http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/snapshots/1.html
Pretty cool to have a local company with ties to NCSU get this type of recognition. Other triangle companies like Cisco made the list as well.

1/21/2010 8:15:14 AM

start the countdown until evan posts here

1/21/2010 8:19:22 AM

surprise! oh, wait...

1/21/2010 9:36:57 AM

ibtevan

1/21/2010 9:48:25 AM

We dropped to #7 from #1 last year...still pretty good though.

1/21/2010 10:05:52 AM

#16. Cisco

Quote :

"What makes it so great? The Silicon Valley stalwart has become one of the nation’s largest providers of on-site child care with the opening of a second center; 800 children are enrolled, and parents at HQ can track their kids via computer."

Funny, that this is the thing they focus on when there is no on-site daycare other than at the HQ in San Jose. RTP is the world's second largest site with ~4000, employees, but no daycare here or any other site. It's a perk that the majority of Cisco employees could never take advantage of.

I really wonder what criteria they use for these rankings. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad place to work, but I really can't think of anything that should set it apart from any other gigantic mega-corporation. There used to be such things, but they have long since been taken away (stock options, free sodas, paid home broadband to name few).

Now we have awesome perks such as forced vacations and promotions without raises. I imagine John Chambers would describe the fact that employees still have a job as being a perk. Sure, I'll take being employed vs. being unemployed any day, but as far as being a great place to work, #16 is completely overrated in my mind.


[Edited on January 21, 2010 at 10:57 AM. Reason : .]

1/21/2010 10:55:16 AM

Yeah it's like that at NetApp too. Lots of the perks are in Sunnyvale with some in RTP, but essentially none of the "fun" stuff at the field sites or regional offices. We still get beer on Fridays and have a decent gym here, but we get the forced vacations too (which really aren't all that bad if you have time in the bank).

I still can't complain though, we have lots of things that are nice like free espresso / latte / coffee all over the place, free bagels on Fridays, big screen TVs everywhere, a gym I use for free all the time, basketball at lunch on Fridays, etc. Back before the economy sucked we used to get some killer lunches at the quarterly meetings (ribs and steak anyone?), Dunkin Donuts every Monday, and fruit every Tuesday, plus crazy employee events every so often like a huge casino night with an open bar and lots of prizes.

The rankings are based in part on employee surveys. Some of the questions have to do with happiness in your role, ability to move up, trust in management, faith in company ethics, etc. So that's probably why Cisco continues to rank up there, even if they have taken away a lot of the dot-com perks, because the job culture is still better than most companies out there.

1/21/2010 11:24:06 AM

^^ what he said.

[Edited on January 21, 2010 at 11:26 AM. Reason : ^]

1/21/2010 11:24:18 AM

this is why local/regional rankings have so much higher value.

the company i work for has won one of the best places to work in 5-10 of our 30+ cities we're in.

just to name a few (from the business journal rankings):
San Diego
Newport Beach (Orange County)
San Francisco, Bay Area
Washington, DC
Dallas
Baltimore

i think it means more

[Edited on January 21, 2010 at 1:01 PM. Reason : .]

1/21/2010 12:52:57 PM

your company also pays for the honor as well.

1/21/2010 2:49:55 PM

n/m

[Edited on January 21, 2010 at 3:42 PM. Reason : .]

1/21/2010 3:42:16 PM

the funny thing about working at sas and watching that video is that most of those perks are for the demographic that reads fortune. if you notice healthcare and child care are what are harped on in all of these blurbs. at 25, these mean jack shit to me compared to salary

1/22/2010 6:53:42 AM

hey now, i was reading fortune when i was 25.

1/22/2010 9:55:20 AM

I saw 3 SAS workers at the Moe's in Cary last week, sitting there eating their lunch, name badges proudly displayed --- all 3 of them sipping on a Corona.

1/22/2010 1:12:55 PM

^ you've never done a power lunch before?

best thing evar

1/22/2010 1:26:50 PM

nope, and i don't plan to. i like my job

unless i'm out with the big boss and the big boss is buying those drinks for me, it's sweet tea or water!

1/22/2010 1:27:49 PM

Quote :

"Funny, that this is the thing they focus on when there is no on-site daycare other than at the HQ in San Jose. RTP is the world's second largest site with ~4000, employees, but no daycare here or any other site. It's a perk that the majority of Cisco employees could never take advantage of. I really wonder what criteria they use for these rankings. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad place to work, but I really can't think of anything that should set it apart from any other gigantic mega-corporation. There used to be such things, but they have long since been taken away (stock options, free sodas, paid home broadband to name few). Now we have awesome perks such as forced vacations and promotions without raises. I imagine John Chambers would describe the fact that employees still have a job as being a perk. Sure, I'll take being employed vs. being unemployed any day, but as far as being a great place to work, #16 is completely overrated in my mind."

man, your life sucks

first world problems

1/22/2010 1:47:22 PM

Excellent post!

