Vault Guide To Top Tech Employers (2009)

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VAULT GUIDE TO THE
TOP TECH EMPLOYERS

EDITED BY AMAN SINGH DAS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Working in the Industry Recommended Resources
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3 5
EMPLOYER PROFILES
3Com Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Adaptec Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Adobe Systems Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Advanced Micro Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Affiliated Computer Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Agilent Technologies Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Akamai Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Alcatel-Lucent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Alliance Data Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Altera Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Analog Devices Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Appian Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Apple Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Applied Materials, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
ASML Holding N.V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Atmel Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Attachmate Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Autodesk, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 Benchmark Electronics, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Black Box Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 BMC Software, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119 Borland Software Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124 CA, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 CACI International, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Table of Contents
Canon Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Cirrus Logic, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Cisco Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Compuware Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156 Comverse Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Cypress Semiconductor Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 Dell Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171 Diebold, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178 DRS Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 EMC Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188 Epicor Software Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193 Fiserv, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202 Fujitsu Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206 Garmin International, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210 General Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Harman International Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218 Harris Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222 Hewlett-Packard Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228 Hitachi Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240
IKON Office Solutions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244 Ingram Micro Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251 Integral Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255 Intel Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259 Intermec, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .264 International Business Machines Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268 Intuit Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274 Jabil Circuit, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280 KLA-Tencor Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283
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2009 Vault.com, Inc.
Kofax plc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287 Lam Research Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .292 Lenovo Group Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .296 Lexmark International, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301 LSI Logic Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .306 ManTech International Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .310 Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .314 McAfee Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317 MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 Metier, Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325 Micron Technology Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .328 Microsoft Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333 National Semiconductor Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345 NCR Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349 Network Appliance Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353 Novell Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .357 NVIDIA Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .361 ON Semiconductor Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365 Oracle Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .368 Palm Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374 QLogic Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379
QUALCOMM Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383 Red Hat, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389 Research in Motion Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393 Ricoh Company Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399 Sage Group plc, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402 Samsung Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406 SanDisk Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411 Sanmina-SCI Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415 SAP Aktiengesellschaft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418
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SAS Institute Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .422 ScanSource Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .426 Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .430 Seagate Technology L.L.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .434 STMicroelectronics N.V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .439 Stratus Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443 Sun Microsystems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447 Sybase Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .453 Symantec Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457 Synnex Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461 Tech Data Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .464 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .467 Teradyne Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .472 Texas Instruments Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .476 Total Systems Services, Inc. (TSYS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .481 Trimble Navigation Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .486 Unisys Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .490 Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .494 VeriSign Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .498 Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .502 Vmware, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .506
Western Digital Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .511 Xerox Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .514 Zoom Technologies Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .522
ABOUT THE EDITOR
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Introduction
Information technology is the professional field that creates and maintains the computers and related systems that keep modern society interconnected and comfortable. Commonly known as IT, technology affects all aspects of modern life, from ordinary email to the maintenance of nuclear defense systems. Contrary to the stereotype, the industry isnt just for pasty-skinned nerds, but has room for a wide range of personality types. Historically, salaries have been generous and the possibility of making a mint in stock options has emerged as an especially delicious bonus for those brave enough to sign on with an unproven startup operation.
Dipping in the current recession

But technology is no longer an easy ride toif not fame and fortunea very comfortable career. The technology market in the United States has suffered major vicissitudes over the past two decades. For instance, the industry foundered after the dot-com bust and lost approximately 400,000 jobs between 2001 and April 2004, according to a report sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Still smarting from the bust, many tech companies were running lean and mean before the economic downturn of 2008, and the industry is faring better than others; according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey released in March 2009; the sectors unemployment level is about 5.4 percent, as opposed to over 7 percent in 2001. However, some industry watchers point to the acceleration of job cuts in the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 as an indicator that the tech sector may not be a safe haven for long.
No other field like IT for intellectual fulfillment

Despite these swings in fortune, few other career paths can offer what technology jobs offermeritocracy, high salaries, teamwork and intellectual fulfillment. For logicians, machinery-lovers and people-people alike, technology careers continue to be attractive. And while the field may suffer fluctuations, those willing to refresh their skill set find themselves continually employable.
Chip-ing away
Although the tech industry is doing better than most industries during this gloom and doom recession, there are certainly some sectors, like the microchip industry, that are struggling to hold its own. Microchips are up there with the wheel and domesticated animals in terms of human inventions that have had a dramatic effect on history. The microchip as we know itwhich consists of multiple circuits embedded in a semiconductive substratewas invented by Jack Kilby, an employee of Texas Instruments, in 1958. The first semiconductors, which only had a handful of circuits, were initially used in highly-funded government projects, like the Apollo Moon mission and in the guidance systems for Minuteman missiles. As the production of chips became less expensive, they began their inexorable move into the realm of consumer goods during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unlike those first microchips, which
Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Introduction
combined tens of circuits on a single chip, microchips produced today can have billions of circuits in an area that can fit on a fingertip. The semiconductor industry is highly cyclical, prone to vertiginous highs and astonishing lows, and right now its at a low. The volatile industry is partly due to the high cost of entry; a fab or foundry, a plant where microchips are made, can take several yearsnot to mention $2 billion and changeto build. As the price of chips rises, more fabs are built; as they add their capacity to the marketplace, the price of chips falls. This has already happened several times over the course of the industrys history, notably in the 1980s, when Japanese manufacturers flooded the marketplace with inexpensive chips. The market reached a high in 1999in time to fuel the tech boomand again in 2004, in order to power the recovery from the tech bust. Now, Chief Information Officer of Applied Materials Ron Kifer is calling current times the worst semiconductor downturn in history. Kifer is experiencing these tough years first hand. In May 2009, the semiconductor manufacturer posted a $133 million dollar loss for the first quarter and stated that its new orders fell over 64 percentone of the companys worst quarters in its 42-year history. Other chipmaking companies arent faring well either; Cirrus Logics revenue dropped 25 percent, while rival Amtel downsized five percent of its staff.
Other tech sectors hit hard as well

The recession is hitting other technology sectors hard, too. Projects in the solar power industry have dried up and with that has revenue for solar technology companies like SunPower Corporation and MEMC Electronic Materials Incorporated. Even head honcho Microsoft hasnt been safe from the recession. By the end of 2010, the corporation will lay off a total of 5,000 workers although the company says it will also create up to 3,000 new jobs. As of late May 2009, more than 330,000 employees in the tech industry have been pink slipped.
Creeping Up
But there is still some good news. While the chips may be downliterallyothers are creeping up with gizmos that call, play, direct, email and network all at once. Many Americans, one out of five to be exact, are ditching their land-line connections for a smarter type of phone, and lucky for them, the overwhelming trend in the tech industry is to add more features to products. The scheme is a surefire crowd-pleaser: feature-laden gadgets attract customers and sell at a premium, and adding a chip that turns a cell phone into a music player doesnt contribute much to its manufacturing cost. This process, known as feature creep, has a downside, however. Consumers only spend about 20 minutes on average fussing around with a new productand if they cant figure out all the bells and whistles in that period of time, theyre unlikely to return to it. It may be easy and cheap to add more features, but its
extremely difficult to design an elegant, easy-to-use interface for the device, instead of just adding more menus and buttons.
The smartphones battle

Two smartphones are clearly gaining the most in salesResearch in Motions BlackBerry and Apples iPhone. While the battle of the applications may still be going strong, BlackBerry has the slight upper hand selling around 3 million units more than the iPhone. Another tech product on the rise is the netbook. These mini laptops are primarily used for simple tasks like word processing and email. If you dont need fancy features netbooks can be a dirt cheap alternative to a laptop. Starting as low as $300, netbooks are tiny, ultra-lightweight and are expected to account for 10 percent of computer sales by the end of 2009.
WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY

As befits such a large and diverse industry, there are a variety of jobs to please all typesnot just shaggy guys with 1970s eyewear who think its perfectly reasonable to wear socks with sandals. Career options include semiconductor design and manufacture, programmers, systems designers, data storage experts and, of course, those much-maligned IT guys, who are a feature of nearly every sizeable business. The tech industry has added almost 400,000 jobs in the last four years and all though some companies might be suffering, people like Bill Gates believe the tech sector will be the liberator of the recession.
Prepare for odd questions

Some companies in the tech industrynotably Googleare notorious for their oddball interviewing tactics. Google actively seeks out techy types that have also written books or started their own companies, and has been known to recruit people by putting brainteasers on billboards. Not every company in the industry uses such off-the-wall strategies, however. Insiders report that interviews usually have several roundssometimes as many as three phone screens before a face-to-face interview. Interviews for jobs that require specific skillslike programming expertisegenerally have a technical component where the job seeker must demonstrate his skills. Common interview questions of the non-brainteaser sort include the standard behavioral questionsstories about leadership, teamwork, dealing with ambiguity, multi-tasking, project management, conflict management, according to one source at a major hardware company.
Getting your foot in the door

Tech companies frequently hire interns for the summer and during the school year. The competition for the top candidates is heating up as the number of computer science majors rose in 2008 for the first time is six years. In addition to the cachet of a big-ticket name on the students resume, interns are showered with perks as if the tech bubble never burst. Google interns get free noshmorning, noon and night at the companys renowned caf, Microsoft interns can get free housing and transportation to and from work, and Apple interns get a basic medical plan. There are also internship opportunities in the field for electrical and mechanical engineers and IT divisions are frequently in need of younger helpers to patiently teach executives how to send meeting requests in Outlook.
Not moving out, but moving up

Many workers in the tech industry are understandably worried about their jobs moving overseas. An Indian programmer is happy to work for a fraction of the cost of a programmer in Silicon Valley, for instance, and does the same work in about the same period of time. Although these jobs are moving overseas, Americans are moving into positions that can only be done face-to-face like sales or consulting. IBM will cut around 10,000 jobs in 2009, with many positions outsourced to countries like India. But, in the next few years, the company plans to hire 4,000 new employees in divisions like consulting. Other companies like Microsoft, AT&T and Boeing are firing but hiring in other growing areas like Internet and software engineering divisions. To stay ahead of the outsourcing wave, employees should be flexible and keep their skills up-to-date.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Technology organizations
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)www.acm.org Association of Shareware Professionalswww.asp-shareware.org Association for Women in Computingwww.awc-hq.org Computer & Communications Industry Associationwww.ccianet.org Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA)www.comptia.org Information Technology Association of Americawww.itaa.org Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)www.ieee.org Usenix Association (Unix user group)www.usenix.org
Product reviews
DriverGuide.com EnGadget.com Gizmodo.com Nuts & Volts (magazine) PC Mag (magazine) PC World (magazine)
News and trends

CNET (www.cnet.com and www.news.com) Computerworld (magazine) eWeek (magazine) Information Week (magazine) Network World (magazine) The New York Times (Thursday Circuits section) SiliconValley.com Slashdot.org (news about open-source) Wired (magazine)
EMPLOYER
PROFILES
Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition
3COM CORPORATION
350 Campus Drive Marlborough, MA 01752-3064 Phone: (508) 323-5000 Fax: (508) 323-1111 www.3com.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Business Development Engineering Executive Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Marketing Professional Services Sales Supply Chain
LOCATIONS
Marlborough, MA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Houston, TX Los Angeles, CA Miami, FL New York, NY Reading, MA Reston, VA Rolling Meadows, IL San Jose, CA St. Louis, MO Westminster, CO Alajuela, Costa Rica Amsterdam Athens Bangalore Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Bogota Brisbane Bryanston, South Africa Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Casablanca Cologno Monzese, Italy Courtaboeuf, France Dubai Dublin Hangzhou, China Hertfordshire, England Istanbul Jakarta Leonberg, Germany Lisbon Ljubljana, Slovenia Lod, Israel Maarssen, The Netherlands Madrid Mexico City Moscow Mumbai Munich New Delhi North Sydney, Australia Oakville, Canada Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Prague Rome Santiago, Chile So Paulo Seoul Singapore Skovlunde, Denmark Sofia, Bulgaria Solna, Sweden Southgate, Australia Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong Taipei Warsaw Wellington Vienna Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: COMS Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Eric A. Benhamou President & COO: Ron Sege CEO: Robert Y. L. Mao 2008 Employees: 6,103 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,294.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): -228.8
KEY COMPETITORS
Alcatel Lucent Cisco Systems, Inc. NETGEAR, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.pcrecruiter.net/pcrbin/regmenu.exe?uid =odbc.3com
Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition 3Com Corporation
THE SCOOP
Enterprise outfitter
3Com Corporation is a global converged-network infrastructure supplier whose stable of products includes just about everything any corporation needs to build a network. In addition to computer hardware, such as routers, switches and hubs, it also sells the wires, cables and jacks required to deliver a network inside an office building. And for companies looking to free themselves from all of that wiring, 3Com offers an array of wireless networking products based on the popular Wi-Fi and Bluetooth protocols. Additional gear offered by the company includes hardware firewalls, redundant power supply systems and equipment to allow Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony. The company also offers network management software and IT consulting services.
Networking (pre)history
3Com boasts an illustrious past, having been founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe himself, co-inventor of the Ethernetthe ancestor of modern local area networks, or LANs. Metcalfe even conceived the 3Com name with the goals of the Ethernet in mindit is derived from the words computer, communication and compatibility. 3Com introduced its first product, a PC network interface card called EtherLink, in 1982. In 1983, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IIEE) chose Ethernet as its international networking standard and the technology ultimately went on to beat out rival networking protocols, such as IBMs Token Ring. 3Com then capitalized on rising PC sales and established itself as one of the early leaders in network interface cards (NICs). By 1984, the company had gone public.
3Com grows up
In the late 1980s, 3Com branched out from NICs (which very quickly became lowmargin commodities) into more sophisticated networking infrastructure equipment, such as routers, hubs and switches. This expansion was aided by a series of acquisitions that began in 1987. Like many networking companies, 3Com struggled to cope with the sluggish aftermath of the millennial tech bubble burstingin fact, it has been losing money since 2000. Deep cutbacks in corporate IT spending sharply curtailed the companys revenue, and 3Com started cutting jobs at an astonishing rate in 2001. The company changed its direction and strategy several times, reentering the high-end corporate networking market in 2003 (reversing an earlier decision in 2000 to abandon it) through a partnership with Huawei Technologies of China. At the same time, 3Com discontinued its consumer-oriented product lines, opting instead to focus solely on the enterprise market. It also moved its headquarters from its longtime home in Silicon Valley to the Boston-metro area, where the bulk of its enterprise networking business is now based.
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Toward the end of 2004, 3Com announced that it was acquiring TippingPoint in an effort to beef up its VoIP security holdings and compete with Cisco. TippingPoints specialty is intrusion prevention systems (IPS), a technology it invented in 2002. The firms products include automatic VoIP and peer-to-peer protection, made for corporations (3Coms core customer base), service providers, government agencies and educational clients. The $430 million cash buyout made TippingPoint a division of 3Com once the acquisition was completed early the next year. 3Com reaped huge rewards from H-3C, its partnership with the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies; it purchased Huaweis 49 percent of the venture in November 2006 by beating out several would-be buyers, including Texas Pacific Group and Bain Capital. After the $882 million buyout was completed, the computing firm got total ownership of H-3C, its R&D facilities and its profits. 3Coms profitless streak came to an end in 2006, with the incorporation of H-3C networking and security product profits into the end of 3Coms fiscal year. The firms revenue rose by 22 percent over 2005, to $795 million, and it earned $8 million in profit. When 3Com released its fiscal 2007 results, they were good: $1.2 billion in sales, and a further rise in profit, to $38 million. 3Com gained new ownership in September 2007 when Bain Capital purchased a majority stake. At the end of its fiscal year 2008 (ending May 30, 2008), 3Com reported $1.3 billion in annual revenue.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Just a slight revenue decrease in a crisis year! 3Com reports profits for the fiscal 2009 third quarter ending February 27, 2009 of $324.7 million, a slight 3.5 percent decrease compared to revenue of $336.4 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2008. Net income for the quarter was $1.9 million, compared with a net loss of $7.8 million in the same period the previous year. I am very pleased with 3Coms performance in the quarter, especially given the current economic conditions, says Bob Mao, 3Coms CEO. Our China business remained strong in the quarter. Our TippingPoint segment achieved record revenue. The strength in these two segments, combined with stringent cost management, allowed us to offset weakness in other geographies and deliver substantially higher year-over-year profit, adds Mao. January 2009: Kessler for TippingPoint Bringing more than 20 years of senior management experience running entrepreneurial startups as well as larger successful organizations, Alan Kessler joined 3Com as TippingPoints new president, reporting directly to 3Com President and COO Ron Sege. October to December 2008: New executives to bring in the cash 3Com announces several executive appointments in line with the companys growth and profitability targets. David H.Y. Ho, former chairman of the Greater
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China Region for Nokia Siemens Networks, was brought in as an independent director in December. Gene Skayne joined the company as vice president of finance and corporate treasurer in October. In September, Kathleen Cole, former chief executive officer of Worldport Communications, Inc. was also appointed as another independent director. September 2008: 3Coms Euro tour Swisscom, Switzerlands leading telecommunications company, announced that it is changing to a completely 3Com network over a period of four years. The project has moved Swisscom from ATM to Ethernet technology, and reduced the complexity of its network management. 3Com solutions and products, based on industry standards, were developed and tested with Swisscom during an 18-month pilot phase. Meanwhile, 3Com also announced that France-based Adecco, a global leader in HR services, has chosen 3Com solutions to renew its LAN infrastructure. July 2008: 3Coms Olympic participation As a leading internet architecture solution innovator based in China, 3Coms H3C Technologies actively gets involved in a number of major networking infrastructure projects going on in Beijing, the venue for the 2008 Olympic Games. H-3C is the principal technology partner of choice on several Olympic-related projects, including the Good Luck Beijing pre-event in Hong Kong, the Beijing public transportation surveillance system upgrading, the new terminal buildings network for Beijing International Airport and Sohu.coms video-on-demand-service portal. June 2008: Super-3Com answers the call of the small 3Com released secure mobility solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and enterprises. The new products range from Power over Ethernet (PoE) access points to routers and adapters, enabling business people to work and communicate more efficiently and productively on a wireless network than ever before. One of the new products is the 3Com AP3950, a centrally controlled dual-radio PoE enterprise access point providing simultaneous 11n performance in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. It works with 3Coms existing Wireless Mobility System controllers and switches. Customers with 3Com maintenance service contracts received a free 11n software update on each covered product. Another release is the 3Com AirConnect 9550, a dual-radio PoE access point for SMBs that provides simultaneous operation in 2.4GHz and 5GHz 11n bands. May 2008: 3Coms X-Family unified security platform fathers a worthy anti-spam partner 3Com licensed Commtouchs GlobalView mail reputation service as the 3Com anti-spam filter service for its 3Com unified security platforms. With the addition of the Commtouch anti-spam capability to the X-Family unified security platform, not only will 3Com customers secure their networks from internal and external attacks, they will effectively be able to eliminate 80 percent or more of the junk email they receive.
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April 2008: 3Com scores over Realtek A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California awards 3Com $45.3 million for past patent infringement by Realtek Semiconductor Corporation (TSE: 2379). 3Coms successful lawsuit against Realtek involves several claims in four patents. The four patents relate to 3Coms pioneering network interface technology, particularly its parallel processing technology, which improves the transfer of data between a host (such as a personal computer) and a network.
GETTING HIRED
Network at 3Com
The last massive layoffs at 3Com happened in 2001. Though the company may continue to make workforce cuts here or there in its wide network, jobs are always availablefor the right candidate. Listings may be found on the companys careers website at www.3Com.com/careers or at www.pcrecruiter.net/pcrbin/regmenu.exe?uid=odbc.3com. Applicants can job hunt by creating a login, and searching by keyword, location and job type. Administrative, business development, chief technology office, engineering, executive, finance, HR, IT, legal, marketing, professional services, sales and supply chain positions are offered. In addition to full-time posts, 3Com offers internship positions to both undergraduate and MBA students. Interns work on specific projects that match their academic specialty with one of 3Coms business needs. Contact information for students interested in either internship or full-time, entry-level positions is posted at the companys website. If 3Com is interested in an interview, a company representative will contact each applicant within 10 days of his or her resume submission.
Benefits still tops

3Com has instituted a pay-for-performance compensation model that aims to compensate all of its employees fairly according to their contributions to the companys success. It offers performance-based incentives consisting of either cash or equity to reward outstanding results. In addition, 3Com employees also have twice yearly salary reviews to ensure that pay levels are both internally equitable and competitive with what other companies are offering. Present plans guarantee basic financial protection against unplanned expenses due to illness, death or disability. 3Com does not discriminate between groups of individuals, and the company provides individual choice and selection in meeting specific needs. That is to say, 3Coms benefits program includes health plans, paid time off, income protection and retirement plans including a 401(k) with an employer-
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matching contribution, all tailored to the needs of the location in which the employee lives and works. The companys stock purchase and other equity-sharing plan is an added way that 3Com attempts to give its staffers a stake in the success of the business. All new employees receive a grant of company stock upon their hiring, and workers may purchase additional shares for 85 percent of their market value. The companys standard benefits package includes a choice of health plans, life, disability and dental insurance, matching contributions to retirement savings accounts, and access to professional financial planning advice. Other perks enjoyed by 3Com employees include on-site fitness centers in certain locations and tuition reimbursement.
Workforce diversity
3Com talks about a diverse workforce on its website. With an international workforce, 3Com emphasizes on its equal employment opportunities and affirmative action. Since it is a federal contractor, 3Com takes its personnel decisions very seriously and states on its website that all 3Com personnel decisions are made on the basis of merit, skill and ability, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation or any other classification protected under applicable law. 3Coms Affirmative Action Plans support the employment, development and promotion of qualified women, minorities, disabled Veterans and Vietnam-Era Veterans.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Becoming a part of the team
The interview process with 3Com is usually comprised of several rounds, involving meetings with both managers and potential colleagues in groups of four to six, insiders tell us. Dpending upon the position, interviews usually last two to three hours. Although one insider says that while some managers like to use brainteasers or riddles, this practice seems uncommon. Be ready for technical questions, though, even if youre not an engineer. As a technology company, we are very concerned with having people who are technologyliterate even in nontechnology positions, says one manager. That does not mean that an individual needs to have a strong technical background, simply technology and possibly industry awareness. Another insider adds, Some of the [interviewers] are pretty technical, whereas others try to get a feel of your attitude more than current technical ability. I believe that the ability to learn new things is more important than what you already know. 3Com really likes engineers, says one former marketing MBA intern. Know your technical stuff before interviewing. And dont try to fake it. Says one contact, Ive seen some people lie about their technical skills, they put
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something on the resume and when asked, they couldnt back it up. Managers really drill on that. And, adds one product manager, learn about the product before you interview. A little knowledge goes a long way. Insiders also stress that when it comes to personal traits, the company values teamwork highly. There are two aspects they look at: how you deal with yourself (motivation and enthusiasm), and your interpersonal skills working in a group, says one. Be sure to have examples of each, especially the working in a group part. The big companies usually look for team players. Says one techie, They mainly asked me about past jobs and experiences, different systems I have knowledge of, and about working in a group atmosphere. Sources tell us that 3Com is good about making employment decisions sooninterviewees usually hear in a week or so.
Uneven culture
Many surveyed note that 3Coms company culture is difficult to define in large part because it has grown through acquisitions, not organically. The acquired company is turned into a division and tends to keep their pre-acquisition culture, explains one respondent. However, 3Coms work environment is marked by communication and teamwork. 3Com has tried to minimize the class divisions of more traditional companies. Everyone in the company, including the VPs and the CEO, has cubicles, says one contact. They want to reinforce an open-door policy for all employees. Understandably, the executives cubicles are larger, but still without a door. The environment is very friendly with a hearty teamwork-driven flavor, says one contact. Corporate culture is very open all the way to the top. I have had personal conversations with our COO and CEO about things affecting my ability to manage well, and when I was an individual contributor. Says another, Open communication is a very important part of our culture. The culture is very open and honest, and exhibits great team effort, reports yet another insider. The people here tend to be smart, open and happy, says one contact at the companys headquarters. Friendly, fun, hardworking, real people, sums up a Boston-based colleague. The absence of hierarchy, which one contact describes as fraternalistic rather than paternalistic, does have its drawbacks: You need to fend for yourself, but you will be supported in what you are trying to do, rather than having your manager responsible for steering your career, says one respondent. It is a hard-driving place, so anyone coming here should be ready to hit the ground running, and running hard and fast, says another. Its a big company, says a source. That means you dont work in a small, family-like environment. But you may feel a little more secure compared to small startups. Companies this size dont go away easy. Says one insider of his tenure with 3Com, which spans more than a decade, This [length of employment] is somewhat unheard-of for high tech, but 3Com is a company that works hard to retain its employees. However, a newer contact reports
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something of a disheartening hierarchy between old-timers and recent hires: It is hard for the newcomers to connect at times with the inner circle that has been around for a while. There seems to be some favoritism along that line, but a meritocracy really reigns as the overall guiding principle. Adds a colleague, This industry has a higher-than-normal turnover rate due to the constant opportunities at neighboring companies, so every employee is seen as a valued resource. While sources say there is no special treatment for women or minorities, it does not mean that 3Com looks like a male WASP club. There is a great deal of diversity within the workforce. The women here seem to be very respected, employees and managers alike, says one respondent. Ive seen representation of women in good numbers at all levels. I felt very welcome here since day one, says one minority contact. I do know many females who held high positions within our company. My old manager was a female and the current director of my new job is also female. Adds another, There is a wide variety of cultures here, and, being a white male, Im almost a minority around here. This is definitely a multicultural company, says another. You are quite likely to end up working with people with different nationalities and cultures. Part of the reason employees may stay at 3Com is that they get to spend a lot of time away from the company. Every four years, staffers get an extra one-month paid sabbatical, which insiders say is mandated. This is in addition to an already whopping vacation schedule that includes a companywide shutdown between Christmas and New Years. To encourage time off, 3Com doesnt let employees accrue more than 120 hours. If you earn more you lose it because you dont take what youve got. While theyre there, 3Com employees often work quite hard. One contact says, You will need to consistently put in 12 to 14 hours a day except when working on something mission critical. Although many report working nine- to 10-hour days, and some complain about long hours, others remark that unlike the unwritten rule at many high-tech companies who really want 50 to 60+ [hours] each week, you work hard while youre here and then go home or go play. Youre expected to work 40 hours a week. And even during the workday, many employees seem to take time off: Many of us even exercise at lunch and then eatit is assumed we are responsible enough to get our jobs done. As one source explains, They want wellrounded employees who have lives outside of work. This does not seem to be a problem, according to another contact, who notes that, Most people here are hardworking but are able to draw the line between work and outside activities like family and friends, recreation, etc. While 3Com may have the amenities of other Silicon Valley companies, it hasnt gone quite as far toward casual dress days. The dress code is generally dress casual by this, I mean nice clothesDockers and maybe a button-down shirt for men, reports one staffer. However, On Fridays, you can wear just about anything you want. Engineers report casual dress; sales and marketing sources tell us they wear suits like the rest of the world. Says one product manager, Its dressier than jeans,
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but less than business dress. When we meet to do a customer briefing, I usually do the suit thing complete with power tie. As for pay, most respondents report receiving above what they believe to be the industry average. Few companies will offer more, says one engineer.
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ADAPTEC, INC.
691 South Milpitas Boulevard Milpitas, CA 95035 Phone: (408) 945-8600 Fax: (408) 262-2533 www.adaptec.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ADPT Stock Exchange: Nasdaq CEO & President: S. Sundi Sundaresh 2008 Employees: 391 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 167.4 2008 Income ($ mil.): -9.6
LOCATIONS
Milpitas, CA (HQ) Bangalore Haar, Germany Kingsgrove, Australia Singapore Surrey Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Applied Micro Circuits Areca LSI
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Applications Engineering Communications Corporate Development Design Engineering Engineering Executive Facilities Finance & Accounting General Hardware Human Resources Information Services Legal Manufacturing Marketing Materials Operations Performance Engineering Quality Sales & Support Software Engineering Technical Writing Test Engineering Worldwide Sales
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
cytiva.com/cejobs/templateAdptc.asp
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Adaptec, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Selling more than just a bunch of disks
Based in Milpitas, California, Adaptec makes hardware and software that expedites data storage and transfer between computers, networks and peripherals. It leads the market for small computer system interface (SCSI) technology; pronounced scuzzy, this technology connects peripheral devices to computers and is used by servers and workstations to move large files. The companys bandwidth management solutions increase the speed of data transfer, while its network-attached storage (NAS) and fast Ethernet networking devices help direct information through computer systems. The company also has several storage chip and redundant array of independent disks (RAID) lines. Adaptecs input/output software is compatible with all of the leading processor platforms and operating systems. At present, Adaptec offers a full range of host-bus adapters (HBAs), RAID controllers, and appliances for use with Serial ATA (SATA), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Parallel SCSI drives.
Adapt(ec) and expand

Larry Boucher created the SCSI interface at Shugart Associates (later known as Seagate Technology) in the late 1970s. He formed Adaptec in 1981. The company sold its first SCSI products in 1983, and it went public three years later. SCSI was a niche hit; simply put, it controlled the flow of data through a computers operating system, and generally made computer use quicker and easier. But Boucher was more of an engineer than a businessman and left a year after the company went public to start up another tech firm; he has remained friendly with his first company, though, serving on the board of directors and even stepping in as interim CEO for a brief period in 1998. Big tech firms increasingly adapted to Adaptecs SCSI offerings into the 1990s. Like many successful high-tech enterprises, Adaptec grew largely by acquiring other software companies. The company purchased Future Domain, which made CD-ROM connection devices, and Trillium Research, which made Apple-compatible connection devices. In 1996, Adaptec bought Western Digitals Connectivity Systems Group and Corels CD creator software. It also purchased software maker Data Kinesis and Cogent Data Technologies, which made networking devices. In the Corel acquisition, Adaptec picked up the award-winning CD-recording software, Easy CD Creator Deluxe, which home PC users could utilize to record music, images and videos onto CDs. The company also offered a similar product for Mac users called Jam for Macintosh and a DVD software application called DVD Toast. However, the company let go of those products after it spun off its software products group, Adaptec SPG, in 2001. In early 1998, Adaptec also tried to acquire Symbios, but
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abandoned those efforts after federal regulators opposed the deal (it would have given Adaptec a monopoly in the SCSI market).
Shrink to save
While Adaptec received plaudits for some products in the mid-2000s, it did not collect any of the pecuniary kind as its profits began to plummet. In 2005, it incurred a $145 million loss. The company decided it needed to streamline its businesses in order to focus on building its SCSI market share, and sold its systems business unit in October, along with many of its NAS holdings. Adaptec returned to profitability in 2007, earning more than $30 million, although the revenue figure was the lowest in at least five years. The money, however, came not so much from what the company was producing but on what it was taking away. Indeed, it reduced its headcount from 2006 to 2007 by nearly 50 percenta staggering reduction from 1,128 to 598 employees in the span of a single year. The company further restructured, lopping off another 20 percent of its employees by the close of its 2008 fiscal year. Its present workforce is about 400-strong.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Reaping awards from technology publishers Adaptec announced that it has been included in ChannelWebs Top 20 Strategic Storage Vendors and is Business Solutions Best Channel Vendor in the storage category. January 2009: Difficult times ahead The company released financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2009, which ended on December 26, 2008, with CEO Sundaresh saying: While these remain difficult times, Adaptec is focused on what will enable us to win in the longterminnovating for future growth and carefully managing the business. Net revenue for the quarter was $28.2 million, compared with $36.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008. August 2008: Picking up $41-million tab for Aristos Adaptec announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire privately held RAID solutions provider Aristos Logic Corporation for $41 million in cash. CEO Sundaresh said acquiring the eight-year-old Aristos will enable Adaptec to move into high-growth RAID segments, including performance desktops, blade servers and enterprise-class external storage systems. July 2008: $40-million stock repurchase; Snap Server sale The board of directors of Adaptec authorized a repurchase program of up to $40 million of the companys common stock.
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The company also announced the sale of its NAS business, Snap Server, to Overland Storage Inc., for $3.6 million. CEO Sundaresh said the sale will allow Adaptec to focus on its Unified Serial RAID controller business, leverage its iSCSI assets and streamline company operations. The sale ended the Snap chapter in Adaptecs book; Adaptec acquired Snap Appliance for $100 million in 2004.
GETTING HIRED
Connect at Adaptec
Adaptecs careers site, www.cytiva.com/cejobs/templateAdptc.asp, gives prospective employees two search options; they can search for jobs by department or location or view a complete list of openings. Candidates may click on each listing to access an online application. The main page also has a Submit Resume link for general interest applications. In terms of benefits, the company offers medical and dental, with co-pay, on the first day of employment. It also offers various insurance services, a 401(k) and flexible spending accounts. Time off includes 12 paid holidays and 12 vacation days, with an additional day for each year added per year after the second year of employment. It offers an educational assistance program, and if an employee refers someone to the company, Adaptec will pay a bonus of $1,000 to $2,000! The company website also mentions on-site services, such as dry cleaning and oil changes, stating that they vary by location.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Hair on fire
The corporate culture at Adaptec seems to be strict, demanding a high employee performance level at all times. Says a former insider, During my four-year tenure with Adaptec, I saw a great deal of Perception is more important than Performance by managers that didnt have a clue. The corporate culture is: Expect 120 percent at all times. Hair-on-fire pace is the norm, never a chance to do it right the first time, but always time to do it over. In spite of all this, they did have policies in place to take care of those that would play the game.
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ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED

345 Park Avenue San Jose, CA 95110-2704 Phone: (408) 536-6000 Fax: (408) 537-6000 www.adobe.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ADBE Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Co-Chairmen: Charles M. Geschke, John E. Warnock President & CEO: Shantanu Narayen 2008 Employees: 7,544 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,579.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 871.8
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ) McLean, VA New York, NY Newton, MA San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Amsterdam Bangalore Barcelona Beijing Bucharest Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Chatswood, Australia Copenhagen Diegem, Belgium Dublin Istanbul Kista, Sweden London Mexico City Midrand, South Africa Milan Moscow, Russia Mumbai Munich Noida, India Osaka Oslo Ottawa Paris Prague So Paulo Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Uxbridge, United Kingdom Warsaw
KEY COMPETITORS
Apple Microsoft Quark
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
cooljobs.adobe.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Development/Corporate Development Consulting Engineering Finance Human Resources Information Systems Legal Marketing Operations Product Management Professional Services Sales Technical Support/Customer Service
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Adobe Systems Incorporated
THE SCOOP
The graphics software of choice
Big in publishing, famed for its free web downloads and a favorite platform among photo and graphics geeks everywhere, Adobe software is practically ubiquitous. Adobe offers portable document files (PDFs), which are universally readable under its Acrobat brand; and since the acquisition of Flash in 2005, it provides quick video applications everywhere from the Web to the cell phone. Adobe has five main units: Knowledge Worker Solutions, creative solutions, enterprise and developer solutions, and mobile and device solutions.
Finding their calling

Adobe Co-Founders (and current Chairmen) John Warnock and Chuck Geschke first met at Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where they developed PostScript, a computer language that translates code into printable pages of type. After failing to convince Xerox to market the application, the two left to start Adobe in 1982. Canon came out with an inexpensive laser printer before they could, forcing them to alter their path. Luckily, Steve Jobs approached them to develop PostScript technology for Apples Macintosh. The result: the Apple LaserWriter and the desktop publishing revolution. During the 1980s, Adobes ascension went hand in hand with the rise of the personal computerspecifically the Apple Macintosh. It was a neat partnership, as Adobes laser-printing technology complemented the Macs many innovations in the field of computer design. By 1986, Apple accounted for 80 percent of Adobes sales, and Adobe released its own design and illustration software, the aptly-named Illustrator, the following year.
Battling through the late 1990s

When Adobes financial health was far from secure in the late 1990s, a major problem it experienced was due to other companies copying its design. The company suffered an $11.8 million loss in 1995, caused largely by the problematic $500 million acquisition of software maker Frame Technology Group. Adobes troubles compounded over the next few years as its old friend Apple seemed to have lost its way, its Asian customers stopped spending money during the Asian financial crisis (sales in Japan fell about 40 percent from 1997 to 1998), and it lost business to Hewlett-Packard, who had designed a clone of the PostScript software. In November 1998, principal rival Quark made an offer to buy the weakened company but dropped it after Adobe showed signs that it would fight any takeover attempt. Months later, Adobe introduced its page-layout program InDesign, which quickly earned the title of Quark-killer because its functions and features far exceeded the capabilities of Quark Xpress and sold for less than a Quark upgrade.
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The Chizen one and a Macro merger

