What is your ideal employer?
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Ever since this thread came up, no one put up any topic, so I decide to start one.
What is your ideal employer?
Big paycheck ??
Lots of vacation ??
flexibility ??
Training every year ??
bonus ?? stock option ??
recognition of your work ??
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All of those... plus I get to pick when I come in and go out
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A mission or purpose I feel is noble (that they are actively pursuing). Idealistic? Sure.
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley -
Loner even if all those things are so nice I would just settle for Vacation time paycheck and training...
I can work withouth the rest of the options but these are essential in my opinion cause they provide the employee with enough room to have a life and not work like a dog without any benefits...
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A boss who is reasonable in his/her demands and willing to stand up to the end users and the higher-ups for the employees under him.
A team that communicates and mostly gets along with each other. (Occasional conflict can be good for creativity as long as it's not pushed to a personal level).
The ability to work the hours I want to work (come in early, leave early) and to work them around personal life issues (doctor's appointment, getting the air conditioning fixed, etc.). Also, the ability to occasionally remote in from home to get major projects done instead sitting in the office and helping with every "emergency" that comes along.
Recognition (outside of pay) for a job well done.
Pay & vacation is good, but I must admit they rank lowest on the list.
I've had jobs where the pay is pretty decent, but still not enough to compensate for a micro-managing boss, snotty/elitist co-workers or getting occurences for being 5 minutes late due to a flat tire. I'd trade a bit of a salary cut to get a flexible, understanding and incredibly fun work environment any day of the week. In fact, my current job is a lot like the above. I don't get paid as much as I think I'm worth (who does, though? Right?), but the other perks I get at my current job more than make up for the lack. Rarely a day comes by where I don't want to get up and go to work.
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I find co-workers/boss are very valuable. Get me competent co-workers/boss that don't slack off all the time and I would be happy.
Beyond that Location, location, location (no Houstin, New Orleans, Phoenix, New York - no 1 hr commutes ...) Vacation, retirement plan, realistic expectations and pay in that order.
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I’ve been working since I was 15. That’s 34 years of experience in one type of job or another. I will have been at my current job exactly 1 year on Tuesday next week. And I can unequivocally say that this is the best job I have ever had.
What makes it so? Well it’s certainly not the vacation (1 week the 1st year, 2 the next, and 3 at 15 years) which is somewhat less than the industry standard. And there is no training budget that I’m aware of. The pay is good (very good to be honest), and I’m told the bonus is good too (I find out in two weeks). And after all, that is why we work, to pay the bills. But what really makes it a wonderful place to work is a combination of three things:
The owner (we are a small company 30-40 people) really cares about his employees and he wants everyone to be happy.
When you perform a task for someone; they will invariably say “Thank You”. It is amazing how much weight such a small thing carries. I am used to a corporate culture where it is just expected that everyone does their job. Here everyone goes out of their way to let co-workers know they appreciate the job they are doing.
The most important factor when hiring (we have hired several people in the last year) is how well they will fit in with everyone else. Egotists, arrogant bastards, and prima donnas are not allowed.
Which of the three is the most important? I can’t say. I think the recognition, but then I think that if THE BOSS didn’t set the tone, then that wouldn’t happen. And all it takes is one jerk to ruin the other two.
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Thanx for the comments... I also work for a great small compagny. I love the fact that I have plenty of time to hand out here and not hear a word about it (as long as I do my work of course)!
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"Thank you"s are definitely one of the non-pay recognition factors that I count as an important thing. It's amazing how two little phrases ("thank you" and "please") transform a potentially dull and resentful work environment into a fantastic, easy going office.
And I really like that, at this job, when I get called into the boss's office, I don't have to worry about getting yelled at because he calls people into his office to thank them or to shoot-the-breeze more often then he does for the discipline thing.
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CASH and lots of it...
because that gives you the options for everything else...only you get to decide...
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Simon,
Congrats and that sounds like a job I left years ago. Don't really regret it, it was a good decision at the time, but I miss it.
Besides, I have the BEST job
I think that if you want to figure out what's the best job for you, it's hard. All those factors above create this N-dimensional space and you have to balance out the factors against each other. For example, if you care about money and work hours, it's easier to compare two jobs but not simple.
M | A
O | X
N | B
E | Y
Y |
|---------------------
Work Hours
Do you want to work at X or Y? A or B? If it's X and Y, it's easy. X has less hours and more pay. There's time in my life when I would have wanted A over B, but now I'd take B over A (assuming B pays my bills).
Add in a few more variables and it gets hard. Plus you might have your spouse's opinion to work with. My wife has almost always ended up with 4 weeks vacation each year. She likes to get away and take the time off, but I've rarely every gotten more than 2. There's been a few jobs that had 4 weeks and she would have liked me to take them, but they didn't fit for other reasons.
It's a good topic and I've written a little, but this is a slightly different take. Maybe I should write some more.
Anyone want to share some comparisons they've made? Or worried about making?
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Honestly, I haven't had to make a lot of comparisions. Not many moons ago, I was working in retail sales/customer service. When I got my first real IT job (a job that included an IT title, not a vague-IT support job that was tacked onto my normal sales/customer service job), I was making half again what I made in RS/CS plus I had the small company, fun boss and bonuses for writing and selling reports.
Then when the work there dried up due to budgeting concerns, I was able to start work as an IT contractor. In less than a year, my original customer service salary had doubled and I was able to pick my jobs. This went on for a couple of months and then I landed a long-term contract getting paid even more, now earning triple what my RS/CS pay was and working for my current employer who ended up moving me Full Time.
Talk about a cool career move! @=) In two years, I tripled my salary, found my dream job and was able to start buying real groceries instead of microwave pot pies for dinner. @=)
The only time I had to back down on pay was when I went from contractor to FT at my current job and then the benefits I was getting outweighed the small cut I did take. Health insurance, paid vacation, 401K, flexible hours and an opportunity to stay at my current job without worrying about those intermittent "contractor cuts" many companies engage in was more than worth the downgrade. Especially as I hadn't yet changed my lifestyle to fit my new paychecks.
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Let's get real ... money, flextime, training, bonuses only go so far. The phrase "Know thyself" is of paramount importance and usually the one most often looked over or forgotten.
Quite simply I must like:
- What I do
- Who I work with
- Who I work for
If those 3 criteria are met, then usually all of the "other" things settle into place quite nicely.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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Too true, Rudy. I actually know an IT guy who is a genius at what he does, but hates doing IT work. It doesn't matter what job he does, who he works for or how much he gets paid. He'll like the new position for about a year, maybe 2 years, before he gets fed-up and wants out.
He only does IT work because he fell into it by accident when he was in college (part-time work to pay the bills) and now can't figure out how to get out of it.
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Mine is challenge.
Pay me some ridiculous amount of money and make me push buttons and I'll quit in a heartbeat.
Pay me enough to pay my bills, give me vacation time,etc and make sure that every day there is some new project or plan to do and I'm all for it.
Of course, being part of a team might rank up there for me at this point in my career as I've been the only IT guy helping to grow a company (300+ users) from the ground up and somewhere along the way the "thank you's" and such just got left by the wayside.
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