Employers of Choice or Choice of Employers?

I once knew someone who told me that he was proud never having grown up and acted his age because he never saw the benefit of acting like an adult.

A novel approach to aging to be sure, but it also goes a long way toward explaining why he had no less than a dozen career changes over the course of his working life. Apparently he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up either.

Depending on which survey you read, most of us undergo at least three career changes (yours truly had four) and hopefully we end up with a company and a position where we can flourish and progress.

And like many of you I have more than a few horror stories of past companies, like the one who occupied the 5^th and 6^th floors of an office building in New York City but mandated all employees with IT issues to call Tampa, Fla. for help despite its IT department being situated on floor number 5 in New York.

Or my past employer who eschewed raises and 401(k) matches, implemented semi-annual layoffs of entry and mid-level employees reportedly to strengthen its bottom line yet continued to hire a wave of 6-figure executives to populate an already overcrowded and largely ineffective C-suite.

But onward and upward.

As they do every year, online publication 24/7 Wall Street researches thousands of employee opinions and reviews of some 200 companies on Glassdoor.com, a career community website in an effort to determine the best companies to work for.

This year they have come up with a roster of 54 which in the interest of brevity, I will not list in its entirety here. Technology and consulting companies drew a large share of those 54 slots, with all four Big Four audit firms – E&Y, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG earning a place on the list.

And while compensation certainly figures into each employee’s rating, the report found that both culture and values are equally critical factors in determining an employee’s review.

For those keeping score at home, below are the top 10.

1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Insight Global
4. Google
5. McKinsey & Co.
6. Expedia
7. Adobe Systems
8. Apple
9. Nike
10. Chick-fil-A

On an interesting sidebar, six of those companies did not exist when I entered the workforce.

I always knew I was born 30 years too early. Either that or unlike my friend, I grew up too fast.