Much of Adobes late-1990s recovery and recent success has come under the leadership of its former CEO Bruce Chizen, who held the position from 2000 to December 2007. He steered the firm to record revenue and profits, gobbling up a multitude of other companies along the way, including a huge 2005 merger with former competitor Macromedia Inc., developer of Flash technology. This gave Adobe footholds in the networking and mobile markets as well as a defense against the encroachment of Microsoft programs into the electronic document management sector. After the buyout, Adobe began packaging its own programs with Macromedia applications in suites targeted at different niches. Macromedias Breeze Meeting softwaremeeting and web conferencing software that provides virtual meeting sites and multimedia platforms for business customersbecame Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional. Adobe also integrated Flash technology into its ColdFusion business presentation software, in the form of portable documents in PDF and FlashPaper versions.
Enabling engagement
Chizen was succeeded by Shantanu Narayen, who took over on December 1, 2007. Narayen previously served as president and COO, leading the companys day-to-day global operations and setting Adobes long-term market strategies. Together with Chizen, he spearheaded the acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, expanding Adobes software platform and solutions, and boosting the companys presence in key markets, including video, enterprise software and mobile solutions. Narayen joined the company in January 1998 as vice president and general manager of the engineering technology group. Prior to joining Adobe, he co-founded Pictra Inc., a digital photo-sharing software company, in 1996. He also previously served as director of desktop and collaboration products at Silicon Graphics Inc. and held various senior positions at Apple Inc. Narayen is expected to lead Adobe toward its goal of helping businesses and organizations address the challenge of enabling customer engagement.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Stocks up despite tough times Adobe shares soared 10 percent on the companys announcement that it expects second quarter earnings of between 31 cents to 38 cents on sales of $675 million to $725 million, matching analysts forecasts. In a press release, CEO Shantanu Narayen says company is pleased with how it managed in a tough economic environment. For the first quarter, the companys revenue dipped 12 percent to $786.4 million, roughly in line with analysts estimates. Adobe has warned that revenue is likely
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to fall below previous targets because the recession has slowed sales of Creative Suite 4, the latest version of its top-selling software package launched fall 2008. March 2009: Extending the platform The company introduced Adobe Scene 7 Template Publishing, a new service that extends the Adobe Scene 7-hosted media platform for retail, eCommerce, enterprise and multichannel marketing businesses. The add-on module for Adobe Scene platform offers a hosted software for publishing customized print and crossmedia marketing materials, allowing companies to decentralize uploading of corporate layouts and templates. March 2009: Partners with Time Adobe and three Time Warner CompaniesTurner Broadcasting System Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Home Box Office, Inc.announced their alliance to develop next-generation video and rich media. Collaboration to speed up the development of digital rights management for the Web and desktop, metadata and audience measurement solutions to monetize content are expected to be part of their alliance. The partners intend to use Adobe Flash Platform and video solutions to provide customized experiences for consumers of HBO, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. Entertainment content across multiple distribution platforms January 2009: Shopping for startups Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen said Adobe is on the lookout to buy some technology startups, with particular interest in software that can be used on non-PC devices like mobile phones and game consoles. There are small technology companies, where you get some great technology and great peopleWe will continue to be aggressive at looking at them, Narayen told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. But were not bottom-feeders; were looking for interesting companies that are going to help drive the future. He said in the same interview that the company has no plans for further layoffs.
January 2009: Among the best companies to work for Adobe was ranked No. 11 on Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work for list. It is the 10th year that the company has been cited on the list. December 2008: Pink slips for 600 CEO Shatanu Narayen announced plans to cut 600 jobs, or about 8 percent of the workforce, due to shrinking orders for design software from advertisers. The recession blunted demands for the Creative Suite line of programs, Adobes main revenue source. May 2008: On BusinessWeeks Infotech 100
BusinessWeek listed Adobe as No. 94 on its 10th annual Infotech 100. The list gathers companies whose revenue totals at least $300 million, whose shares have not dropped by more than 75 percent and whose sales have not shrunk. The
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publication used financial data from Standard & Poors Compustat to come up with the top 100 from among 20,000 publicly traded IT-related companies.
GETTING HIRED
Flash a smile at Adobe
Adobes careers sitewww.adobe.com/aboutadobe/careeroppis busy but thorough. The page has links for registering a user ID and profile, repeat logins, searching for jobs, uploading resumes and viewing company benefits policies. By following the search for jobs link, prospective employees can view a list of openings or search by keyword, department and locale. Examples of positions offered include business architect, account manager, computer scientist, director, technical evangelist, quality assurance engineer and web engineer. Each job listing contains a link to Adobes online application process. In addition to positions for experienced professionals, Adobe also lists internship and entry-level positions for college students and recent grads. Position descriptions and openings for college-level MBA, technical and intern positions may be found at www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/careeropp/college/index.html. Finally, all applicants may submit a resume to the company via a link that can be accessed on the main careers page just below the search for jobs link, in (what else?) PDF form. The link also leads to a general employment application form that may be printed and completed prior to interviews.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Employee-centric culture
There is no dress code, working hours are flexible, and everyone gets a laptop at Adobea company that has repeatedly ranked among Fortunes Best 100 Companies to Work For. Staffers also are given virtual private network (VPN) connection, allowing them to work from home, says an insider in Adobes office in India. The people here are very sharp-minded, high IQ, the software engineer says. Innovation and creativity [are] nurtured here by means of boot camps, seminars, technical talks. The same source says Adobe is one of the very few companies in India that handles high-end research and development work. Patent filing is also strongly supported by the company. According to Adobe sources, in general the firm is an innovative, employeefriendly place with excellent managers. Adobe does its best to accommodate workers, offering flexible schedules, telecommuting and a great many training
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classes to get up to speed with the products. Employees also enjoy a great cafeteria, access to a company gym (they even have aerobics classes), and free fresh-squeezed orange juice, soda, Starbucks coffee and various other goodies every day.
Toil well compensated

An insider says aside from above-industry basic pay, we get perks like free lunch and dinner and every quarter there is a group party sponsored by the company. Staffers also get educational reimbursements, stocks, special gifts from time to time and are rewarded with three weeks of paid vacation after five years in the company. The source recalls going through six rounds of interviews of one hour each that were very technical in nature. One feels great after clearing the grilling interview rounds, the insider says. You are bound to be attracted by the intellectual capacity of the people here. If you work best under pressure, Adobe is the company for youmost of the time is pressure time, says one stressed Adobe inmate. Our hours fluctuate between 40 and six million a week, quips an engineer, but the marketing, sales and administrative people have different work patterns. Though they work a lot, engineers and other technical specialists pretty much come in when they want if theyre working on a long-term project, and get to dress how they want. Plus, Adobe engineers salaries are typical of the geek scale (that means high). Tech professionals can start anywhere in the high 30s, and if you know C++, you can make up to $50 an hour! The corporate employees who get away with working 40 hours a week also enjoy good salaries, but they have to come in by 9 and dress professionally. Benefits are excellent, including very generous stock purchase and profit-sharing options, quarterly bonuses, full insurance and a 401(k) matched 50 percent. Adobe employees also get up to five weeks of vacation, eight paid holidays and paid sick/personal days. Insiders also feel fortunate to have access to cutting-edge computers and software.
Brushes with greatness

Finally, insiders say Adobe is a progressive, laid-back company that knows its people are its strongest asset. The level of intelligence of the people here is also a big draw. We have some incredibly artistic people working here, says one programmer, and just being able to talk to some of the engineers who wrote Photoshop is a perk to me. Working at Adobe is also extremely challenging: Its a good place to work, and work you will, says one insider. We run a lean company every single one of us has the job of at least twobut it keeps us on our toes. People are their assets and they hire the best in the industry, and pay the best in the industry, a technical staffer says, adding that Adobe is a good place if you wanna work with the best brains.
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ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.

One AMD Place P.O. Box 3453 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3453 Phone: (408) 749-4000 www.amd.com
DEPARTMENTS
Computing Solutions Group Design Engineering Field Applications Engineering Finance Global Consumer Electronics Group Graphics Product Group Human resources & Talent Information Legal, Corporate & Public Affairs Manufacturing Engineering Supply Chain Management Marketing Communications Operations & Administrations Process Engineering Procurement Sales Software Engineering
LOCATIONS
Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Bellevue, WA Boxborough, MA Fort Collins, CO Houston, TX Marlborough, MA Nashua, NH Orlando, FL Pittsboro, NC Redmond, WA San Diego, CA Santa Clara, CA Schaumburg, IL Yardley, PA Antwerp Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Bromma, Sweden Buenos Aires Dresden Dubai Espoo, Finland Frimley, United Kingdom Hong Kong Hsinchu, Taiwan Hyderabad Jakarta Kanata, Canada Kaohsiung, Taiwan Kuala Lumpur Madrid Markham, Canada Mexico City Milan Moscow Mumbai Munich New Delhi Noormarkku, Finland North Ryde, Australia Penang, Malaysia Pulau Pinang, Malaysia So Paulo SchipholRijk, The Netherlands Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore St. Michael, Barbados Suzhou, China Taipei Tokyo Warsaw Zone Orlytech, France
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: AMD Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: Dirk Meyer 2008 Employees: 14,700 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,808 2008 Income ($ mil.): -3,098
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Intel Corporation Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
careers.amd.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
THE SCOOP
The other chip maker
While it can claim the title of worlds second-largest chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is dwarfed by its nearest competitor, which just happens to be industry giant Intel. Small is a good quality in the chip-making world, and the firm holds its own against such esteemed competition, boasting a product line that includes microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, graphics processors, CPUs and discrete GPUs. It also offers flash memory devices and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company is truly a global operationit has manufacturing plants in the U.S., Europe and Asia and collects around 70 percent of its revenue from overseas markets. The company vision, according to its website, is to enable affordable, accessible Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50 percent of the worlds population by the year 2015. AMD beefed up its interests in graphics with the July 2006 purchase of ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion. The deal transformed the semiconductor game overnight, extending AMDs already formidable reach into the graphic chipsets that power high-end personal computer gaming, computer animation and chipsets in cell phones and PDAs. (Chipsets connect a computers processor to its memory and other parts.) Analysts explained that the deal put AMD on more of an equal footing with rival Intel, and also takes AMD beyond computers and into the handheld device market. ATI proved attractive to AMD for several reasons, mainly for its experience with making chips for new forms of TV and image processors to display video on cell phones and mobile video game players. At the time of the sale, ATI ranked No. 25 in a 2005 list of chip suppliers compiled by iSuppli, with about $2 billion in revenue. Beset by falling prices in the chip market, not to mention with the high cost of keeping up with Intel, the firm has struggled financially of late. And, like most firms, those struggles havent come alone: theyve been accompanied by layoffs, CEO changes and a wholesale reorganization of the firm, all of which took place as the firm sought to weather the turgid economy in 2008. As part of that, the firm spun off its chip manufacturing unit to form a company known as The Foundry Company in February 2009, meaning that AMD no longer directly owns the manufacturing units, and is free instead to focus on developing and selling its technology, while effectively outsourcing the manufacturing process to The Foundry Comp any.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Now open for business After getting shareholder approval in February to turn over manufacturing to The Foundry Company, AMD unveiled the spinoff companys corporate name and strategy. Now known as GlobalFoundries, the factory is relatively new to the foundry game, but it already has market leader Taiwan Semiconductor in its crosshairs. We see this as a game changer, chief executive Doug Grose said. Upstart GlobalFoundries sees an advantage in having an operational fab that isnt located in Asia, where Taiwan Semiconductors and other fab factories are. Some analysts, however, take this confidence with a grain of salt now that foundries all over are suffering due to little demand for their production and are losing money shoring up their business. Grose is optimistic: At some point, this is going to turn. After all, GlobalFoundries already has a constant client in AMD, but its looking to supply the big players of the industry as well. The new venture is expected to employ 2,800 workers, with 300 based in the fab operations New York headquarters. March 2009: Restructuring is always hard In a move done with fingers crossed, AMD announced that its going to spend $50 million to restructure the company and prevent it from bleeding out revenue throughout the year. In a filing, AMD duly itemized how the moneys going to be spent: $23 million to keep employees and compensate those who have to be let go, $13 million to terminate programs and contracts, while asset impairments and facility closures cost $7 million each. Out of these expenditures, AMD hopes to recover $45 million in revenue once the belt-tightening measures are implemented. The announcement came on the heels of AMDs previous plans to further cut its workforce by 200. March 2009: New captain at the helm
Hector Ruiz was tapped to head The Foundry Company once the factorys operation goes into full swing. AMD appointed board member Bruce Claflin as chairman, while Dirk Meyer stays on as president and CEO. Claflin has been an AMD board member since 2003, and once he assumes the CEO position his place in the board will be taken over by Waleed Al Mokarrab, chief operating officer of one of AMDs investors. Meanwhile, AMD announces that it has closed its transaction with ATIC and the Abu Dhabi-based company responsible for funding The Foundrys establishment. The factory is expected to assume the repayment of approximately $1.1 billion in debt to the two companies. March 2009: Foundry approval hammered out AMD spun off its chip manufacturing unit to form an entity known as The Foundry Companya move that was proposed in October 2008 and approved by shareholders in February 2009. The moveaimed at making AMD asset-light sees the company effectively outsourcing the making of its chips in the future to
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its former manufacturing arm, thereby cutting the costs of owning, operating and maintaining its factories. Under the terms of the spinoff, an Abu Dhabi government-owned entityAdvanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) will own a majority of The Foundry Company (65.8 percent), while AMD keeps control of the remaining 34.2 percent. Financially, the deal works out well for AMD. In addition to shipping some $1.1 billion of its debt onto the new companys balance sheets, AMD received a payment of $700 million from ATIC for shares in The Foundry, plus a guarantee that ATIC will immediately provide $1.4 billion in funding for the new company. ATIC has also pledged up to a further $6 billion in capital to build upon the infrastructure it is purchasing from AMD in order to greatly improve The Foundrys chip-making capabilities. ATIC and AMD will have equal voting rights in the partnership. Meanwhile, CEO Dirk Meyer offered his opinion that the deal will go down as the most important transaction in the history of AMD, according to a Wall Street Journal article from October 2008. February 2009: Chipping away at the budget AMD announced 1,100 job cuts as well as broad-based salary reductions for staff as it attempts to stay afloat in the economic downturn. The move followed some 2,200 layoffs announced in 2008 as cost-cutting measures. According to CNET.com, the salary cuts will be temporary, and on a sliding scale. Both CEO Dirk Meyer and Executive Director Hector Ruiz cut their salaries by 20 percent, a figure that falls to 15 percent for all North American employees at vice president level or higher. Salaried and hourly workers, meanwhile, will get reductions of 10 and 5 percent respectively, while 401(k) contributions will be halved. February 2009: Declining sales and market share Market researcher IDC found that AMDs share of the global PC processor market fell significantly over the previous year, down 3.1 percent to 19.2 percent overall. Rival Intel, meanwhile, saw its share of the market rise to 80.2 percent, up 2.9 percent from 2007. The one good piece of news in the IDC report, however, was that the global processor market grew by 10 percent in 2008, despite a fourth quarter drop in demand of over 11 percent year on year. Even that fact served to underline the inherent problems in the processor industry, however: revenue increased by a mere 0.9 percent over the year, and fell 22 percent year on year for that drastic fourth quarter. Where the industry goes in 2009, meanwhile, is anyones guessalthough its almost certain to contract. January 2009: Yukon gold AMD launched its ultrathin notebook platform, codenamed Yukon. Offering a complete PC experience at lower price points, the platform incorporates the AMD Athlon Neo processor with ATI Radeon X1250 integrated graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 discrete graphics. Tech blurb aside, Yukon can be seen as an attempt to keep up with the growing trend for low-cost, portable computing. Embodied by a surge in demand for notebooks, the market has potential both in developed and developing markets.
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January 2009: Phenomenal memory AMD released the Phenom II, aimed at informed consumers who know what they want from their computer or build their CPUs from scratch. For those, the following information may be relevant and/or intelligible: The Phenom II is familiar enough with the DDR2 memory used in most CPUs, yet its also flexible enough to upgrade to DDR3exactly where the industry is going to be by the middle of 2010, according to some analysts. Given that realityand the fact that the Phenom II is planned to unite seamlessly with both types of memoryone of its major advantages is that it offers consumers the choice in terms of if and when to upgrade. January 2009: Fund-raising fire-sale Continuing a policy of selling unprofitable or underperforming units, AMD sold some of the assets it acquired from ATI in 2006. The $65 million sale to QUALCOMM included graphics and multimedia units, plus intellectual property, but still represented a mere fraction of the holdings for which AMD paid $5.4 billion to secure. Indeed, rather than bemoan the loss of the units, AMD turned the situation to its advantage by agreeing to partner up with QUALCOMM and collaborate on improving graphics capabilities in audio and video products sold by the latter. And, to make things worse, AMD posted a net loss of $3.098 billion in fiscal year 2008, which is a tad less than the $3.397 billion the company lost in 2007. Like rival Intel, AMD kept mum about its Q1 2009 outlook, resorting instead to reiterating that its priorities remain clear and visible, despite a depressing industry performance. November 2008: Pink slips on top of pink slips AMD announced 500 job cuts as it tried to return to profitability amidst a slumping tech market. The cuts represent a second wave of layoffs at the firm in 2008, following the elimination of 1,650 positions announced in April 2008. That first wave represented around 10 percent of AMDs global workforce and was widely seen as a response to the firm posting a yearly loss of some $3.38 billion for fiscal 2007. July 2008: Leadership changes at AMD Following seven straight quarters of losses, AMDs board ousted Hector Ruiz, who had served as the tech companys CEO since 2002. The board replaced Ruiz with Dirk Meyer, an engineer who joined AMD in 1995. Previously, Meyer served as the firms president and COO. Meyer said that his immediate priority as CEO will be bringing about lasting profitability through focusing on AMDs core technologies. Ruiz will remain at AMD as the companys chairman. The first evidence of Meyers approach became evident within a month of his taking the reins, with the announcement in August 2008 that AMD had sold its digital television arm. Consistent with the policy of stripping away noncore assets, the sale cost buyer Broadcom Corp. some $192.8 million. It also reduced AMDs workforce, as some 530 employees made the transition to Broadcom as part of the deal.
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June 2008: Game on AMD launched Changing the Game during the Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival in New York City. Initially aimed at the teen set, this games creator encourages young people to make games that crank up their involvement in social change by taking their gaming beyond entertainment and into real-world lessons and consciousness. In January 2009, nonprofit organizations got a chance to make their own games with social content when AMD unveiled Let the Games Begin, a toolkit for AMDs games creator. March 2008: A new chip flavor The firm introduced a new set of chipsthe 780 serieswhich should bring new speed and graphic quality to lower-priced PCs. AMD also announced that it will start making 45-nanometer microprocessors later in the year, catching up to Intel, which reached 45-nanometer production in late 2007. Because these are smaller microprocessors than AMD had currently been capable of making, the firm followed up on the announcement by beginning production in November.
GETTING HIRED
Advance at AMD
Although the two merged in 2006, job listings for AMD and ATI are listed separately on the AMD careers site (careers.amd.com). The labyrinthine AMD site allows prospective employees to search by region; while some regions have their own job listings page, others, like that of the U.S., have their own search engines and different ways of creating online profiles and applications. The U.S. site also lists regular, intern and co-op positions. The ATI site, in contrast, has one search engine that filters openings by location, department and keyword. The site also allows applicants to register at an online career center to submit applications and sign up for a job alert service. Benefits at AMD include health, dental and disability plans, life and death insurance, travel and accident plans, profit-sharing and stock purchase plans, and tuition assistance. In addition, the chip company offers its employees tickets to movies and sporting events, and access to fitness centers.
A wide net
According to insiders, the company finds new employees through a wide variety of channels. Recruiting at AMD is done through campus interviews, through job fairs conducted at AMD and elsewhere, and through resumes sent directly through the placement office, instructs one. AMD accepts resumes through regular mail, fax
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and emailand also through an online form available at its website. The site also contains job listings. Applicants who land an interview may have difficulty figuring out what to expect ahead of time. The nature of the interview depends on various factors, says a source, but, in general, it is medium. [That is], I have seen both more relaxed and more stressful situations. Those who interview on campus may get invited for an interview at our site, and thats when youll be interviewed by about seven or eight people. It is true that there are many rounds and lots of technical questions if you are applying for a technical position. On the other hand, interviewers dont try to deliberately stress interviewees out simply in order to gauge their reactions. Prospects for landing a job appear bright, explains one respondent: If you are smart and talented, we certainly want and need you.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Swift interviews
Ladies and gentlemen, start your spell checkers: AMD tends to put a tremendous amount of emphasis on the resume, notes one source. An insider describes his experience: The interview process was rather painless. It was far easier than another experience I had with a related technology company (six different interviews, lasting eight hours). I went through a 30-minute phone interview, then a two-hour, in-person interview with three people, and that was followed up with an hour phone conversation with a director. The interview questions were normal/typical, e.g., what are your strengths, what do you enjoy doing, etc. I also received lots of questions about working on a team and being able to navigate through different teams/organizations. His co-worker cautions that Many AMD positions are contract-to-hire positions. Sometimes a contract is extended for up to three years before a full employee position is offered. Interview approaches are rather variedone department asks its team to interview an applicant, possibly to check personality and work attitude compatibility. Follow-up interviews are usual, and sometimes the applicants sponsor is asked to participate in the panel. If youre considered for a job at AMD, there are at least a couple of rounds of interviews, and probably all on the same day. Hired already? One source reports that HR does have tools for career advancement, and even has a very generous tuition reimbursement program.
Mixed satisfaction reviews

Although AMD is frequently cited in Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For, insider reviews are somewhat mixed overall. One contact agrees with the external
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assessment, saying I love working at AMD and I especially enjoy my team. On the other hand, another source says, there have been quite a few people [who were] dissatisfied with their jobs in the last year and have left our groupOne left because she could not get along with a certain individualwho also left. Part of the reason for the varied responses is that AMD employees are subject to the vicissitudes of their work. Its a bit of a roller coaster financially, but thats the nature of the industry, according to one. When times are good, the perks are good. This up-and-down nature is especially true when it comes to work hours and intensity. Ive put in 17-hour days and Ive put in five-hour days, says one respondent. Another reports he spent most of a year working 9 to 5, but as his group approaches a target date, sometimes I am up til 1 [a.m.] or 2 [a.m.]. There isnt an expectation to be at work at 9 a.m. sharp, but you are expected to work as late/long as it takes to get work done, adds another insider. However, most say their bosses are flexible with their hours, as long as they get their work done. A source adds, AMD values family timeFor most departments, the work can get done any time of day as long as it does get done, so AMD offers tremendous flexibility. His gizmodeprived co-worker adds, getting a BlackBerry for work purposes isdifficult (they dont want to disturb your home life).
A peoples company
Although a few sources describe AMD as a little frantic, respondents generally gave good reviews of their work atmosphere. Its less stressful than many other high-tech companies I am familiar with, says one. Although we are in a competitive industry, I dont feel unduly pressured beyond what is reasonable. Another observes that the corporate culture is largely one of an underdog. There is immense pride but there still is a subtle tone of second best. Yet another says his co-workers are not workaholics. The people are very committed to the job, [but] the work environment is very relaxed most of the time. One insider describes a tight community thats very friendly.
As far as bosses go, one AMDer says hes proud to report that upper management really cares what its employees think. Another comments that, We are viewed as individuals, rather than cogs in a machine. According to yet another source, It seems that AMD places a lot more value on people than other companies do. One director notes, Our people [are] our first asset, this is our daily culture and we are working hard every day. The people-oriented atmosphere extends to the dress code, which is business casual to casual. Many report wearing jeans and T-shirts. One insider points out that the dress code is nonexistent. Its not uncommon to see executives walking around in jeans. We dress very casual, says a contact. Finance is the only department I know of (that) wear ties every day. Today I am wearing cowboy boots, says another. Yee haw!
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Harmonious environment
The vast majority of those surveyed say AMD is a diverse company when it comes to women and ethnic minorities. Any variations on this theme are chalked up to the ways of the industry itself, not AMD. I have noticed that most of the senior executivesas with many Silicon Valley companiesare white males, says one insider. As far as treatment of women and minorities, they have taken huge strides to address this issue. As with all companies, however, all is not perfect, notes one female insider. Her co-worker in marketing adds, I dont think AMD can claim to be diverse. African-Americans are woefully underrepresented, [though] some women hold high-ranking positions. Ive known some folks who felt discriminated against but rarely, if ever, have I seen this feeling justified, observes a manager.
Make some dough and rock out with the Stones

Our contacts report that AMD pays industry standard salaries. One engineer remarks, I guess they could pay me more, but then I guess I could stand to win the lottery, too. Another source cautiously notes, Im not sure [if] this is true, but theres a saying around AMD [that] its near impossible to obtain a raise unless you leave the company and then come back a year later, at which point your salary will double. Aside from the quirky wage structure, AMD has a good profit-sharing program and 1.5 percent match on our 401(k). An employee stock purchase plan may turn out to be a special plus from a company on the horizon of greatness. Other perks include discounts for amusement parks, free workout programs, an on-site day care center, computer purchase reimbursement, and a fully paid MBA program. The corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale are beautiful, and include a fitness center with two basketball courts. But the most popular perk is the companys sabbatical system, which offers AMD vets two extra months of paid vacation after they complete seven years.
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AFFILIATED COMPUTER SERVICES, INC.

2828 North Haskell Dallas, TX 75204 Phone: (214) 841-6111 www.acs-inc.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ACS Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: Lynn R. Blodgett 2008 Employees: 70,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 6,160.6 2008 Income ($ mil.): 329
LOCATIONS
Dallas, TX (HQ) Lexington, KY Norcross, GA Pittsburgh, PA Salt Lake City, UT Accra, Ghana Asnieres, France Bangalore Cebu, Philippines Glattbrugg, Switzerland Guatemala City GuilherandGranges, France Hermosillo, Mexico Juarez, Mexico Kochi, India Kuala Lumpur Manila Mexico City Montego Bay Monterrey Santo Domingo So Paulo Suva, Fiji Tianjin, China
KEY COMPETITORS
Accenture Computer Sciences Corp. EDS
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.acs-inc.com/pages_exp.aspx?id=1573
DEPARTMENTS
Business Process Solutions Commercial Solutions Corporate Development CSG Administration Finance & Accounting Government & Community Solutions Human Resource ITO Solutions Transportation Solutions Vertical Market
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Affiliated Computer Services, inc.
THE SCOOP
Big-league BPO
Affiliated Computer Services is an outsourcing company with over $6 billion in annual revenue. It offers a suite of IT-oriented services such as data center management, disaster recovery, network management, security services, storage solutions and transition services for human resources. The brainchild of Darwin Deasonwho rallied IT pros to work with clients on IT outsourcing projects and integration servicesACS has built quite a name for itself since its founding in 1988. In fact, ACS claims to have pioneered the concept of providing business process outsourcing (BPO) services on a grand scale. The firm first gained clients in the financial industry, followed by several in the communications, education, energy, government, health care, insurance, manufacturing, retail and transportation sectors. The company has amassed a client roster of top commercial and government organizations, and specializes in BPO, IT outsourcing and systems integration. ACS joined the ranks of the Fortune 500 in 2003, maintaining a slot at No. 423. From its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, ACS employs about 70,000 people worldwide, serving customers in 100 countries.
Kiss my ACS
Despite the bad publicity that comes with executive shake-ups and less-than-optimal financials, ACS continues to gather kudos as an industry leader. In 2008, the firm was ranked No. 343 on Forbes Platinum 400 for the eighth year, and also graced Fortunes Most Admired Companies and contenders list for the ninth consecutive year. The company has received numerous other awards for leadership in its industry, boosting optimism that the days of scandal and upset are largely behind it.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Renewing contracts, planning acquisitions ACS announced at least two contract extensions. The first is a three-year, $6 million contract extension with one of the United States largest organizations of Medicaid managed care plans, AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies. ACS has been an AmeriHealth partner since 2000, supplying document sorting and preparation, imaging and online and offline data capture. The second is a $13 million contract renewal with Brother International Corporation for the provision of high-level hardware, technical and customer care support services. ACS has been working with Brother since 2001.
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ACS also announced that in order to expand global delivery reach, it is eyeing its Caribbean-based rival e-Services Group International, a company that has approximately 4,000 employees in Jamaica and St. Lucia. ACS promised that there will be no workforce restructuring once e-Services has been acquired, as the latter company will still be handled by its management team and operated by its employees at their current facilities. October 2008: Moving offshore Chief Executive Lynn Blodgett said revenue from long-term contracts helped ACS post a higher quarterly profit despite the economic downturn. But customer belt tightening has decreased the volume of some of the outsourced work it provides, so the company will need to move 4,200 jobs offshore. Blodgett said ACS would expand capacity in the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica and Guatemala, and set up new production centers in India. The initiative is expected to incur $38 to $42 million worth of expenses. He said the money ACS saves from moving jobs offshore will be used to strengthen sales and innovation. November 2007: Board resignations and a failed takeover bid The New York Times reported that ACSs independent directors quit less than a month after they accused Chairman Darwin Deason of bullying them over a failed takeover bid. The decision to quit was made public by the directors after Cerberus Capital Management and Chairman Deason ditched the $6.2 billion bid for ACS. The directors pointed accusingly at Deason, saying that the deal would have happened if he (Deason) did not hamper their efforts to find higher offers. The directors sought a declaration from the Chancery Court of Delaware that they had not breached fiduciary duties in how they handled the offer. ACS said the directors have agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.
GETTING HIRED
Seeking experienced hires

The ACS careers site (acs-inc.com/career/index.html) allows you to search openings within the company by title, category, division, keyword and location, including jobs at international offices. Applicants can also build a profile and post a resume online. Though the firm seeks mostly experienced hires for consulting roles, it offers internships for undergraduate and graduate students (with a minimum 3.0 GPA) who are working toward a degree in business, computer science, management information systems or computer engineering. These internships typically run from May through August. Benefits include comprehensive insurance, 401(k) and a stock purchase plan. The firm also offers benefits for its employees mental growth by providing training in several areas, including project management, leadership management, interpersonal skills and client care.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

This industry heavyweight may be on Forbes Platinum 400 of Americas best and biggest companies, but employees give mixed reviewsincluding some really nasty ones. Quite frankly I can only recommend to avoid this company, one ACS director says. If you dont have any talent and no other options, go ahead and sign up, but if you do have talent to offer, this is surely the wrong place to work for. The source adds you typically get hired for a required function, but normally end up doing something entirely different and, most likely, something you dont really want to do. Most people are stressed out or overworked, and compensation is lacking, the same insider adds. One fired respondent, who was injured in a car crash, says upon returning to work after back and neck surgery: I was demoted and had a major decrease in my pay. The former insider reports being fired and losing all health benefits after missing work due to a second back surgery. I gave that rat hole many years of perfection, accuracy, dedication and leadership; you would think that they would be a little more understanding, but no, not at ACS, the disgruntled ex-employee says. All employees are paid a misery and they shall thank ACS they have a job! That is the corporate policy, says one manager. Other insiders say that the pay varies, with sometimes arbitrary rates for management posts. One vice president reports receiving a $170,000 base pay and a $75,000 bonus, while an information management assistant gets $19 per hour, plus eight hours of guaranteed overtime per paycheck. Some insiders complain of going through too many interviews, describing the process as poor and lacking in structure. But one customer representatives interview went very well. Everyone was very polite and helpful, the representative says. It was actually a long wait for the interview but I think it was worth the wait because I got the job. A vice president who was with the company until 2008 advises potential applicants: ACS is focused on revenue. If you join, make sure you are in a revenue-generating position. Not a support position.
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AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

