

Ask HN: Best companies to work for in the US which don't have media coverage? - bbayer

I really wonder after complaints about Google last week what companies have same benefits but are not known as much as much Google or Facebook. There were some comments that such companies exist and some of them even have more benefits than mainstream companies.
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PaulRobinson
Companies that always appear on "best places to work" lists include:

[http://www.gore.com/](http://www.gore.com/) \- Gore Industries, a truly
astonishing workplace in almost every write-up I've ever read.

[http://www.semco.com.br/en/](http://www.semco.com.br/en/) \- The book
"Maverick" by CEO Ricardo Semler shows how he set the culture. It's grown a
lot since then, but still an amazing firm

[http://www.sas.com/](http://www.sas.com/) \- employees love it

[http://www.netapp.com/](http://www.netapp.com/) \- ditto, and the hardware is
everywhere interesting.

[http://www.qualcomm.com/](http://www.qualcomm.com/) \- Qualcomm is best known
to sys admins of a certain age for producing qpopper and for some of their
staff being killed in Iraq. The company is apparently great to work for

[http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/](http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/) \-
more code than you might think

[http://www.amazon.com/](http://www.amazon.com/) \- I know a guy who works in
operations who loves it. For developers it has downside (you own your code in
deployment), but he really rates it highly. YMMV.

[http://www.salesforce.com/](http://www.salesforce.com/) \- Rated highly by
staff

[https://www2.wwt.com/](https://www2.wwt.com/) \- I'd never heard of them, but
they appear on about half a dozen lists

[http://www.rackspace.com/](http://www.rackspace.com/) \- Biggest cloud
provider outside Amazon, I think

[http://www.autodesk.com/](http://www.autodesk.com/) \- Personally I'd rather
eat my own head than work there, but well regarded by employees

[http://www.hds.com/](http://www.hds.com/) \- Everybody forgets about HDS, but
they do some really amazing work and do staff love it

EDIT: added more companies

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zerr
Didn't quite understood drawback about Amazon - what do you mean by owning
your code in deployment?

Also, what's wrong with Autodesk?

~~~
Qworg
"Owning code in deployment" = "on call for any code problems in your group,
even code you didn't write".

At least that's how it was explained when if interviewed there.

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daliusd
Do not overestimate Google's benefits. There is nothing magical in what they
offer. The only reason why you should consider working at Google is people and
your CV (if you will manage to get job in Google).

Here is interesting list of companies:

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/12/the-
bes...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/12/the-best-
enterprise-software-companies-and-ceos-to-work-for-in-2013-2/)

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profquail
Forbes' 2013 list of the best financial services companies to work for:
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/07/31/the-
be...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/07/31/the-best-
financial-services-companies-to-work-for/)

