competitive salaries, work/life balance, flexible work hours, and tuition reimbursement -- then it all made sense. A lot of these companies are where the driftwood wash ashore and hang out until they catch a bigger wave out, or just rot away being happy deadwood.
Let me explain.
My current client's IT department (in top 30 on the list) has one of the lowest morale I've seen. Projects are rarely ever delivered as promised, and even if they hobble across the finish line, the solutions are often half-baked and incur undue additions to the already ridiculously heavy production support cost. Business runs the show, but are increasingly dissatisfied with IT's delivery (why does it cost so much?) and rely more and more on consultants or "heros" to get things done. Good, standard processes erode away and management throws on more and more bureaucracy onto the eroding base, thinking that having three Project Managers on a project will get things delivered faster. The "heroes" either turn into lawless cowboys that run the show however they like, or if they're really actually competent and sharp, leave on the first train out that offer them better positions. The deadwood never drift out (company's pride is that they never let people go), so what you get over the years is accumulation of deadwood.
So let's go back to the criteria: competitive salaries, work/life balance, flexible work hours, and tuition reimbursement. This spells, "overpaid staff that leave at 5 on-the-dot, working from home on random days, minimal effort on the job, steady paycheck, perhaps get an MBA or certifications to get even better paid." Meets all the criteria, but I would NOT work here. What they didn't figure into the equation were "challenging and interesting work" and "solid mentoring and career development."
That's like the 3rd Reich army officer saying "I really enjoyed killing enemy soldiers. I like my job and I'm good at it. But I never was a Nazi!" - Yes, it's a hyperbole, but it illustrates a point. (Could have used the rocket scientist etc. instead.) And especially nowadays we should have learned from things like that...
What a shitty, ad-ridden article.
Slashdot = -1 Redundant, Asperger, kdawson FUD, Libertarian, and Linux
... believe they are in the top 1% of the talent at their company.
For what its worth, I'm in the other 20%. I have no illusions that I am the best hacker I've ever met, or even the 47th best. I produce code which, on a great day, has bits of brilliance, on a good day, is solid and worksmanlike, and on a bad day is junk which I'll have to replace the next day... just like almost every other programmer I have ever met.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
The list looks bogus to me. I worked for Anheuser-Busch last year (the year the data is for) - it was a total sweat shop. Working for months @ 70 hrs/week was not uncommon there. Complete lack of competent management. Nepotism is the rule.
I just wonder where they get there data from. Most people I knew there would admit the above observations.
I'm sorry, but the most important ranking criteria is missing. How about working on a product that, in itself, gives you joy? Let's face facts. Most of us spend the best part of waking hours, at least 5 of 7 days per week, pouring all available energy into this job. If you don't love it and you don't have an emotional alignment with the product then that effort is unhealthy for you.
Yes I know this about companies and great working environments, but isn't one of the great joys of I.T. the daily challenges that you have to face? Geeks want to learn new geeky things, for many of us it is why we do the job we have chosen. If an employer can't provide the challenges you need to get your daily fix then all a trays of blue M&Ms in the world won't fix that.
I was getting those challenges for many years for a good company back in the UK, they also treated us pretty well. But problems/projects started getting a bit samey. So I took a career break off to teach English in China for a year, and ended up starting an IT company up there.
Now it is fair to say that the perks I give myself are much less impressive than I got in the past. But I can't complain that things are boring. I see every possible technology and industrial sector coming in through the door, from customers all over the world. I have to be lead consultant, I have to recruit and train people, I can offer pretty good local salaries and pick the cream of local graduates.
I also find that people here are pretty fun to work with, once you get over the language problems.
Would I go back to the old life? The workload is high but so are the benefits in terms of lifestyle, sense of adventure, the feeling of being an individual, so the trade off remains in favor of staying here.
I am not exactly recommending that everyone move to China to start their own company, but I am saying that in choosing an employer you should look at the bigger picture. Murals on the walls may make things more pretty but I you don't get a sense of accomplishment and purpose from what you are doing, then you are still just working for the man?
Why should any competent programmer out there aspire to become an employee making a businessperson more rich? I am self-employed and I strongly encourage anyone having the abilities to seek starting up their own businesses. It worths the effort. It's much better to own a small business from being employed in a company.
I've been at 5 different IT firms and I still can't comprehensively say for sure which was the best. I can safely say which was the worst but the best depends on too many variables. Some firms had amazingly captivating work but stingy and shitty management and too much pressure to be good for you. Other places had amazing perks and salary, great and proactive management but mind numbingly dull work, while still others were small, had a shitty salary but had a nice informal angle to everything that made you feel noticed more often (small fish in a small sea).