5301 Stevens Creek Boulevard Santa Clara, CA 95051 Phone: (408) 345-8886 Fax: (408) 345-8474 www.agilent.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: A Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: William P. (Bill) Sullivan 2008 Employees: 19,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,774 2008 Income ($ mil.): 693
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Colorado Springs, CO Folsom, CA Fort Collins, CO Little Falls, DE Loveland, CO Newport, DE Palo Alto, CA San Jose, CA Boeblingen, Germany Hachioji, Japan Kobe Penang Shanghai Singapore South Queensferry, United Kingdom Waldbronn, Germany
KEY COMPETITORS
National Instruments Corporation Tektronix, Inc. (Subsidiary of Danaher Corporation) Teradyne, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.agilent.apply2jobs.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Customer Service Electronic Instruments Business Unit Electronic Measurements Group Finance Global Infrastructure Human Resources Information Technology Life Sciences & Chemical Analysis Manufacturing Marketing Network & Digital Solutions Business Unit Quality R&D Sales Support/Service Wireless Business Unit Transportation Solutions Vertical Market
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Agilent Technologies, Inc.
THE SCOOP
One testy company
Agilent Technologies is one Silicon Valley preteen with a distinguished family lineage, having been spun off in a $2.1-billion IPO (the largest in the Valley at the time) from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, when HP decided to concentrate solely on computer hardware and software for the consumer market. That left Agilent with three main areas of business: test and measurement equipment, semiconductor products, and life sciences and chemical analysis equipment. The early 2000s were tough years for Agilent as it suffered losses and job cuts in the thousands. In 2002, the company posted a $1 billion loss. In 2003, Agilent brought its headcount down to 29,000 from 47,000. The company continued its downward spiral that same year with a $2 billion loss; ironically, though, it was the year Agilent was inducted into the Fortune 500, at No. 212. Agilent climbed back to profitability in 2004 with a net income of $349 million as the previous years restructuring efforts finally paid off.
Gene-ius
While Agilents test and measurement and semiconductor divisions muddled their way through a slack economy, the companys life sciences business quietly flourished as the company introduced microarraystools that help researchers study gene expression by looking at human (or mouse or elephant or what-have-you) genes. These tools enable scientists to study gene aberrations, such as those that result in cancer.
Biodiversity
Agilent has an enormous product catalogat least 20,000 test, measurement and monitoring devices and chemical analysis tools. Through its electronic measurement division, Agilent sells equipment, such as oscilloscopes, multimeters and spectrum analyzers, to the communications, electronics and semiconductor industries. Some of Agilents test and measurement customers include Verizon, Nokia, IBM and, unsurprisingly, Hewlett-Packard. Its life sciences and chemical analysis division manufactures products such as DNA microarrays and lab-on-a-chip devices that are used in biotech and pharmaceutical research, as well as tools for chemical and materials science research like gas chromatography, liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry equipment. The company sold off most of its semiconductor sectors in December 2005. Now leaner and focused on bioanalytic and electronic measurement, the company sells testing gadgetry to such diverse markets as the communications industry, drug
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manufacturers and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Agilent is the No. 1 manufacturer of test and measurement equipment, and holds many of the No. 1 slots in the life sciences and chemical analysis industry. Its net revenue in 2008 was $5.8 billion.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Restructuring of measurement, board test businesses Agilent announced that, due to forecast revenue dips for fiscal 2009 in the companys electronic measurement and semiconductor and board test segments, it will restructure these two businesses. Some 2,700 employees will be affected by the restructuring program that has a cash cost of $160 million. The electronic measurement segment is forecast to decrease by 30 percent from its level for the same period in fiscal 2008, while revenue in the semiconductor and board test business is expected to be down by 50 percent. In a report to investors, President and CEO William Sullivan remarked, We have been very aggressive to date in addressing the downturn in electronic measurement markets. However, business remains severely depressed, and there are no prospects for a meaningful recovery in the foreseeable future. Therefore, we have no choice but to resize our electronic measurement businesses for the realities of the marketplace. March 2009: Groundbreaking optical modulation analyzer The company announces that it will be rolling out in September 2009 its N4391A optical modulation analzyer (OMA), a test instrument that will aid the scientists and engineers who are trying to figure out ways to increase internet transmission rates from the current 10 Gb/s to the 40 to 100 Gb/s level. The new analyzer is touted as an industry-first since it fills a gap in the capability of current instruments to analyze optical signals. The OMA will be priced at $195,000 for starters. February 2009: Revenue in Q1 fiscal 2009 down 16 percent
Agilent released financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2009 (ended January 31, 2009) saying that the $1.7 billion revenue for the quarter was 16 percent below the level of the same period. GAAP net income for the quarter is $64 million ($0.18 per diluted share) compared with $120 million ($0.31 per share) the previous year. February 2009: Electronic design awards in the bag Agilent announced that, since December 2008, several publications and organizations have given the company more than 20 industry awards for its electronic design and measurement products. Among the products cited more than once is the N5242A PNA-X nonlinear vector-network analyzer, which was considered among the top products of 2008 industry media providers EDN, Electronic Products and Microwaves & RF.
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December 2008: Going going Green As a participant in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Climate Leaders program, Agilent pledged that by 2011, it will have reduced by 10 percent its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in its U.S. facilities. October 2008: Subsidiary won $45-million contract from Uncle Sam NetworkFab, a wholly owned Agilent subsidiary, won a five-year research contract worth $45 million from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Centers Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate. The project will entail search, identification and collection of tactical targets. June 2008: Going Nano, thinking BIG Agilent announced that it has acquired the Nano Instruments unit of MTS Systems Corporation to strengthen its portfolio in instrumentation for imaging, characterizing and quantifying nanomechanical material properties. The Tennessee-based Nano services academic and industrial researchers in the materials sciences, semiconductors and life sciences fields.
GETTING HIRED
Its an Agilent world after all
Although headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., Agilent Technologies has U.S. branch offices in more than 50 cities. The company also has a strong overseas presence with facilities in 30 foreign countries. Of the companys 19,000 employees, approximately 11,300 are based in the United States. Major U.S. employment centers outside of California include Delaware, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Idaho and Colorado. The Agilent website posts all open positionsboth in the United States and abroadsearchable by location, department and level of experience.
U of Agilent
Agilent recruits for new talent at colleges throughout the nation, including Stanford, Colorado State University, Penn State and the University of Illinois, as well as at job fairs sponsored by professional organizations such as the National Black MBA Association, the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs. Internships offer another approach for students to get their foot in the door. According to Agilents website, The goal of [the internship] program is to hire students into regular jobs after graduation. The 10-week program is open to students pursuing undergraduate or advanced degrees in the following disciplines: electrical, mechanical, industrial, computer or
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chemical engineering; chemistry; biology; computer science; physics; materials science; IT/IS; and business. All internships are paid, and many offer relocation, housing and transportation allowances in addition to medical insurance. Internships are offered in research and development, manufacturing, marketing, quality control, materials, facilities, IT, finance and HR.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Mirroring a Dilbert panel?
The description of working conditions here sounds like a Dilbert cartoon, says one insider. Upper management used to be engineering, but you cant tell. When they discuss project schedules, there is never time for discovering errors and correcting them, the contact elaborates. Also, insiders seem to agree that Agilent offers few opportunities for advancement. Any career advancement requires initiative on the part of the individual, adds a source. Some people are in the same job for 20 years; although they get pay raises and increased responsibilities, any change in position is small. Another source adds that the company has little interest in developing people for advancement. However, on the plus side, prospective Agilent employees will enjoy good pay, flexible hours and the chance to work with intelligent and interesting people, provided that they steer clear of those who want to climb the corporate ladder at all costs. According to one source, Basically you can be a happy, contributing, poorly paid engineer, or you can become a politician who is paid well and contributes little of genuine value. In the end, most of us get satisfied. Indeed, different strokes for different folks.
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AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES
8 Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA 02142 Phone: (877) 325-2624 Fax: (617) 444-3001 www.akamai.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: AKAM Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: George Conrades President & CEO: Paul Sagan 2008 Employees: 1,500 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 790.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 145.1
LOCATIONS
Cambridge, MA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Bellevue, WA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Englewood, CO Long Beach, CA New York, NY Reston, VA San Diego, CA San Mateo, CA Bangalore Beijing London Madrid Milan Paris Seoul Singapore Stockholm Sydney Tokyo Unterfoehring, Germany
KEY COMPETITORS
Level 3 Communications Limelight Mirror Image Internet
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.akamai.com/html/careers
DEPARTMENTS
Account Management Corporate Services Discipline Engineering Finance Global Sales Human Resources Internship Legal Marketing Network Operations Professional Services Quality Assurance Sales Sales Engineering Services & Support Technology
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Akamai Technologies
THE SCOOP
All about Akamai
If youve downloaded a song, watched the Beijing Olympics or booked a flight over the internet, then chances are youve benefited from Akamai Technologies offerings. This Cambridge-headquartered company provides services for accelerating and improving the delivery of content and applications over the internet from live and ondemand streaming videos to conventional content on web pages to tools that help people transact business. In other words, Akamai helps its customers direct web traffic so it doesnt get jammed up; the company estimates that it delivers between 10 and 20 percent of all web traffic. Basically, the Akamai system has assembled a huge network of servers, literally reaching around the world, and when someone requests information from anywhere on Earth, the famous Akamai algorithms kick in and route that content to the server nearest the requesting party, making for as quick and painless an info transfer as possible. Akamais diverse group of clients includes Audi AG, Adobe, Fox Interactive, InterContinental Hotels Group, MySpace and Cathay Pacific. It topped Business 2.0s 2007 and 2008 lists of the 100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies. The firm has over 1,000 employees, more than half of them in Massachusetts. In 2008, Akamais revenue was $790.9 million, a 24 percent increase over its 2007 revenue of $636.4 million. It joined the S&P 500 in July 2007.
The need for speed

Akamai is a Hawaiian word that means smart or intelligent, and some very smart people were involved in Akamais creation. In fact, the companys origin is directly tied to Dr. Tim Berners-Lee, one of the founding fathers of the World Wide Web. In 1995, Dr. Berners-Lees second year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he challenged his computer science colleagues to come up with improvements on his design, specifically for the speed of transferring online content. Dr. Tom Leighton, a professor of applied mathematics, came up with a solution and recruited the Akamai team, whose principal members were still MIT graduate students, including algorithm writer extraordinaire Danny Lewin, who eventually became the companys chief technology officer, and MBA student Jonathan Seelig. In 1998, the team won the annual MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, through which it obtained an exclusive license to some of MITs intellectual property, and it began the development of the company in earnest. Within a year, Akamai was incorporated and had attracted a number of high-flying tech professionals. Among them were Paul Sagan (current president and CEO), former Time Inc. president, and George Conrades (current chairman), former IBM senior vice president. In October 1999 the MIT startup went public, enjoying one of the best IPOs ever.
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In the first decade of the 21st century, Akamais stock prices fluctuated wildly. At one point during the tech boom its price hit $327 but plummeted to less than a dollar a share when the tech bubble burst. Other factors affecting Akamais stock performance were the commoditization of the CDN market and the entry of competitors, such as Limelight and Speedera. Akamai adapted to the changing marketplace by shoring up its CDN offerings, increasingly through acquisitions. The most dramatic example was its 2005 acquisition of rival Speedera for $142.2 million in the middle of a nasty lawsuit. This was followed by the December 2006 purchase of Nine Systems and its 2007 acquisition of private company Netli. The company has maintained its commitment to innovation through the years, partly in tribute to co-founder Lewin who was a passenger on one of the hijacked airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Smooth HD-streaming to customers Akamai launched AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Microsoft Silverlight, the first service based on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Smooth Streaming Technology, enabling a higher-quality video experience for all viewers. The product adapts stream quality based on a users connection speed, providing true highdefinition (HD) video to those with high bandwidth and the best video quality at their connection speeds for those with lower bandwidth. January 2009: BD Live for Blu-ray Akamai teamed up with Ascent Media Group and Sofatronic to create an integrated digital workflow and distribution solution for the production, hosting and delivery of BD Live functionality for Blu-ray discs. BD Live is a highly interactive platform that instantly connects users to the Web and enables the creation of personalized avatars, updates of subtitles and viewer-to-viewer interaction while watching a movie. November 2008: Restructuring to reduce costs Akamai CFO J.D. Sherman announced that, while Akamai has not changed its business outlook, the company will restructure in the fourth quarter of 2008 in a bid to reduce operating costs. Any savings that come out of this action will be used to support investments in content delivery, application acceleration, advertising industry solutions and further international expansion. October 2008: Speeding up WAYN sites Travel and lifestyle social networking site WAYN.com used Akamais Dynamic Site Accelerator and reported significant improvements in the speed and performance of its site in selected regions such as Malaysia, Canada and the U.S. West Coast.
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June 2008: Delivering Olympic news The NewsMarket, a platform for global brands to market and deliver video to their audiences, began to use Akamais Web Application Accelerator in its subscriber portal, www.thenewsmarket.com, to enable faster accessibility to Olympics-related news coming from China. The NewsMarket will also be using Akamais Media Delivery solution for Adobe Flash streaming and Electronic Software Delivery to enable journalists to download video more quickly. May 2008: Monitoring the Web Akamais State of the Internet, a quarterly report, debuts. The report culls data from Akamais global server network to track global trends in attack traffic, network outages and de-peering events. The report (available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet) will also provide a snapshot on broadband connectivity around the world. February 2008: Taking the Limelight A jury in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts found that Limelight Networks, Inc. is infringing upon the content delivery patent (U.S. patent 6,108,703) issued in the name of Akamai founders Tom Leighton and the late Danny Lewin, and awarded Akamai $45.5 million in damages, plus interest. The verdict ended a three-week trial in Boston, which stemmed from a lawsuit that Akamai had filed against Limelight in 2006.
GETTING HIRED
Akamize yourself
Akamai participates in college recruiting events at schools that include Carnegie Mellon, MIT, McGill, Brown, Harvard, Northeastern, Stanford and UCLA. Additionally, the firm looks for new hires at several professional recruiting events, a list of which can be found online at www.akamai.com/html/careers/events.html. Potential applicants can view current job openings and apply for them online at www.akamai.com/html/careers. Recently, the company was hiring senior developers in Dearborn, Michigan; software engineers in Cambridge, Mass.; software architects in San Diego, Calif.; JAVA developers in Washington, D.C.; and more. The firms website also features video testimonials from several current employees, including the companys CEO Paul Sagan and senior software engineer Liz Borowsky.
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Committed to having fun

Akamai says the company will always work closely with customers to understand their needs. It also promises to conduct business ethically, deliver on its commitments to stakeholders and strive for excellence. However, another one of the firms governing principles is to have fun. The extensive list of employee benefits at Akamai includes medical insurance, prescription drug coverage, vision benefits, dental insurance, a 401(k) retirement and savings plan, life insurance, an employee stock purchase plan, a pretax commuter benefit and an educational assistance plan. Akamais people also enjoy fitness programs and get discounts on entertainment.
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ALCATEL-LUCENT
54 rue de la Botie Paris, 75008 France Phone: +33 1 40 76 10 10 www.alcatel-lucent.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ALU Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: Ben Verwaayen 2008 Employees: 76,000 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 16,984 2008 Income ( mil.): -5,173
LOCATIONS
Paris, France (HQ)
Alpharetta, GA Highlands Ranch, CO Mirimar, FL Murray Hill, NJ Overland Park, KS Plano, TX San Antonio, TX San Juan, PR Vienna, VA Whippany, NJ 86 Locations internationally
KEY COMPETITORS
Ericsson Motorola Nokia
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Operations/Support Business Strategy & Development Communications Engineering Services Environmental Health & Safety Facilities Management Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Product Development Professional Services Project Management Sales Sales Support Supply Chain Management
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Alcatel-Lucent
THE SCOOP
A marriage made in Paris
If you think the name Alcatel-Lucent sounds odd, youre not aloneAlcatel and Lucent were competitors in the same telecommunications technology space until their merger in December 2006. The firm is now significantly larger and much more globalized as the union of major European (Alcatel) and American (Lucent) forces. Alcatel-Lucents store of copyrighted ideas covers some 25,000 patents spanning from broadband access to advanced nanotechnology to network management. And with 15 percent of revenue invested each year in research and development, the company has a reputation for quality. It includes Bell Labs, the brains behind a host of breakthroughs (among them MP3 technology and wireless local area networks), and provides services to telecom giants, including Verizon and AT&T. It is still, however, very much in the process of synthesizing its many new, constituent parts into a comprehensive and efficient whole. Headquartered in Paris, Alcatel-Lucent does business in 130 countries and employs about 77,000, globally. The firm touts its multiculturalism, global reach and superior facilities as reasons for its business success, and prides itself on being able to function on the global stage as well as in local and regional markets. Alcatel-Lucent participates in 130 standardization organizations that work to create universally marketable technology platforms.
Reformat
Following the Alcatel-Lucent merger, the new company was busy managing its newfound girth and setting an agenda for progressa process more unwieldy than in most mergers due to the size and pedigree of the parties. Of course, such a massive reconfiguration cant happen without treading on some sensitive toes. Alcatel-Lucent set a target of trimming its costs by $3 billion through 2009, so the company immediately announced 9,000 job cuts to help attain its goal. Employees, particularly Parisian ones, were not pleased with the announcement of the planned downsizing. French labor unions showed their disdain for the massive cuts; one memorable protest sign read One marriage, 9,000 funerals. Another restructuring challenge involved the product line. Alcatel-Lucent struggled to develop single, unified versions of its overlapping technologieswhat it calls end-to-end systems, which is fancy code for anything using IP technology.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: More retrenchment expected Falling demand and restructuring costs are expected to spell further losses for Alcatel-Lucent in 2009, Standard & Poors forecasted as it lowered the corporate rating of the worlds largest maker of telecommunications systems and equipment by one grade to B+. Alcatel-Lucent is likely to record another year of highly negative free cash flow in 2009, S&P said. Moodys Investors Service made a similar downgrade of Alcatel-Lucents rating in February, saying that the company has not shown material signs of a turnaround in the past year, while cash consumption continues at a high level. In February 2009, the Paris-based company reported an eighth-straight quarterly loss as it wrote down the value of assets by a record 3.91 billion ($5.1 billion). That brought the companys writedowns to about 8 billion since Alcatel SA bought Lucent Technologies, Inc. in 2006. March 2009: Back to profitability? Alcatel-Lucent hopes to return to net profit in the second half of 2010, the French daily Les Echos said, citing the companys financial head, Paul Tufano, who was quoted by the daily as saying, We expect to return to profits during 2010, most likely in the second-half of the year. February 2009: Patent war A trust associated with Alcatel-Lucent sued DirectTV Group, Inc., and Dish Network Corp, the two largest U.S. satellite-TV providers, and seven other companies over patented video compression technology. Multimedia Patent Trust, the patent owner, claims that the companies are infringing on five patents related to encoding and decoding signals from moving images. It says the companies were informed of the need to enter into a license agreement but they refused. The seven other companies include television and computer monitor makers Pioneer Corp., Proview International Holdings, Ltd., Vizio Inc., Westinghouse Digital Electronics LLC, Memorex brand owner Imation Corp., videoconferencing systems maker Polycom, Inc. and EchoStar Corp., maker of digital set-top boxes for Dish Network. Alcatel-Lucent is a 99 percent beneficiary of the trust, with 1 percent going to charity, says company spokeswoman Mary Ward. MPEG LA, which licenses patents on the industry standard for digital television broadcasting, says the trust was set up two days before Alcatel purchased Lucent, in violation of an earlier Alcatel agreement to share inventions in a patent-licensing poolan allegation that Alcatel-Lucent denies. December 2008: Trimming costs and more jobs Alcatel-Lucent said it will cut 1 billion in costs in each of the next two years, including axing 1,000 more managerial jobs as it tries to end losses. The new measure brings job cuts to 17,500 since Alcatel bought Lucent in 2006. The company says it will also eliminate 5,000 contractors.
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December 2008: Making peace with Microsoft Officials of Microsoft Corp., the worlds biggest software maker, and Alcatel-Lucent said the two companies have settled most of their patent litigation. Financial terms were not disclosed. The agreement covers six lawsuits, including one that resulted in the largest patent verdict in U.S. history$1.52 billionbefore it was thrown out by a judge. Microsoft will continue its appeal of the $368 million verdict it lost that swelled to $511.6 million in June, officials said. The giant companies have been fighting since 2002 when Lucent began demanding royalties from Microsoft customers Gateway, Inc., and Dell, Inc., over features in the Microsoft Windows operating system. September 2008: Changes at the top Alcatel-Lucent announced that two European executives will take the two top positions at the company. Frenchman Philippe Camus will serve as the companys chairman starting October 1, 2008, and Ben Verwaayen will become AlcatelLucents CEO. Some analysts have speculated that there will be another round of restructuring at the company, which has already slashed 16,500 positions since the merger between Alcatel and Lucent. Verwaayen has said that the firm will focus on creating new technologies to battle competition from lower-cost Asian rivals. In addition, the new CEO has mentioned that he wants to end friction between the French and American sides of the company. August 2008: Losses everywhere Alcatel-Lucent announced losses for the second quarter. Although some analysts expected as much, nobody anticipated the red ink to feel so much like bloodthe company lost 586 million in the period, more than twice as much as the forecasted 275 million. Before the month ended, two senior executives jumped ship: Mike Quigley, who had once been tapped as a future Alcatel CEO, and Frank DAmelio, Lucents head of finance. Analysts immediately predicted further defections from the executive suite, but CEO Patricia Russo described the twin resignations as an evolution in leadership, quite natural after a merger.
September 2007: Labor deal Labor unions finally agreed to the telecom companys job reduction plans, putting an end to the rallies. Under the proposal, the firm promised to pay proper severance and create almost 500 new jobs in France. This is but a small concession; by the end of 2008, Alcatel-Lucent planned to cut a total of 1,468 jobs in France, or nearly 14 percent of the companys workforce there. March 2007: Setting new horizons with Verizon Alcatel-Lucent announced a $6 billion deal in which Verizon Wireless would help extend its wireless network in North America. The contract is the largest telecommunications agreement in both North American and Alcatel-Lucent history, and reassures some investors worried about the merged companys financial prospects. Many analysts remain wary, pointing out that the firms
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wireless services outside North America are very weak while many competitors, most notably Ericsson, are achieving successes abroad. BusinessWeek quotes an analyst on the Verizon deal as saying, Its a good win, but one they should have made. If they hadnt, it would have meant even bleaker prospects for the merger. February 2007: Labor pains Alcatel-Lucents first quarterly losses prompted the company to announce an additional 3,500 job cuts in February, on top of its original projection of 9,000 layoffs. This brings the total to 12,500, nearly 10 percent of the companys global workforce. Employees everywhere were unhappy about the news, but they were downright furious at company headquarters in France. CGTthe Confdration Gnrale du Travail, a major labor unionimmediately mobilized. The group disrupted the company meeting in June and protested throughout the summer.
GETTING HIRED
All aboard Alcatel
Alcatel-Lucents careers site, at www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/Careers, offers information about jobs, opportunities for students and recent grads, as well as a look at Life@Alcatel-Lucent. Once job seekers select one of the many companies in which Alcatel-Lucent has outposts, they can browse jobs by category and location. Candidates must create a profile to upload resumes and cover letters. At press time, engineering service jobs proliferated, with marketing and sales also well represented. The company offers internships and a global exchange program through the AIESEC, the largest worldwide internship association. Alcatel-Lucent also offers classroom opportunities through its research partner program and cooperative education program. Each of these coordinates class work with particular challenges faced by Alcatel-Lucent in the workplace.
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ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS, INC.

17655 Waterview Parkway Dallas, TX 75252 Phone: (972) 348-5100 www.alliancedata.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ADS Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Mike Parks President & CEO: Edward J. Heffernan 2008 Employees: 7,400 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,025.3 2008 Income ($ mil.): 217.4
LOCATIONS
Dallas, TX (HQ) Arlington, VA Atlanta, GA Bend, OR Columbus, OH Denver, CO Ennis, TX Horsham, PA Jacksonville, TX Johnson City, TN Kennesaw, GA Lafayette, CO Lenexa, KS Milford, OH New York, NY Norcross, GA Point Pleasant, NJ Princeton, NJ Salt Lake City, UT San Antonio, TX San Francisco, CA Schaumburg, IL Scottsbluff, NE Seattle, WA St. Louis, MO Tampa, FL Thornton, CO Tulsa, OK Wakefield, MA West Monroe, LA Westminster, CO
KEY COMPETITORS
American Express MasterCard Visa
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.alliancedata.com/careers/webhire.html
DEPARTMENTS
Account Management Accounting/ Finance Administration Client Services Commercial/Industry Relations Communications Credit Operations Customer Relations Engineering Services Epsilon Marketing Services Human Resources Information Systems Internal Audit Legal Lending Loyalty Services Management Manufacturing Marketing Operations Planning Product Engineering Purchasing Research/Development Retail Credit Services Sales Transaction Services
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Alliance Data Systems, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Loans, perks and rewards wrapped in pretty plastic
Wherever gift cards are given, wherever a gas bill is paid online and wherever consumer loyalty is rewarded with free movie tickets, Alliance Data Systems is there. A strong believer in the purchasing power of that thin slice of plastic, Alliance Data Systems (better known as Alliance Data) handles all things transactional, including payment authorization, processing, underwriting, risk management and database marketing for more than 600 clients in the retail, utility and financial industries. The company processes more than 3.8 billion transactions annually. Plus, paired with its marketing services segmentwhich promotes consumer loyalty through incentives like the companys air miles rewards programAlliance Data delivers a one-two punch that makes it stand out in its industry. The company not only handles all the details of customer purchases for its clients, but it also creates and manages the little perks that will hopefully keep those same customers coming back. Initially, a healthy chunk of Alliance Datas business came from providing private-label credit card services to the company from whence it sprung, The Limited. But through the years, Alliance has proven itself to be a steady business, with clients ranging from convenience store chain 7-Eleven to specialty stores like Victorias Secret. Alliance Data has been supplying businesses worldwide with solutions for cost-effective consumer relationships.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Growth amid economic woes Alliance Data believed that it could invest in loyalty programs and direct marketing though the rest of the business might have to take a back seat. Alliance reported that revenue for the last quarter of 2008 climbed to $2 billion and profits were up to $217 million, from $164. Also, the company still sees its revenue rising to $2.1 billion. Despite growth, however, the company experienced losses, with a cash flow statement reflecting a $109 million deficit and $3.8 billion outflow on borrowing repayments, about $1.7 billion more than the year before. February 2009: Partnership with Haband Haband, one of the largest multichannel retailers in the United States, gave Alliance Data the go signal to provide private-label credit card services. The contract also includes providing Haband with consumer service functions and marketing services. Both companies will also work on developing a loyalty rewards component, combined with the private-label credit card program, to provide incentives and reward cardholders and establish a better relationship between the
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company and its customers. Haband sells mens and womens clothes and home wares to consumers 50 years and older, through print catalogs and online. December 2008: Renewing with Hudsons Hudsons Bay Company, a division of Hudsons Bay Trading company, signed a multiyear renewal contract with Alliance Data. Hudsons has been a sponsor of the air miles reward program since 1998 and is considered one of the top 15 clients to support the program. The air miles program offers over 800 rewards to users, such as travel, movie passes and gift cards redeemable at Hudsons Bay locations. Bryan Pearson, president of Alliance Datas LoyaltyOne business, believes that the deal reaffirms the quality of Alliances products, saying, [t]his long-term relationship, and in particular this multi-year renewal in the retail category, demonstrates the value of our loyalty program to major brands and cornerstone businesses in the Canadian marketplace. July 2008: Repurchasing own stock Alliance Datas board of directors approved the new stock repurchase program, which will help the company buy $1.3 billion of its common stock throughout 2009. This program will be implemented alongside the $500 million repurchase program. Alliance already has in its hands outstanding shares worth $725 million, and through the new program, the company will be allowed to get back shares in the open market and through private negotiations as well. April 2008: Breaking up with Blackstone The Blackstone Group LP (Blackstone) suddenly turned cold as Alliance Data Systems (ADS) shares drop 35 percent in the market. In the previous year, Alliance Data Systems announced its privatization after agreeing on a $6.76 billion merger with Blackstone in May 2007. But the alternative asset management company continued to look the other way when asked to fulfill OCC (U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) requirements for the merger. On April 18, Alliance decided to break things up with Blackstone for breach of contract.
GETTING HIRED
Further your career at Alliance Data
Since Alliance Data is in the loyalty marketing business, it can be assumed that they know a thing or two about fostering employee loyalty as well. The company offers the usual health benefits, with reimbursement for gym membership thrown in. Working parents will be attracted by the backup care program, which grants 80 hours of emergency child or dependant care to all associates. Working parents looking to adopt a child will appreciate the adoption assistance program, which reimburses
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employees up to $2,500 per adoption. Other niceties include a 401(k) plan with company matching and a stock purchase program. You can get the goods on opportunities at Alliance Data through its career site, at www.alliancedata.com/careers.html. There you will find listings for all open positions at the company, searchable by location, department, full- or part-time status and, for the truly discriminating applicant, by desired salary. Upon applying, you will be required to set up an account on Alliance Datas career web page, allowing you to upload and edit your resume (you also have the option of applying without using a resume), in addition to filling out online forms regarding work experience and education history.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Straightaway
Hiring at ADS doesnt deal with too many hoops; its as straightforward as it can get. An insider outlines, Application submitted on site, interview about three days later with an offer made the next day. There were no tricks, simply a fit and personality check if you had the relevant experience. During the process, I met with an HR representative as well as one of the managers in the collections department.
Mixed reactions
It seems that the corporate culture at Alliance Data leaves more to be desired. One respondent describes it as very stuffy, stuck-up and highly political. Another source seems to concur, [o]verall a nice place to work, but not one where lots of growth typically takes place. However, he commends the company for doing a lot of good in the community and to really care about the employees who cared about them, and points out that [t]he dress code was lax, the hours werent bad, but compensation was definitely not cutting edge. According to another insider, the flip side of the coin is that in Alliance Data diversity is very good and employees come from a multitude of backgrounds and races.
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ALTERA CORPORATION
101 Innovation Drive San Jose, CA 95134 Phone: (408) 544-7000 www.altera.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ALTR Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President, CEO & Chairman: John P. Daane 2008 Employees: 2,760 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,367.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): 359.7
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ) Broomfield, CO Chelmsford, MA Duluth, GA Ellicott City, MD Kenilworth, NJ Minneapolis, MN Portland, OR Raleigh, NC Richardson, TX San Diego, CA Schaumburg, IL Sussex, WI Willoughby, OH Bangalore Beijing Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom Chengdu Sichuan, China County Cork, Ireland Espoo, Finland High Wycombe, United Kingdom Kista, Sweden Kowloon, Hong Kong Osaka Penang San Mauro Torinese, Italy Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen, China Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Unterschleissheim, Germany Velizy, France
KEY COMPETITORS
Actel Corporation Lattice Semiconductor Corporation Xilinx, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.altera.com/corporate/jobs
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Applications Engineering CAD/Layout Facilities Field Applications Finance Human Resources IC Design Engineering Information Systems Legal Marketing Operations Product Engineering Research & Development Sales Software Engineering Test Engineering
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Altera Corporation
THE SCOOP
A leader of PLDs
If the internet relies on device manufacturers such as Lucent and Cisco Systems to supply technological components, those companies rely upon Altera to keep the components humming along. The enigmatically named Altera is one of the largest producers of specialized computer chips used by companies in a wide range of industries, including networking, telecommunications and industrial machinery. The acronym-friendly firm specializes in the manufacture of programmable logic devices (PLDs), and systems-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPCs). Because these logic devices are programmable, Alteras clients can craft the chips to meet their own needsusing Altera software, of course. The majority of Alteras chips are sold overseas, increasingly in Asian markets. In 2006, Japan constituted 23 percent of sales, while the rest of Asia Pacific represented another 27 percent. North America and Europe made up about a quarter of sales each.
Four-sight
Four semiconductor entrepreneurs who foresaw great things in chips founded Altera in 1983. They are Robert Hartmann, Michael Magranet, Paul Newhagen and Jim Sansbury. The company went public in 1988, introducing a new generation of chips that year, as they would again in 1991 and 1992. Altera acquired Intels PLD line in 1994, thereby increasing its market share to 20 percent. From there, things only got betterAlteras sales had more than doubled in 1995, from $199 million to $402 million, and its stock price jumped from about $10 per share to $25. In fact, 1997 proved so profitable that the company handed out $10 million in profit shares and bonuses. The following year, during which the overall PLD industry suffered, Altera still managed its sixth-straight profitable fiscal year, bringing in $654 million in revenue. In 2008, Altera achieved revenue of $1.3672 billion, and now employs approximately 2,700 people in 19 countries.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Daanes worth Though 2008 was a tough year for the semiconductor industry, Altera CEO John Daane may have had it comfortably well, as the Associated Press reported that Daanes compensation package was worth $4.1 million that year. Though the CEOs base salary remained unchanged since 2003, his performance bonus is relative to the companys operating income. Alteras 2008 sales grew by 8 percent from to 2007, at $1.37 billion, while income increased by 24 percent, at $359.7 million. However, the companys stock declined by 13.5 percent. March 2009: Shipping high density FPGAs Altera announced the silicon availability of a high density transceiver FPGA. As the second member of the Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA family, the EP4SGX530 is 60 percent larger than the largest transceiver FPGA on the market today. Stratix IV GX devices target numerous applications in the communications, broadcast, test, medical and military markets. Similarly, the company also announced the availability of its Embedded Systems Development Kit, Cyclone III FPGA edition, a comprehensive platform that accelerates the prototyping and development of FPGA-based embedded systems. Earlier this month, Alteras 40-nm Stratix IV FPGAs received the Product of the Year award from Electronic Products China magazine, whichmarked the sixth award the Stratix IV family has received since its launch in May, 2008. January 2009: Profits up, sales drop Altera reported a fiscal fourth quarter increase in net income at $83 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared to $65.5 million, or $0.20 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2007. However, 2008 fourth quarter sales dropped to $314.5 million, 3 percent lower than 2007s fourth quarter. CEO John Daane took everything with a grain of salt saying, While we experienced the effects of a global economic-driven slowdown in the fourth quarter, we increased our market share in the programmable logic industry for the sixth year in a row. January 2009: Best managed Forbes.com named Altera the Best Managed Company in the Semiconductors Category among Forbes.coms Platinum 400. Winners in each category were selected based on each companys debt-to-total capital ratio, their long-term success and latest performance in a five-year period, says Forbes.coms Scott DeCarlo. This is the fifth time Altera has been included in the list.
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GETTING HIRED
The kids are all right (with Altera)
Altera is eager to woo the fresh-from-college crowd, and on its careers website (www.altera.com/corporate/jobs) you will find a plethora of information on how new college grads can get in with the firm. One helpful portion of the site gives a rundown of the college majors of particular use to the company, with a summary of typical job functions and responsibilities for each. From here you can also explore internship opportunitiesthough these are typically limited to engineering positions. Once you find something that piques your interest, Altera even helps you through the hiring process with its Interview Tips section, complete with a list of typical interview questions and a guide to proper apparel. Experienced hires will find goodies on the careers site as well, with a jobs database searchable by department and location (Altera has facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia). Upon uploading your resume and filling out a short application online, you will be considered for current and future opportunities with the company. An exhaustive listing of benefitsfor U.S. employees onlyreveals the usual spate of medical, dental and vision insurance, in addition to paid time off (10 holidays plus 12 vacation days per year), child care assistance and a flexible health care spending account. If you want to keep your poodle out of the pet cemetery, you can opt for the veterinary pet insurance program, one of the voluntary benefits offered along with a college savings plan and auto and home insurance. The company also provides 100 percent education reimbursement for full-time employees and an employee stock purchasing program.
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ANALOG DEVICES, INC.