1/22/2010 3:33:45 PM

it'll have to do until I have a baby and get it to pose with cash lol

1/22/2010 3:35:17 PM

Quote :

"Most of the company's score (two-thirds) is based on the results of the survey, which is sent to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about the management's credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company's responses to the Institute's Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about demographic makeup, and pay and benefit programs, as well as a series of open-ended questions about the company's management philosophy, methods of internal communications, opportunities, compensation practices, and diversity efforts, etc."

1/22/2010 8:00:23 PM

Quote :

"I saw 3 SAS workers at the Moe's in Cary last week, sitting there eating their lunch, name badges proudly displayed --- all 3 of them sipping on a Corona."

so?

1/22/2010 9:44:47 PM

I don't drink at lunch very often but there's def nothing wrong with it

1/22/2010 9:59:50 PM

^ unless you get sloppy at lunch, there really is no reason not to. i work on Telecom Road in Cary so I see a lot of the Verizon / SAS employees out at lunch, its fairly common

1/23/2010 8:28:05 PM

so how the hell do I get a job there

1/23/2010 9:12:57 PM

Its like the CIA, they come to you

1/23/2010 9:16:28 PM

icee, fuckz

1/23/2010 9:54:20 PM

#48 whee

#9 on best perks

1/23/2010 10:03:21 PM

Quote :

"15. NetApp Average total pay: $132,396"

Apparently I am at the wrong company

1/23/2010 10:12:31 PM

I've had beer at lunch, too. whats the big deal. not getting drunk

Hell, before the late 90s, people used to drink as they do on mad men. PC culture shut that down.

1/23/2010 11:04:20 PM

^^damn son, imagine making that in RTP

1/26/2010 2:58:54 AM

Quote :

"so how the hell do I get a job there"

1/26/2010 4:46:34 AM

^^^^, ^^

I'd be more interested in the median total pay (note that total pay takes into account health and other benefits, not just monetary compensation).

Cisco's is something not too far off from that, but you'd be hard pressed to find many engineers (or 'individual contributors' as they like to call 'em) making anywhere near that much.

1/26/2010 7:50:44 AM

i dunno, i guess its always a grass-is-greener type thing

1/27/2010 12:30:48 AM

Quote :

"so how the hell do I get a job there"

Step 1: Apply

Step 2:

Step 3: Profit

1/27/2010 10:38:52 AM

Here is what Phil missed

Step 2: Have better credentials than the thousand other applicants

1/27/2010 10:40:51 AM

Quote :

"Step 2: Have better credentials than the thousand other applicants Step2: Know someone on the inside. Contacts are what its all about. "

1/27/2010 10:46:48 AM

Quote :

"Step 2: Have better credentials than the thousand other applicants Step 2: Know someone on the inside. Contacts are what its all about. Step 2: "

1/27/2010 10:47:35 AM

People here snort lines of coke off each other's erect dicks on their lunch break. No one blinks an eye.

I do not do this though.

1/27/2010 10:53:58 AM

Honestly though

To anyone who is thinking of applying

You're applying to a company rated the best company in the entire country....

...during a recession...

...where extremely qualified people are looking for any work....

...Good luck!

1/27/2010 10:55:42 AM

I heard most undergrads starting at netapp pulling around 72k+ all in comp

[Edited on January 27, 2010 at 11:21 AM. Reason : H]

1/27/2010 11:20:17 AM

^ depends on what you are doing. Most people I know in engineering have at least a master's in CSC (or similar). There is a good intern program here that I've heard pays well but I don't know the details. I doubt it's $72k / year equivalent though. Most of those are also master's or doctorate level students though, haven't seen too many undergrad interns around in years past.

1/27/2010 11:26:22 AM

Quote :

"so how the hell do I get a job there"

Apply for anything... even if it is not the position you want. Just get your foot in the door, and then it is easier to move around.

1/30/2010 7:55:18 PM

my dad i still think has one of the tightest email addresses ever: bob@sas.com

too bad he hasn't been able to get me a job there

1/31/2010 1:07:59 AM

Nice. Similarly, I've got bobby at cisco dot com and have always felt pretty damn happy about that.

1/31/2010 1:00:52 PM

what about drdave@ibm.com - i was in one of his classes at ncsu... apparently he invented ctrl-alt-del on the original PC

1/31/2010 2:16:22 PM

^and he loves to tell people that. And he'll show you the clip from Jeopardy where he was an answer. And he'll show you the clip where he says that he may have come up with ctrl + alt + delete but Bill gates made it famous.

1/31/2010 3:05:17 PM

I see you took one of his classes also

1/31/2010 5:21:26 PM

Quote :

"Apply for anything... even if it is not the position you want. Just get your foot in the door, and then it is easier to move around."

qft

also, yeah, i'm jealous of the people that have been here forever that have their first or last name as their domain logon/exchange alias mine is just firstname.lastname

i still have my awesome NCSU address, though e.k@ncsu.edu

1/31/2010 6:46:08 PM

Call me a fan boy, but I think it's ridiculous that a grocery store is ranked a better place to work than google...

1/31/2010 9:30:56 PM

since what a company produces has to be the only thing that makes it a great place to work and all

1/31/2010 9:38:11 PM