... no place can be "the best" because that definition depends on who you ask and what is important to him.
The point is
I love how the original article title doesnt mention its only in the US these "top 100's" reside. Last time I checked, the IT industry was not restricted only to the U.S.A. How about World-Wide, or stating its a U.S.A. only based "study"? Either way, I have worked in companies that are said to be "Top x companies to work for" and its a complete farce. It pains me that "respectable" reporters are even concluding these companies as something desirable to work in.
At least ya all got jobs.
Cranky guy
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
I am willing to take a cut on my pay for many other factors: location, atmosphere of the area where the office is (it really weighs you down to go to the office day in day out in the middle of an industrial dump or a neighborhood with no amenities or unsafe), kind of work.
The money does a lot of the talking, but should by no means be the only thing whispering on you ear.
I do agree about not caring about who people I work with, but I don't agree about working with unpleasant people. If there is somebody rude, loud or smelly either they change or one of us has to go. As simple as that (and since I am more senior, the few times this has happened it wasn't me doing the walking. Morale for you newbies: be polite, take a shower every day and you'll have the old farts in your side).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Let put it this way for you, since obviously you lack a sense of basic reasoning: see it as a bribe from an awful institution to a group of people that otherwise would not work there. That may smash the moraloid qualms you have while explaining why people would actually be satisfied to be there.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
People are telling you there is an area of concern, the company tries to improve things, but as always there are people whose glass is eternally empty, even when it is overflowing.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
.... that is what makes /. priceless.
How will you decide who is the top 1% talent in any given company?
So if that hypothetical 1% are happy, but the other 99% live in abject misery, then everything is fine. Are you brain damaged or what?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Very often they are less flexible when it comes to working hours, have less benefits, demand far more of you (which impacts your work-life balance situation) and in general are less reasonable because every mistake impacts much more heavily the bottom line.
Small companies are nice to learn the trade, but you wanna move out of there as soon as time allows....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Sharp HealthCare IT? How the heck did that make the list???
...but I like it.
Coffee and soft drinks are free all you can drink, casual dress code (shorts and sandals are fine), flexible work hours, company pays 100% of health care, and the ranks are full of excellent programmers who really know their stuff and most are also gamers. I actually interviewed at one of the companies in the list but took the job at the place I'm at now and I don't regret that in any way.
Last I heard we were looking for another software engineer if anyones interested. www.seapine.com
Is diversity _really_ a factor in general employee satisfaction/happiness? __really__? It's actually amazing at times how ingrained political correctness is becoming. Diversity is a bullshit term, a bullshit goal, and a bullshit practice. Don't corporations have some obligation to their shareholders to hire _the most qualified_ person, regardless of whether that person will help them become more 'diverse'.
One of the firms that I was with recently and is higher up on the list was in the middle of trying to outsource all their development to India. Doesn't leave much for career develpment...
is home. So cash-out early, buy an apartment in New England and rent it for a steady income, move to a sunny place and hack on interesting free software projects, while at nights drinking martinis in the beach with topless blondes and Nick Slaughter.
Of course, it takes real bawls to be the boss of your self.
Paychex in Rochester, NY made the list... Do they still require female employees to wear skirts? I bet originator of the survey was male.
>I can't complain that things are boring. I see every possible
;)
>technology and industrial sector coming in through the door, from customers all over the >world.
You mean you see things like Cyber Cafes running Win95 the pirated edition with NO anti-virus of any sort installed?
(Observed in a cyber cafe in Fushun China in late 2004)
I had intended to check my bank account, but as soon as I saw what I was working on, I just telneted into my mail account, (and changed the password as soon as I got home)
I did like the Lenovo systems. Nice and shiny new computers.
Seriously. My company, though large to me (couple thousand people), is still small compared to most of the people on this list. In our "branch office", we have around 160 employees. There are three people on the IT staff here. The atmosphere is relaxed, I have great benefits, three weeks of vacation time, flexible hours, and great coworkers who are open to new ideas. We'd never make a list like this, because we only hire someone once in a blue moon, but job satisfaction here is pretty high.
I'm working on a CS degree part time, and my company so far has reimbursed me 100% for all classes except the ones that have the word "math" in it (because it is not "directly related" to professional development). I can live with this.
A job with benefits like this really does give me the extra incentive to help keep the company in business.
>Total IBM shop, only the best and most expensive.
IBM isn't an IBM shop, any more.
Hate to disillusion you.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I happen to work at one of the companies in the bottom 25% of the list. I must say that it is the best IT job I've had yet. My boss is great nad the pay is more than adequate with what has been a good yearly bonus so far. There is plenty of MEANINGFUL work to do and we have a lot of high quality people. Of course, you've got your malcontents everywhere and some of the manager's are suspect, but right now I must say it's a hell of a lot better than some of the other IT jobs I've had.