One Technology Way P. O. Box 9106 Norwood, MA 02062-9106 Phone: (781) 329-4700 www.analog.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ADI Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Ray Stata President, CEO & Director: Jerald G. Fishman 2008 Employees: 9,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,582.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 786.3
LOCATIONS
Norwood, MA (HQ) Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Bellevue, WA Casa Grande, AZ Circle Pines, MN Costa Mesa, CA Danbury, CT Duluth, GA Freehold, NJ Hanover, MD Hoffman Estates, IL Melville, NY Pittsford, NY Richardson, TX San Jose, CA Scottsdale, AZ Wilmington, MA Antony, France Bangalore Breda, Netherlands Brondby, Denmark Eppegem-Zemst, Belgium Kista, Sweden Limerick, Ireland Milan Munich Raanana, Israel So Paulo, Brazil Seoul Taipei Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Surrey, Great Britain Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong Tokyo Vienna
KEY COMPETITORS
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ST Microelectronics Texas Instruments, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.analog.com/en/careers/jobsearch/content/index.html
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Administration Engineering Services Finance Human Resources Information Systems/Technology Legal Manufacturing/Operations Marketing Research & Development Sales
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Analog Devices, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Circuiting the globe
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) makes analog, mixed-signal and digital signal-processing integrated circuits (IC). One of the worlds leading semiconductor companies, ADI technology routinely converts real-world phenomena such as temperature, light and sound into electrical signals used in a range of devices, from CAT scanners and digital cameras to cars and radar systems. Analog Devices has a portfolio of over 10,000 products and employs nearly as many peopleincluding more than 3,000 engineers at its design centers, sales offices and manufacturing facilities across the globe. ADI was listed as one of Americas most admired companies by Fortune in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2006. It has also made eight appearances on the Forbes Platinum 400 listmost recently in 2008 at No. 394
The year was A.D. 101

Ray Stata and Matthew Lorber met in Cambridge, Mass., as engineering students (and roommates) at MIT in the 1950s. They first went into business with each other in 1961 founding Solid State Instruments. They subsequently sold this company but used the proceeds to launch Analog Devices in 1965. For ADIs first product, Stata and Lorber moved into a market where they wouldnt have to compete with the almighty IBMamplifiers that receive and strengthen electrical signals. The companys first product was a small, modular amplifier of this kind, called the AD101. Stata took the company public in 1967 to raise funds for the companys expansion into analog-to-digital (A/D) converters and ICs. In 1969, because of differences with Stata over vision for the company, Lorber opted out of ADI. In 1970, ADI introduced the AD550mDAC, its first monolithic integrated circuit, a design that would carry much of the companys innovation throughout that decade. That same year, ADI broke ground on what is today the companys headquarters in Norwood, Massachusetts. The first Japan-based sales office also opened that same year, establishing an Asian Pacific presence for ADI. By the end of the 1970s, the company had joined the New York Stock Exchange and rolled out a bunch of firsts, including a high-speed operational amplifier IC, a CMOS digital-to-analog converter and its analog-to-digital counterpart.
How ADI made its first billion

Analog opened IC test and assembly plants in Japan and the Philippines in 1981. The company continued product development throughout the decade, releasing several industry firsts to beef up its reputation. ADI introduced 33 new ICs in 1987 alone. By 1992, ADI was a Fortune 500 company (it has fallen to No. 718 as of 2008), and by 1995, it had cracked the top half of Fortunes list of the 1,000 most valuable companies. By 1998, sales topped $1.2 billion, and for the second year in
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a row the company was named one of Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For. That same year, ADI opened a wafer fabrication foundry in Cambridge, Mass. The 1990s also brought about a change in leadership, as Ray Stata decided to step down as president of the company in order to assume the role of chairman of the board and CEO. Thus, Jerry Fishman was appointed president and COO in 1991. In 1996, Stata passed the reigns of CEO to Fishman.
Technology for the future

ADI started the 21st century with a string of acquisitions, including the Northern Ireland-based electronic components maker BCO Technologies and Chiplogic of Santa Clara, Calif.a developer of high-level communications processing tools. In 2004, the company not only launched a new Blackfin electronic processor for everything from cameras to car computer systems, but also introduced new performance-leading converter technology that reinforced ADIs leadership position in that product category. In June 2006, ADI acquired Korean mobile communications technology firm Integrant, followed in September with the purchase of AudioAsics A/S, a Danish company specializing in microphone and audio signal technology. The same year also brought a key victory for ADI, through its contribution to Nintendos popular Wii video game consolethe key component of which is ADIs three-axis accelerometer chip, the ADXL330. The application of the technology in consumer electronics is opening new doors for the chipmaker. The chip has made cell phones and remote controls more user-friendly because it allows users to simply gesture or flick their wrists instead of poring over rows of buttons. ADI intends to be at the forefront as the accelerometer realizes its full potential in everyday appliances.
Jack-of-all-Blackfins
ADI continued on its consumer electronics spree in 2007, when several of its products found new applications in the latest tech must-haves. At the annual 3GSM World Conference in Spain, the company released its Blackfin processor, which is designed to power the multifunctional electronics that are increasingly vogue. The Blackfin found its way into the Litecomputer, a low-cost PC (about $150 a pop) that offers internet browsing, a music and video media player, instant messaging, and internet-based calling without a high-maintenance hard drive. The Blackfin processor is also used in the medical technology field; it powers the display and analysis functions of the AfibAlert, an atrial fibrillator that allows homebound patients to monitor their heart rates.
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IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Falling fortune ADI announced that as it had expected, first quarter 2009 revenue declined 22 percent to $477 million from a year ago. February 2009: Powering power line communications ADI acquired power line communications technology to add to its products for energy-metering applications. Analog Devices got the PowerBUS RHINO technology and all related patents, hardware and software from Domosys Corporation, a privately held company based in Quebec City, Canada. The technology is effective for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), a system that provides two-way communications, allowing instructions to be sent to residences for multiple purposes, including real-time pricing data, demand-response actions or remote service disconnections. November 2008: Rev it up ADI reported revenue for 2008 rose 6 percent from 2007, to $2.6 billion. Operating income was $625 million or 24.2 percent of revenue, compared to $569 million, or 23.1 percent of revenue, in 2007. CEO Fishman said income was boosted by the companys strategy to have a refined product portfolio at the start of the year and intensified focus on ADIs core businesses. While we exited the year faced with very difficult global economic conditions, we believe this focus on our marketleading core signal processing technologies gives us a competitive advantage that will endure throughout and beyond the current downturn, he added. November 2008: Sharpening the focus CEO Fishman said for 2009, ADI plans to focus investments on its signal processing products while reducing spending in areas that offer less advantage for the company during the global credit crunch. He added that ADI has also extended its analog technology portfolio by putting money in fast-growing areas such as radio frequency, micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS) and power management, which have the potential to be key contributors to future growth. November 2008: Snipping output ADI said the company plans to cut manufacturing output as it forecasts sharply lower earnings in the first quarter of 2009 due to weak demand and rising inventories. The chipmaker posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit but said next quarter earnings are likely to fall sharply below Wall Street estimates because of cautious consumer spending. May 2008: The scandal and the deal The Securities and Exchange Commission charged ADI and its CEO for reporting false compensation and related financial information to investors by backdating stock option grants to directors, officers and employees. ADI and Fishman agree
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to settle the charges against them. In a related civil action filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ADI consented to pay a $3 million civil penalty and Fishman $1 million without admitting or denying the SECs allegations. Fishman also agreed to repay $450,000, plus interest of $42,110, representing benefit he allegedly obtained from selling backdated stock in 1998. The SEC said during at least 1998 through 2002, ADI and Fishman backdated three stock option grants to price them below the market price of the stock on the date they were actually approved, defrauding shareholders and resulting in undisclosed compensation for Fishman, ADI executives, directors and employees. The SEC made its initial inquiry into ADIs stock option granting practices in 2004. January 2008: Going, going gone! ADI announced completion of the sale of its cellular handset radio and baseband chipset operations to MediaTek, Inc. for $350 million. MediaTek acquired the assets related to the Othello radio transceiver and SoftFone baseband chipset business, as well as certain cellular handset baseband support operations. The company said it continues to invest in the wireless handset market by focusing in areas where the audio, video, connectivity and power efficiency capabilities of wireless media devices can be significantly enhanced through innovative analog, MEMS and programmable digital signal processing (DSP) technology.
GETTING HIRED
Its all about the benefits
ADI considers its employees to be its greatest asset, and as such goes to great lengths to win their favor. The company offers extensive medical, dental and vision insurance, in addition to a slew of life insurance options. Theres also education assistance covering 100 percent of tuition expenses (for eligible programs), a retirement plan with company match and a generous dollop of vacation time. In 2005, ADI was recognized as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area an especially telling honor; considering the legendary perks offered by other Silicon Valley firms, the company has some tough competition in terms of attracting and keeping employees. ADIs career website (www.analog.com/jobs) lists opportunities for experienced professionals, new college graduates, and co-ops and interns. The page offers the standard job search functions, allowing you to casually browse its extensive listings or narrow your focus to specific locations and departments. Following the Engineering Jobs: What and Where? link will get you a handy chart letting you know what facilities employ what kind of engineers. Applications engineers can forget about finding work with ADI in the Windy City, but perhaps they could learn to love Beaverton, Oregon. Layout engineers, on the other hand, are welcome pretty much everywhere. ADI does much of its business outside the U.S.approximately 75 percent of revenue is
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earned abroadand, accordingly, more than half of the companys workforce is located at facilities in Australia, Ireland, India, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and the U.K.
Soft heart for would-be engineers

The website also features a section for college job opportunities, which are found at ADI locations throughout the United States. Internships and co-ops are also available at most U.S. locations and in Ireland, the Philippines, China and India. Co-ops and interns are assigned to work with design, applications, product/test and advanced development engineering teams and are given opportunities to interact with managers, engineers and fellow interns. There is an Intern Showcase Day at the end of their internship for students to exhibit their projects. ADI has a history of reaching out to college engineering programs dating back to the 1980s, when it established engineering chairs at MIT (its founders alma mater), Northeastern and Lowell University. (Stata has also been a frequent donor to MIT, at one point donating a $25 million building to the institutethen the largest such gift in the organizations history.) Student or not, the application and selection process is the same across the board. Should you find an opening to your liking, you will be asked to fill out some basic information in an online form before emailing your resume to human resources. If ADI likes what it sees, you will be contacted for a phone interview before a face-toface meeting.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Reviews show one of Americas most admired companies is held generally in high regard by its own. Several insiders say the company provides employees a lot of opportunity for growth, pays well and has a strong management team. A human resources manager praises its great stock program, great culture of no layoffsexcellent growth management, strategic hiring, many internal training programs and opportunity for advancement. A system engineer moving to another company attests ADI has a people culture, with an ethnically diverse staff, flexible hours and a casual dress code that allows many to work at the corporate offices in jeans, sneakers and T-shirt. I have enjoyed my years herebut need to grow beyond what Analog has to offer, the engineer says. Opportunities are abundant but in my humble opinion they seem to be more lateral. ADI has a generally positive and giving environment and there are a lot of smart and talented co-workers to interact with, a marketing director says. Great to receive
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mentorship and guidance, while some decisions are less clear from above, the contact adds. A design engineer in India says ADI offers good perks, a good working environment, brand value and opportunity for employees to understand where they fit best. But the insider says the company is a bit conservative in shifting to very new technologies, with a wait till everything is all right kind of approach. Funds for entertainment are also low, the source adds. A human resources representative says ADI offers a great salary as well as bonus and stock options for employees who exceed goals. The wealth was shared a true, Ray Stata culture, the staffer says. Overall pretty good was how a system administrator who gets a $65,000 salary describes pay and perks including profit sharing, college reimbursement, medical, dental and retirement benefits. One design manager has it even better: a base pay of $160,000 and a 25 percent bonus with stock options.
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APPIAN CORPORATION
8000 Towers Crescent Drive 16th Floor Vienna, VA 22182 Phone: (703) 442-8844 Fax: (703) 442-8919 www.appian.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company Chairman & CEO: Matthew W. Calkins 2008 Employees: 200
KEY COMPETITORS LOCATIONS

Vienna, VA (HQ) London Intalio Lombardi Software Savvion
DEPARTMENTS
Channels Corporate services EMEA Marketing Professional Services Sales Software Development Technology
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.appian.com/company/careers/openings .jsp
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Appian Corporation
THE SCOOP
A home run
Appian offers business process management (BPM) software, which provides organizations with increased visibility and control over their business processes. In addition to software, the company offers consulting and professional services in the areas of BPM, data warehousing, business intelligence, knowledge management, web services and application integration, personalization, enterprise identity management and high-speed analytics. Its products include the Appian Enterprise, a tool for integrating multiple data storage, communication and infrastructure management needs, and software suites that assist agencies in complying with legislative demands, like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for financial transparency and the Freedom of Information Act for information requests. Its clients include such notable names as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Army, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Express, Giorgio Armani, Macromedia, Sprint, the University of Maryland and the World Bank Group. A firm on the fast track (its growth over one three-year period exceeded 2,000 percent), Appian has won contracts with clients spanning the retail, financial services, insurance, energy, telecom, health care and manufacturing industries. While the companys history is not long, the same is not so for Appians list of accolades and awards. The company has been twice recognized by the Washington Business Journal (in 2004 as the D.C. areas fastest-growing software company and the citys third fastest-growing company overall, and in its 2007 list of Best Places to Work) and the Inc 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in North America. Appian has received industry kudos, including the Digital Consulting Institutes (DCI) 2003 Best Internal Portal Award, the e-Gov 2003 Explorer Award and the Industry Advisory Councils and Federal CIO Councils 2004 Excellence.gov Award. Ernst & Young named CEO and co-founder Matt Calkins Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. The company bowed gratefully to industry applause in 2007, when KMWorld named it to its list of 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management for the third year running, followed by a nod from Intelligent Enterprise, which recognized Appian as a Company to Watch.
We pickAppian!
Much of Appians success has come from teaming up with other firms. In 2004, Appian partnered with RAM Consulting, a provider of custom software for the automation of government processes. The collaboration set Appians software to work in the civil construction and transportation departments of state and local government, where RAM had an established presence as an engineering and automation software provider. The company also partnered with Zynium in 2005 to integrate Microsoft Visio software into its Appian Enterprise suite, and other alliances
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that year, with MorganFranklin and iWay Software, further augmented its offerings, propelling the company to record growth; BPM software licenses increased by a tremendous 171 percent over the year before.
Appian on demand
Eager to the meet the demands of an increasingly mobile business world, Appian took its software to the internet in February 2007. Its new suite of programs, Appian Anywhere, is accessed by users through their web browsersno downloading necessary. Appian Anywhere is the first and only complete BPM Suite available on demand, delivering all the power and functionality of Appian Enterprise via a Software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Meanwhile, by offering its programs through a subscriber system, Appian reduces its own exposure to software piracy and can deploy updates more easily. In addition to cementing its virtual presence, Appian broadened its international scope by signing a resell agreement with Lemontree, a Swedish BPM firm. Inked in March 2007, the deal takes advantage of Lemontrees reach in Nordic markets to cull new clients for Appian.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: In the outback The Territory Insurance Office (TIO), Australias only government-owned commercial insurance and financial services provider has deployed Appians Enterprise BPM Suite for use in the governments motor accidents compensation scheme. According to the TIO, the Enterprise suite is going to assist them in reducing costs and eliminating errorsin other words, Appians software suite is hopefully going to streamline the process of accident claims compensation. As a courtesy to the TIOs introduction to business process management, Appian deployed a knowledgeable team to help the TIO get used to the process. The first phase is on time and within budget, and it looks to be a promising venture that delivers strong results. February 2009: A company that matters Once again, Appian has been named one of the 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management by KMWorld magazine. Now in its eighth year, the annual list is compiled by the KMWorld network of knowledge management practitioners, theorists, analysts and end users. The magazine cites the comprehensive Appian Enterprise BPM Suite because it unifies process and knowledge management. All of the software suites capabilitiesdata and content management, text search and collaboration toolscombined with rich analytics, save Appian customers time and money in implementation as well as in seamless integration of process control capabilities and effective knowledge management.
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This is the fourth time that Appian is listed in KMWorlds 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management yearly roster. Besides being recognized by KMWorld for the fourth year running, Appian has also been named as a leader in the new Gartner Business Process Management Magic Quadrant, 2009 report. January 2009: Off to a good start Appian released a report indicating that 2008 was a good year. Fourth quarter earnings in 2008 represent the highest ever closing quarter in the companys history, and although its Enterprise suite is still its best seller, its newest SaaS offering, Appian Anywhere, is creeping up the sales charts as increased demand for the tool is seen. That year has also been the highest in terms of revenue, and its tools were able to accommodate one billion logins by users, customers and clients alikeunmatched in the industry. Two pluses can be seen in the domestic and foreign markets, with Appians foreign market share contributing 25 percent to total revenue, while new customers increased 175 percent over 2007. Even the industry took note, with the company receiving awards for, among other things, innovation in its market. December 2008: Safety and security, the Appian way In partnership with OASIS, a nonprofit organization working to establish global industry standards for information technology, the companys Appian Anywhere, its complete business process management suite, now supports security assertion markup language (SAML), a tool developed by OASIS that will enable Appian Anywhere to have a single sign-on service that increases centralized efforts at process and security and conforms to industry standards. In other words, this means that Appian Anywhere is interoperable across websites, making it possible for a users identity, attributes and entitlements to travel seamlessly from one entity to another. This means that a user doesnt need to sign-in and reverify information that should already be shared between affiliated secured websites. After all, streamlining the process has been one of Appians core tenets, and this continues with introduced support for OASISs SAML. November 2008: Introducing Enterprise 5.7 Appian unveiled two new offerings to the market: the latest version of its industry leader Enterprise software and a community-sharing tool for Appian users and clients alike. Enterprise 5.7 builds on the path blazed by Appians BPM suite series and makes its offerings even more process-centric, making it easier for users to determine what works best for their business and to combine people and systems. On the people front, Appian ShareBase is a virtual community that is free to use with a clients product license. This virtual repository of information is built from the ground up with Appian users know-how of Appian tools. It comes with popular content that change from time to time. Also, partners and customers can use ShareBase as their personal social-networking site, enabling them to upload content and to review and discuss services. According to CEO Matthew Calkins:
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The Appian community is a diverse global network of organizations with one thing in common: they are all using Appian to drive fundamental improvements in how they operate. With Appian Enterprise 5.7, we are giving that community the most powerful, yet easy-to-use, BPM platform available. With Appian ShareBase, we are helping the members of that community learn from each others successes to speed the time-to-value of their BPM initiatives. October 2008: Process-centric It was all about the government this quarter, as Appian snagged contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For FEMA, Appian is tasked to streamline and automate the agencys disaster response process, ensuring that agency activities could be monitored and progress be tracked in real time for immediate feedback. On the other hand, the FDA has entered into a three-year contract with Appian in order to improve its information technology base. Essentially, the FDA is asking Appian to upgrade its processes for a more unified approach to agency activities, such as determining office productivity or determining who gets access to what files at the FDA. Both FEMA and the FDA will use Appians web-based application, which makes it easier for both agencies to streamline their processes. This should be good news for everyone involved, as Appian is expected to take in $3 million for both software-as-a-service applications for FEMA and the FDA. September 2008: Appian-Mega coordination Appian may be good at answering client needs and at being flexible about the solutions it provides, but how could a client know if Appians software-as-a-service tool is working or not? The answer to that question comes in the form of Mega, an architecture enterprise company that offers analysis for business processes and their effectiveness. The moment of discovery, that a-ha!, came when rental car company Enterprise propounded that Appian and Mega work togetherboth are Enterprises vendors and have the company as a client. After agreeing to combine their capabilities, Appian released its Enterprise BMP suite equipped with the Mega modeling suite. Appian and Mega share five customers, and both hope that their combined tools might open the market to a two-in-one package deal that might cement both companies position in the BPM market. July 2008: Filling coffers Like the Beatles song, Appian has raised $10 million, with a little help from its friends,venture partners Novak Biddle. Appian plans to use the funds to position itself more strongly in the market and to widen the reach of its Enterprise BPM Suite as software-as-a-service. In return for the funding, Novak Biddle co-founder Jack Biddle sits on the board of directors at Appian. Appian teaming up with Novak Biddle is no surprise, as the latter is known for supporting fledgling IT companies to get their businesses off and running. Also, the fact that Appian is an industry leader in the business process management market doesnt hurt, as Novak Biddle prefers companies that have a unique or proprietary advantage for
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long-term relationships. This is Appians first entry into joint venture endeavors. Of late, Appian has received offers to buy out the company, but they have been shown the door by CEO Matthew Calkins, who believes that the company has not yet reached its full potential. June 2008: This is SharePoint Complementing Microsoft SharePoint, a tool that allows data and other information to be shared across teams or offices, Appian announced that its BPM suite is now available for users of the program. More like giving order to chaos, Appians integrated SharePoint package supports areas that Microsofts programs lack: business process management and workflow. Thanks to Appian, designers can now have more control over the process, and analysts can look at real-time data about workflow. Whats good about Appians offering is that it is all about supportboth for SharePoint and the end user. It doesnt supplant the SharePoint interface, instead working quietly in the SharePoint dashboard. April 2008: Clearing the clutter for apartments Appian just had to help Archstone. Like most companies that have been around for a long time, the shift to a paperless process has occurred at a snails pace, especially since the companys reach is far and wide and there are a few community differences it has to consider. Fax machines were the lifeblood of Archstone, and every form sent had the concurrent risks of getting lost along the way or getting to its destination a little too late. Appian threw its hat into the ring when Archstone called for vendors to show the company what theyve got. Using a typical Archstone business scenario as the challenge, vendors were asked to present a solution that works well for the company. When the dust settled, Appian was the winner. Archstone appreciated that Appian has come up with a system that knows its end users (read: businesspeople, not techies), and designed it according to their needs and specifications. In addition, having a centralized system might decrease the attrition rates at the field level, since associates can now focus on meeting customer needs rather than getting used to the companys processes. Points are in order for Appian here, since its flexibility with customer needs earned it a new client. March 2008: Service is just a click away Bigger than Hertz and Avis, rental car giant Enterprise chose Appians web-based business process management (BPM) suite in its internal service request system. The in-house application is expected to process everything that Enterprise needs within its company, from ordering a laptop to making arrangements to opening a new branch. Before Appians software suite entered the picture, Enterprises view of its internal services department was skewed, with the company having to make do with manually receiving service requests through email, generating a virtual paper trail that sticks to the companys foot like a used tissue. With Appians help, however, Enterprise has established a central processing system that can be accessed online. Entry forms are now a thing of the past, since Appians web
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application is designed to streamline the process, with Enterprise employees ultimately having to just point and click their selections online. An IT manager from Enterprise says that the company is now able to reallocate the time saved with Appians application to other, more valuable processes within the company.
GETTING HIRED
Choices, choices
Aside from its Washington-area headquarters, one can also opt to work for its U.K. European headquarters or regional sales locations in nine states. Meritocracy is the operative value in the professional, outside of the jovial part of the days grind. Appian is also an equal opportunity employer. There are two ways to apply for a job at Appian. First, applicants may find specific positions listed on the company website at www.appian.com/company/careers/openings.jsp. To apply, an application form can be downloaded to prepare you for an interview. Send this with a cover letter and resume to jobs@appian.com, or to the headquarters mailing address (Attn.: Recruiting - New Candidates). Be sure to specify the position for which you are applying. For the interview, download Print Directions. Second, Appian recruits at a number of colleges, including Carnegie-Mellon, Dartmouth, Duke, MIT, Princeton, Rensselaer, Tecnolgico de Monterrey in Mexico, the University of Maryland, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Check out www.appianjobs.com/opportunities.htm for the university visits of the season and the available openings for undergraduates. Information about these college visits can be obtained by contacting jobs@appian.com or by visiting your career services office. Resumes and cover letters from college students should be sent to this same email address.
Work on the Love Boat?

Appian supports what it calls a jovial, yet professional work environment, and as such fosters group activitiesfrom educational sessions and softball teams to tea and Sudoku partiesamong its employees. Theres regular interaction with top executives, and indie time for personal projects. Adding to the glee is the free fresh fruit delivered to the office twice a week, monthly gym and cell phone reimbursements, monthly happy hours, quarterly events and the annual corporate adventures conducted on cruise ships. But its not all tea and strawberries at Appianemployees can expect more pedestrian benefits like health, dental and vision care plans, a 401(k) program with company matching and three weeks of paid vacation per year. New hires with Appian are thoroughly shown the ropes with a fourweek training program in all things technical, followed by a six-month mentoring program. Perhaps its this kind of treatment that earned the company a spot on
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Washington Business Journals Best Places to Work in the Greater D.C. Area list in 2005 and 2007. Appian is recognized for creating a positive work environment that attracts and retains employees though a combination of employee satisfaction, working conditions and company culture. Given this rare corporate atmosphere that fosters friendship, the state-of-the-art equipment can only come as a bonus, along with the paid parking at headquarters. And, as if all that werent enough, Appians website boasts of the companys constantly looking for new, innovative benefits to offer its employees.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Where you may/can/will belong
Very good group of consultants and top-notch assignments, is how one respondent put it, although he could see room for complaining about management, noting: The management is kind of nerdythe Doogie Howser types. Seem to be disconnected from reality. How do nerds interview job applicants? Be ready with all numbers your height in meters to your SAT and GRE scores. Thats not really so bad, is it? All the perks just might be able to outweigh the small price to pay for getting through the interview process.
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APPLE INC.
1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014 Phone: (408) 996-1010 www.apple.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative & Clerical Applications Facilities Finance Hardware Engineering Human Resources Information Systems & Technology iPhone Engineering iPod Engineering Legal Marketing & Product Marketing Operations Retail Corporate Retail Store Sales Software Engineering
LOCATIONS
Cupertino, CA (HQ) Alabama Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Illinois Indianapolis Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Washington Wisconsin Beijing Belfast Birmingham, United Kingdom Bristol Calgary Cambridge Chadstone, Australia Chatswood, Australia Edmonton Exeter Fukuoka, Japan Geneva Glasgow Grays, United Kingdom Greenhithe, United Kingdom Kingston, United Kingdom Laval, Canada Leicester, United Kingdom Liverpool London Manchester Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Miyagi, Japan Montreal Munich Nagoya Osaka Rome Sapporo Sheffield, United Kingdom Solihull, United Kingdom Sydney Tokyo Vancouver WestQuay, United Kingdom Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: AAPL Stock Exchange: Nasdaq CEO: Steven P. Jobs 2008 Employees: 32,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 32,479 2008 Income ($ mil.): 4,834
KEY COMPETITORS
Dell Hewlett-Packard Microsoft
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Apple Inc.
THE SCOOP
More than three decades of thinking differently
Apple has come a long way since 1976 when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak first built their own computer. Today, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company makes a line of constantly evolving laptop and desktop computers, which, equipped with the Mac OS X operating system, vlogger-friendly QuickTime andin a first for the companyIntel processors running the show, have generated a zealous cult following. The Macintosh has long been popular, especially in graphic arts and publishing. Apple ranked No. 103 on the 2008 list of the Fortune 500 and second on BusinessWeeks 2008 edition of the InfoTech 100 (21 ranks ahead of competitor Microsoft, which placed 23rd). Also, Apple topped Fortunes list of Most Admired Companies for the second year in a row in 2008. The bulk of the companys profit comes from its personal digital products and its computers. At the outset of the 2000s, Apple co-founder and CEO Jobs radically revised the companys core identity, drawing the firms attention to high-end electronic and digital devices and services. Most notably, the iPod series of digital music players, the iMac, the Macbook and recently the iPhone, have revolutionized both the music industry and the handheld device market, changing the way people listen to (and record labels distribute) music and treat their mobile phones. Going beyond these markets, Apple creates its share of the online market with its iTunes Store and AppleTV, both offering exclusive content in partnership with record labels and TV and film companies such as EMI music and NBC, among others.
Macintosh through rain and shine

Apples journey has been a roller-coaster ride, alternating between riding high on the success of its products and battling accusations of illegal corporate acts and claims of patent infringement. In the boardrooms, leadership changed hands and went back to square one, with Steve Jobs abruptly leaving the company he helped build in 1985, then coming back onboard in 1997 to guide the company through the dark tunnel of internal issues and the global economic downturn in the 2000s, only to take a sixmonth medical leave of absence in 2009 to focus on his health. Calling a truce with longtime rival Microsoft in 1997 was seen as a savvy move, as both companies entered into a cross-licensing pact, letting them support each others products and software. There were raised eyebrows when the candy-colored iMacs were released sans a floppy disk drive. Apple reasoned that zip drives were going to be the thing of the future anyway, so why stick to something thats on its way to being phased out? Prophetically, Apple is vindicated, due in part to the flexibility and capability of the Internet, online storage, flash drives and CD-ROMS.
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iPhone mania
The tech revolution that started with the iPod in 2001 culminated in the release of the iPhone in June 2007. The Apple faithful lined up outside the companys flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City days before the phones release; crafty consumers in other parts of the country scoped out less-trafficked AT&T stores for a chance to grab an iPhone away from the crowds gathering at suburban mall Apple stores. Other consumers have grumbled that the iPhones exclusive relationship with AT&T in America will deter them from buying the product, although an anonymous computer hacker revealed a free open-source procedure in mid-2007 to jailbreak the iPhone to accommodate other wireless providers. Regardless, iPhones have been flying off the shelves. Despite investor worries that demand was sinking, the one millionth iPhone was sold in September 2007, only three months after the gadgets inception.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: See that movie stars pores up close The marriage between high definition and iTunes got going as Apple announced the availability of high-definition movies for sale in their iTunes store. This should be good news for those who love their movies as realistically rendered as possible, whether on their iPhone, their iPod, their Mac or PC, or their AppleTV. Get ready, as recently released movie titles will soon be added to the iTunes lineup. Before Apples announcement, only TV shows were available for purchase and download. In its maturing iPod line, Apple unveiled a new Shuffle, shrunk in half but with the capacity to play twice as many songs as the original iPod Shuffle. Unlike the old model, which has no display interface to look at, the new iPod Shuffle has a voice feature that announces songs and playlists in 14 languages. Also, all the controls are now on the earphone cord, which makes for a more accessible listening experience. Sad news for customers who like the old Shuffle, though, as the new iPod Shuffle is going to be the only Shuffle on the market soonApple plans to phase out the older model. February 2009: The Safari hunt Mozillas fox sniffed the air, while Microsofts explorer manned the area as Googles chrome glints in the sunlight. Apple entered the browser wilderness as it promoted Safari 4 Beta as the worlds fastest. Four times faster than its predecessor, its interface is similar to iTunes, with users able to browse through web page histories as they would browse through songs or albums in their iTunes libraries. Touted as 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and three times faster than Mozilla Firefox 3 in loading JavaScript, Safari 4s speed is credited to Nitro, an open-source software also used in Googles Chrome and Android browsers.
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January 2009: Jobs goes on leave; Apple wins Papermaster from Big Blue CEO Steve Jobs took a six-month medical leave of absence in January 2009, after his medical problems proved to be more complex than [Steve] originally thought. Although hes expected to be back at the helm by the middle of the year, it remains to be seen whether Apple can weather the months without its CEO, who has become inextricably entwined with the companys public image. Tim Cook, Apples chief operating officer, is tasked to handle the day-to-day operations of the company. Apple retains its plans to focus on delivering extraordinary products, continuing a tradition of breaking with convention and leading the revolution in the digital age. The SEC is examining Apple regarding the news of its CEOs health to determine if investors have been misled by the companys disclosures. The matter is not meant to go public, so neither side is willing to comment about the affair. Finally, Mark Papermaster, a former vice president at IBM, has been given the go signal to head Apples iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams. This should be good news for the company, since its taken a good three months to get Papermaster over to its side. The struggle has involved litigation between the two companies, with IBM insisting that Papermaster take a years leave of absence before joining Apple, and Apple saying that there really shouldnt be anything to worry about since he is going to focus on personal computers and consumer devices, which is a long way away from IBMs specialty of making large computer servers. A deal was reached in federal court, where Papermaster will need to certify in July and October that he has not divulged privileged information in his work with Apple. Meanwhile, IBM is going to be on its toes, ready to pounce if it sees any indication that its intellectual property rights are being breached. October 2008: iPod not the leader of the pack in terms of 2008 Q4 sales iPod sales only contributed 14.2 percent of Apples total fiscal Q4 2008 revenue, which grew at a rate of 75 percent year over year. Yet, Apples stock is only $4 higher than it was in November 2006. Investors, the media and analysts have consistently overstated Apples dependence on the iPod for future revenue and earnings growth. In Q1 2008, Wall Street, choosing to disregard iPhone and Mac revenue as being the core of Apples future revenue growth, only focused on how iPod unit sales grew at a meager pace of 5 percent year over year. Wall Street also seemed to disregard the fact that iPod revenue growth in Q1 is still 16.6 percent higher than it was in the same quarter the year before. September 2008: Taking a different tack in the Far East Apple customers in Asia should be surprised to learn that, unlike their counterparts in the Western hemisphere, their iPhone isnt going to be tied to a specific mobile carrier for a set number of years. Following the trend on this part of the planet, Apple introduced the unlocked iPhone in Hong Kong, which can be activated with any wireless carrier. Unlike U.S. customers who initially had their iPhone tied to an AT&T contract, most consumers in Hong Kong can partner-up
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their iPhone with any mobile carriera SIM card is used instead of a service contract. This is the start of the Asian iPhone explosion, as its estimated that the Apple devices available on the island of Hong Kong will soon make their way across the Pacific and into other countries in the region. July 2008: No leaders, please Ignoring the big boys and major players and going after the underdogs, Apple said that chips in their iPhone 3G model are coming from smaller vendors who arent as well known but are equally capable of delivering the specifications the company demands for their products. Apple chose Infineon, Samsung and TriQuint as its suppliersall three are below industry leaders QUALCOMM and Texas Instruments. Some speculate that cost is the driving factor behind these decisions, but this trend has been around since Apple released its first iPhone in 2007, so its no surprise that the company has chosen to work with smaller vendors and not market leaders. The company already has a reputation for going against the grain of tradition and building its own industry strategy. June 2008: Beyond the edge network In the first quarter of the month, Apple ups its iPhone arsenal by releasing the second-generation iPhone, known as the iPhone 3G. Apple also announces plans to beef up the capabilities of its new iPhone so that the device can handle triband connections and be 3G-capable everywhere. This release also introduces the Apps Store, where users can purchase and download software developed by third parties, with Apples blessing. The new iPhone is half the price but twice the power, says Steve Jobs at the annual Apple development conference in San Francisco. Apple might be hoping the release of MobileMe, a paid storage and full-capability (email, calendar, galleries and photo sharing) website might make up for the iPhone 3Gs halved price tag, with the website offering 20 GB of storage at only $99 a year. April 2008: What do you mean you got here first?
Apple is coasting high on the waves of the iPhone and its other Mac products, but its about to run into an iceberg of patent infringement lawsuits filed before U.S. district courts across the country. The company has been a frequent target of litigation, and court dockets are seeing more and more parties levying claims against Apple. This month and the last saw eight claims against the company, mostly having to do with patent infringement. One particular claimant said that the company used his patented system for Flash memory connectivity in its iPod Nano and iTouch. Though the lawsuit cites these two devices as infringing, the plaintiffs counsel isnt ruling out including the iPhone as well. Theyve been very slow in responding, J. Michael Huget, attorney for the claimant, said. The lawsuit, if allowed to go to court, seeks treble damages and an injunction against sales of the iPod Nano and the iTouch. Apple bought PowerPC designer PA Semi for $278 million without informing investors or the bought-out companys customers. Although it might be typical
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Apple fashion to acquire investments in secret, this one might be a little tricky for Apple. Although PA has told its customers that its acquiring company (it didnt name Apple as the buyer) is not interested in continuing production, some analysts indicate that PA has broken customer trust. And thats where the company hits the snag, because PA counts the U.S. Department of Defense as one of its big customers. Within hours after the story broke, many DOD contracts were cancelled, and some customers grumbled about their future with a company no longer able to make the products theyve been known for. As a stopgap measure, Apple promised to support PA Semi products for a while. March 2008: The great iPhone jailbreak The iPhone has wowed, wooed and amazed loyal and new Apple users alike, and public opinion on the tools adamant refusal to host third-party applications has both sides of the fence populated with those praising Apple for protecting its consumers from possibly risky programs and software on the one hand, and those protesting this exclusivist mindset and toiling away on their PCs, hacking into the iPhone firmware to get it to run non-Apple programs on the other. Sweet success came to a group that calls itself the iPhone dev team when it announced on its website that its members have officially picked iPhones lock and can have it host non-Apple applications. In other words, this has become the great iPhone jailbreak, an almost yearlong effort (since the iPhone went on sale in June 2007) among different groups to stand up to what one writer has described as Apples control-freak mindset when it comes to developing software for its iPhone.
GETTING HIRED
With job openings for staid tech workers as well as recent grads in areas like hardware engineering, software engineering, applications, finance, operations and marketing, Apple is looking for candidates with skills. Just what skills they need, exactly, are outlined on the companys job website (www.apple.com/jobs), which provides a breakdown of necessary abilities in its overview of each job category. When youve determined the area of operations right for you, a listing of all open jobs for that category is available for your perusal. Find something you like? Interested parties can set up a profile on Apples job page and submit their rsums online.
Apple, the next generation

For the soon-to-graduate set, Apple makes an appearance at several campus events throughout the year, including pit stops at Stanford, Harvard, Duke University, the University of California at Irvine and New York University (to name a fewa full schedule can be found at www.apple.com/jobs/us/pro/college/campus_events.html). The company also offers full-time and part-time paid internships in its engineering divisions. While internships are occasionally offered in nontechnical areas like
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finance, marketing, or graphic design, these positions often go to candidates with some technical experience. Along with learning about the company and industry, interns enjoy more immediately rewarding perks, like discounts on Apple products, free health insurance and a casual dress codenot to mention that rarest of internship compensations: money. Internships are offered at Apples headquarters in Cupertino and generally last for three months during the summer, although there are a limited number of six-month co-op positions available throughout the year. Still want to hightail it to Cupertino? Vault sources report going through two (or more) rounds of interviews. One intern pointed out that his interviewer asked me one question about my resume, then opened the rest of the time for me to ask him questions. Coming prepared with five or six good, open-ended questions is extremely important.
Take a bite out of Apple

Apple is not only driving innovation in the tech and music industries, it also wants to lead the pack in terms of the benefits it grants its employees. Through its FlexBenefits program, Apple-ites can choose benefits that best fit their unique lives. The company also offers a 401(k) with company match, an employee stock purchasing program and on-site fitness centers. And you dont have to be a bornand-raised Apple fan to fit in here; in fact, the company says it appreciates diversity in employee background, which extends to personal computer history. Taking diversity one step further, the company also partners with several organizations to ensure a non-homogeneous workforce, including National Black MBAs, the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and the Society of Women Engineers.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Great place to work, with some reservations

Talk to some Apple employees and you might come away with the impression that theres no better place to work than Apple. Funny, brilliant, relaxed co-workers and modern, spacious, beautiful offices filled with comfortable couches and huge picture windows make work time a pleasure. I cant imagine any reason not to work here, coos one insider. The atmosphere is extremely relaxed and open, with a very friendly culture, gushes a source in the finance department. Teamwork seems to be very important at the company, and its easy to work together when the people are willing. Most of my peers are open-minded, shares one insider. [They] have appreciation for music, movies and the arts. And one way Apple employees get to appreciate their peers is through shared iTunes libraries, something thats seen as a perk by most everyone.
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The hours might be long, but the pay is good, according to one administrator. There are many opportunities for advancement, he adds. The dress code is in line with the companys relaxed atmosphere, with some employees going to work in street clothes. Think Apple is all fun and games like their products? Think again. Apple is pretty serious with its employee development. There are regular training courses available that can give you the skills you need to get promoted or advance in the company. While many admit Apple has changed over the past 10 years, most employees stay put. Apple believes strongly in hiring from within the company, so opportunities to advance are plentiful. There are also numerous opportunities to shift horizontally within the company as well. Employees are generally very dedicated, and its easy to find people who have worked here for 20-plus years who are still very happy with their jobs, notes another source. Comments like absolutely no downers, everyone is an essential part of the team, and Apple remains my dream company, could make anyone want to pack their bags for California. Its not all sunshine and sweet dreams in Cupertino, however. Yeah, Apple! Right? Well, maybe, says one insider. If you put your heart into the Mac vs. Windows jihad, its very frustrating to see an inferior OS getting all the attention, says one programmer. The downside of the unusually creative atmosphere is that sometimes trying to enforce a corporate strategy is like herding cats. One contact feels that Apple management is only looking out for their bottom line, saying that when the going gets tough, the tough make drastic changes that dont really solve the problem. The pay is not bad, but not the best in the Bay area, though some contacts add, the people make up for the pay. Most of our contacts say they have no plans to leave Apple anytime soon. A dress code that is casual with a capital C and a uniquely Californian work hard/play hard culture make up for the hours toiling at the office. Working at Apple is a wonderful experience, one source says, noting that the environment is intellectually challenging, inspiring and rewarding. The culture is the best, another gushes. The main R&D campus in Cupertino is pretty posh, with a huge lawn in the middle, a very nice cafeteria and a big indoor atrium with a cafe. Benefits also include same-sex domestic partner medical benefits. And, while the company is mostly white and male, Apple does look for women and minorities. Insiders say, Its common knowledge that Apples progressive nature is a large part of its image.
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APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.

