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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.
I was expecting to see Computerworld in that list.
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.
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 -
R(k)
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.
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.
The best place to work is your own, start a business.
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 :(
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.
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.
Home.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
The current administration provides the best IT jobs... All you have to do is delete a few emails a day!
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.
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."
Right, but Quicken Loans is not owned by Intuit anymore. The gentleman that founded the company (originally Rock Financial), Dan Gilbert, bought the company back from Intuit (they may still hold a small stake) for $375 million a few years back. He also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers. Quicken Loans still does business as Rock Financial in Michigan, and is one of the largest sponsors of the Detroit Pistons. Mr. Gilbert is also a graduate of my alma mater, Michigan State.
... 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.
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?
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.
It's possible that they're experimenting with a new alternative fuel source; burning karma.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
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?