I don't understand this.
The single best project I *ever* worked on used what we called 360 evaluations. Weekly, we met as a group. We explained what we were doing, with who, what we needed, etc.
Quarterly, we took a day for a meeting where each person on the team brought in an evaluation of every other person on the team. Every person publicly discussed their evaluation of every other person on the team. We *all* decided how well we *all* were doing. At the end of the day, we assigned a single rating to our group that was the rating for each of us, individually.
Nobody ever had any problem telling anybody what they did well or poorly. If we didn't like the way upper management was treating some portion of our job, we told our team leader he wasn't doing his job and laid out what goals he needed to reach and even suggested steps we thought he needed to take. If somebody screwed up, they admitted it. If somebody did well, they got complimented.
Upper management accepted our evaluation of ourselves without question. Our awards/bonuses were based on it, so you might think we just colluded amongst ourselves to defraud the award system by giving ourselves top marks. It didn't happen. We couldn't be that dishonest with each other. Roughly half the years we were in operation, we specifically rated ourselves low enough that we didn't get awards.
None of this could have happened if we tried to be anonymous about our feedback to each other. That gets in the way of actually getting problems out in the open and getting them solved. It would have to be a pretty piss-poor manager who took umbrage at having a failure pointed out publicly. Pointing out failures publicly is the only way to get the whole team on board to fix things.
I thought the whole point of 360 evals was that they were non-anonymous. What the hell good is it to have a manager able to tell me that I've screwed up if I can't tell her the same when she screws up? I just don't get it.
...I was about to start this with, "I'm sorry, but" but that would be a complete lie. If State Farm is #50 in the 'top' list I don't want to work for anything less than #10. Accenture Technology Solutions does FAR better and they're nowhere to be seen on the list. Maybe that's because their headquarters is in Bermuda and their 'U.S.-based' status is debatable. Maybe the service work at SF just sucked far more than anything else they had going on (read: I wasn't the only one dissatisfied) but my time there was spent being very unimpressed. I scoff at this list.
Oooh he scored a trollpoint! GOAAL
I shudder at the thought Einstein could have decided like that.
WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need
Home, with an ssh connection to my uber box at "work".
Cerner?!?
The company that issued this?
If you work in IT in the Kansas City area it's pretty much given you'll have at least one ex Cerner co-worker. I've heard the same stories over and over about backstabbing politics and death march development cycles. There are supposed to be a couple of good departments to work for but it's pretty much a sweat shop other then that.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
IT at sharp healthcare was one of the best companys I have ever been a part of. They are a little out dated in technology ( I was there 03 - 06 ) at the helpdesk. Work atmosphere is awesome once you get past the few nurses that can't speak english.. Hours are great, benefits are awesome.. over all, 4/5.
Similar to the guy who claims that "Quicken Loans" is not #1 for valid reasons, I have to seriously question the idea that Anheuser Busch in St. Louis, MO is in the top 10!?
... Would I like playing golf with them on weekends? Did they think my selection of business casual clothing looked "cool" enough? Etc.
I've never actually worked for them myself, BUT I've interviewed for jobs there a couple of times, AND have several good friends and former co-workers who have been employed there at one time or another.
The most consistent thing I hear about them is that your job has no real "stability". People working in their "creative services" division designing web sites and advertising were constantly laid off in "cutbacks", whenever things got a little bit slow, or some big ad campaign didn't work out real well for them. Most of their I.T. administrators were only hired as contractors, not real employees -- so they didn't enjoy many of the benefits A.B. is known for. (Not sure if they *still* do it today, but traditionally, they gave all their union workers free cases of beer every month as a fringe benefit. Contractors, by contrast, didn't get in on any of that.)
There are a lot of headaches working for A.B. too (which of course, they'd prefer to call "challenges"). Not the least of which is the fact that they have a large brewery over in China, and Microsoft Exchange administrators therefore have to deal with the Chinese character sets and compatibility problems that can bring to the table when they're communicating with the servers in the U.S.
My biggest "gripe" with them, though? When I had interviews with them years ago, I was always grilled in "group interviews" - which seemed to be designed to stress out a candidate as much as possible. Inevitably, you had one H.R. type person harping on things like your formal education and the "cookie cutter interview questions" out of a textbook, while you were trying to answer detailed technical questions one of their I.T. people was hitting you with, and while a 3rd. or even 4th. middle management person was taking notes on all of it, and throwing in some less technical "business type" questioning. After that barrage, you got a whirlwind "tour" of the offices, where apparently, they tested you to see how much of a "team player" it seemed like you were. At the end, I got the impression that the most important thing I was judged on was probably my ability to "fit in" with the people I just shook hands with
Just for the record though, I did also work with a former Sharp employee, and he could never stop talking about his experiences with them. I got the distinct impression that Sharp must be a great place to learn useful job skills and further one's career.