3050 Bowers Avenue P.O. Box 58039 Santa Clara, CA 95054-3299 Phone: (408) 727-5555 www.appliedmaterials.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: AMAT Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & CEO: Michael R. Splinter 2008 Employees: 14,824 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 8,129.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): 960.8
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Chelmsford, MA Fairfield, CA Phoenix, AZ Salt Lake City, UT Sunnyvale, CA Alzenau, Germany Bangalore Beijing Cheseaux, Switzerland Dresden, Germany Gyeonggi, South Korea Hoofddorp, The Netherlands Hsinchu, Taiwan Jiangsu, China Kiryat Gat, Israel Kulim, Malaysia Meylan, France Noida, India Ontario Rehovot, Israel Sarawak, Malaysia Shanghai Singapore Suzhou, China Taichung, Taiwan Tainan, Taiwan Tamil Nadu, India Taoyuan, Taiwan Tianjin, China Tokyo Xian, China
KEY COMPETITORS
Hitachi HT KLA-Tencor Lam
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.appliedmaterials.com/careers
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Corporate Affairs Engineering Executive Finance Human Resources Information Systems Legal Manufacturing Marketing Materials Management Mergers & Acquisitions Operations Quality & Safety Real estate & Facilities Sales Technical Publications Technical Support Technology
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Applied Materials, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Time to make the chips
Applied Materials leads a large niche of the semiconductor industry. It prides itself on being the worlds largest purveyor of nanomanufacturing technology, which means that it sells the machines that other companies use to make semiconductor chips, solar modules and flat panel displays. When Applied Materials first came on the scene in the late 1960s, semiconductor machines were produced by the large companies that made the machines themselves, such as IBM and Texas Instruments. By catering to this specific part of the market, Applied Materials has made itself a Silicon Valley mainstay, and the largest company of its kind. Through its four business segmentssilicon, applied global services, display, and energy and environment solutionsthe company strives to meet all the demands of its wide-ranging customer base. Applied Materials silicon arm makes the manufacturing equipment that makes semiconductors. The fab solutions department works in tandem with both the silicon and solar businesses, providing services to make the manufacturing process more efficient. The display segment is a bit more self-explanatoryhere Applied Materials manufactures equipment used to build liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for televisions and computer monitors. Through its energy and environment solutions, the company applies its display technology to solar photovoltaic cells (which harness the awesome power of the sun to run your blow dryer or coffee grinder) and energy-efficient glass, among other products.
Let the chips fall where they may

The Applied Materials empire increasingly stretches far beyond U.S. borders; in addition to its corporate offices in Santa Clara, it has sales and service offices in Europe, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China. Its research, development and manufacturing centers are based in the U.S., Israel and Europe, while its technology centers are located in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In 2008, Europe was the region that accounted for the largest chunk, 38 percent, of the companys sales; followed by North America at 26 percent, Japan at 17 percent, Southeast Asia and China at 9 percent, Korea at 7 percent and Taiwan at 2 percent. Applied Materials biggest customers include Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba and Freescale Semiconductor. In 2008, Applied Materials sales revenue reached $8.1292 billion.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Among the most admired companies Applied Materials is on Fortunes list of Worlds Most Admired Companies and Corporate Responsibility Officer Magazines 10th annual list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens. February 2009: $133 million net loss in fiscal Q1 2009 The company released financial results for its first fiscal quarter ending January 2009 with net sales of $1.33 billion and a net loss of $133 million. February 2009: Partnering to develop 22-nm chips Applied Materials together with IBM and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the State University of New York at Albany signed an agreement to jointly develop process modeling technology for manufacturing 22nanometer (nm) logic and memory chips. November 2008: No longer interested in ASMI An EE Times report stated that Applied Materials was not pursuing plans to purchase ASM International N.V. (ASMI)s atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor depostion (PE-CVD) operations despite reportedly tendering an offer of at least $400 million to buy the chip-making equipment company based in the Netherlands. According to the report, Applied Materials, together with private equity firm Francisco Partners, even increased the offer to $800 million but ASMI rejected the offer. The alleged motive for the offer, EE Times said, was to allow Applied Materials to gain access to Intel, ASMIs top customer. July 2008: Breaking more ground in Taiwan Applied Materials held a groundbreaking to expand its manufacturing facility in Tainan, Taiwan, to meet increased demand for its AKT flat panel display equipment and SunFab thin film solar manufacturing equipment. The expansion is worth $17 million and will increase total production area to 14,000 square meters.
GETTING HIRED
Extensive info has been Applied online
Applied Materials has extensive hiring information on its websites Careers section or www.appliedmaterials.com/careers. Job listings are sorted by region and resumes may be submitted online. For those suffering from a resume deficiency, the company even provides an online resume builder. The job agent function allows you to enter and save search criteria; the company will contact you when
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open positions matching your interests come up. Applied Materials careers site also hosts a special section for exiting military personnel; recognizing the skills gained through duty in the armed forces, the company works with local military transition centers to match servicemen and women with opportunities. Its because of efforts like this that the company earned a spot on G.I. Jobs magazines 2006 Top 50 Most Military-Friendly Employers list.
From the classroom to the boardroom (or at least a cubicle)

Recent grads should look into the companys College to Corporate development program, a full-time paid opportunity to get your foot in the Applied Materials door. Designed to train and develop graduates on the ins and outs of nanomanufacturing technology, the program welcomes applicants with technical backgrounds (materials science, physics, computer science and engineering majors) as well as those with business degrees in supply chain management, finance, accounting, business administration and the like. A graduate fellowship program and internship and co-op opportunities accommodate those who are still in school, but looking to add a little corporate flavor to their lives. Details for all these opportunities are listed under the College Recruiting portion of the careers website, while details on Applied Materials myriad of college campus visits can be found under the Job Fairs link.
Nice perks
Once youre in, Applied Materials wants to keep you happy. Some of the benefits on offerapart from the usual health and dental insuranceinclude a 401(k) with company matching, training and development through on-site learning centers and academic partnerships, wellness programs and athletic facilities, profit sharing, employee stock purchase plans, credit union membership, service awards, community and volunteer giving opportunities, and tuition reimbursement.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Hero mentality?
To anyone interested in or toying with such questions in their minds, the Applied Materials culture does not support the hero mentality. Elaborates an insider, We have our processes and mission clearly outlined. Each individual knows or should know what is expected of them. The company is performance-driven by quality, production and innovation. It is so agile in running its business that, from an outsiders point of view, this appears to be harsh. But you do want to be part of one the greatest manufacturing and research companies on the planet, right?
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A real challenge
An insider who works at Applied Materials finance division warns, It is one of the fiercest environments that I have ever worked in. The people that are hired are in for a real surprise, because it is no walk in the park. You will be challenged tremendously and will be expected to put in some real hours. Im talking about 60to 70-hour workweeks. The senior management puts in these types of hours, so if you want to be successful, you better be right along side.
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ASML HOLDING N.V.

De Run 501 Veldhoven, 5504 DR The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 268 3000 Fax: +31 40 268 2000 www.asml.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ASML Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President, CEO & Chairman: Eric Meurice 2008 Employees: 6,930 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 2,953.7 2008 Income ( mil.): 322.4
LOCATIONS
Veldhoven, The Netherlands (HQ) Albany, NY Albuquerque, NM Austin, TX Bloomington, MN Boise, ID Colorado Springs, CO Hillsboro, OR Hopewell Junction, NY Hudson, MA Irvine, CA Manassas, VA Pleasant Grove, UT Portland, OR Richardson, TX San Jose, CA Sandston, VA Santa Clara, CA Tempe, AZ Westbrook, ME Wilton, CT Avezzano, Italy Dresden Gyunggi-Do, Korea Hong Kong Hsinchu City, Taiwan Kulim, Malaysia Kyungki-Do, Korea Leixlip, Ireland Milan Montbonnot, France Qiryat-Gat, Israel Rousset, France Shanghai Singapore Tainan, Taiwan Tianjin, China Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Canon Nikon
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.asml.com/asml/show.do?ctx=32420#
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Administration Communications Customer & Support Facility Management Finance & Accounting General Management Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing & Sales Planning & Logistics Procurement Quality Research & Development Training & Publications
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition ASML Holding N.V.
THE SCOOP
Wealth in wafers
When it comes to advanced lithography and semiconductor solutions, ASML is king. The firm makes and distributes photolithography and scanning products needed to print the circuitry patterns found on silicon wafers. These machines are the heart of the manufacturing process to produce integrated circuits (a/k/a ICs or chips) and can cost up to 30 million apiece. ASML is the largest chip equipment maker in Europe and a global market leader with 63 percent market share, well ahead of rivals Nikon and Canon. It boasts customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Samsung and Intel. As a producer of top-shelf systems, the company has relied on superior engineering, a specialized approach and innovative business strategies, such as outsourcing, to stay competitive. ASML, initially known as ASM Lithography Holding, began in 1984 as a joint venture between Advanced Semiconductor Materials (ASMI), a global semiconductor equipment manufacturer, and Royal Philips Electronics, one of the worlds biggest electronics firms. ASMI, which is active in semiconductor equipment outside lithography and does not compete with ASML, sold its 50 percent stake in the venture to Philips in 1990. ASML went public in 1995, and in following years Philips sold its entire shareholding in the company. While the desertion of its parent companies seemed to indicate the semiconductor field was not a growth industry, ASMLs superior engineering has allowed it to weather periodic downturns quite well.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Pain to last longer than expected ASML Chairman Eric Meurice said the company will be able to achieve its revenue target of 5 billion within two to three years after the current economic crisis bottoms out. ASML had earlier aimed to hit its revenue target in 2010, but orders fell starting at the end of 2008. Meurice tells the ASML annual general meeting that, despite the fall, the market for lithography systems still has substantial growth potential. He says ASML is expected to consolidate its position after the economic crisis by investing two to three times the amount of money of Japanese rivals, Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp., in research and development, and by maintaining a flexible business model. The company posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 88 million in January, compared to a net profit of 193 million a year earlier. Sales fell 48 percent to 494 million from 955 million.
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January 2009: More bad news ASML said its sales in 2008 fell 21.6 percent to 2.95 billion from a year earlier, due to weak orders and a virtual freeze in capital expenditure by chipmakers. Income for the year stood at 322 million or 10.9 percent of sales, down from 671 million or 17.8 percent of sales in 2007. Net sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 fell just below 500 million and net bookings were very weak, confirming the major impact of the worldwide recession on the semiconductor equipment industry, said Eric Meurice, ASML president and chief executive officer. December 2008: Job slashing ASML cut its sales forecast and said it will eliminate about 1,000 jobsmore than 10 percent of the totalas orders slide. Fourth quarter sales will be 450 million to 500 million, down from an October forecast of about 530 million, the company says in a statement. First quarter 2009 sales will be 180 million to 250 million amid a severe deterioration in the order intake. ASMLs customers are ordering fewer machines and have requested to postpone deliveries as chip demand weakens. The company said it anticipates sales in the first six months of next year will be substantially lower. Semiconductor sales will drop 16 percent next year because of the economic slowdown and lower consumer spending, says researcher Gartner Inc. October 2008: Profits plunge ASML said third quarter profit fell 56 percent on lower machine sales due to delayed expansion plans of chipmakers. Net income plunged to 73.3 million ($99.5 million), or 17 cents a share, from 166.3 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales fell 25 percent to 696.5 million for the quarter while full-year sales will drop around 20 percent this year, estimates ASML. March 2006: Expanding East
Citing the need for Europes largest chipmaker to have a global profile, and no doubt because the region was already home to its main competitors Nikon and Canon, ASML announced that it will begin expanding its research and development operations in Asia. In 2006, 83 percent of ASMLs customers were based in Asia but, historically, its headquarters and suppliers were predominantly European. The company predicted that the formation of a research center in Asia, including training in customer support and manufacturing, will take between three and seven years. December 2006: Expanding West ASML acquired California-based Brion Technologies for $270 million. The buyout gives ASML another holding in computerized semiconductor design and the advanced lithography R&D sector. Brion, founded in 2002, is a leader in the area
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of design and manufacturing solutions, and the company expects the acquisition to increase profitsand ASMLs lead over Canon and Nikonin the future. January 2006: Lookin good The end of fiscal 2006 brought good news to ASMLit increased its market share to 63 percent, with record sales of 3,597 million ($4,749 million), up 42 percent from 2005. In addition, the firms net income more than doubled, going from 311 million ($408 million) in 2005 to 625 million ($820 million) in 2006. However, the boom in sales worried some analysts, who predicted that, based on decreases in cell phone, TV and computer chip sales, the semiconductor market could be hurt by oversupply in 2007. ASML thought otherwise: the company predicted that sales of chip components, especially flash memory drive pieces and PC chips, would increase over the course of 2007
GETTING HIRED
Make your mark at ASML
ASMLs careers site (www.asml.com/careers) provides links to video interviews with employees, FAQs and a virtual tour of an ASML cleanroom. The page also provides links to local HR personnel (Career Contacts), global events (Events), benefits and career information (Working at ASML) and open positions (Vacancies). The Vacancies page allows prospective employees to search by region (the United States, Europe or Asia), country, functional area, and education and training background. In order to realize growth ambitions, ASML is looking to hire hundreds of technicians for R&D, production and customer service. In particular, the company is looking for experienced (more than five years) physicists, software specialists, and mechanical and electronic engineers who will support its entrepreneurial spirit and international ambitions and who have the skills to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams. Employees can grow into management functions, but they can also become highly valued fellows, with deep knowledge about specific technologies. Functional areas (a/k/a departments) include administration, communications, facility management, finance and accounting, general management, HR, IT, legal, manufacturing, marketing and sales, planning and logistics, procurement, quality, R&D, service and maintenance, and training and publications. Each job listing page contains links at the bottom to email, save or apply for the position. Prospective interns can visit ASMLs intern site (at www.asml.com/asmldotcom/show.do?ctx= 1313) for an internship search engine and information on how to apply. Finally, ASML hires can also submit general applications for consideration by region.
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ATMEL CORPORATION
2325 Orchard Parkway San Jose, CA 95131 Phone: (408) 441-0311 Fax: (408) 436-4314 www.atmel.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ATML Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: David Sugishita President & CEO: Steven Laub 2008 Employees: 6,400 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,566.8 2008 Income ($ mil.): -27.2
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ) Addison, TX Boynton Beach, FL Braintree, MA Burnsville, MN Colorado Springs, CO Corona, CA Lake Oswego, OR Lakewood, CO Lombard, IL Novi, MI Raleigh, NC Bangalore Beijing Berkshire, United Kingdom Espoo, Finland Fribourg, Switzerland Glostrup, Denmark Hadera, Israel Heilbronn, Germany Kanata, Canada Kowloon, Hong Kong Milan Montigny le Bretonneux, France Mnchen Osaka Pretoria, South Africa Rissne, Sweden Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Taipei Tijuana Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
LSI Corporation Microchip Spansion
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.atmel.com/careers/jobs.asp
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Support/Clerical Applications Audit Corporate Marketing Design Facilities Finance Firmware Human Resources Information Technology Investor Relations Legal Maintenance Management Manufacturing/Operations Materials/Purchasing Process Product Sales/Marketing Software
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Atmel Corporation
THE SCOOP
Chips ahoy!
Atmel makes semiconductors for a wide range of uses: its products include nonvolatile memory devices such as flash and ROM chips, which are used to retain memory when a device is turned off, application-specific integrated circuits and programmable logic chips. Atmels offerings can be found in consumer electronics, wireless communication devices, and industrial and military applications. Its main focus is divided among four units: nonvolatile memory devices, microcontrollers, radio frequency products, programmable logic devices and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Within those units, the companys products run the gamut from industrial image sensors to digital camera and TV processors to chips for high-security smart credit cards.
Formed in a flash
George Perlegos, a former design engineer for Intel, founded Atmel in 1984. He took the firm public in 1991, and it has since grown into the worlds largest manufacturer of parallel and serial erasable programmable read-only memory chips (EPROMs) and EEPROMs (add electrically to the previous acronym). In 1993, Atmel acquired Concurrent Logic, which makes user-programmable chips. The company opened a Colorado Springs manufacturing facility in 1994 and began building a manufacturing plant near its San Jose headquarters one year later. Also in 1995, Atmel penned an agreement with Paradigm Technology to license its static random-access memory (SRAM) technology used in multimedia chips. By 1996, nonvolatile memory was in high demand, and Atmels revenue and profits soaredthe top line nearly doubled to just over $1 billionas it was one of the major suppliers of flash chips.
Clear horizons
Based in San Jose, Calif., Atmel sells its products to more than 60,000 customers in at least 60 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, and runs 39 design centers worldwide. Today, it is a global leader in the semiconductor business, and has recently become one of just a handful of companies capable of integrating dense nonvolatile memory, logic and analog functions into a single chip. Atmel also has one of the largest libraries of intellectual property in the industry, holding more than 1,300 analog and digital patents. In 2008, Atmel reported sales revenue amounting to $1.5668 billion. It currently employs approximately 6,000 people in manufacturing facilities in the United States and Europe, and test and assembly facilities in the Philippines and Malaysia.
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IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Giving its IP library a boost Atmel acquired all MeshNetics ZigBee Intellectual Property Rights from LuxLabs BVI. Such acquisitions included BitCloud, ZigBee PRO software and ZigBit wireless modules, making Atmel now the industrys most complete wireless solution provider. December 2008: Extending its reach through China Atmel opened a new location in Shanghai, China, as part of its commitment to the Chinese market for the past 15 years. The facility is expected to provide design and extended sales and engineering support for the companys dynamic market in the Asia Pacificregion In 2007, 50 percent of the companys worldwide revenue was garnered from the Asian market. March 2008: Quantum on board Atmel announced complete acquisition of England-based Quantum Research Group Ltd., a leader in developing capacitive sensing IP and user-interface solutions. This purchase equips the company with an advantage in touch sensing, a fast-rising market for microcontrollers. President and CEO Steve Laub expressed excitement in Quantums value-add to Atmel shareholders and customers. June 2007: A year worth celebrating Atmel finally filed its annual report and announced that revenue grew 7 percent to $1.67 billion, and income crawled into the profit zone again, with the company recording a take of $14 million after the previous years loss of $33 million. The report was delayed due to all the hoopla the company had to face with regard to the Perlegos controversy. May 2007: He said, they said
George Perlegos held a special stockholders meeting after his court appeal was granted and bids to replace five of the six current board members with people of his choosing. But Perlegos plan didnt fly with shareholders, who voted in favor of the new management team headed by unanimously appointed new President and CEO Steve Laub, former CEO of semiconductor firm Silicon Image and a member of Atmels board since February 2006. In August the previous year, Perlegos and his executive VP, brother Gust, were fired by Atmels board after results of an internal investigation showed that the brothers had charged $406,000 in plane ticket bills to the company for members of the Perlegos family.
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GETTING HIRED
At work at Atmel
Atmel welcomes resumes from potential employees at every stage of their career, from the fresh-faced college grad to the seasoned professional. To this end, the companys career website (www.atmel.com/careers) divides its job pool into three setsjob openings (where you can upload your resume), entry-level openings and internships. These are all searchable by department and location. To aid the job seeker in narrowing down a possible work location, a directory of skill sets lets you know what kind of work is being done at each Atmel facility. If the folks at Atmel are interested, theyll contact you for an interview. According to one insider, interviews are generally relaxed and informal, and consist of one-onone interviews of 30 minutes to one hour in length. If you are applying for a technical position, you are sure to encounter a set of technical questions, which will vary according to the level of the job. Expect to meet with the hiring manager, three or four engineers and an HR representative. Atmel aspirants are advised to come in with a basic understanding of what the company does. In addition, the companys major concern when interviewing people is how well we think they will fit in to the group. What could fitting in to the group mean for you? Atmel employees enjoy a slew of health benefitsincluding medical, dental and vision coverage along with a prescription drug plan. Financial benefits include 401(k) with company matching (up to $500 annually) and an employee stock purchase plan. Tuition reimbursement and in-house training opportunities help employees keep their edge, while paid vacation, accrued immediately upon hire, allows them to take the edge off. Other benefits include life insurance, a disability plan and employee assistance.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Interviews bordering on interpersonal
Hiring at Atmel is a rigorous process. Panel interviews are the norm, but are not technical in nature. Questions asked deal more with interpersonal relationships. An insider shares, the people who interviewed me back then were either members of the team who would be my colleagues or managers to whom I would report. The interviews were not conducted in a confrontational nature nor did they consist of trick questions.
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Laid-back work style

The corporate culture at Atmel seems a bit laid-back. The company has no dress code and employees are allowed extremely flexible working hours, giving them enough time to squeeze in a second interest. Says a design engineer, Atmel is very casual when it comes to dress code and general work environment. Hours are flexible. Not a lot of pressure. Very flat organizational structure. Pay is not great, but not bad either. Benefits are good. One financial analyst even mentions that they are also given occasional perks, such as gift cards to restaurants like Red Lobster.
Benefits package
Packages and perks given to employees vary according to position. The basics include a stock plan, assistance plan, health insurance and paid time off. Adds one insider, We also receive bonuses based on work performancethis, apart from employee referral bonuses. I could go on and on. Atmel is a very nice place to work in.
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ATTACHMATE CORPORATION
1500 Dexter Ave North Seattle, WA 98109 Phone: (206) 217-7100 Fax: (206) 217-7515 www.attachmate.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Finance Clerical & Administrative Customer Service Engineering Host Connectivity Solutions Business Unit Human Resources Information Technology Legal Management/Executive Marketing Product Management Professional Services Quality Engineering Sales System & Security Business Unit Technical Support
LOCATIONS
Seattle, WA (HQ) Belmont, NC Bonita Springs, FL Brighton, MI Creve Coeur, MO Denver, CO Duluth, GA Exton, PA Herndon, VA Houston, TX Lisle, IL Loveland, OH New York, NY Pittsburgh, PA Plano, TX San Francisco, CA Scottsdale, AZ Silver Springs, MD Walpole, MA Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands Auckland Bangalore Boulogne, France Brasilia, Brazil Bryanston, South Africa Cairo Central, Hong Kong Dubai Duebendorf, Switzerland Ennis, Ireland Galway, Ireland Istanbul Madrid, Spain Manchester, United Kingdom Markham, Canada Melbourne Mexico City New Delhi Ottawa Paderno Dugnano, Italy Quebec Ratingen, Germany Rome So Paulo Singapore Staines, United Kingdom Stockholm Stuttgart Sydney Tokyo Unterfohring, Germany Vienna Wemmel, Belgium
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company Chairman, President & CEO: Jeff Hawn
KEY COMPETITORS
Hewlett-Packard IBM Microsoft
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
hostedjobs.openhire.com/epostings/submit.c fm?company_id=15495&version=2
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Attachmate Corporation
THE SCOOP
Getting hooked
At Attachmate, connectivity is the name of the game. Providing host-access technology to customers in the airline, banking, insurance, defense, retail and tech industries (to name just a few), Attachmate serves more than 40,000 clients in 60 countries. From its Seattle HQ (it is the largest privately owned software company in Washington state), Attachmate helps companies connect their web and desktop functions to centralized mainframes through its terminal emulation and legacy integration products, while also ensuring the sanctity of that connection through security and encryption software. Acquisitions have brought Attachmate into the software management business, and the companys WinINSTALL suite eases the process of updating and installing software on PCs. Attachmates overall aim is to help firms maintain access to and integrity of important data despite changing office technology.
Taking the mainframe to the next level

Looking to build a bridge between the old but dependable mainframe computers that stored data for banks, corporations and government agencies, then-retired Frank Pritt started Attachmate in 1982. His product was terminal emulation, or programs for desktops that mimic mainframe monitors, thereby creating a common interface that would allow for the exchange of data between the mammoth mainframes and the humbler PCs. Although the first years were a struggle, the companys launch of the software package EXTRA!which specialized in all the extras Attachmates competitors didnt offergave the company the boost it needed. Sales soared from $5 million in 1986 to $31 million in 1988. Revenue continued to climb in the 1990s, along with rumors that the company would be going public. Meanwhile, in an effort to extend Attachmates business beyond the Fortune 500, the company bought four product lines from another software firm, Novell, in May 1993. Aimed at smaller companies with less-sophisticated technology, the new products were expected to bump up revenue 33 percent to $160 million by years end.
A merger and a shake-up

In January 1995, Attachmate merged with top competitor Data Communications Associates (DCA), from which Attachmate would emerge as the largest computer connectivity firm in the world, with profits expected to exceed $450 million by the end of 1996. Meanwhile, in the following years, Pritt restructured the firm while also struggling to keep up with the changes in connectivity demands instigated by the rise of the Internet. Once a company that connected new with old technology, Attachmate found itself quickly losing its foothold in the deluge of new internet capabilities and applications. An important foray into the Web came in 1999 when Attachmate
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launched its e-Vantage line. Developed to assist companies using Unisys mainframes (80 percent of which already subscribed to Attachmates software services) to launch e-business sites, the e-Vantage software and service package took Attachmates signature terminal emulation know-how online and kept the company afloat through the rough seas ahead. By 2001, the entire tech industry was suffering from the sudden demise of its late-1990s heyday, including Attachmate, which responded with layoffs that year. In mid-2002, the company was forced to close its Cincinnati development facility in response to flat-line revenue and an uncertain future.
Selling outin a good way

In April 2005, in what Pritt called a very strategic, but personally difficult, decision, Attachmate sold itself to an investment group consisting of three firmsFrancisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Cressey Equity. This group had bought out Attachmates rival WRQ at the end of 2004, and would go on to merge the two companies into AttachmateWRQ by June 2005. Jeff Hawn, CEO of WRQ, took the same leadership position for the newly formed giant and Pritt finally retreated into his 20-years-delayed retirement. The joined companies were the second-largest hostaccess provider, next to IBM, with sales expected to exceed $200 million. With more than 40,000 customers using products installed on more than 16 million desktops worldwide, AttachmateWRQ was an infant company born into privilege, but was also quick to show it wasnt born yesterday. The company used the combined power of its two forebears to immediately begin acting on the strategies outlined by CEO Hawn in October 2005namely, innovation and acquisition. Later that year, the company joined Microsofts Secure IT Alliance to ensure the security of private data, while increasing interoperability between the firms software. In March 2006, AttachmateWRQ acquired OnDemand Software, a developer of software installation applications, also bringing that companys award-winning WinINSTALL package into the fold. That purchase brought in some big government customers, including the U.S. Department of Justice and Air Force. Just a month later, the growing company announced it would acquire systems management and security firm NetIQ for about half a billion dollars, taking that public company into the still-private chambers of AttachmateWRQ.
Out with the old, in with the new

In July 2006, AttachmateWRQ decided to simplify just a bit in and dropped the WRQ, emerging once again as Attachmate Corporation, and formed strategic business alliances with other tech firms like OpenSpan (developers of desktop integration software) and Aventail (delivering remote access technology). The company was also quick to integrate with Microsofts new Windows Vista OS Attachmates tried-and-true EXTRA! was the first software to pass Microsofts rigorous testing to gain Vista certification status. In November 2006, the company announced another made-for-Vista program, Reflection 2007, designed to provide secure terminal emulation for Microsofts latest software suites. Standard & Poors estimated
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that the companys revenue has been shrinking, with about $370 million for 2006 despite the new moneymakers Attachmate acquired that year. The companys core businessproviding desktop PCs with access to mainframe computersis slowly dying off as new technology renders those hulking dinosaurs obsolete. Still, analysts say that the companys cost-cutting measures throughout the years, as well as its ability to innovate to meet the industrys latest trends, put it in a solid position to stand the test of time. Attachmate tried to innovate its way through 2007, releasing updates on its software to adapt with an increasingly mobile clientele. In March of that year Attachmate introduced WinINSTALL 9.0. June 2007 brought about the debut of Reflection X, a revamped model of the Vista-friendly software Attachmate rolled out in 2006, with stepped-up security features.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Agreement with Proginet Attachmate announced a strategic agreement with Proginet Corporation, a company specializing in multiplatform file-transfer solutions. The agreement would require Attachmate to resell Proginets CyberFusion Integration Suite (CFI) managed file-transfer technology in North America to integrate CFI more broadly into Attachmates portfolio of secure file-transfer solutions. January 2009: A 10 percent layoff Attachmate declared a 10 percent layoff, discharging some 120 employees, in an effort to adjust to growing economic pains. Melissa Liton, the company spokesperson, said that, the reductions were necessary to ensure Attachmate maintains a healthy financial structure during this difficult and uncertain economic climate. June 2008: Reflection for Vista
At Microsoft Tech-Ed North America 2008, Attachmate exhibited its product offerings designed and built for Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 systems. Reflection for IBM 2007 is Attachmates built-for-Windows Vista terminal emulation solution that, combined with the comprehensive productivity and security feature sets found in Attachmates existing EXTRA!, will strengthen mainframe security, maximize IT flexibility and provide a set of features that enhance user productivity.
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GETTING HIRED
Getting Attached
Through Attachmates careers site (www.attachmate.com/en-US/AboutUs/cooljobs.htm), aspiring Attach-mates can search job openings with the company by department or location. The unique charms of its three main offices (in Seattle, Cincinnati and Bellingham, Washington) are highlighted in the locations section of the sitethe Seattle headquarters overlooks Lake Union, while Bellinghams got ping-pong and air hockey! For those ready to apply, Attachmate supplies a short application form and a text box into which you may paste your resume (cover letter optional). A separate link from the careers site provides job listings at the newly acquired systems and security management firm NetIQ. Attachmate likes to stay competitive by attracting top personnel with a healthy banquet of benefits. New hires with the company enjoy 12 days of paid vacation a year, which is upgraded to 16 days after three years. On top of that, employees enjoy 11 paid holidays a year, two of which they can choose to take when they please. The companys 401(k) planwith company matchingallows new hires to enroll after just one paycheck to get a jump start on retirement, while health insurance (including prescription drugs, dental and vision coverage) takes care of you in the meantime. Also immediately available upon hire is the companys tuition reimbursement program, which offers up to $3,500 a year for undergrad courses and $5,000 a year for graduate work. Miscellaneous niceties include a charitable matching program and something called Friday Afternoon Unwinderswhich, whatever it is, sounds like fun!
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AUTODESK, INC.
111 McInnis Parkway San Rafael, CA 94903 Phone: (415) 507-5000 Fax: (415) 507-5100 www.autodesk.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ADSKL; Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & CEO: Carl Bass 2008 Employees: 7,300 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,171.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 356.2
LOCATIONS
San Rafael, CA (HQ) Alpharetta, GA Lake Oswego, OR Manchester, NH Miami, FL San Francisco, CA Waltham, MA Athens Bangalore Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Budapest Buenos Aires Calgary Cambridge Caracas Centurion, South Africa Chengdu, China Dubai Goteborg, Sweden Guangzhou Hampshire, England Istanbul Kuala Lumpur London Madrid Makati City, Philippines Melbourne Mexico City Milan Montreal Mumbai Munchen, Germany Neuchatel, Switzerland Ngee Ann City, Singapore North Ryde, Australia Ontario Osaka Ottawa Paco dArcos, Portugal Paris Prague, Czech Republic Rome Rotterdam So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Singapore Taipei Wanchai, Hong Kong Warsaw Wels, Austria Wuhan, China
KEY COMPETITORS
Parametric Technology Corporation Siemens SolidWorks Corporation
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
autodesk.recruitmax.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Autodesk, Inc.
THE SCOOP
3-D glasses not required
Ever stopped to look at those ultrasharp 3-D billboards standing at the site of soonto-be condo developments, depicting a towering high-rise replete with swanky restaurants and beautiful residents that will soon take the place of the vacant lot before you? That hopeful vista is most likely brought to you by Autodeskthe firm creates the 2-D and 3-D design software that allows architects, engineers and their clients to fully visualize and analyze complex projects before any ground is broken. Although Autodesk got its start in the computer drafting field, the company portfolio has expanded in recent years to include special effects software for the entertainment industry, mapping software for civil engineers and product design software used in automotive manufacturing. Out of its headquarters in San Rafael, California, Autodesk delivers its design and imaging software in over 160 countries to more than eight million users. The company ranked No. 960 on the Fortune 1000 in 2006 and snagged second place in the computer software industry on Fortunes 2007 Americas Most Admired Companies list. In 2009, the company raked in $2.3152 billion in sales revenue.
What a CAD!
Much of Autodesks success came from its flagship software, AutoCAD. In its early years, AutoCADs success was like that of Microsoft, wherein it dominated a particular file format. While Microsoft capitalized on DOS to transform itself into an industry titan, Autodesks AutoCAD saved files in a format not shared with competitors. Thus, if an architect designs a building using AutoCAD, the engineer who builds the structure must also use AutoCAD to open and read the plans. Revising this format slightly every time it issues a new release of the software, Autodesk prevents other companies from cracking the code. A dozen engineers led by John Walker (who would become CEO) founded Autodesk in 1982. The firm succeeded early with the introduction of the first computer-aided drafting (CAD) programAutoCADwritten not for mainframes but for PCs. The company then rode the PC boom, going public in 1985 and acquiring interior decorating software developer Creative Imaging Technologies a year later. Walker relinquished his CEO position to Alvar Green in 1989, who held down the fort until Carol Bartz was appointed chairwoman, president and CEO in 1992. In her executive role, Bartz blazed a trail for women business leaders in the technology industry, leading Autodesk until 2006 when she passed her crown to former COO Carl Bass.
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IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Hawkins, new CFO The company announced that Mark J. Hawkins will step in as chief financial officer and executive vice president on April 27th. Hawkins joined Autodesk from Logitech, where he was CFO and senior vice president for finance and IT. He had also been on the senior management team of Dell and Hewlett-Packard. April 2009: AutoCAD Exchange, AutoCAD 2010 launched Autodesk created an online resource for millions of AutoCAD users worldwide. Dubbed AutoCAD Exchange, the portal will be a source of tips, tools and online help, and will also give users an opportunity to send feedback to program developers. The launch of the site coincides with the release of the 2010 product line, including AutoCAD 2010. March 2009: 3-D to the max Autodesk launched its latest version of its 3-D modeling, animation and rendering product, the Autodesk 3ds Max 2010, which offers nearly 350 additional features for managing complex scenes with greater ease and an unprecedented level of support for software interoperability and pipeline integration. Autodesk also announced its sponsorship of a unique project from Germanys PlanetSolar to produce the worlds largest solar-powered sailboat capable of circumnavigating the globe. The company is supplying the digital prototyping technology and training that will help PlanetSolar to quickly and cost-effectively design and build the sailboat. December 2008: iLogic technology, assets of BIMWorld acquired Autodesk acquired iLogic desktop design automation technology from Logimetrix Inc. of Canada. The technology enables manufacturers to simulate a product before it is built, reducing the need to construct physical models. Meanwhile, Autodesk also announced that it had acquired the assets of privately owned BIMWorld, a company that specializes in products for building product manufacturers. June 2007: Report shows profit decrease Autodesk announced that revenue reached $1.8 billion, an increase of more than $300 million from the level in 2006. Profit decreased by $44 million, however, but this was considered healthy at $289 million. Autodesk had been late in reporting its information to the SEC for fiscal 2007 (February 2006 through January 2007). This drew pressure from Nasdaq in the form of a noncompliance letter threatening to delist Autodesk if it didnt file its annual report.
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February 2007: Errors delay reports The company announced that it would have to restate past profits by $45 million to correct errors after discovering improperly dated stock option grants three months earlier.
GETTING HIRED
Go ahead, be a CAD
Selected as one of Fortune magazines 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2006, Autodesk wants to put its logo on your business cardit says so right on its careers site (www.autodesk.com/jobs). From there you can search for your dream job at Autodesk by job type, location or industry, and also apply online; just post your resume, please, no cover letters here. A handy on-site resume builder helps you make the best possible impression. Upon submitting your resume you will be considered for not only the job at hand, but also for similar openings in the future. Autodesk offers about 100 summer internship positions for full-time students, preferably those studying mechanical engineering, civil engineering, computer science or similar technical majors. Openings are posted throughout the spring season and are available mostly at the companys San Rafael headquarters, although opportunities do pop up elsewhere. A full listing of slots can be found by selecting intern from the job function search category through the companys main job board.
Passing the buck

What makes a desk at Autodesk so desirable? The company offers its employees such niceties as a 401(k) and an employee stock purchase plan in addition to a hearty smorgasbord of health insurance coverage. There is vacation time and a generous holiday calendar (including the week off from Christmas Eve through New Years Day), and the folks at Autodesk also enjoy one paid six-week sabbatical for every four years of full-time employment. The companys Autobucks program awards cash and better-than-cash bonuses (theater tickets, dinners and the like) to reward individuals or teams.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Flexibility is key
As the saying goes, different strokes for different folks, which is how respondents seem to relate to their work at Autodesk. Says an intern at the company, Flexibility is what you notice at Autodesk, whether it is working hours, lunch time, dress code, etc. The mixture of employees is likewise diverse. As far as I know, there are Singaporeans, Indians, Germans and Chinese employees. But at the business centers, things arent so flexible. According to one transaction representative, The Autodesk Business Center where I work in started out as a good place to work, with a team spirit and environment, but it later morphed into an all for one and one for all attitude and environment. We worked hard and long hours since management would cajole us to do so. If you dont work overtime, you risk a bad performance review. While some sources in the company say that the pay is reasonable, others say that their pay is not commensurate to their stress level. The salary was very low for the amount of pressure we were under, not to mention having quotas for entering orders, explains one transaction representative.
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BENCHMARK ELECTRONICS, INC.

