The Best Places to Work survey from BusinessWeek is in for new graduates looking to launch a career. Given the time of year when many new college graduates are still looking to land their first job and college freshmen and sophomores are looking to select the best major (see this list of the Best College Majors by highest starting salary), it’s timely to consider just what is a great place to work versus a sub-par corporation that will leave new entrants to the workforce unchallenged, unrecognized and generally apathetic about their professional career.
The survey BusinessWeek published is actually the culmination of three different surveys – 1) Career Services Directors from US colleges 2) Universum, a research company and 3) Employer surveys. While the survey listed out the Top 50 places to start a career, I wanted to delve into some trends and comments they listed as the “selling point” for just what made the company such a great place to work. The source article can be referenced here.
Best Places to Work – Trends
- The top 4 spots on the list of 50 are all Accounting companies – yes, 4 out of the top 4. I find this to be odd, not only due to the abnormal clustering demonstrating that anyone that’s anyone should be working for an Accounting firm, but also because these companies are still in the midst of layoffs and the Financial/Accounting industries may emerge from this financial crisis looking much differently than they used to. I had commented following the 2008 survey that the preponderance of Financial/Accounting companies topping the list seemed odd given the start of a financial meltdown at that time – and the layoffs ensued. Who are the first to go? Often times, the recently hired due to their lack of experience and immediate value they can bring to the company (and in the US, you’ll find the severance package is severely deficient compared to other countries) – and the very senior, given their proximity to retirement and high salary in comparison to mid-tenured employees.
- Goldman Sachs is the top Financial Firm (Investment Bank) on the list at #6 – this seems reasonable given that they seem to be the only large firm in the group that weathered the storm relatively unscathed (well, especially since the government bailed out AIG who in turn, payed up on some pretty large IOUs to Goldman). Anyway, if you’re going to work on Wall Street, Goldman seems like the place to go. Share prices, bonuses and well, jealousy from main street and the requisite ire of politicians toward their unseemly bonuses this year seem to point toward this conclusion.
- I found it interesting that Technology companies didn’t comprise a heavy weighting at the top of the list. IBM is up there at #10, but they’re more of a consulting firm now than a pure-play computer company like in decades past. Next is Microsoft at #18. And, where’s Google??? Apparently, they opted out of the survey. It’s a shame because if you go back even as far as pre-IPO, Google has perennially been the absolute best place to work for techies and administrative folks alike – the neat workplace perks, the stock options, the name. The only thing I can surmise is that perhaps they didn’t participate in the employer survey, but leaving Google off the list seems to be a major omission to me.
Interesting Selling Points and Comments from the Survey
Ernst&Young #2
“…most diverse: 36% of new entry-levels are minorities”
If this is an objective for you, E&Y certainly seems to be aggressively recruiting minority employees. Given US demographics, these numbers seem above and beyond what even other progressive companies are achieving. Disney achieved 37% as well.
IBM #10
“…the most generous 401(k) match in its industry: 6%”
This is a high match. Consider that over a long career (if anyone makes it 30 years at the same company anymore), this difference between say 6% at IBM and 4% elsewhere is enormous.
Philip Morris #17
“2 out of 3 entry level hires receive a performance bonus in their first year, which averages $4,900″
This is a pretty nice starting bonus. If you’re average or better, starting off with a virtually assured 5K per year right off the bat is nice; this probably indicates a high overall bonus structure for more tenured employees. This, of course, assumes that you don’t have an ethical/perception issue with working for the world’s largest tobacco company.
Northwestern Mutual #29
“3 out of 4 hired are gone after three years…”
I found this to be an odd selling point that placed the company on the Top 50. Hey, come work here, you’ll be gone in no time!
J&J #41
“Set aside $1 in your 401(k) and J&J will pitch in $2…”
I had to do a double take on this perk. A 200% 401(k) match?! It didn’t state what the limit is, but a 200% return on your retirement account is nothing to sneeze at.
