What is your ideal employer?

Question

Encourages passion (about software engineering) by simply supporting it with a smile

Start-up mentality, with strong emphasis on profitable vision and legacy of profitability, rather than emphasis on everybody just doing their corporate duties
Great PC workstation

Operations interests (i.e. PC maintenance) are optionally somewhat self-maintained

There's always someone who can maintain the network, servers, and workstations, but ..
It's hella fun to add a new hard drive late at night at my own expense, fess up the next day, and hear your boss say, "Cool, be sure to expense it! I like that you just take action like that."

Free sodas and snacks (unlimited)
Can work 9 to 5, or
Can stick around till midnight if I want, whether doing work, installing software, or playing PC games
Strong emphasis on productivity, allowing for and encouraging the use of new tools and evolving technology, as long as stuff gets done
Hard work takes first priority, but laughter, jokes, show-and-tell, PC and Xbox games, etc., also thrown in the mix and encouraged.

Yet, being business-minded enough to want to be and enjoy being focused on the tasks at hand

Accomplishing more in two weeks by sitting down and sweating away, with a high-five in the end, than in six months at my last job with a grimace and a moan.
Heavy use of my favorite technologies (i.e. .NET / Visual Studio / SQL2005), and staying up-to-date with it (WCF in use, VS 2008 being tinkered with)
Spend an hour or two a day, if duties permit, to read a book, install a tool, tinker with a better methodology of coding, or discuss any of it in curious interest with a co-worker, without fear of the boss looking down on it (in fact he admires it).

Hated about my last job (as a CRM software product consultant and engineer):

Policies and culture over productivity and technical excellence
Disrespect and disregard for members of other teams
Senior management making serious technical errors and allowing those errors to propogate through the company and to customers

For example, there was an incorrect assumption that SQL Server 2005's Native Adapter was the legacy and therefore more stable connection mechanism, and the OLE/DB driver was the new one. I was the company "bad guy" for telling people the truth.

Total acceptance of legacy software, bugs, and instistence on staying within the box
Six months of meetings, hundreds of pages of documentation, contracts, sign-offs, for work that could have been performed by one or two skilled professionals in two or three weeks.
Zero appreciation for evolving, time-saving technology such as .NET

Heartless corporate mindset: "How do you feel about how that meeting went with the client?" "I don't feel, or try not to. It's just a job."
Spending more than 30 minutes a day altogether keeping track of billable hours,

.. rather than being allowed to put my heart and soul into constructing a solution and be appreciated for my deliverable rather than for hours spent

BTW at my current job (which I love) we're hiring (hint-hint).

LittleWorm SSC Enthusiast Points: 153 More actions · Answer 1

Here is my list:

1. got a reasonable boss

2. pay reasonable salary/bonus

3. has reasonable medical/401k plan

4. has reasonable career path that i can look/work for

5. has reasonable annual paid leave

6. has reasonable colleague(s)

Honestly, I have yet to find out an employer of mine (ex- or current) satisfy all the above and, no, I don't think my requests are too in-reasonable.

Jon Davis-468176 Valued Member Points: 71 More actions · Answer 2

Love my job, hated my last job, so an ideal job is determined on both counts.

What I love about my current job (as a senior engineer for million-user web sites):

recognized my talents and experience, and expressed personal respect for me and regularly (on my arrival) offered recognition of what I bring to the table, and
didn't flinch when I asked for a salary that was barely above average on DICE statistics but was a lot more than I've ever made, and
has not backed off from maintaining the sense of loyalty to me and to the rest of the team
.. as opposed to disregardful, "yeah we're all engineers, do your job" *shrug*