3000 Technology Drive Angleton, TX 77515 Phone: (979) 849-6550 www.bench.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: BHE Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Donald Nigbor President: Gayla Delly CEO: Cary T. Fu 2008 Employees: 10,522 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,590.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): -135.6
LOCATIONS
Angleton, TX (HQ) Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Dunseith, ND Hudson, NH Huntsville, AL Sunnyvale, CA Winona, MN Almelo, The Netherlands Bangkok Brasov, Romania Campinas, Brazil Dublin Guadalajara Korat, Thailand Penang Singapore Suzhou, China
KEY COMPETITORS
Flextronics International Ltd. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. Jabil Circuit, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.bench.com/viewer/employment.asp
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Human Resources IPO Operations
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Benchmark Electronics, Inc.
THE SCOOP
They make the parts that make the whole world run
Benchmark Electronics aims to set the standard for electronics manufacturing. Though the company keeps a low profile in the high-flying tech industry, its products are ubiquitous; Benchmark makes the parts that make computers, medical devices, testing products and telecommunications equipment. Under the blanket term electronics manufacturing services, Benchmark designs and produces circuit boards for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like computer firm Sun Microsystemswhich also happens to be its biggest customer, comprising 19 percent of Benchmarks revenue in 2008. From its headquarters in Angleton, Texas, Benchmark oversees a wide-ranging global business, with 24 manufacturing facilities as far flung as the Netherlands, Brazil and Thailand; it pulls in more than $1 billion in sales a year from Asia and Europe. Ranked No. 690 on the 2008 Fortune 1000, Benchmark has also won numerous supplier awards from its loyal customers over the past few yearsincluding recognition from EMC Corporation, Guidant and Medtronic.
IN THE NEWS
December 2008: Strategic alliances formed Benchmark, through a joint effort with Silicon Graphics, created a computer system for NASA, which achieves the ranking of third-fastest supercomputer in the world. Similarly, the company forged an alliance with Cray, Inc. for the delivery of a supercomputer system for Oak Ridge National Laboratory which sets a new world record for computer speed. By the end of fiscal year 2008, the company was enjoying a $2.5902 billion sales revenue.
January 2007: Wish on a Pemstar Benchmark acquired Minnesota-based contract electronics manufacturer Pemstar for about $300 million in January 2007. The purchase brought in IBM, Applied Materials and Motorola as customers, in addition to 11 manufacturing facilities and 3,500 employees. But it also garnered some risk; although Pemstars revenue has steadily risen to its 2006 peak of $871 million, the company has not been profitable since 2001. Benchmark also took on Pemstars $89 million debt. However, after bouncing back from its own slump, Benchmark may be able to cut costs effectively and bring its new business back in the black. The company is taking on Pemstar from a relatively secure positionBenchmarks profit in 2006 rose to $111 million on revenue of $2.9 billion, an increase of 23 percent over 2005s $2.2 billion. The company has already absorbed much of the costs of its purchase; by March 2007, it had paid back $66 million of Pemstars debt, and it
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Benchmark Electronics, Inc.
reported quarterly earnings in July of $25.9 million, only $1.6 million down from the same period in 2006. Also in July, the company announced the beginning of a share repurchase program of up to $125 million of company stock.
GETTING HIRED
Set some benchmarks of your own
Benchmark Electronics takes a minimalist approach to job listingswhat you see is what you get, and what you get is a list of available openings, sorted by location; these can be found at the companys careers website, www.bench.com/viewer/employment.asp. Benchmark lists new positions as they open up, so aspiring employees are encouraged to check back often to catch the latest opportunities. Upon finding a role youd like, you may fill out a brief application form and post your resume online. The company prides itself in being an equal opportunity employer, and basks in the glory of being named as one of the Top 100 Companies in the Greater Houston area in 2006 by the Houston Chronicle.
Professional hiring process in place

The hiring process at Benchmark is very professional, and decisions on whether an applicant will be hired or not doesnt take that long. Says a senior buyer, I started in HR then was interviewed by the department head, commodity manager and group lead. I received an offer within 24 hours.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Fair place to work

The working conditions at Benchmark are generally described as good with ethical and nondiscrimination policies in place. Working hours are usually from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but an employee can work flexible hours when needed. The dress code is casual. Regarding pressure, a senior business system analyst describes it as being a little stressful, but management is understanding.
Adequate salary package

Salary ranges in Benchmark primarily depend on the experience of the hiree and the difficulty of work given him. Generally, compensations are seen as adequate by employees. Most staff members seem to be satisfied with the benefits theyre getting, which include medical coverage, 401(k) matches up to 4 percent, paid vacations and education reimbursements, to name a few.
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BLACK BOX CORPORATION

1000 Park Drive Lawrence, PA 15055-1018 Phone: (877) 877-2269 Fax: (724) 746-0746 www.blackbox.com
DEPARTMENTS
ADS Business Development Corporate Finance CSST Data Services HD IT MIS Resale Services
LOCATIONS
Lawrence, PA (HQ) Alabama Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Los Angeles Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Altendorf, Switzerland Antrim, United Kingdom Basel Bergen, Norway Dataran Glomac, Malaysia Hallbergmoos, Germany Helsinki Koge, Denmark Madrid Milan Munich Paris Pueblo, Mexico Reading Berkshire, United Kingdom Rome Rungis Cedex, France Saint Jean Vedas Cedex, France Santa Cruz Atoyac, Mexico Santiago So Paulo, Brazil Scoresby, Victoria Singapore Stockholm Stuttgart Taipei Tokyo Toronto Utrecht, The Netherlands Victoria, New Zealand Vienna Zaventem, Belgium
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: BBOX Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & CEO: Terry Blakemore 2008 Employees: 4,313 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,016.7 2008 Income ($ mil.): 39.2
KEY COMPETITORS
CDW ePlus Unisys
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.blackbox.com/about/careers.aspx
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Black Box Corporation
THE SCOOP
Inside the box
The little black box that got this company on its feet is a device that connects office network technology such as phones, computers and printers; it is now just one out of a multitude of little black boxes, little blue boxes, long black cables and all manner of multicolored gadgets offered by the company. The Black Box Corporation hooks up offices with all the connectivity they need through its data and voice services divisions. The company even goes so far as to custom build devices when its 118,000-strong product roster doesnt quite cover a customers needs. To further woo its clients, it supports a dedicated technical hotline thats available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls to the hotline are answered within 20 secondsguaranteed! Its that dedication to customer service that keeps 175,000 clients in 141 countries coming back to Black Box for all their connectivity hardware and service needs. And its that customer loyalty that has made Black Box the worlds largest dedicated network infrastructure provider.
Mail-order moguls
Eugene Yost and Dick Raub founded the company in 1976 as Expandor Inc., offering its first catalog in 1977. The humble publication had a scant six pages, graced by only nine products, but went on to generate $170,000 in sales. By 1982, the company was synonymous with its popular catalog, and Expandor was wisely dropped in favor of Black Box. Yost and Raub sold the company to Micom Systems in 1983 for $19 million. In the 1990s, expansion followedBlack Box opened a subsidiary in Brazil in 1994, with another center to open in Mexico in mid-1995. Despite offering its catalog online and on then-vogue CD-ROM by 1996, the paper catalog remained the main sales generator for this direct marketing firm. By 1997, Black Box offered more than 7,000 products from subsidiaries in 15 countries to customers in more than 77 nations. Sales that year clocked in at $232 million, 47 percent of which came from markets outside of North America.
Suit optional
Although Black Boxs financial future was definitely rosier, shareholders and federal investigators found cause for alarm in possible illegal backdating of stock options. A lawsuit launched by one upstart investor in November 2006 alleged that 14 executives, including CEO Young, conspired to date employee stock options to an especially low price in 1996, allowing them to later sell the stock for high profit. The suit spurred another SEC probe and an internal review in February 2007, which in turn delayed annual financial statements and put Black Box in hot water with Nasdaq. Guilty or not, some industry analysts predicted that the company would luck
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out: while New York and California state prosecutors jumped on backdating scandals, the U.S. attorneys in Pennsylvania, where Black Box is headquartered, were not expected to press charges. The companys fiscal 2007 statements, released in late June, confirmed the picture of a profitable company spending too much money on internal problems. The company then exceeded the $1 billion revenue mark, up from the 2006 total of $721 million, but profits improved by the smallest of margins, to $37.5 million from $37.3 million in 2006. Black Box then acquired the Florida firm ADS Telecom, Inc., provider of voice and data communication services in the southeastern swath of the U.S., in February 2007, and B&C Telephone, Inc. With its diverse client list, including companies of the commercial, financial, health care and governmental persuasion, ADS brought annual revenue of about $14 million into Black Boxs coffers. In 2008, Black Box acquired AT&Ts Southeast Region NEC CPE Base, UCI Communications LLC and Mutual Telecom Services Inc., making it one of the worlds largest independent providers of communications, infrastructure, and networking products and solutions.
IN THE NEWS
November 2008: ISO all around Black Box Corporation received ISO 9001:2000 recertification for its U.S.-based voice and data services and product manufacturing locations. Its ISO 9001:2000 certification enables Black Box to offer its customers the assurance that it is committed to providing the highest level of customer service to its clients around the world. Said Intertek, the lead auditor performing the recertification audit, Black Boxs organization uses innovative approaches to customer satisfaction for both external customers and the organizations internal customers. October 2008: Southward expansion
Black Box Corporation announced acquisitions of Network Communications Technologies, Inc. (NCT), a North Carolina-based private company, and ACS Communications Inc., a privately held company whose head office is in Austin, Texas. Both companies have an active customer base that includes commercial, education and various government agency accounts. According to NCT, the acquisition will further its capability to expand its offerings for existing customers and the resources to gain additional customers by providing additional voice, data and hotline services to meet its customers increasing demands for multilocation support. ACS also expressed excitement about its new ability to make an immediate impact riding on the success of Black Box and ACSs own outstanding service delivery capability and broad customer base.
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July 2008: De-fense! Black Box Corporation announced another acquisition, this time of Mutual Telecom Services, Inc. (MTS), a privately held company based in Needham, Mass., that services clients in the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Black Box stated that MTS has built an industry-leading voice solutions engineering and implementation capability, complemented by a global logistical deployment arm capable of conducting industry-leading operations in the harshest locations, which include Iraq and Afghanistan, and that this acquisition will add depth to Black Boxs voice solutions engineering resources, as well as broaden Black Boxs worldwide implementation capabilities. June 2008: And now for sports news A company that designs, builds and maintains complicated data and voice infrastructure systems, Black Box Corporation, with its Black Box Network Services, has been chosen by the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland As, to deploy and maintain the ShoreTel Pure IP Unified Communications solution for the front offices and Raley Field. Through this deployment, Black Box will provide IP Unified Communications to the 14,400-seat ballpark and supporting operations of Sacramento. Black Box Network Services will deploy and maintain a full suite of ShoreTel UC solutions provided by ShoreTel, a company offering Unified Communications solutions. The corporate offices, ballpark suites, concessions, security, hospitality, grounds, locker rooms, dugouts and bullpens of Sacramento will be covered under this deployment. May 2008: Stockholders to receive dividends The Black Box board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share of its common stock. The dividend was declared on all outstanding shares of Black Boxs common stock and was available to stockholders on July 14, 2008, through its transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company.
April 2008: A BBox-UCI marriage Black Box acquired UCI Communications LLC, a privately held company based in Mobile, Ala., which has an active customer base encompassing commercial, education and various government agency accounts. Shaler Houser, former UCI owner, commented that UCI looked forward to joining the Black Box family and becoming an integral part of the Voice Services South Team, with Black Boxs history of superior customer service, product innovation and world-class engineering skills ensuring that UCIs customers remain on the cutting edge of communications technologies. Black Box, meanwhile, stated that UCI has a long and well-established history of providing excellent voice and data services to its customers, and that this acquisition will enable Black Box to continue expanding its presence in the Southeast and offer additional hotline products and voice and data services to UCIs customers.
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GETTING HIRED
Get inside the box
The Black Box Corporation is looking for innovative, flexible, team-oriented individuals to augment its 4,500-strong workforce worldwide, and these types of folks are encouraged to browse Black Boxs open positions at the companys careers site (www.blackbox.com/about/careers.aspx). Here, applicants can access job openings by department or job category, location, or through keywords. Applicants can either submit their resumes by email or via an online form (with space provided for applicants to post their resumes) for Black Boxs job database. Black Boxs resume builder allows applicants to create attractive and informative profiles. Applying online also sends resumes directly to the recruiter handling the hiring process for the open position. Applicants can simply complete the fields, copy and paste their resumes at the bottom of the page, and click on the Submit Resume button. Black Box offers the excitement of a fast-paced environment and a competitive total compensation package commensurate with experience, excellent benefits and the advancement opportunities that come from being part of a growing company. Black Box Network Services is also an equal opportunity employer. And, although its job database gives you an option to fill in fields with information about your race, sex or veteran status, providing this information is voluntary and a refusal to provide such information will have no effect on the companys employment decision. That is, applicants are considered for positions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual preference, age, marital status, medical condition, disability or other legally protected statuses. They do go to great lengths to emphasize that the reason for the addition of the fields is that government agencies may require periodic reports on the sex, ethnicity, disability and veteran statuses of applicants. They go another step further saying that this data is for analysis and affirmative action only and will be kept in a file separate from an employees personal file.
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BMC SOFTWARE, INC.

2101 CityWest Boulevard Houston, TX 77042-2827 Phone: (713) 918-8800 www.bmc.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Administration Business Operations Business Planning Enterprise Service Management Facilities Finance Human Resource Management Information Services & Technology Legal Mainframe Service Management Marketing Product Development Professional Services Sales Strategy & Corporate Development Worldwide Sales & Services
LOCATIONS
Houston, TX (HQ) Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Cary, NC Chicago, IL Detroit, M I Herndon, VA Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA King of Prussia, PA Kirkland, WA Lexington, MA McLean, VA Minneapolis, MN New York, NY Pittsburgh, PA Plano, TX Pleasanton, CA Sunnyvale, CA Waltham, MA Warren, NJ Aix-en-Provence, France Alges, PortugalAthens Auckland Ballerup, Denmark Bangalore Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Calgary Capital Federal, Argentina Dubai Dublin Frankfurt Geneva Hamburg Istanbul Jakarta Kista, Sweden Madrid Markham, Canada Melbourne Mexico City Milan Montreal Moscow Munich Paris Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Pune, India Rio de Janeiro Rome Sandton, South Africa So Paulo, Brazil Schiphol-Rijk, Netherlands Seoul Shanghai Singapore Surrey Sydney Taipei Tel Aviv Tel Hai, Israel Vantaa, Finland Vienna Vilvoorde, Belgium Wanchai, Hong KongWellington Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: BMC Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Robert E. Beauchamp 2008 Employees: 5,800 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,731.6 2008 Income ($ mil.): -313.6
KEY COMPETITORS
CA, Inc. Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/client_b mc/external/search.do
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition BMC Software, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Management is their middle name
As one of the worlds largest independent software vendors, BMC Software makes its money helping large corporations manage their operations and information through applications, databases and other types of infrastructural software. The firms product offerings are divided into four primary categories of management service: impact, IT service, application and IT operations, database and infrastructure. Combined, these divisions deliver a little bit of magic called business service management, or the implementation of day-to-day business processes through technology for the greatest possible efficiency.
Texan Innovation
BMC grew out of a trio of computer programmers from the Houston area in the 1970s, Scott Boulett, John Moores and Dan Cloer (the B, M and C of the companys name, respectively). The business was incorporated in 1980, and initially focused its energies on developing software tools for the mainframe computers used by large corporations. But with the rise of the PC, BMCs business changed to incorporate desktops into the mix (although handling massive and complex business organizations with mainframe mammoths in their closets has remained its forte). Under the direction of CEO Max Watson, who assumed that top role in 1987 after founder Moores scaled back his involvement with the company, BMC went public on Nasdaq in 1988 with a selling price of $9 per share. Acquisition and aggressive direct marketing (often of the tele-persuasion) led the company to grow through the 1990s. Chairman Moores fully retired in 1992, leaving the company totally in the hands of CEO Watson (Moores went on to buy the San Diego Padres baseball team). BMC purchased PATROL Software two years later, bringing that firms network surveillance software into its portfolio, which marked a departure from its former reliance on mainframe tech. More acquisitions followed to round out its non-mainframe offerings, including DataTools in 1997, BGS Systems in 1998 and New Dimension Software in 1999. Watson later turned over his seat to BMCs current president and CEO Robert Beauchamp in 2001. Although the company was decreasing its reliance on sales of its mainframe management software, it didnt move fast enough to avoid the crippling blow suffered across the entire tech industry in the early years of the 21st century. BMC quickly recognized the need to change, and introduced a new business strategybusiness service managementin April 2003. Perhaps a more conceptual than tangible change, the new shift to connecting IT resources to business management processes was spurred by the acquisitions of service-management software companies Remedy (in November 2002) and IT Masters (in March 2003). Later acquisitionsincluding that of Marimba in 2004 and Calendra and OpenNetwork in 2005allowed the
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company to broaden its software line from specific programs to an entire suite of management tools. With these subtle shifts in direction, BMC has downplayed its once-encompassing focus on mainframe technology, embracing up-and-coming technologies. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, BMC continues to run with the big boys, drawing its customer base mainly from Global 2000 companiesthe kind that need comprehensive database systems to connect and manage their sprawling and diverse operations. Indeed, BMC estimates that 95 percent of the Forbes Global 100 and 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies use BMCs software to manage their enterprises. In 2008, BMC reported $1.7316 billion in sales revenue.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Delivering major breakthroughs BMC and Cisco collaborated to deliver a major breakthrough in management for unified computing systems (UCS). This partnership promises to completely change the math in the cost of managing IT infrastructures. According to CEO Beauchamp, embedded in the UCS is a purpose-built BMC software management system that allows data center administrators to reconfigure business services and resources from a single console. December 2008: Partnering with USDA The U.S. Department of Agriculture choose BMC to streamline its IT-related processes, including standardizing the departments IT processes and integrating management and delivery of its IT services. In a company press release, business unit president Dev Ittycheria said the five-year agreement will deploy BMCs Remedy ITSM v7, including the unified BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
September 2008: Expanding the VMware partnership BMC and VMware, a global virtualization leader, announced their intent to expand their partnership, including a new reseller agreement and joint development of new integrated management solutions. The agreement will allow the integration of VMware vCenter Lifecycle and BMCs Remedy IT Service Management and Atrium Orchestrator to automate change and configuration management across datacenters. The company press release said this partnership is a part of the move to help BMC and VMware customers plan, control, automate and fully manage their physical and virtual IT infrastructures in a unified, integrated way. June 2008: Shopping for more BMC reported that it has completed the acquisition of ITM Software, thereby creating a unique, integrated solution that provides customers with a single comprehensive view into project and service portfolios, financials, operations,
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resources, vendors, compliance and IT demandall the applications that an IT organization needs to run itself as a true business unit. BMC believes that the acquisition is very appropriate since companies demand more visibility and control over their assets. BMC senior vice president Jim Grant said that through the combination of both companies solutions, customers will now have 100 percent visibility into IT spending and effectiveness versus the 20 to 25 percent view allowed by our competitors offerings. April 2008: Buying BladeLogic BMC announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of BladeLogic, Inc., for $800 million. With the purchase, BMC combined its Business Service Management (BSM) platform with BladeLogics data center automation solutions. Talks of acquiring the data center automation company started in March. BMC says the combined solutions portfolio will allow new and existing customers to gain a 90 percent improvement in IT operational efficiency in 90 days, while addressing the critical challenges of compliance, virtualization management and availability. June 2007: Contracts with civilian offices BMC made headway into the governments civilian offices following the completion of its defense obligations, winning $15 million in contracts from such groups as the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Postal Service and rthe Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. February 2007: Ask what BMC can do for your country As BMCs focus changed, so does its customer base. The U.S. government has made increasing use of its new offerings as that bulky behemoth of the people attempts to update its technology and streamline its operations. The Department of Defense contracted BMC for its management software, shelling out $8.5 million for BMCs services. The company had contracted to other fingers of Uncle Sams stern fist in recent months, including the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency and the Military Sealift Command. BMC also made headway into the governments civilian offices following the completion of its defense obligations, winning $15 million in contracts by June 2007 from such groups as the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Postal Service and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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GETTING HIRED
Is it in your blood?
Through BMCs careers site (www.bmc.com/careers), you can explore just what it takes to join the business service management team. At its website, the company outlines the core competencies that should already be built into the very fiber of successful applicants, including such attributes as the drive for innovation, the ability to communicate directly and honestly, and a yen for customer advocacy. These are the ideals that make up BMCs company culture, and job seekers who fit the bill are welcome to search the companys openings. Searchable by function, location and position type, BMCs job database allows you to upload your resume and cover letter upon finding a position youd like to fill. Once youre in the company, BMC will supply you with comprehensive health coverage, including a prescription drug plan and a 401(k) with company matching to get you going on that long march toward retirement. Employees may also purchase company stock at a discounted rate. Tuition assistance is available for those still looking to learn, provided your study relates to the job at hand.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Great opportunities
BMC respondents generally have only good things to say about their work place, describing the company as having a refined, critical and analytical sense of professionalism. Co-workers have the respect and abilities needed to develop a good work environment. BMC is a large company, with offices worldwide, and great opportunities for growth are present, according to one source.
In a good position
Asked to describe the companys business outlook, one of BMCs managers enthuses, The competition is tough, but BMC is in a good position and has a solid financial structure. Even though the IT business has undergone some hard years, which has impacted BMC with cuts in the number of employees, I believe we are back on the right track and the employee morale is high.
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BORLAND SOFTWARE CORPORATION

8310 North Capital of Texas Highway Building 2, Suite 100 Austin, TX 78731 Phone: (512) 340-2200 www.borland.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: BORL Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: John F. Olsen President & CEO: Erik E. Prusch 2008 Employees: 879 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 172 2008 Income ($ mil.): -215.7
LOCATIONS
Austin, TX (HQ) Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL Cupertino, CA Reston, VA Bangalore Belfast Berkshire, United Kingdom Canberra, Australia Hoofddorp, Netherlands Langen, Germany Linz, Austria Madrid Markham, Canada Paris Rome So Paulo Singapore Sydney Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microsoft Corporation Sun Microsystems
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/ client_borland/external/search.do
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Advertising Consulting Corporate Marketing Facilities Human Resources Legal Marketing Products Public Relations Purchasing Quality Assurance R&D Sales Software Engineering Technical Support Technology Worldwide Field Operations Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Borland Software corporation
THE SCOOP
Giving ALMs to the needy
Borland Software is a company that has seen a lot of changes in its 25 years of existencegoing from a programming and database software firm to a system integrations firm, and back again (and then back again). Today, the company is focused on open application lifecycle management (Open ALM). Through its product line, which includes such programs as Tempo, Caliber, Gauntlet and SilkCentral, Borland assists companies in managing, tracking and testing the quality of the software that keeps their businesses running. ALM is a four-pronged strategy, including project and portfolio management, requirements definition and management, lifecycle quality management and change management. Currently headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., the company serves 80 percent of firms in the Global 2000, including Hewlett-Packard, Verizon Wireless, Charles Schwab and the U.S. Army.
C++ is better than average

Borland was started by Frenchman Philippe Kahn after leaving Hewlett-Packard in 1982. He and his friends took off with the Turbo Pascal under the newly christened Borland International in the market on its first month. Borland was a relatively small company until the mid-1980s, when it began acquiring other software companies, increasing revenue and enlarging its product line to include database software. Soon the company introduced the Turbo C++ programming and the popular Quattro Pro spreadsheet. Borland saw many changes throughout the years, including different CEOs, undergoing drastic changes and even changing renaming it Inprise for a short while. Borland has seen great potential in investing to support businesses through the Open ALM product strategywhich comprised 58 percent of revenue in 2006. As yet, the company continues to trust in the strategy, even calling itself the Open ALM company.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: New CFO appointment Borland announced the appointment of Thomas Wilkas as Borlands chief financial officer. Effective March 16th, Erik E. Prusch stepped down to give way to Wilkas, but will still be working in Borland as the companys acting president and chief executive officer.
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February 2009: New tool to streamline coding Borland promised that its new product, TeamInspector, will straighten coding bumps for new applications, making sure that they run in tiptop shape. Despite the dilemma of having to differentiate this system with typical testing applications, Borland guaranteed the public in an email correspondence with techworld.com that while it is still part of the testing process, TeamInspector has the capability to inspect various third-party tools related to code analysis, standards compliance, test coverage and build trends; the results (risk indicators and trends) are then revealed to management in a single cross-project dashboard ensuring visibility across your entire software project portfolio. January 2009: Employees laid off; CEO steps down Borland laid off 130 employees as executive positions were reassigned and income expectations lowered for the recent quarter. Despite a decrease from its earlier prediction, Borland expected a revenue jump of $38.5 million to $40 million for the fourth quarter. Year-end results, said Borland, will be reported in late February. Borland also announced that Erick Prusch, chief financial officer, has replaced Ted Nielsen as acting chief executive officer of Borland. December 2008: Borland takes a beating Borland suffered a $56.8 million pre-tax loss for the last quarter. Among the reasons cited by the company for the loss was that it was being affected by a price war among software suppliers. Borland also attributed its loss to the cost of reducing its workforce by 15 percent and writing off the value of facilities and software technology. May 2008: Farewell, Turbo C++ and Delphi Embarcadero Technologies announced its purchase of Borlands CodeGear division. June 30th was the definitive date: Borland officially said goodbye to its pilot programs Turbo C++ and Delphi, IDEs (integrated development environment) initially nursed and brought up by the company. The handover is said to be beneficial to the CodeGear division and Embarcadero Technologies, guaranteeing $100 million in yearly revenue. Borland will still be holding $7 million worth of CodeGear accounts receivable. April 2008: Borlands Silk gets an upgrade The be-all of testing products, Borland-acquired Segue Softwares Silk has finally come out of its shell with major upgrades. This release from Borland is said to be the products first overhaul in two years. Brad Johnson, director for product marketing for Lifestyle Quality management, said, What customers have been asking us for is the ability to extend Silk, to make it more flexible, to support apps we dont support. To do so meant either we abandon our old customers with a new product or we took more time for a new architecture. We chose a new architecture. The Silk product lines (SilkTest, SilkPerformer and SilkCentral Test
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Manager) new features include smooth program testing for various programming languages, such as Java, Flex code and XML, and expanded functionality.
GETTING HIRED
Borland wants employees who are in it for the long haul. With its promote-from-within policy, the company sees its new hires as an investment that will more than pay off in the future as that foundling rises through the ranks of the firm. Through its Borland University, employees are kept up-to-date on the latest technological developments affecting the industry and can also become thoroughly versed in the workings of the companys own product offerings. Management training is also available for those looking to snag a corner office. Openings can be found through Borlands careers site at www.borland.com/us/company/careers/index.html. From here, potential Borlanders can search jobs by type or location. Upon finding an opportunity you like, you may add it to your job cart or apply at once. For either process, you can expect to fill out a short online application before uploading your resume. Even if you dont find the right fit, you may fill out a Job Agent profile and be notified whenever a position that matches your skills does open up.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Layoffs, a change of focus
According to one insider, Borland is at a crossroads in terms of changing focus for the company. The same source adds that because Borland was losing money, the company initiated layoffs, which affected some of the best and the brightest.
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CA, INC.
One CA Plaza Islandia, NY 11749 Phone: (800) 225-5224 Fax: (631) 342-6800 www.ca.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CA Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & COO: Michael J. Christenson CEO: John A. Swainson 2008 Employees: 13,700 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 4,277 2008 Income ($ mil.): 500
LOCATIONS
Islandia, NY (HQ) Atlanta, GA Bellevue, WA Bentonville, AR Bloomington, MN Boulder, CO Cary, NC Charlotte, NC Chesterfield, MO Chicago, IL Columbus, OH Draper, UT East Windsor, CT Ellicot City, MD Englewood, CO Ewing, NJ Framingham, MA Franklin, TN Herndon, VA Houston, TX Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA Leawood, KS Lisle, IL Livermore, CA Los Angeles, CA Mason, OH New York, NY Petaluma, CA Pittsburgh, PA Plano, TX Portland, OR Portsmouth, NH Redwood City, CA San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA San Juan, PR Scottsdale, AZ Southfield, MI Tampa, FL Washington, DC Waukesha, WI
KEY COMPETITORS
BMC EMC IBM
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ca.com/us/careers.aspx
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Administration Channel Sales Child Care Corporate Communications Development Education Facilities Finance Human Resources Legal Marketing MIS/Corporate Information Systems Pre-sales Procurement SalesDirect SalesIndirect Sales Ops Security Technical Support Technology Services
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition CA, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Think you can manage a billion-dollar baby?
CA (or the firm known as Computer Associates until 2006) is a supplier of systems management, information management and business management software products for hardware platforms. As one of the worlds largest software companies (with $4.277 billion revenue in fiscal year 2008 and approximately 13,700 employees as of April 2008), CA does business all over the globe, with headquarters in the United States and 150 offices in more than 45 countries, as well as government entities, educational institutions and thousands of other companies in diverse industries worldwide. The company, which has been a major player on the software scene for more than three decades, ranks No. 553 on the 2008 Fortune 1000.
With market growth come corporate issues

