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."

Re:Do people take these seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

Quicken Loans.

one page version

[Anonymous Coward]

Here [computerworld.com] is a link to the one page printable version of the article.

Drug surveys

[ushering05401]

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.

PFFT

[yamamushi]

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.

Re:Drug surveys

[ushering05401]

They were for real. My ass was saved by a 2600 reader who knew I was into code.

Your name was not required on the form, but the teachers issued specific instructions about how to hand the forms forward, but only *after* we had finished filling them out (my school had seating charts for every class). All of the forms were to be handed forward with the student in front placing their form on top of the student in back. Why should that have mattered if the results were to be anonymous?

I thought I was fucked after I heard that. Then I got a whap on the back of the head in the hallway after class. It was the kid who sat in front of me. He called me a fuck-wad and told me he had scratched the shit out of my form.

Other kids got expelled for telling the truth.

After word got around they discontinued the surveys and just brought in drug sniffing dogs. Yes, I was in one of *those* school districts. Too much cash and too little brains.

Regards.

Re:Drug surveys

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Seems like it was probably the most important lesson of your school years - don't trust anyone with institutional authority, if it can, it will be abused.

How these surveys traditionally work...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, we'd like to consider you for our "n best places in X to work."

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.

Re:The list skews to larger corporations

[FraterNLST]

I used to agree, but it seems to depend on the businesses themselves. I used to work at a big comapany that felt like a small one because of the immaturity of its it department (they had only just moved from total outsourcing) and it was great fun at first. As it got bigger and tried to be more "corporate" then things went really downhill.

However I've also worked at a smaller company that was awful to work for. The manager cared about nothing but the bottom line, employees who tried to leave were threatened and new employees were bullied into taking far less than they were worse simply because they didn't know any better.

Now I work at what is considered a large IT company for the area and i'm having a great time. The work is interesting, my co-workers and managers know their stuff and are great people to boot.

Size really doesn't matter, its all about the people.

Re:#17, Philip Morris

[GreggBz]

I used to work at Altria. No smokes for the whole family, only for you the employee. You scanned your badge in front of a giant vending machine with every brand they made, selected what you wanted, and out popped your ciggies, one pack a day. Also, you could smoke in your cubicle after 5pm and before 8am. Everything was nice to, like brass fixtures in the mens room and giant leather couches everywhere. Total IBM shop, only the best and most expensive.

It was a very nice atmosphere to work in, relaxed and just challenging enough. No one made any apologies for being in the tobacco business. They had a cafeteria like a five star restaurant, with humorously extravagant meals each day; really I barely functioned after lunch. And a company store were you could get all sorts of Kraft food goodies at ridiculesly low prices. Oh, and heated sidewalks, lol.

Work/Life Balance

[toleraen]

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.

Re:This is not a shock to me.

[caspper69]

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.

Re:Do people take these seriously?

[wikinerd]

If a company doesn't treat its customers well, there is a good chance that its employees will suffer as well.