The Best IT Companies
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The Best IT CompaniesI love these surveys and I bet they have the HR departments bracing for a flood of resumes. Still it was interesting to read about the 100 Best IT Places to work, at least according to a ComputerWorld survey. Quicken Loans was #1 and The University of Miami (FL) was #2, the spots they held last year as well and their profiles were interesting. The people interviewed expressed the type of excitement and enjoyment with their work that I miss.
It was disappointing to me that there were no Colorado companies into the top 100, but that's because JD Edwards was purchased and changed years ago. At one point when I worked there we were ranked as one of the top IT groups and it was obvious. People had pride in their jobs and we enjoyed working together. I still have lunch once or twice a month with a number of people from JD Edwards, 3 years after leaving.
The best way to describe it, and it's the sense I get from the profiles of the top 5, is that it's like a family. You enjoy being with each other, you bicker, you get annoyed at the close quarters, but at the end of the day, you stick by each other. You are a large family and we pulled it off with 300+ people in IT and 5,000 in the company.
I was lucky enough to find that, even if only for a couple years. As much as I enjoy working for myself at home, I'd be tempted to go back to an office if I could find another great IT group and company to work for. It was really that much of a great atmosphere, despite the occasional blood-pressure-raising event.
Having had 7 or 8 jobs in IT with different companies, I know this is hard to find. And harder to maintain. I think I've been lucky with 3 great places to work like JD Edwards, but all of them are gone now. Two companies are defunct and one has grown so much it's not the same place.
Finding a good culture is hard. It's a blend of strong, focused, and benevolent leadership and great people working as a team. I'm not sure how you create that or encourage it, but it's worth holding onto it.
If you find it, be sure you work to maintain it. And if you don't have it, maybe you want to drop a resume with one of the companies listed.
Steve Jones
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Like you Steve I have had several jobs where it was a joy to come to work and take care of the companies business. However, I don't really think you can "find" that kind of employment. When it happens, it's almost as if God has smiled on you this time.
For me, it was when management trusted the work ethics of the employee enough to allow the individuals involved on a project to be creative and feed on one another's strengths, while down playing costs and individual weaknesses.
As soon as we let cost concerns become more important than doing a great job for our clients it goes down hill from there. I'm thinking of one job I had where a small group of us (less than 10) provided engineering services for a large manufacturing plant. We did the small stuff and big projects were farmed out to major engineering firms. The big projects were managed carefully in an attempt to meet budgets allocated for the work, but the small stuff was allowed to be done with creativity and excellence as the primary goals.
Now that was fun!!! No bickering about time or strict time keeping rules. Help anyone in the group with any task, like helping a neighbor on your day off. We came up with some fantastic cost effective solutions to some sticky problems and didn't cost the company a lot of money while doing it
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I worked in a company where all of us had free drinks and coffees. But the best one for me it was the one where oneself can to enter from 8:30 till 10:00.
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Is that the '100 Best IT Companies in the US' or are the 100 best IT companies to work for all in the US?
Or do people in the US forget that there are other countries out there?
Kenny, in the UK!
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It seems for US only. Anyway, you must know that this site is located there. So that in my own point of view a good amount of stuff will be typically from the States.
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I was dissapointed... none in my city to ship off a resume to <kof>. Honestly though, a while back, I interviewed for a DBA position at a company that probably blows them all away. The position was a bit more then I was ready for, but, I have the next programmer, or SQL developer position that comes up
They offered 5 weeks of vacation, they expected atleast 2 weeks of fully paid training per year, had something like 15 or 20 days of holidays, and paid over the top... (the wonders of a well funded non-profit)I was impressed with some of the number I saw though. FORD with 20 days of training per employee per year and the like.
All in all though, there's a lot of good places to work out there, and it's not always about the benefits. I'm pretty happy where I am, the pay isn't the best, but, I have a lot of freedom to set goals and priorities, and I've moved up considerably since I started. It's all in what you want/need. I've seen more then a few people crash and burn when put in an open, self regulated workplace, just like I'd probably crash and burn in a tightly controlled micromanaged workplace...
what's good for one person isn't always the best situation for the next.
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Sorry, US only. That's what the survey was and I'm in the US. Not sure if you could do one for the world since the standard and expected quality of life if so different in so many places.
But we like the UK here and especially Kenny. Send me a survey for there
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Well, I live in Spain. I suppose that here, nobody is interested but only for tourism.
So that, I attach you EU list:
http://www.greatplacetowork.es/best/lists.php?year=current&idListName=eu&detail=1&order=rank
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I don't fancy doing a survey here but I am interested in what is regarded as a good deal in the US compared to the UK, or even the rest of Europe, aside from salary.
E.g. here 25 days holiday is fairly standard, plus there are about 8 bank holidays (low for Europe!) and if you are off sick you still get paid and you're not expected to deduct those days from your holidays.
A pension facility is a requirment here, although the more generous ones are rare now.
And we get free drinks too! Coffee and tea though, not beer unfortunately... although I'm getting free beer and champagne at my long service bash in a couple of weeks!
Oh and the atmosphere is pretty good here too.
By the way guys, there's a World Cup on!
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hi Kenny,
You're right. I worked four months in London and I can still remember that very very strange weekly wage statements and its features... The big differente between UK and Spain is that in your country is more appreciated your own faculties, capabilities and skills that any universitary degree. In Spain lot of organizations keep on mind your degree and overall your age. Stupid.
Yep, this night Spain against France. Well, I am consider myself not very keen regarding football but I sincerely admit that I'll watch that match. Althought as you'll know Brazil will win the World Cup as usual.
take care,
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But in Spain you get a siesta which I could do with every day! Although I suspect that doesn't really happen in office environments...
I would say a degree is quite important here... having said that, many of my colleagues (including my boss) don't have one and it doesn't seem to have held them back.
Spain are going to win the World Cup - Nostradamus said so!
As long as it's not England! (I'm Scottish you see)
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Personally I place no validity in these kinds of surveys. A few months ago I left number 35, Cerner Corp. It was the worst employer I ever had and they pressured all employees to complete the survey for Computer World and responded in many ways to manipulate their standings. I’m sure it’s common practice for employers; it’s hard to get a better advertisement as an employer than this kind of survey. This same company is infamous for compelling it’s employees to work more than 40 hours a week. If you google the CEO’s name (Neal Patterson email gafffe) you’ll find details. How is it possible for the same company to be ranked so highly? The best and only way to truly find out the atmosphere of a company is to actually speak with current employees of the company.
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I hope that Steve Jones don't punish us for to talk for other topics... I wonder, do you know where are there good web-chats in english?
all the best
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I would tend to agree. There are many small companies that wuld never make a list like this but are far better places to work in than large blue chips that are slaves to their share price.
The co I currently work for floated about 5 years ago and the difference is marked. I would say for a listed company the short term buck is more important than long term success, because the financial markets dictate that returns must be made quickly, at the expense of the employees and also the long term success of the firm.
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Seems like lots of US companies still do 10 days (2 weeks) a year and 5-8 sick days, 9-12 holidays. Lots of tech companies have gone to 15 days Vcation + sick, employee allocates as he/she sees fit. My wife has been lucky to get 4 weeks (20 days) with her two companies, but that seems to be fairly rare.
Over time people get more, sometimes up to 25 days, but I rarely see more.
What type of web chats are you looking for?
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