CA has its roots in a Swiss company that appointed Queens College graduate Charles Wang to head its new branch in America in 1976. Starting with just four employees and one product, Wangs division had grown to such scale in the 1980s that it bought out its Swiss partners. In the 1990s, CA expanded into the Far East, Africa and Latin America. The firm promoted Sanjay Kumar, a Wang protg, to president in 1994, and he spearheaded an acquisition philosophy away from older systems and toward network software, particularly of the enterprise storage type. CA acquired Cheyenne Software, Inc. in 1996, sold today under the BrightStor line of products. At the time, the purchase made CA the only provider of end-to-end storage management solutions, a business approach revolutionized by Wal-Mart. In 1998, the company failed in its hostile takeover attempt of Computer Sciences Corp., despite offering a hefty all-cash bid of $9.8 billion. CA turned to other acquisitions instead, picking up Platinum Technology International for $3.5 billion in May 1999. The next year, CA continued its aggressive pursuit of acquisitions, buying Sterling Software in 2000 for a deal worth $4 billion in stock, then the largest acquisition in software industry history. Economic doldrums and internal finance issues marked the turn of the century, as CA laid off 900 workers in 2001. Meanwhile, legal issues emerged as internal accusations of corporate mismanagement from stockholders, allegations of antitrust by the U.S. Department of Justice and price fixing by the SEC dominated the company landscape in mid-2001 until the end of 2002. The ongoing criminal inquiry into accounting practices brought about a major upheaval in corporate structure in 2004. Many new faces came into the CA fold, as Lewis S. Ranieri became chairman of the board; Jeff Clarke, former CFO of Compaq, signed on as COO and CFO; and Kenneth D. Cron, a former CEO and chairman at Vivendi Universal, took over as interim CEO, later replaced by John Swainson, a 26-year industry veteran, in November 2004. In June, 2007, CA announced that William E. McCracken would
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succeed Lewis S. Ranieri as chairman, the latter remaining with the company in a directorial role.
Babys back
Through all the ups and downs, business didby some miraclecontinue at CA. It returned to its principal growth strategy, and proved that it could turn things around in a hurry, acquiring, among other things, Netreon Inc., in a slew of acquisitions from 2003 to 2009. In October 2004, it picked up Netegrity Inc., another provider of security products, for $340 million the next month. In June 2005, it purchased Concord Communications, a service management software firm, for $359 million, with IT management software company Niku Corporation to follow a month later for $345 million. Archiving software developer iLumin joined the party the following October, to the tune of $48 million, and Wily Technology brought up the fiscal rear, coming aboard in March 2006 for $374 million. The new additions helped boost year-end revenue by nearly $200 million, to $3.8 billion. Profit was back in black for the second consecutive year, clocking in at $156 million. Despite the shake-ups that marked the first few years of the millennium, CA renewed its commitment to management software, releasing The Security Command Center, which offered advanced technology to help customers manage security from a central point, and a Managing On-Demand Strategy, both products helping cement its position as an expert in the field. In 2005, the company launched its largest product release ever, trucking out 85 products and 26 updates to older software lines. Perhaps tellingly, the company unveiled a new logo and slogan the same year, urging the industry and the public to Believe Again.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: New lead strategy and business development
To maintain its standing as the worlds leading independent IT management software company, CA, Inc. named a man from SymantecThomas Kendraas senior vice president for strategy and business development and general manager of its Clarity project and portfolio management business unit. He reports to Ajei Gopal, executive vice president of ACs products and technology group. Tom possesses a keen understanding of technology trends, customer needs, and the competitive landscape, and a proven ability to execute, said Gopal. Kendras focus will be on product development and technology strategies that emphasize internal growth and communication with other vendors, including taking care of market leader CA Clarity, a portfolio management system for corporations.
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February 2009: A veteran for CAs R&D next level A new name is on one of the executive rungs of CAs corporate ladder. Judy Kruntorad will head up R&D at CA. What does this mean? Well, as VP of software engineering and Integrated Database Management System (IDMS) product line manager, Kruntorad is to mainly oversee CAs IDMS family of products used at hundreds of high-profile organizations around the world. Developed in the 1960s and owned by CA since 1989, IDMS is the foundation of many of CAs customers most critical business applications and is now also being used as the back-end database server for modern web applications. The key advantages of IDMS are performance, throughput and efficient resource usage compared with competitive offerings. IDMS uses less CPU capacity and less storage to do the same amount of work January 2009: Get ready for Compliance 2.0 Enron is either the boon or the bane of corporations now, thanks to its being the catalyst for the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, legislating corporate accountability. Compliance is the catchword of late, and CA lends companies a helping hand with its GRC Manager, a software-as-a-service platform that ensures seamless company governance, risk and compliance. CAs program goes forward with planning compliance without the attendant timeline it takes for a companys IT division to set it up. Mark Camm, CAs GRC general manager, admitted that added legislative checks for privately held companies upped the ante for CA and other vendors to retool their software to include compliance-driven applications. This is Compliance 2.0, an IT-related issue that spans the boardrooms and offices of a company, demanding more rapid deployment of checks and balances that lets business go as usual. December 2008: Data profiling for the masses Sifting through lots of data and building a warehouse out of byte-sized pieces of information can be a monumental task if a company relies on its legacy systems and doesnt have money to spare for a program to do it for them. Realizing this gap in the middle market, CA partnered with Exeros, a company specializing in data mapping and discovery, to include one of its programs as part of the CA ERwin Data Modeling Suite. Aimed at the budget-conscious business, CAs program combines data modeling and profiling to provide midsized companies with a business intelligence tool that has a lot of functionality without the hefty price tag tacked onto it. While bigger support vendors offer data solutions in the hundred-thousand-dollar price range, CAs ERwin suite is a sweet deal at $4,000, with the data modeling and profiling package at $8,000. Its data profiling for the masses, CA says. November 2008: CAs malware joins Americas Most Wanted Youve got Ghostbusters for malicious cartoon ghosts and spirits, but for serious malware, you have to call John Walsh? Thats right. The host of Americas Most Wanted, the curse of wanted criminals in the real world, is positioned to be the
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annoyance of cybercriminals everywhere. Walsh appears as the public face of CAs Internet Security Suite Plus 2009, the companys newest anti-malware program targeting phishing, spamming, spyware and viruses. Temporarily eschewing a focus on business clients, CAs move to make John Walsh the face of its anti-malware product is a keen way to capture the individual consumer market. October 2008: Prevent violations before they happen As companies tighten their belts amid the economic downturn, and as the government prepares to net corporations toeing the line of the law in efforts to stay afloat, CA helps its customers pre-empt IT and legal challenges by releasing new products in its current line of programs for records and identity management and data center automation. CA Records Manager, the first to receive certification from the U.S. Department of Defense, is a tool meant to assist public and private agencies in complying with legal demands and government inquires. On the identity management front, CAs Identity Manager operates a third-party program (thanks to an acquisition of IDFocus this month) that ensures sensitive data is sent only to those persons authorized to view them. Finally, CAs Automation Manager gives customers a comprehensive view of data sources and systems, both virtual and real. All these programs make compliance seem less like the bogeyman that corporations assume it to be, and more of a settling in to a new way of professional life. September 2008: Clarity for Uncle Sam CA officials announced that CAs Clarity has added an earned value management (EVM) functionality package to help federal agencies and contractors conform to the ANSI/EIA-748 standard for EVM, adopted by the Defense Department for applying EVM systems to government programs and projects. July 2008: You can have your Coke and CA, too CA Clarity for New Product Development? Yup, Coke wants to add life to itself by developing new beverages, designing equipment such as vending machines and fountain dispensers that it leases or sells, and creating packaging concepts for both new and already established products. How? With CA software Clarity to manage the workflow of whats commonly known as the stage-gate process in product development, chronicling the stages in each development project and the gate points at which decisions need to be made. Employees only need to access the web-based application, which runs on an Oracle database, from their desktops. June 2008: It aint over til its over Like the hero who refuses to die, CA stopped industry speculation about its curtain call when it implemented software upgrades to its existing programs and a more aggressive bid to get a bigger portion of the data security and management markets. After becoming embroiled in accounting scandals and seeing its executives booted out of office or put in prison, CA refocused the public lens on its
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products, suggesting end-to-end solutions to customer needs instead of conveniently putting solutions into neat little boxes and leaving it at that. Judith Hurwitz of Hurwitz & Associates said, CA has made tremendous progress over the past few years. In the past, the technology was presented in disconnected silos; they didnt seem to have a clear view of customers and the product strategy was not very well-orchestrated. CA has done well with its Wily and Netegrity acquisitions, and continues to really work to address the requirements of managing and securing hardware, software, services and networks. More importantly, the company is seen as a leader in virtual data management, and its line of products geared toward government compliance has some customers eschewing the spreadsheet for something more automated and simpler to use, one that CA promises to deliver in its future line of programs and software suites.
GETTING HIRED
Send em your resume
Applicants can use the online job search on CAs career website (www.ca.com/careers) to track down open positions. Employment is available the world over: in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and the Asia Pacific region. Job seekers can create and submit a resume to the company through the sites online resume builder, or upload it via PDF, Microsoft Word or plain text. Benefits for CAers include 401(k) with company matching after one year, an employee stock purchase program and a pretax flexible expense plan. In addition to the usual health coverage, CA sees to the health of its workers with on-site fitness centers and even looks out for the health of its workers birds, dogs, cats and such, with optional pet insurance. Parents cheer for the child development centers, where trained staff will turn your crayon-eating tot into a Mozart-appreciating genius while you work, and baby bonds award workers for incubating or adopting the next generation of CAers. In addition, CA offers internship opportunities to current college students in a variety of departments. These positions can be found through the main job search page, under the internship job category.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Meritocracy
Though it tends to fight dirty on the corporate playing field, on the inside, CA is a true meritocracy, where, everyone has a chance to go as far as they want to. One source on the technical side reports, I have found my raises accurately track what I did in the previous year, and, my responsibilities have increased as I have asked for them to be. Further, the source advises that its important to be very proactive. One respondent criticized CA as a very low performance culture. The bar is set so low you can trip over it. And one contact has it that developers have very little say in product direction and only have contact with customers when problems are escalated.
Innovative but cutthroat

CA was a very innovative company to work for, remembers a former systems engineer. They truly did have a wealth of talent, and they mined it well...at least for the period that I worked for them. There may be agreement about this positive impression on the people atmosphere at CA, but some may be quick to add that, as with a lot of software development teams, there are quite a few people that lack social skills. This downside could result in unprofessional behavior, such as rude emails or confrontational meetings that can be seen in CA, and one respondent notes that management has made no effort to correct this problem. The system engineer had another beef altogether, one with the recurrence of reorganizations [such] that the strategic direction of the company changed almost quarterly. So it may be that the culture at CA is interesting, but only depending on which site you were at.
Moneymakers: in
Insiders say CA is very open to women and minorities. Fortune listed the company as one of Americas 50 Best Companies for Minorities in its July, 2001 issue. One contact adds that, the overall attitude is positive toward advancement of anyone who can generate revenue. If you cant, however, youre out. Some insiderssalespeople, at leastsay, there is a medium to high turnover rate for those who do not meet the companys quotas. Some, however, feel that the situation is very relationship-driven, bordering on incestuous. Either youre part of the in crowd or not.
Kicks for free

CA offers an extensive array of perks, including tuition reimbursement, select medical benefits and a discretionary distributionwhere the company matches up to 8 percent of your base salary in a 401(k) plan. CA maintains first-rate corporate fitness facilities and fantastic on-site child care centers in its offices all over the
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world. However, one contact notes that Many perks have been removed. The HQ gym used to be free; now employees are charged for membership. One insider confirms that the perks that once made CA a good company to work for are slowly being taken away. As of this time those include: free medical and dental benefits, and free breakfast. This may be due to certain budget tightening so that things such as training classes [are] very difficult to come by. Expense reports are completely scrutinized, and dont even think about losing a receipt. But those may be nothing to one whos part of the NYC presales/sales team, for instance, where everything is fast-paced, cutthroat and dynamic and, though this may sound great to many an ear, it can be cause for a heady complaint when exposure to the Islandia office and other suburbia offices proved otherwise. We often called headquarters in Islandiathe country club, and you had to have special membership there. It was much safer to hide there and survive any rifts than anywhere else. Despite this, many still express giddy approval of the dress code in the corporate offices, saying its pretty straightforward: If you meet clients, you wear full business attire; if you dont, you wear business casual. The lucky respondents in development and tech support outside the New York headquarters say they wear jeans and T-shirts on a regular basis.
Dissenting opinions
Computer Associates was formerly ranked high on top places to work surveys in publications around the country. Recent surveys suggest a trend toward staff dissatisfaction. Poor integration and communication with employees. Software designed by committees and overburdened processes that take forever, so nothing gets done, wails one respondent. There is a very top-heavy corporate culture that seems to be very out of touch with the remainder of the company, adds an engineer. Its hardly any surprise that his co-worker adds, Employee moraleis not very good at all. Opportunities for advancement are slim, interjects an engineer. Diversity seems also to be an issue. Women and African-Americans are overwhelmingly underrepresented in the company, notes a source. Its not all gloom and doom, however. There are high-quality employees in the company, affirms one programmer.
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CACI INTERNATIONAL INC.

1100 North Glebe Road Arlington, VA 22201 Phone: (703) 841-7800 Fax: (703) 841-7882 www.caci.com
LOCATIONS
Arlington, VA (HQ) Aberdeen, MD Albuquerque, NM Alexandria, VA Annapolis, MD Ashburn, VA Austin, TX Baltimore, MD Beavercreek, OH Belcamp, MD Bellevue, NE Bloomington, IN Boise, ID Boulder City, NV Bremerton, WA Chantilly, VA Charleston, SC Charlottesville, VA Chesapeake, VA College Park, GA Colonial Heights, VA Columbia, SC Columbus, GA Dahlgren, VA Dayton, OH Devens, MA Eatontown, NJ Elkridge, MD Fairborn, OH Fairfax, VA Falls Church, VA Fayetteville, NC Gaithersburg, MD Garden Ridge, TX Hampton, VA Hanover, MD Herndon, VA Honolulu, HI Huntsville, AL Indian Head, MD Irving, TX Jacksonville, FL La Jolla, CA Langhorne, PA Lanham, MD Layton, UT Lexington Park, MD Louisville, KY Manassas, VA Mechanicsburg, PA Middletown, RI Millington, TN Montgomery, AL New Church, VA New Orleans, LA Norfolk, VA Oklahoma City, OK Olathe, KS Omaha, NE Orlando, FL Oxnard, CA Panama City, FL Pawtucket, RI Pensacola, FL Pittsburgh, PA Portsmouth, NH Richmond, VA Rockville, MD Rome, NY San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Scottsdale, AZ Shalimar, FL Sierra Vista, AZ Silver Spring, MD Smyrna, GA Southern Pines, NC Springfield, VA Stafford, VA Swansea, IL Tampa, FL Valley Lee, MD Vienna, VA Virginia Beach, VA Warner Robins, GA Washington, DC Heidelberg London
DEPARTMENTS
Business Business Communications Business Development Consultant Domestic, Federal & State, & Local Markets Engineering Enterprise Technologies Executive Facilities Finance Government Business Operations Human Resources Information Systems Intelligence Legal/Contracts Logistics Marketing Mission Systems Business National Solutions Business Network/Telecom Program Management Public Relations Science Security Service Technology Transformation Solutions Business
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CAI Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: J.P. London President & CEO: Paul M. Cofoni 2008 Employees: 12,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,420.5 2008 Income ($ mil.): 83.3
KEY COMPETITORS
Computer Sciences Corp. General Dynamics Information Technology SAIC
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
caci.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lang =en
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THE SCOOP
Uncle Sam wants CACI
Under the guiding motto ever vigilant, CACI looks out for the technological wellbeing of the U.S. armed forces abroad, while also keeping an eye on network management for a few large corporations, primarily in the U.K. The company offers IT and communication services mostly to American government agencies, and operates in four specific arenas: systems integration, managed network services, knowledge management and engineering services. CACI, with a broad range of expertise in computers, is one of Uncle Sams primary go-to tech firms. It works especially hard for the Department of Defense (DOD), which accounted for 73 percent of company revenue in 2006. When its not helping our military wage the war on terror, CACI also enjoys gathering kudos as a leader among its peers, including a No. 932 ranking in the Fortune 1000, with an extra nod from Fortune as the seventh-largest information technology services company in the U.S. On March 17, 2009, CACI was also included among the worlds most admired companies by Fortune.
The world of SIMSCRIPT, 1960s style

Originally called the California Analysis Center Incorporated, this now-gigantic technology firm started out very small. In fact, company legend has it that founders Harry Markowitz and Herb Karr used to do business from a park bench during the companys infancy in the early 1960s. Those are especially humble beginnings for a firm that went public and made more than $1 million in revenue by 1968. That may sound like small potatoes now, but in 1968, $1 million constituted a much larger potato, especially when served alongside lucrative contracts with the U.S. Navy, IBM and the U.S. Commerce Department. The business that rocketed Markowitz and Karr from the park bench to the corner office so quickly was SIMSCRIPT, a software language the entrepreneurs commercialized and developed into their own line of simulation software, with applications especially useful to the government. It could be used to build computer models of complex functions ranging from airport traffic maps to tactical military plans.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Fortune includes CACI among worlds most admired companies CACI gleams as the most admired company in Virginia, and even more so, one of the most admired companies in the world, as declared by Fortune. CACI continued to rake in accolades from Fortune as it placed fifth in its Most Admired Information Technology Services list. Fortunes Most Admired list serves as a report card on corporate reputations. The thumbs-up from Fortune is an indicator that CACI has garnered respect from top executives and directors from other qualified companies, and since this is the first time Fortune has combined American and international companies, being recognized in this crowd of companies, as CACIs press release states, demonstrates the companys growing recognition as a Tier 1 company in the federal contracting marketplace. January 2009: CACI reports Fiscal 2009 second quarter results CACI International announced results for its second fiscal quarter and six months ended December 31, 2008. Paul Cofoni, CACIs president and CEO, comments, We are extremely pleased with our strong second quarter performance. Our second quarter revenue was a record $673 million. We delivered another quarter of double-digit growth in operating income, net income and earnings per share, along with double-digit organic revenue growth. We have a healthy balance sheet and operating cash flow, and a balanced and integrated financial strategy for the deployment of capital. Contract awards and contract funding orders rose significantly compared to the fiscal 2008 second quarter, and we are winning more than our share of awards at the tierone level. Our recruiting remains strong as we continue to hire the high-quality professionals our clients need to complete their critical missions. December 2008: Providing government agencies with eDiscovery solution The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other government agencies will be receiving a comprehensive and leading-edge eDiscovery solution, thanks to CACIs joint venture with Guidance Software Inc. CACI will utilize Guidance Softwares EnCase eDiscovery to supply the agencies with electronic discovery databases. Processing services will also be provided to the DOJ, integrating litigation support services and forensic extraction and maximizing the operation and efficiency of the agency. The partnership also allows CACI to be a single vendor for a variety of litigation support needs. September 2008: Completing stock repurchase program CACI completed its repurchase of the companys common stock for $20 million. The company has relied on stock repurchase as an effective strategy for growth. In the previous year, CACI made the same move, repurchasing one million shares for $45.5 million, delivering favorable results. According to Confoni, CACIs wellbalanced, integrated and long-term strategy for growth positions us with confidence and momentum for fiscal 2009 and beyond. We believe our share
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repurchase program was a wise investment of our cash. It effectively complements our proactive corporate development and acquisition program aimed at strengthening CACIs support for the nations highest priorities. March 2008: Placing second in Fortunes Most Admired IT Services Companies CACI placed second in both Fortunes Most Admired IT Services Companies list and Most Admired Companies in Virginia list, a huge jump from sixth in 2007. Bill Fairl, CACI president of U.S. operations, attributed the acclaim to its workforce saying, Our employees are the best in the industry in delivering quality IT solutions and customer service. CACIs new, higher ratings on Fortunes Most Admired Companies list reflect our continued focus on making CACI a truly great place for talented people to build a fulfilling career.
GETTING HIRED
Support the company that supports our troops
Because of its close relationship with the DOD, CACI goes where the military goes. For the globe-trotter, that can mean job opportunities in the far-flung corners of the world. For the local-yokel, that also means plenty of jobs within the U.S. proper. All of the positions at CACIs many locations can be found through the companys jobs site, at www.caci.com/job/contacts.shtml. Here, open positions are searchable by type or location. A more cerebral concept search allows you to post your resume or enter keywords and find matching opportunities. Seekers are encouraged to build a profile on the employment site by entering some basic information and uploading a resume; then CACI can contact you when a position that could fit you opens up. If this is all a bit too impersonal, CACI also appears at several professional career fairs throughout the year. A full list can be found on its career site.
For those initiated into the CACI ranks, life is good. The company offers a 401(k) program with company matching, comprehensive health coverage and paid vacation and holidays. Tuition reimbursement is available through the company, as are legal services and financial planning. For the pet lovers, CACI offers a pet care discount plan (pet rocks are, unfortunately, not covered). The company also provides training to keep its employees abreast of the latest technology and to promote advancement through the company ranks.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Superb corporate culture, average benefits?
The upside of working in CACI, according to one insider, is a very open and efficient corporate culture that encourages employees to do their best for the company. For another source, its an environment thats upbeat, fun, hardworking and fast-paced. A contact shares that in CACI, there is minimum red tape and politics is almost nonexistent, something that might seem a utopia for the disillusioned corporate drones everywhere. No company is perfect, however, and one of the downsides of working in CACI, according to one respondent, is that fringe benefits and health care packages are average. The same contact contends that training is poor, and believes that the company aims to use employees for one specific project before letting them go.
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CANON INC.
30-2, Shimomaruko 3-chome Ohta-ku, Tokyo, 146-8501 Japan Phone: (81) 3-3758-2111 www.canon.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CAJ Stock Exchange: NYSE President & COO: Tsuneji Uchida Chairman & CEO: Fujio Mitarai 2008 Employees: 166,980 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 4,094,161 2008 Income ( mil.): 309,148
LOCATIONS
Tokyo, Japan (HQ) Burlington, NJ Chesapeake, VA Conshohocken, PA Irvine, CA Lake Success, NY Miami, FL Mt. Laurel, NJ Newport News, VA Rockville, MD Salt Lake City, UT 70 Locations internationally.
KEY COMPETITORS
Konica Minolta Ricoh Xerox
DEPARTMENTS
Corporate Intellectual Property & Legal Policy & Economy Research Optical Products Operations Human Resources Management Corporate Planning Development Peripheral Products Operations Quality Management Device Technology Development Inkjet Products Operations Production Engineering Corporate Planning Development Information & Communication Systems Global Procurement
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Canon Inc.
THE SCOOP
A captivating company
As one of the worlds top producers of cameras, Canon urges you to take a picture; it will last longer. Additionally, as one of the worlds leading manufacturers of printers and fax machines, Canon encourages you to make lots and lots of copies of that picture, for posterity. The company specializes in all things visual and is best known for its business machines (copiers, printers, fax machines, etc.) and its cameras (digital, video, LCD projectors and the like). Through its optics arm, it also makes medical X-ray machines and the steppers and mask aligners used in semiconductor production. However, it now produces nonvisual tools, like computers, handy terminals, calculators and electronic dictionaries, as part of its business machines product line. Canons headquarters and much of its production facilities remain in Japan, but the Canon USA slice of the pie accounts for about a third of the parent companys sales. And dont let the name fool you; Canon USA is not limited to just the United States. This division of the company operates through more than 30 offices across North, South and Central America and the Caribbean, and employs more than 10,000 people in North America alone. BusinessWeek ranked Canon at No. 51 on its InfoTech 100 in 2007 (behind rival Hewlett-Packard, who came in at No. 35, but ahead of Sony and Xerox, who did not make the list). However, in 2008, Canon dropped out of the Infotech 100.
Global (heart)warming
Canon prides itself on corporate responsibility. At the heart of Canons values is the concept of kyosei, most succinctly defined (by the company) as living and working together for the common good. To this end, Canon is involved in many social welfare and humanitarian efforts, including its Canon4Kids program, which helps locate missing children across the U.S. Canon also puts its sponsorship to good use; for each birdie, eagle and hole-in-one Briny Baird and Michelle McGann made during PGA golf tournament play in 2004-2005, Canon donated money to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Both golfers also placed photographs of local missing children on their golf bags during tournaments. At Yankee Stadium in New York City, as part of Canon4Kids, parents are offered wristbands with seating location information for their children to wear to assist security personnel in aiding lost children. Kyosei applies to the common good of the environment as well. Through the Canon Groups Factor 2 initiative under its 2003 Vision for 2010, Canon has set specific goals to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions in inverse proportion to company sales. Canon USA also funds a national parks scholars program to encourage doctoral research in support of wildlife, although the last batch of scholars were picked in
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2007 for studies and research until 2009. Canon USA also sponsors the Peabody and 2007 Emmy award-winning public television (PBS) series, Nature. Finally, in 2006, the company launched its first 100 percent recycled copier and printer paper, and also started using biodegradable plastic in its packaging materials. This indicates that Canon copier toner packages have since eliminated hazardous substances (for example lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBBs and PBDEs). This contributes an average of 16 percent less weight per copy in 2005 than in 1995. Canon also uses recycled paper for the production of their cardboard boxes.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Center of excellence Canon USA is a certified Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal. BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for CustomerDriven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. January 2009: Seeing a Prism Canon USA and Prism Software, a leading provider of advanced electronic document solutions, revealed the integration of Prisms DocRecord and DocSystem applications with Canons advanced MEAP-enabled imageRUNNER line of multifunction printers (MFPs). Prisms notes that it was very pleased to provide the market with an easy-to-use and fully integrated method of accessing the power of DocRecord and DocSystem directly from the control panel of Canons imageRUNNER MFPs. This will provide imageRUNNER MFP users a greatly (sic) more efficient method of quickly processing their critical documents. December 2008: A scanner for everyone Canon USA introduced the Canon imageFORMULA DR-7090C Universal Production Scanner, which delivers incredible flexibility, image quality and reliability at high scanning speeds by leveraging technologies from Canons awardwinning imageFORMULA and imageRUNNER product lines. The DR-7090C proves to have a special appeal to the government and the education, legal and financial sectors due to its two-way design, fast one-pass duplex capability and easy flatbed scanning. November 2008: Instant X-ray images on the flat panel screen! Canon USA celebrates 10 years of digital radiography service through its current line of advanced portable and general digital radiography (DR) systems and solutions at the 2008 Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting (RSNA 2008). Tsuneo Imai, a Canon executive, notes, Since introducing its first indirect X-ray projection camera in Japan 68 years ago, Canon has been a world leader in medical imaging.
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September 2008: Beyond tooling To better serve photographers, and to provide the appropriate level of service for each professional demographic, Canon USA will implement the new Canon Professional Services (CPS) program beginning in early 2009. The new CPS program, which will require all existing members to reapply, will offer three levels of membershipSilver, Gold and Platinumto qualifying members, with each level receiving better and more extensive service benefits. The program recognizes the sense of urgency among Canon professional photographers in the field who know that a day without a camera is a day without revenue. Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager of Canon USAs consumer imaging group, says, We recognize that our responsibilities to full-time professional Canon photographers extend beyond providing them the tools they need to support their livelihood. As a company, we must also provide an exemplary service and support structure for professionals, indicative of our commitment to the art of photography. April 2008: Lenses sell out Canon USA announced that it has sold 40 million EF lenses, achieving a new lens manufacturing milestone. Canons new EF lens lineup, catering to the everchanging needs of users, from novice photo enthusiasts to advanced amateur and professional photographers, has 64 models, the most wide-ranging selection in the industry. The companys diverse range of EF lenses include standard and supertelephoto zoom lenses, image stabilizer-equipped lenses, large-aperture lenses, macro lenses and TS-E lenses, which include a special tilt-shift mechanism that permits the manipulation of image perspective and distortion.
GETTING HIRED
Extra points for using Canons printers to print your resume
Employment information can be found on Canon USAs website at www.usa.canon.com. Applicants can search for open positions at jobscusa.icims.com/jobs, using keyword, location or job type, and then apply for a spot online by uploading their resume or by building one on the career site. There is also a wealth of information about the companys American locations, its benefit programs and its diversity on the web. First, the benefits: medical, dental and vision insurance coverage, basic life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, flexible spending account, a 401(k) plan with company match and profit sharing, and an employee assistance program. Canon will also reimburse those thirsting for knowledge for up to 90 percent of their tuition expenses, providing the course of study is relevant to the company.
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Canon also offers a summer internship program for students to get real-world experience prior to graduation. We prefer students that are just completing their junior year; however, all are welcome to apply, says a Canon executive. The program runs from June to August and is a full-time, paid internship, offering experience with business, marketing and technical issues, as well as the opportunity to gain handson work experience by participating in significant projects. Potential interns can also apply online for positions in a number of different areas, including marketing, IT, business administration, computer science, MIS, CIS, strategic planning, finance, economics, accounting, audit and compliance, environmental science and product safety, industrial engineering, logistics, supply chain, imaging technology, web design, graphic arts, public relations, legal, corporate communications, English, statistics and others. Canon stresses that it is looking for internship candidates with strong communication skills, technical and/or computer skills, plus the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Vacation before work
Huh? you ask? Heres why: The process of getting hired at Canon is very lengthy. It could take 90 to 120 days from your first phone interview before you start the position. Another respondent seems to offer an explanation: Two rounds of interviews with a panel, background checks and drug screens. To a specialist, though, it wasnt that bad. Two interviewsHR and manager. Nothing unusual regular interview. Except it took forever to make a job offer. Two interviews, echoes another, with nothing unusual about them. But, again, it took a few months to be hired.
Different folks
As for salary, a national account exec really wanted to share: The total compensation package would be as follows: Base $85K to $100K. Commission $30K to $40K. Bonuses 8 percent paid at the end of the year. So did an assembler: $10.50 hour. And a specialist: $58K plus bonus, two weeks vacation. Says the assistant manager, Overallcheap! Offered much less than in the city.
Debating on canons
To a director, Canon is a very good company to work for with high standards for ethics and conduct. Very socially responsible. Maybe a bit inflexible regarding hours, but has a reasonable dress code. And there are excellent opportunities for advancement albeit over the long term. An assistant manager confirms the inflexible hours: 9 to 5, but could be longer depending on position, which is
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another way of saying, according to a specialist, 9 to 5 nonexempt, longer as needed for exempt. Another testifies thus: We had a variety of employees building computer parts and components. We worked 10- to 12-hour days. And as for the reasonable dress code, we wore blue uniform tops and blue khaki pants. Bluecollar job, get it? But if you were a prompt and dependable employee there was room for promotion. Theres the reasonable part. But explain all this to a national account executive and hed tell you that not only is the dress code for him business casual, his is not a 9-to-5 job. In fact, he says, you home office with extensive travel. Regarding advancement opportunities, the assistant manager says there are plenty of them in many departments, and one can transfer from one to another. But ultimately this is a Japanese company, he adds, which is a vague answer. Is he referring to a Japanese patronage system? To the companys playing favorites toward Japanese employees? What? A specialist says theres this very corporate culture. The manager is everything, employees are nothing (if you have any ideas on improving thingskeep them to yourself).
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CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.

2901 Via Fortuna Austin, TX 78746 Phone: (512) 851-4000 www.cirrus.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Support Apex Precision Power Business Unit Applications Engineering Assembly/ Packaging/ Sustaining Engineering Board Layout Business Operations CAD Engineering/ Development ChipL Component Engineering Co-op Corporate Communications & Human Resources Corporate Quality Design Engineering Device Engineering DSP Business Unit Engineering Management Failure Analysis Finance Foundry Engineering Industrial Products Divisio Information Technology Legal MarketingMarcom Marketing Support MarketingTechnical Mask Engineering Mixed-Signal Audio Division Physical Design Process Engineering Product & Test Engineering Program Management Purchasing Quality Assurance Sales Sales Operations Software/Firmware Development Software/Firmware QA Supply Chain Support Positions Systems Engineering/IC Architecture Technical Publications Validation Engineering Verification Engineering Web development
LOCATIONS
Austin, TX (HQ) Tucson, AZ Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom Hong Kong Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Taipei Tokyo
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CRUS Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman, Cofounder & Director: Michael L. Hackworth President & CEO: Jason Rhode 2008 Employees: 473 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 181.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): -5.8
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) www.3tbe.taleo.net/NA1/ats/careers/jobSea rch.jsp?org=CIRRUS&cws=1
KEY COMPETITORS
Freescale Semiconductor ST Micro Texas Instruments/Burr Brown
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Cirrus Logic, Inc.
THE SCOOP
In your ear, there could well be a cloud
Cirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor companyand no, that doesnt mean the company is dull and boring, it just means that the firm designs and sells semiconductor hardware while outsourcing the actual fabrication of the devices (hence, fabless) to a third party. This saves production costs and allows Cirrus to respond with greater agility to tech advances. With applications in industrial and audio electronics, Cirrus Logics analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) find their way into products marketed by Bose, Philips, Panasonic, Sony and Harman International, to name just a few of the companys 2,500 customers.
Up in the clouds
Former MIT professor Suhas Patil developed an advanced computer chip THAT improved on the technology used to control computer hard drives, and needed an experienced business partner to help start a company to reap his ingenuitys benefits. He found just the man in Northern California native Mike Hackworth, then a senior VP at Signetics. In 1984, the two men founded Cirrus Logic, a name suggested by Hackworths daughter Lauren, after the highest clouds in the sky.
Blue skies and gathering storms

Cirrus Logic set about marketing Patils chip, and quickly expanded into offering other integrated circuitry to support computers peripheral functions, like audio, video and data storage. An early win came in 1987, when Cirrus Logic beat out other firms angling to produce chips to support IBMs new graphics displays. This microchip gave Cirrus a leg up in the developing 2-D and 3-D graphics market, and the company became a major supplier of graphics-supporting chips for desktop and laptop PCs. Two years later, the foundling firm went public, and by 1996 had earned its nameCirrus became the fastest Silicon Valley semiconductor firm ever to break into the billion-dollar-a-year club, selling $1.1 billion that year. The company began suffering losses in 2000. In April that year, to cut costs, the company moved its headquarters from Fremont, Calif. to Austin, Texas. Still, revenue and profit suffered, with revenue falling to $410 million in 2002, and that year and the next both saw annual losses of more than $200 million. These disappointing returns, as well as a shift in focus from magnetic storage chips to consumer electronics, resulted in at least 2,000 job cuts.
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Anywhere the wind blows