Seems around 2000/2001 the term IT came about. What is it? I'm amazed Google wasn't #1, but I'm guessing it's more of a Computer Science company rather than IT. At least around here IT tends to mean networking, maintenance, basically to keep systems running without actually creating any software or hardware that does the jobs. So it IT == computer maintenance person?
Because I choose pot over alcohol when I want to relax I am a dreg of society? Just out of curiosity, Troll, do you own your own business and support a household?
STFU.
Regards.
GV Corporation, company motto: "Where ideas can hang out, and do whatever!"
Led by Grass Valley Greg, the man who invented the Delete Button, and whose mantra is "Work is play, tofutti time today!"
Sadly, the company went belly up after Greg spent millions and millions of dollars in a campaign to legalize tomatoes.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
I used to work in the prevention field for a state agency. It's interesting to see how slowly change comes around. The "gold standard" for this kind of data is the Youth Risk Beahvior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS), done every two years by the CDC. Many states also run their own prevention needs assessments.
While I was never directly involved with these surveys, my understanding was that there was a decent amount of statistical research put into them to try and get the most accurate data possible, so ideally your example of coke use among the impoverished would be thrown out.
Your description of DARE isn't really fair, as that could be any old school, health terrorism type approach (think of the "This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs" or aspects of the current Montana Meth Project). DAREs model focussed upon getting police into classrooms, as well as peer role models. Police departments liked it because it let them connect a bit more with the community.
DARE's an interesting program that got a lot of attention, but it's actual impact upon encouraging youth to make healthy decisions has no scientific standing. Hell, some of the studies actually showed that drug use went up after exposure to DARE. One could argue that there was some beneficial aspect, as it stressed to the prevention community that evaluation of programs is as vital as good program design.
That was a good overview, but you forgot to mention that all drug dealers and drug users are vile and aggressive, and any criticism of them or their drugs (including but not limited to rudeness, nervousness, and eye contact) frequently results in threats or acts of violence.
Also, drug dealers and users are unintelligent, underachieving, have social problems, and are generally weird and/or creepy.
Hahaha, I remember when our DARE cop asked the class "how many of you know your neighborhood cop?" and no one answered. I later told my parents, whose response was "since when was their a cop for every neighborhood?".
I saw the list... and i can not believe that Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers are in tis list.... I'm from Romania and a month ago a Ernst & Young employee died of exhaustion in her house with all the files from the company around her. She was 28 years old... and she was exploited until death by Ernst & Young. How can you say that is a great company to work for? Maybe for you Americans it is... but not for us other peoples form other countries. The same exploiting ways of the employees has PricewaterhouseCoopers here in Romania and others like them. This list is a stupid joke. If you want i can send the article to you, the article from the papers about the dead girl form Ernst & Young and if between us is another Romanian or a Romanian language speaker that person can confirm that my translation is correct. Have a nice day
You definitely described the IT market here, right down to the T!
To attract the women I like, I do a job that pays well.
To help children in need, I do a job that pays well ($100 is not much to me, check around what that could do in poor countries, or even poor localities in developed countries).
To travel, to go to any restaurant I want, too see any show I wish, I do a job that pays well.
Give me the money man, I'll put it to good use.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
.... you are not doing as much as a business person.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
to try and get the most accurate data possible
"to try to get".
it's actual impact upon encouraging youth
"its".
when was their a cop
"there".
It can change in an instant if an exec-level manager is replaced. Usually for the worse. I worked helpdesk in a government department for seven years. Apart from having to fend off offers of management positions (filled in for the occasionally, almost puked from boredom), it was very nearly nirvana, at least for the first five years or so. Then management got switched around and it went to hell in a handbasket. When I left, I was the longest-serving techie they had. And damn if those first couple of years weren't good. Now I work for a global computer company. I can't complain about the money. But I was hired as a general project bod, and so far all I do for eight hours a day is data entry and shuffling stacks of forms into alphabetical order. The management is hapless, the prospects are hopeless, and the entire site needs to be nuked from orbit. I'm outta here as soon as I can be. Where I *want* to be is not 'working' at all, having used my analysis knowledge to provide me with a nice little self-perpetuating money tree. With all the time in the world, I can then start turning my energies to stuff *I* think is cool, even if it's not generating a paycheck.