Aramark #42
“Decent pay, but retirement benefits are another story. The initial 401(k) match is 1.5% of pay”
Did they just run out of stuff to write at the end of the list? I mean, how does this translate into placement in the top 50 best places to work list?
So, definitely some surprises on the list this year, but the survey’s data and comments should certainly shed some light on where the best places to work are for both new grads and prospective job hunters out there.
Six-Figure Jobs
Six Figure Jobs are getting to be harder to come by in the current economic environment. As the supply-demand equation has switched from a shortage of qualified workers and an abundance of firms looking to talent to many talented, experienced employees looking for work, it’s not quite the same as we saw during the boom years. That being said, there are new services and resources that didn’t exist previously. A wonderful resource that I enjoy is The Ladders where you can Search Only $100K+ Jobs. If you’re highly qualified and used to earn upwards of six figures, this service can greatly hone your search and it also limits the candidate pool to those with recent six-figure salaries.
Do you work for any companies on the list? Did BusinessWeek get it right?
No related posts.
You're Not Following Darwin's RSS? Check out Why You Have to Subscribe to Darwin's Finance!If you enjoyed this post, you can get free updates through RSS Feed or via Email whenever a new post is published. Rest assured that you can unsubscribe at any time via the automated system and your information will not be sold, archived or utilized for any other "nefarious" purposes.
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess it all depends on what is being defined as a good place to work. If you consider things like work-life balance, benefits, and compensation, all of the big 4 shouldn’t even make the list. The base pay is usually average at best, benefits are usually horrid, and you’ll regularly log 55-hour weeks except during busy season when it will jump to 80+.
So why do it? In the accounting world, you almost have to have big 4 experience on your resume to get any position worth having. Most accounting job listings above entry level will list big 4 experience as a requirement, or at least preferred. Where else will you see in a job posting a requirement that you have worked for one of four specific firms?
That’s where the value of Big 4 accounting comes from, although I would say it should raise their rankings on a “best places to start a career” list (which I believe BW publishes as well) and not on a “best places to work” list. Maybe if they had a list entitled “Best places to work to eventually get to one of the best places to work” list?
.-= BillyOceansEleven´s last blog ..Seeds: “The Ultimate Barter Item†– Pass the Tin Foil Hat, Please =-.
[Reply]
Google chose not to participate in the survey. So thats why they aren’t in the list. I read the print copy of the article in Businessweek magazine and somewhere buried in the full article they said so.
Looking at their methodology it seems that they just averaged together the scores they got on 3 survey’s. About 50% of the total score they give is based on just reputation. 25% from student preference (before working at company) and 25% on college career services opinions (3rd party people who don’t work at company). The other 50% is based on employer survey about pay, benefits and training programs. So a well known company with decent pay would likely float to the top. This kind of metric would be biased to large multinational companies that everyone knows about.
.-= Jim´s last blog ..$25 Restaurant.com gift certificate for $1.00 thru Sept. 13 =-.
[Reply]
Billy, in fact the BusinessWeek article referenced is titled “Best Places to Launch a Career”. So this isn’t “best place to work” period, but instead best place for a new college grad to start work. That is definitely a different measure.
.-= Jim´s last blog ..Consolidate Your Airline Miles & Hotel Points =-.
[Reply]
Hi, yes, the first sentence of the article laid out that the survey was for “new graduates looking to launch a career”, so without changing the title, url, etc., figured the opening sentence was clear enough; sorry for any confusion.
Thanks for the note on Google Jim, I missed that (I get the print version too!).
[Reply]
I’ve heard from some of my accounting friends that I-banking types have started to be hired into accounting positions at some of the Big 4. Perhaps their dominance of the article has to do with the scarcity of positions that arise from this situation?
.-= Paul Kamp´s last blog ..Part II: Does Increasing Tax Rates Increase Revenue? =-.
[Reply]