~~~
jchendy
For tech people interested in finance, it would be hard to beat Two Sigma.
[http://www.twosigma.com/](http://www.twosigma.com/)

~~~
oijaf888
Jane Street would be another one, especially if you are interested in OCaml.
[http://www.janestreet.com](http://www.janestreet.com)

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anishkothari
I came across this article[1] that has a list of "hot" tech companies. It's
from 2012, but I think it's still relevant.

[1] [https://blog.wealthfront.com/hot-mid-size-silicon-valley-
com...](https://blog.wealthfront.com/hot-mid-size-silicon-valley-companies/)

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zbruhnke
If you're ok with being in LA then Cornerstone on Demand is a great choice,
they're public, great benefits, 40 hour workweeks etc.

That said I don't work there I just know people who have and who have
interviewed with them as well.

All around good things to say about them as a company

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mbrameld
[http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238592/100_Best_Plac...](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238592/100_Best_Places_to_Work_in_IT_2013)

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NateDad
I'm a bit late to the party, but I'll nominate the company I work for -
Canonical (although the part about no media coverage has been somewhat untrue
the last few days ;).

Let me tell you why.

1.) 100% work from home (minus ~2 one week trips per year) 2.) Get paid to
write cool open source software. 3.) Work with smart people from all over the
globe.

#1 can't be overstated. This isn't just "flex time" or "work from home when
you want to". There is literally no office to go to for most people at
Canonical. Working at home is the default. The difference is huge. My last
company let us work from home as much as we wanted, but most of the company
worked from San Fransisco... which means when there were meetings, 90% of the
people were in the room, and the rest of us were on a crappy speakerphone
straining to hear and having our questions ignored. At Canonical, everyone is
remote, so everyone works to make meetings and interactions work well
online... and these days it's easy with stuff like Google Hangouts and irc and
email and online bug tracking etc.

Working on open source is like entering a whole different world. I'd only
worked on closed source before, and the difference is awesome. There's
purposeful openness and inclusion of the community in our development. Bug
lists are public, and anyone can file one. Mailing lists are public (for the
most part) and anyone can get on them. irc channels are public, and anyone can
get on them. It's a really great feeling, and puts us so much closer to the
community - the people that have perhaps an even bigger stake in the products
we make than we do. Not only that, but we write software for people like us.
Developers. You _are_ the target market, in most cases. And that makes it easy
to get excited about the work and easy to be proud of and show off what you
do.

Finally, the people. I have people on my team from Germany, the UK, Malta, the
UAE, Australia, and New Zealand. It's amazing working with people of such
different backgrounds. And when you don't have to tie yourself down to hiring
people within a 30 mile radius, you can afford to be more picky. Canonical
doesn't skimp on the people, either. I was surprised that nearly everyone on
my team was 30+ (possibly all of them, I don't actually know how old everyone
is ;) That's a lot of experience to have on one team.

Canonical's benefits don't match Google or Facebook (you get the standard
stuff, health insurance, 401k etc, just not the crazy stuff). However, I'm
pretty sure the salaries are pretty comparable... and Google and Facebook
don't let you work 100% from home. I'm pretty sure they barely let you work
from home at all. And that is a huge quality of life issue for me. I don't
have to slog through traffic and public transportation to get to work. I just
roll out of bed, make some coffee, and sit down at my desk.

~~~
daliusd
You are late to party and you made me check job offers at Canonical and there
is position where I potentially fit. Thanks :)

One question: how long does hiring process take?

~~~
NateDad
Missed this - For me it was a little less than a month from inquiry about the
job to an offer. That didn't seem unusual for them.

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6thSigma
I met a few people who work at Zappos in Vegas. They couldn't stop talking
about how much they enjoy working there.

~~~
harimau
Then you ask them what else is there to do in Vegas than the strip and there's
a long pause...

~~~
bobf
I lived in Vegas for a few years, and never ran out of interesting things to
do. There are lots of great outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking,
golf, etc. that you can enjoy at least 10 months out of the year (depending on
your tolerance for heat in the summer). You can even ski at Lee Canyon.

Although you're dismissive of the strip, and I can understand why from the
typical visitors' perspective, there are literally tons of things to do there
and many of them are significantly discounted or free to Las Vegas residents.
I did the math and over the course of 3 years I went to tens of thousands of
dollars of things for free.

There are concerts, some of the best restaurants in the world, conventions,
boxing, shopping, and more. Traffic is manageable. Cost of living is low.
Flights to most places are cheap. You can be in Southern California or doing
outdoorsy stuff in Utah for the weekend with a few hours drive, or easy 1 hour
flights.

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vseloved
[http://grammarly.com](http://grammarly.com)

~~~
ujsfdo
bahahaha street teamer

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jrwren
arbor networks

ch2m

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eriksank
Anybody supplying contractors to the NSA. From the central banking database
you know how much money they have in what bank account. From Facebook you know
if they could be dead by now. The sum of all monetary holdings of any of these
targets forms collectively a bounty on their heads. Do you really need to see
Edward Snowden's stash of documents to understand this? I don't.