At present, Cirrus Logic focuses on providing high-value mixed-signal integrated circuit solutions for audio and industrial markets. Given current economic conditions, president and CEO Jason Rhode says the company believes its strategic growth programs will help drive long-term opportunities for revenue and market-share growth, just as they did in portable audio. Cirrus Logic is working to replicate this growth in other areas throughout the year as it continues to serve more than 2,500 end customers globally, with more than 600 products.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Net income of $2.1 million in Q3 fiscal 2009 Cirrus Logic released financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended on December 27, 2008, showing that revenue for the quarter was $43.8 million, compared to $48.9 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2008, and $53.3 million in the previous quarter. In addition, third quarter GAAP net income was $2.8 million, or $0.04 per share based on 65.3 million average diluted shares outstanding. At the same time, the firm also announced a share repurchase program of up to $20 million. May 2008: Losses posted for Q4 fiscal 2008 The company posted a GAAP net loss of $13.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, compared to a $4.2 million in profit during the previous quarter. The company had suffered woes, including the closure of its newly acquired IC subsidiary Caretta in China, and legal costs in relation to the Securities and Exchange Commissions investigation of backdated stock options. November 2008: Walk in the clouds
Cirrus Logic was named one of the Best Companies to Work for in Texas 2009. The awards program is a project of Texas Monthly magazine, the Texas Association of Business (TAB), the Texas State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management (TSC-SHRM) and Best Companies Group. May 2007: French out, Rhode in Jason Rhode, former vice president and general manager of Cirrus Logics mixedsignal audio division, replaced David French as president and CEO. French resigned in March at the conclusion of a six-month internal company investigation on historical stock options practices. According to a statement released by the company, a special committee of the board of directors concluded that French knew about and participated in the selection of three stock option grant dates between 2000 and 2002. We interviewed numerous external candidates for this position, but in the end the board of directors felt that Cirrus Logic is fortunate to
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have a number of strong leaders within the company, said Mike Hackworth, chairman of the board, on Rhodes appointment.
GETTING HIRED
Casting call
Cirrus Logic scours the world for fresh-from-college talent. The company offers summer internships and co-ops at its Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colo., locations. Interns work full time, and enjoy paid holidays and time off plus health insurance. The program is open to those who have completed (at a minimum) their freshman year and are seeking degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, computer engineering or business. Details on applying and meeting with company reps on campus visits are available through the careers site at www.cirrus.com/en/careers. That site also has the lowdown for experienced hires, who will find a comprehensive job search function that can be sifted by both location and department. Those ready to apply will fill out a short questionnaire (name, address, etc.) before uploading their resume. Applicant information will be saved with Cirrus Logics job agent, making it that much easier to apply again in the future. Getting in with this fab-u-less firm comes with its benefits, of course, including a 401(k) with company matching, an employee stock purchase plan, health insurance, and paid holidays and vacation time.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Flexible and diverse
The workforce in Cirrus Logic is described as flexible and management encourages diversity in its staff. However, opportunities for promotion seem to be nil. Opportunities for advancement have dried up after numerous layoffs and organizational restructuring occurred, shares a senior manager.
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CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134-1706 Phone: (408) 526-4000 www.cisco.com
DEPARTMENTS
Access Networking & Services Advanced Development Asia Pacific Business Development, Consumer & Small Business CDO Collaboration Software Commerce Transformation Corporate Communications Corporate Marketing Customer Advocacy European Markets Customer Advocacy U.S. & Canada Customer Service Data Center, Switching, & Services Development Organization Operations Emerging East Emerging Markets Emerging Technologies Ethernet Switching Technology Group European Markets Executive Facilities Finance Global Government Solutions Global policy & Government Affairs Global Sales Operations Global Supply Chain Management Human Resources Information Technology Internet Business Solutions Legal Manufacturing Marketing Media Solutions Group Operations, Processes & Systems Quality Assurance Research & Advanced Development Security Technology Group Server Access Virtualization Business Unit Service Provider Group Small Business Technology Group Software Group Administration Technical Support Services U.S. Commercial Sales U.S. Public Sector Sales Voice Technology Group Wireless & Security Technology Worldwide Operations Worldwide Strategy & Planning
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ)
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington, DC West Virginia
140 International Locations
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CSCO Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & CEO: John T. Chambers 2008 Employees: 66,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 39,540 2008 Income ($ mil.): 8,052
KEY COMPETITORS
Alcatel-Lucent Hewlett-Packard Company Juniper Networks, Inc
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.cisco.apply2jobs.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Cisco Systems, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Huge and loving it
One of the brightest stars of the 1990s tech bubble, Cisco Systems was among the most valuable companies in the world at its peak, with a market capitalization exceeding both Microsoft and GE. Its fortunes have since slid from those lofty heights, but Cisco is not exactly a corporate charity case; in its fiscal year 2008, Ciscos sales were almost $40 billion, and the company currently holds its own at No. 71 on the Fortune 500. BusinessWeek rewarded the companys growth as well, placing it 39th on its 2008 Infotech 100 list. Today, Cisco is a top manufacturer of networking hardware, such as routers, switches and hubsall devices constituting what is often called the backbone of the internet. Switches and hubs connect computers to each other, creating local area networks, or LANs. Routers, meanwhile, connect one network to anotherfor example, from a LAN to a wide-area network (or WAN), such as the internet. Cisco also develops and sells the software used to manage these networks. Its primary client base consists of large corporations, educational institutions, government agencies and telecom service providers, all of which deploy large and complex networks. But with its acquisition of Linksys in March 2003, Cisco dove into the small business and home networking markets as well. The company has also been one of the pioneers of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. VoIP uses the same technology that enables computers to communicate with each other, but it applies to phone callsenabling phone calls to bypass traditional phone lines. The companys goal is to eliminate the need for separate voice, data and video infrastructure, replacing these with a single multipurpose network. Cisco has United States R&D facilities at its HQ in San Jose, California, as well as in Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. Internationally, the company has major research facilities in India, China and Israel. It also looks outside its own researchers for innovation, having acquired over 108 companies since its inception.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: From the Middle East to Southeast Cisco announced the opening of its new office and internet data center in Bahrain as part of the companys agreement with Bahrains government to boost the kingdoms global competitiveness in ICT. The new data center also establishes Ciscos role in developing new ICT talents to address the growing opportunities for ICT skilled workers in the region.
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Additionally, Cisco collaborated with the Philippine Long Distance Telecommunications Co. and Tata Communications to bring TelePresence to the Philippine public. TelePresence will empower organizations and businesses with its next-generation video-based communication capabilities. This collaboration is said to transform the way companies interact in the Southeast Asian country. March 2009: Putting collaboration in context Cisco unleashed enhancements to its Unified Communications system, including mobile access, improved video collaboration and extended interoperability across applications and devices. For businesses, this means streamlined workflows, optimized collaboration and accelerated decision making. And since its now mobile, customers can avail themselves of the solutions anywhere, on any device and any network. The enhancements are part of Ciscos move to build its collaboration portfolio, which includes Unified Communications, TelePresence and Web 2.0 applications. March 2009: Taking the shots Cisco announced its intent to acquire digital camcorder-maker Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million. The privately held San Francisco, Calif.-based Pure Digital makes the colorful, pocket-sized Flip Video camcorders. The purchase would bring Cisco to the next level as the company develops new video capabilities and drives the next generation of entertainment and communication experiences, Ciscos Ned Hooper, senior vice president of corporate development and consumer groups, said in a statement. February 2009: Building intelligent cities Cisco launched its Intelligent Urbanisation project to help cities worldwide maximize available IT and network resources to improve economic conditions and the quality of life for citizens. In January 2009, Cisco completed its acquisition of middleware technology provider Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, Inc. This buyout promises improved efficiencies, greater energy savings and a reduced carbon footprint as companies are able to integrate IT applications with their infrastructures. Intelligent Urbanisation seems to be a step to fulfill that promise. By 2025, over a million cities would be built using the Intelligent Urbanisation blueprint. February 2009: Going 4G At the 2009 GSM Association Mobile World Congress, Cisco unveiled Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN), its 4G mobile Internet transformation strategy that will enable consumers to experience a truly connected life through a variety of video and rich media applications and broadband services. Further extending mobile collaboration options, the company also made its WebEx Meeting Center service available to BlackBerry, Nokia and Samsung 3G smartphone users, making it possible to participate in web and audio conferences, and view
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presentations and desktops via 3G or WiFi, as convenient and mobile as smartphones offer. February 2009: Still eyeing more Chief Executive John Chambers said Cisco plans to continue being acquisitive even through the economic downturn. BusinessWeek reported that the firm is eyeing software manufacturer VMWare and its parent EMC. Virtualization is starting to be a hot direction for technology systems and with VMWares virtualization capabilities, the company could be looking into a change in how organizations warehouse and manage their data. Talks also hint that Cisco is looking to include NetApp, Sun Microsystems and eBays Skype under its umbrella. January 2009: On a downturn? Cisco saw a striking drop in its current fiscal quarter. The firms income dipped 27 percent over the second fiscal quarter of 2008. Revenue also decreased by 7.5 percent to $9.1 billion this year, compared to $9.8 billion in 2008. The company is already making adjustments to reduce costs and reorganize the business given the downtrend in income figures. However, while Chambers announced that Cisco is not considering layoffs as part of these measures, he said that a hiring freeze is possible. January 2009: Connected community of the future Cisco called on university students across the U.K. and Ireland to participate in Urban 2020, a competition aimed to stimulate debate around all aspects of urban regeneration. Students are to design the connected community of the future guided by ecological and environmental considerations, technological advancements and societal changes. The winning entry gets 2,000 cash and will be featured at the Royal Institute of British Architects for one week.
GETTING HIRED
See ya at Cisco!
The employment section of Ciscos site, cisco.apply2jobs.com, has a database of available jobs around the world, searchable by country, town, keyword and job function. Employment-seekers can submit their resume for a specific position, saving their job profile in for future ease of application. Cisco has special listings for recent graduates, and especially encourages those with degrees in sales, services, engineering, marketing, finance and operations to apply. Those who havent graduated yet can work as an intern in the summer or during the semester as a coop. Either way, Cisco promises a worthwhile immersion in the company environment andbetter stillit pays.
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Cisco maintains the No. 6 spot on Fortunes 2009 list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work; the same rank it scored in 2008. Fortune cites CEO John Chambers focus on collaborative efforts, giving employees a chance to spill their two cents and participate in decision making, as one of the biggest influences on the corporate culture. Ready for your interview? One source advises that [i]nterviews for regular employees [are] typically one-on-one sessions with department managers or directors. He reports going through five rounds of interviews with department staff on two separate days, around 30 minutes each.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Ciscos always on
Once hires come onboard, they get to experience the Cisco culture. The company offers laptops and Treos, but they come at a price. The work-from-home lifestyle means many Cisco employees work around the clockwe are always online, says one sleep-deprived insider. The hours are flexible, with the primary criteria being to get the job done, whatever/whenever it takes, adds a source. This, of course, leads to days easily much longer than standard working hours. The good news about being constantly accessible means that the culture is one of empowerment, with individuals encouraged to take ownership. In general, Cisco treats its employees as mature adults, according to another worker. Voicemails are also a huge part of the company culture, adds a respondent posted in Asia. The dress code is as relaxed as the working hours, with one contact noting that There is no dress code. Dress is expected to be appropriate to the situation. There is some turmoil in the ranks, however. No job is secure as everyone typically needs to go through interviews all over again to secure their roles during departmental shake-up. Cisco is tight with headcounts and [it] will be difficult for contractors and temps to get converted, says a source. Another points out that the company has a fairly good track record on hiring minorities at the Cisco corporate office (other than African-American), and fairly poor results with hiring and retaining women. An executive regards Cisco as a great company for [the] fresh graduate in terms of corporate exposure, but not good for career advancement. One source from sales, however, says that opportunities for advancement [are] good if you can network and meet the right people.
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COMPUWARE CORPORATION
One Campus Martius Detroit, MI 48226 Phone: (313) 227-7300 www.compuware.com
LOCATIONS
Detroit, MI (HQ) Addison, TX Appleton, WI Atlanta, GA Baltimore, MD Bellevue, WA Beverly, MA Blue Bell, PA Brentwood, TN Charlotte, NC Cincinnati, OH Columbus, OH Durham, NC East Rutherford, NJ Eden Prairie, MN Englewood, CO Framingham, MA Grandville, MI Houston, TX Independence, OH Irvine, CA Madison, WI McLean, VA Merrimack, NH Milwaukee, WI New York, NY Okemos, MI Overland Park, KS Pleasanton, CA San Diego, CA San Juan, PR Schaumburg, IL Scottsdale, AZ Tampa, FL 184 International Locations
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CPWR Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President: Bob Paul Chairman & CEO: Peter Karmanos Jr. 2008 Employees: 5,648 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,229.6 2008 Income ($ mil.): 134.4
KEY COMPETITORS
BMC Software, Inc. CA, Inc. IBM
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Application Development Business & Systems Analyst Database Development & Management Facilities Finance Health Care Human Resources Information Technology Management Marketing Network Administration Partner/Channel Development Product Management Project Management Quality Compliance Sales Security Software Architecture Software Product Development Software Quality Assurance Software Technical Support Technical Documentation Technical Support Technology Project Management Travel Wellness
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.jobs-compuware.icims.com/jobs
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Compuware Corporation
THE SCOOP
Motor City/Shmotor City
Detroit isnt just about cars anymore. One of its largest corporate citizens, Compuware Corporation, has been providing software and information technology services to businesses around the globe for more than three decades. Now serving the world's top IT companies, including more than 90 percent of the Fortune 100, the company is a leading example of Detroits role in the technology industry. Compuware typically offers IT governance and management, application development, quality assurance, service management and support services.
Innovation and recognition

Compuware grew through acquisition, picking up e-business service firms BlairLake and Nomex, and combining them to form Compuware Digital Development Centers. The company put new technological advancements and product launches at its forefront, releasing OptimalView, an enterprise portal; DevPartner Java Edition 3.0; File-AID/Data Solutions 3.3; Vantage 9, a program to improve application performance; and CARS, the Compuware Application Reliability Solution.
Tough times and taking on the giant

Despite the accolades, Compuware hit a stumbling block at the turn of the century when the pop heard round the worldthat is, the bursting of the tech bubble dropped sales by 22 percent and eliminated 1,600 jobs from the company. Software giant and perennial competitor IBM proved to be a particularly painful thorn in the companys side. Compuware sued the computer industrys Goliath for software piracy. IBM denied the charges (naturally), claiming it had simply used public information and its own expertise to create products that lowered prices in a market formerly dominated by Compuware. The litigation drained Compuwares coffers for three years, costing the firm $12 million in 2002, $34 million in 2003 and $45 million in 2004, but paid off with a March 2005 settlement, in which IBM agreed to license and purchase $400 million worth of Compuware software and services over the next four years.
More acquisitions
In March 2006, Compuware bought a treat for its Covisint division, acquiring privately held ProviderLink to support Covisints expansion into the health care industry. With the goal of spreading technology to health organizations still based on paper, Compuware married Covisints web-based communication applications to ProviderLinks expertise in online health care tools. Another company, SteelTrace,
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joined Compuware the following April, and beefed-up the firms application development management business.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Gbye, Motor City The global economic downturn claimed another victim in Ford, but companies trying to shore up their bottom lines win a little victory in cutting their losses when Compuware announces that its pulling out of its partnership with Ford Motor Co., which started in 1998 when the two companies inked a $500 million deal. Compuware is now calling back its troops in order to shed low-margin jobs, and Ford is one of the companies experiencing the loss. Compuware folks left behind have the option of staying on at Ford, but in the capacity of one of Fords IT vendors. Although this sounds bad all around, theres actually something good in it: both companies are figuring out ways to weather the economic hurricane, and maybe saying goodbye for now is going to help them rearrange their finances and put the money where it should be. December 2008: One of the best and brightest companies to work for The Michigan Business and Professional Association (MBPA) honored Compuware because of its diversity and multiculturalism as part of the 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For award program. This is the eighth time that the company was included in the list. Compuware continues to excel as a great place to work, supporting employees of all races and backgrounds, said Jennifer Kluge, MBPAs executive vice president. The companys longevity on our list and its excellence in diversity are attractive draws to both finding and keeping outstanding talent. October 2008: Going, going
Blaming its poor performance on the economy, Compuware cut approximately 5 percent of its workforce at its Detroit headquarters. The cuts came as a surprise to analysts because Compuware didnt say anything about letting people go across the board, but it defended its actions, saying that the company wanted to let the employees know about it first, rather than having them read it in the paper on the way to work. Asked how the company estimated the number of people it would have to let go, Compuware said that the 300 layoffs were based on workload and how many people are needed to operate the company at its most efficient, now that demand for Compuware products has forced company production to grind to a halt. Year after year, revenue fell by $50 million, with company stocks trading at 5 cents less than it was worth the previous year.
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July 2008: Best performance, profiling and debugging For the sixth year running, a Compuware product bags the top honor at the Visual Studio Magazine Readers Choice Awards. VSM readers chose DevPartner Studio Professional as their favorite Performance, Profiling & Debugging tool. This is an award that should be displayed prominently at Detroit headquarters, since VSM readers are mostly developerspeople who know the ins and outs of programming and know what they want in their applications. May 2008: On a high note Despite the economic troubles and stocks not selling for what theyre worth, Compuware announced that its fourth quarter performance is laudably strong and reliable. In line with this strong showing was the launch of Compuware 2.0, a rebirth of sorts for the company. All the usual attributes werew included, like customer focus and dynamism, but CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. wants something new and fresh. Thus, Compuware realigned its approach to the market, getting rid of the old and promising to deliver a different approach based on what the company has learned over years of existence, with emphases on measurable goals and milestones. March 2008: Entering health care Throwing its hat into the health care business, Compuware unveiled IT Service Management for Healthcare, an initiative that promises to drive patient care, reduce costs and determine return of investment. This application, Compuware hopes, is going to enable health care professionals to proactively manage their businesses.
GETTING HIRED
Detroit and Compuware, sitting in a tree
The company posts job openings online (at www.compuware.com/careers) and has set up a search engine through which interested applicants can find opportunities from Australia to the United Kingdom and several places in between. Applicants can upload their resume to the career website and will be contacted if Compuware likes what it sees. The company also hosts recruiting events; a schedule of these is available through the website. Detroit loves Compuware and has increasingly shown its approval of the company. In 2006, Compuware was named to Metropolitan Detroits 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For list, sponsored by the Michigan Business and Professional Association; and readers of the local Hour Detroit voted it the very best place to work in the city.
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Compuware also touts its commitment to diversity in the workplace and was recognized for backing up that pledge in 2008. The National Black Data Processing Associates cited Compuware as a top-10 company for blacks in technology, and DiversityInc named Compuware to its list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity in June 2006. So what is everybody crowing about? In addition to a full run of health care benefits, Compuware provides an employee stock purchase plan and 401(k) with company match. Veterinary insurance takes care of Fido and a generous vacation and sick day program allows workers to stay home while Fido recovers. Extensive training and certification opportunities keep employees minds razor-sharp, while health club membership discounts keep their bodies taut.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Sell, sell, sell
Compuware is a no-nonsense company, according to one insider. Employees should be motivated to earn money and the company actively encourages people to work your compensation plan. One contact adds that you have to always try to sell more of your products at all times to generate more commissions. The same source shares that sales reps who achieve their 100 percent quota will be invited to the annual 100 percent achievers club. Whatever that is, it sounds pretty good. The company is also a good learning source, says one respondentwho adds that there is no dress code but when there are client meetings, employees need to wear proper business attire. No company is perfect, however, as one source labels Compuwares corporate culture as bad and its advancement opportunities, rare.
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COMVERSE TECHNOLOGY, INC.

810 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 10019 Phone: (212) 739-1000 www.cmvt.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CMVT Stock Exchange: OTC BB President & CEO: Andre Dahan
LOCATIONS
New York, NY (HQ) Las Vegas, NV Wakefield, MA Woodbury, NY Barcelona
KEY COMPETITORS
Alcatel-Lucent Nortel Networks
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Business Operations & Planning Corporate Development & Strategy Human Resources Marketing
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Comverse technology, inc.
THE SCOOP
A stunning Comversationalist
Rendering the wisecracking, gum-smacking, gossip-mongering madam of the switchboard woefully ineffectual, Comverse Technology makes telecommunications high tech. In its early days, the firm was known as the inventor of the voice mailbox. Today, it manufactures a variety of software and hardware components for multimedia communications and information processing applications, including call-switching programs, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment and information processing software for both wireless and wireline systems. Much of this is done through the companys flagship brandComverse, naturallywhich is the worlds leading provider of telecommunications software. Beyond its namesake, the company operates four wholly and majority owned subsidiaries: Comverse, a provider of software and services enabling voice, messaging and mobile internet advertising; Ulticom, which manufactures Signalware software; Starhome, a mobile phone roaming technology group; and Verint Systems, a security and surveillance software provider.
Masters of the Comverse

Founded in 1984 by an entrepreneurial trioKobi Alexander, Yechiam Yemini, and Boaz MisholiComverse got its name from its mission: a fusion of communication and versatility. The product that got the company off the ground was a small box that was connected to a users telephone line and that integrated voicemail, fax and other call processing functions into one system. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1986. Misholi, Comverses original president and CEO, left the company in 1988, later becoming a computer science professor at Columbia University. Alexander then took the reins, with Yemini still alongside, and immediately devised a creative strategy that would enable him to survive against telecom technology giants such as AT&T. With well-established headquarters in the founders native country, Israel, Comverse immediately began wooing European distributors, especially those with access to government contracts. Growing through the end of the 1980s, Comverse developed a relationship with the Finnish electronics firm, Nokia Group, helping the company access exclusive markets in the Soviet Bloc, giving it an edge over other firms as that region opened up to outside commerce. By this point, Comverse had already cultivated distribution contacts in the U.K., Switzerland, Holland and Japan. Comverse grew quickly through the 1990s, thanks to the popularity of its Trilogue mailbox message management system and its manifold offshoots. In 1992, Comverse purchased its first subsidiary, Startel Corporation, followed by a lucrative contract with industry giant AT&T, which offered the multilingual message system developed by Comverse. Around the same time, Comverse rolled out its new
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AudioDisk product line, which enabled high-tech phone and fax surveillance for customers in intelligence and security fields. The company burst through the $100 million revenue ceiling for the first time in 1994, and more than doubled that feat only three years later, when it reaped $280 million in revenue in 1997. Profit was following the same steep incline, rising to $43 million that same year. Late in 1997, the company began an acquisition spree that would carry it into the 21st century, adding former rival Boston Technology, along with smaller firms Amarex, Inc., InTouch Systems and Loronix Information Systems to the Comverse family by mid-2000. Another spate of purchases followed in July 2001, as the company snagged German firm Syborg Informationsysteme and two Israeli companies, Gaya Industries and Exalink. These acquisitions marked another aggressive push at overseas business. In April 2001, the German cellular phone company T-Mobil began using Comverse's Unified Messaging system, which allows users to access voicemail, faxes and email messages from a single mailbox. Comverse then became the first foreign vendor allowed to sell voicemail and short message service programs in China in May 2001, and, at the end of that month, was chosen by Spain's Xfera consortium to provide its multimedia messaging and wireless instant messaging system. Comverse inked smaller deals in 2001 in South Africa, Singapore, Israel, Argentina, Mexico, Portugal, India and Russia. Company coffers swelled appreciatively, and year-end results showed the company pulling down $1.2 billion in sales.
Stock options, hijinks and slush funds, oh my!

On the heels of its success came some surprising setbacks for Comverse. Standing at the intersection of the telecom and software industries, it felt the repercussions as both crashed; sales slumped and, as a result, its stock price dropped from $125 in January 2001 to $19 in January 2002. In April 2001, it announced it would cut 6 percent of its workforce, and in December of that year it cut another 15 percent. Another 1,200 jobs, or 21 percent of the workforce, were terminated in July 2002, following the acquisition of Odigo, Inc., an instant messaging service provider. That year also saw the disappointing public offering of Comverses subsidiary Verint Systems, in which the company continues to hold the majority of stock. After hitting a low point in 2003sales fell to $735 million in 2003, and profit was nonexistent as the company recorded a loss of $129 millionComverse started on a recovery track. As the tech industry as a whole regained its footing, Comverse noticed increasing demand in its telecommunications products. Thanks to its cost-cutting measures and well-timed acquisitions, the company was able to show profitability for fiscal 2005, albeit a modest $62,000, posting a total revenue of $959 million. In March 2006, the company launched an internal investigation into stock options granting. The following May, Alexander himself, Comverses co-founder, chairman and CEO, as well as two other executives, suddenly resigned, just days before the company received a federal subpoena. The ensuing investigation revealed a corporate crime spree consisting of the usual backdating hijinks, but also a secret slush fund, featuring a roster of fictional employees who had gathered at least
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200,000 stock options. When the three recently departed executives were charged by federal prosecutors in August 2006, Alexander failed to return from the vacation he was taking in Israel at the time, sparking an international search for the fugitive founder. In the same month, Comverse announced that it was terminating Alexander and two other top executives, and would pursue actions against them in connection with the stock options controversy. Alexander was located and arrested in Namibia in September 2007, but he has so far resisted prosecutorial efforts to extradite him to the United States to stand trial for more than 30 counts of securities fraud related to backdating stock options. Comverse appointed Andre Dahan to the CEO position and Mark Terrell to the chairman post following Alexanders exit. The company and its subsidiaries made several acquisitions through 2007, including IP network software firm Netcentrex in May and billing and customer management tech firm Netonomy in September. However, the financial reports of years past will have to be restated to correct for the financial liberties taken by the departed executives. Delayed quarterly reports resulted in delisting from the Nasdaq exchange in February 2007, at which point the company moved to the Pink Sheets exchange.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Pink slips to 8 percent the of workforce; cash down by $200 million Comverse Technology announced the layoff of 300 workers, a third of them in Israel, comprising 8 percent of the companys workforce. The company also declared that its cash reserves have fallen by $200 million in six months in its Form 8-K (Results of Operations and Financial Condition) filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It also reported $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of its 2008 fiscal year, which ended in January 2009. February 2009: Expanding and reaping recognitions
Unitel SA, Angolas largest mobile operator, launched the Comverse Voice HUB, a single platform for all voice applications. Comverses partnership with United SA came at the heels of the companys recognition as the top global telecom vendor, based on a survey of 150 telecom carriers conducted by the Yankee Group. The Yankee Group report highlighted the critical role of converged prepaid and postpaid business models for operators. Comverse also obtained the highest possible vendor rating from industry analyst Gartner, Inc, for providing billing and customer management services to telecom carriers. The rating was based on Gartners extensive evaluation of 12 business support systems (BSS) vendors. January 2008: An exchange of $70 million suits Alexander sued Comverse Technology for $72 million in connection with severance pay, bonuses and fringe benefits that Alexander said the company didnt give him. Earlier in the month, the company had sued Alexander for $70 million in New York State Court.
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GETTING HIRED
Become Comversant
Opportunities for employment in the Comverse Technology empire in 40 countries are searchable through its subsidiaries websites. On the Comverse site (www.comverse.com/working_in_comverse), interested job seekers can browse locations and job categories on the main page and then do a search for specific positions. A listing for Hot Jobs is also included and provides a general job description, responsibilities and general qualification guidelines. Applicants interested in Verint jobs can check out www.verint.com/corporate/ careers_list.cfm. They can click on a job opening and this links to an online application form. Ulticoms hiring site is www.ulticom.com/html/about/current-positions.aspx. Starhomes careers page is www.starhome.com/Content.aspx? Page=careers. Employees of Comverse proper can look forward to comprehensive health coverage beginning on the very first day of employment in addition to a 401(k) plan with company match. Comverse also provides extensive employee training opportunities to help its Comversers develop their careers and keep abreast of industry developments.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Carrier of tasks
The corporate culture at Comverse encourages hard work, strict deadlines and is very results-driven. Being a multinational company, it also has a diverse population. Hours expected vary by direct supervisor and corporation division. Work hours range from the standard 40 hours a week to the outrageous , an insider says.
There is no respect for hoursyou are expected to work until the job is done, that is both good and bad as you are the carrier of the task. You get to see how good it is, explains a support manager. Says an HR contact, Comverse is a company that will work you hard. It is a very traditional company, and is somewhat male dominated, especially in the U.S. The corporate offices in Israel are better balanced, but they control much of what is decided in the U.S. A system engineer shares the highs and lows of working for Comverse: It is a multinational company and so you cooperate with people from all over the world. It can happen that you work very hard for many hours, but there are also periods that you are less busy. Sometimes you have to work at night. You get to travel a lot all over the world, but opportunities for advance in some locations are almost zero.
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CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.

198 Champion Court San Jose, CA 95134 Phone: (408) 943-2600 Fax: (408) 943-4730 www.cypress.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CY Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Eric A. Benhamou President & CEO: T.J. Rodgers 2008 Employees: 4,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 765.8 2008 Income ($ mil.): -430.3
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ) Beaverton, OR Bloomington, MN Boise, ID Burlington, VT Cambridge, MA Colorado Springs, CO Lexington, KY Lynnwood, WA Moscow, ID Nashua, NH Round Rock, TX San Diego, CA Starkville, MS Bangalore Cavite, Philippines Cork Hyderabad Mechlin, Belgium
KEY COMPETITORS
Integrated Device Technology Standard Microsystems Xilinx Inc
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.cypress.com/?id=1070
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Applications Engineer Consumer & Computation Division Cypress Systems Data Communications Division Engineering Finance Information Technology Marketing Marketing & Corporate Business Development Mechanical Design Engineer Memory & Imaging Division New Product Development Operations Product Engineer Quality Sales WW Wafer Fabs & Technology
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
THE SCOOP
Microchip master
Cypress Semiconductor is a manufacturer of microchips for consumer electronics and communications devices. The companys product line includes programmable systems-on-a-chip (PSoC), programmable clocks, USB controllers, image sensors and memories. Cypress also owned a majority stake in SunPower, a manufacturer of solar panels, until its spin-off on Nasdaq in September 2008.
Networking pays off

In 1979, T.J. Rodgers was looking to leave the large Silicon Valley firm Advanced Micro Devices and start up his own semiconductor company nearby, but he couldnt work out the financing. Conveniently, that year he met Stanley Fingerhood, a venture capitalist who hooked him up with some friends who had money to invest. Rodgers estimated that he needed $40 million, and Fingerhood led him to Ben Rosen, chairman of Compaq at the time. Rosen, in turn, introduced Rodgers to his partner, the improbably named L.J. Seven, who, upon receiving Rodgers business plan (seven handwritten pages), found it worthy of investment. Seven gave Rodgers the startup capital, and in 1982, three years after Rodgers first attempt, Cypress Semiconductor was born. Cypress went public in 1986, after its first year of profitability. Sales initially took off as the computer market boomed, and revenue had reached nearly $300 million by 1991. But the following year, Cypress was battered by the slings and arrows of the volatile (some might say outrageous) semiconductor industry, as competitors made inroads into its markets, and the company found itself in the red. Thanks to a swift restructuring, though, it was once again turning a profit the next year.
Acquiring time!
The internet age dawned in earnest in the late 1990s, and Cypress responded by acquiring several companies. At the start of 1999, it bought IC Works, a producer of integrated-circuit timing equipment, for $130 million. CEO Rodgers said the purchase would decrease Cypress dependence on memory chips and expand its holdings in the wireless RF business. In July of the same year, Cyprus bought Arcus Technology, a privately held provider of equipment data for telecommunications, for $20 million. In 2000, Cypress picked up Silicon Light Machines, designer of optical networking chips, for $166 million, adding to its optical networking technology cache. Next on the list was International Microcircuits, maker of timing circuits, bought in January 2001 for $125 million. The acquisition years, however, were followed by challenges. The company posted losses in 2002, 2003 and 2005 and had to endure restructurings as a way to return to profitability. There was some reprieve in 2006
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when the company took in revenue of just over $1 billion, a 23 percent increase over 2005, and posted a profit of $39 million.
Powered by Sun
Much of Cypress growth during 2006 can be attributed to strong results from its solar panel subsidiary SunPower; Cypress has owned the company since 2000, sticking with it through years of unprofitability. Richard Swainson, an old Stanford schoolmate of Cypress founder Rodgers, had founded SunPower with an interest in engineering efficient solar-power cells. The two chums ran into each other in a Bay area coffee shop right as the tech bubble burst, and Swainson admitted that he would soon have to lay off 40 people, half of his entire workforce. On an impulse, Rodgers wrote a $750,000 check, to buy his buddys company and subsequently spent years convincing his board that buying a friends floundering, non-semiconductor-related company had been a wise business decision. Cypress gained with SunPower onboard. Rodgers can be forgiven for feeling vindicated: he announced record quarterly revenue in July 2007, citing the continued strong growth of (Cypress) SunPower division as a main reason. However, the difficulties of the early 2000s seem to be very much a part of Cypress life. In 2008, while the company posted revenue of $765 million, its net loss was $430 million.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Not SPAM, SRAM! Gamers (and hospital patients) have a reason to celebrate: Cypresss 64Mbit SRAMS are here! These SRAMS guarantee extended battery life for gaming applications, top-of-the-line point-of-sale terminals, medical devices and more. The SRAMS also boast of 3- and 6-Mbit fast asynchronous SRAMs interface with 24-bit wide processors in audio processing, wireless and networking applications.
February 2009: Handing out pink slips Forty Cypress employees will have to find new jobs come August as the Cypress Semiconductor Design Center in Boise declared that it will close shop by then. The San Jose-based company, however, assures that a 60-day notice will be issued and severance packages given. Also, opportunities in other Cypress Design Centers have been offered to some employees. As the company has only recently closed a branch in Mississippi, a spokesperson in San Jose said that announcement is another very difficult one to make. September 2008: SunPower spinoff SunPower is now an independent entity as Cypress handed over shares to its stockholders. The stocks distribution is estimated at $3.6 billion in value, something that Cypress CEO T.J. Rodgers was proud of. Rodgers also saw the
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SunPower spin-off as an opportunity to unlock the value of a semiconductor operation that in recent yearsled by our flagship PSoC programmable systemon-chiphas become one of the industrys leading suppliers of high-margin proprietary and programmable solutions, he details in a correspondence with edn.com. August 2008: Acquiring Simtek Corp. It took four unidentified suitors before Simtek Corp. committed to Cypress Semiconductors. The deal was halfheartedly closed by Simtek at $2.60 per share on July 28th. Ahmad Chatila first made Cypresss intentions for the semiconductor company known in February. The move dealt heavy blows for both companies as Simtek ended its relationship with CEO Harold Blomquist, CFO Brian Alleman and AgigA Tech head Ronald Sartore, and Cypress discovered unexpected costs from the transaction, including severance payments to the three. March 2008: Chows time Cypress finally decided to tap the Asian market as it appointed Alfred Chow as regional director of marketing and Applications for Asia. Vice President for Global Marketing and Applications Geoff Charubin believed that Chow had the chops for the job, Alfred has the right background and track record of success to take our programs in Asia to the next level. Chow transferred to Cypress from Xilinx, where he was in charge of outbound marketing strategies, collateral creation, training and media strategies.
GETTING HIRED
Put down some roots at Cypress
Cypress careers page, www.cypress.com/careers, provides information on job openings, benefits and student opportunities. Job postings are divided into openings in the United States and in the Philippines, and are searchable by location, keyword and category. To apply, job seekers must first create an online profile. The company offers a flexible benefits package, loaded with incentives like a bonus for publishing articles and a stock purchase plan. Students can check out Cypress pages directed at recent graduates, where they can view a PowerPoint slideshow concerning the companys rotational program.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

A unique corporate culture, great pay and benefits
Sources report that Cypress has a very unique corporate culture. One describes it as a highly data-driven company where the right data wins. His co-worker adds, Driving towards root causes of issues is valued above all. This ethic is exercised using precision question and answering techniques that can seem curt, invasive and accusatory, butreally arent. Usually the questioner just wants to arrive at the real answer without the hand waving and window dressing. PQ&A, as its called, is mandatory training for all employees. Not everyone at the company is fond of PQ&A, however. It leads to a constant air of tension throughout the company, says one source. Another sums it up: corporate culture: combative, risk averse, tense, dont question authority. Some people thrive in this environment, others do not; you will not last long at Cypress if you have a thin skin, observes one hire. Another member of his department adds, I would recommend Cypress if you enjoy the culture outlined above, but if its not your cup of tea, expect to wind up like this guy: I can only speak for my morale: subterranean. Some, however, say that the culture makes the company a very stimulating place to work. If the culture isnt to everyones taste, the compensation and benefits receive few complaints. Compensation is good, sums up one guy. Benefits are a cafeteria system, with some excellent choices, adds his co-worker. Significant bonuses for writing technical articles and filing patents, observes another. The companys employee stock purchase plan is an absolute godsend, and has made many people in the company very wealthy, notes a source. If promotions are more to your tastes, one respondent adds, The company never stands in the way of an employees advancement or career goals. People are free to move around various job functions, as long as they demonstrate an aptitude for their new roles.
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DELL INC.
One Dell Way Round Rock, TX 78682 Phone: (512) 338-4400 www.dell.com
DEPARTMENTS
Departments Consumer Enterprise Product Management Finance Human Resources Large Enterprise Marketing Operations & Technology Public Small & Medium Business
LOCATIONS
Round Rock, TX (HQ) Austin, TX Lebanon, TN Miami, FL Nashville, TN Oklahoma City, OK Reno, NV Winston-Salem, NC Athlone, Ireland Bangalore Bracknell, England Bratislava Casablanca Chennai Dalian, China Dublin El Dorado Do Sul, Brazil Gurgaon, India Halle, Germany Hortolndia, Brazil Hyderabad Kawasaki, Japan Kuala Lumpur Limerick, Ireland Lodz, Poland Mohali, India Montpellier, France Panama City Penang Quezon City, Philippines Shanghai Singapore Taipei Xiamen, China
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: DELL Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & CEO: Michael S. Dell 2008 Employees: 80,800 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 61,133 2008 Income ($ mil.): 2,947
KEY COMPETITORS
Hewlett-Packard (HP) IBM
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/cor p/careers/gateway/portal?c=us&l=en&s=corp
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Dell Inc.
THE SCOOP
Youre getting a Dell!
Dell is one of the leading providers of PCs, notebook computers and printers for the consumer, commercial and government market. Its product line also includes LCD TVs, network switches, and servers and data storage. Dell is currently moving away from its direct-to-consumer sales model into the higher-margin realm of services and offers IT outsourcing, training and installation.
An entrepreneur is born
Some people are just born entrepreneurs. Precocious Texan Michael Dell showed strong signs of business acumen at the tender age of 13, when his mail-order stamp business earned him $2,000 in a couple of months. In high school, he sold subscriptions of the Houston Post with enough zeal and success to buy himself a BMW at 17. Then Dell famously began to sell IBM components out of his dorm room while a University of Texas undergraduate in the early 1980s. Dells mail-order business was efficient and user-friendly, tailoring its offerings to specific customer demands and undercutting retail prices by 10 to 15 percent. By 1984, Dells company was grossing about $80,000 a month in 1984, and he dropped out of college the same year to start making and selling IBM clones under the name PCs Limited. Dell Computer Corporation had 100 employees in 1985, and earned $34 million during the fiscal year. Very soon, the company had gone public and international, with its first overseas branch in the U.K. established in 1987 and a $32.4 million public offering the following year. Michael Dell was showered with praise, earning three consecutive Entrepreneur of the Year awards from the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs. In 1992, Dell was named by Fortune as one of the 500-largest American companies.
Direct sales pay off

Dell became the worlds leading direct seller of computers in the 1990s, as computers moved from being a niche product to becoming a household essential up there with the refrigerator. Using its founders mail-order catalog sales philosophy, Dell took computer orders from its customers and then assembled the parts, saving costs on manufacturing and retailing into the bargain. The revolutionary direct sales model moved onto the internet in the 1990s, and only increased in effectiveness. Sales took off, nearing $32 billion in 2001. The subsequent burst of the tech bubble hardly caused executives to bat an eye. Though profits dropped and the company laid off 4 percent of its workers, the company remained in the black. In 2004, Dell anointed President Kevin Rollins as its new CEO, but the companys forward progress came to a screeching halt soon after, in 2006.
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Burned computers and cooked books

Ironically, the first blow to the companys prestige came from its good friendthe World Wide Web. Online footage of a Dell laptop bursting into flames began to circulate with ever increasing popularity, and Dell announced the recall of 4.1 million laptop computer batteries in Augustthe biggest safety recall in consumer electronics industry history. The online video was apparently accurate, as the company admitted that, in fact, its lithium-ion batteries (made by Sony) could occasionally burst into flames. Dell had documented six computers that overheated or caught fire as a result of the defective batteries, though no injuries or deaths were attached to any of the incidents. The batteries were installed in some 2.7 million laptops sold in the U.S. and another 1.4 million sold abroadabout 18 percent of the companys total notebook output between April 2004 and July 2006. A New York Times article questioned the numbers released by the company, though, citing pictures put out by a disgruntled former Dell employee of almost 100 melted laptops returned by customers between 2002 and 2004. The following month, Dell revealed that federal prosecutors had contacted it for information in an expanding accounting investigation, forcing the company to cancel a meeting with analysts and postpone a stock buyback strategy. As part of the federal investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed documents related to the companys financial reporting from 2002 to 2006, preventing Dell from filing its second quarter report. Ominously, Dell previously scrubbed a meeting in April with industry financial analystsnot people who like to see signs of weakness.
For whom the Dell tolls

In November 2006, Dell made an official announcement of what industry insiders had suspected and investors had dreaded: the company was under investigation by the SEC. Dells release revealed very little other than the existence of the inquiry, but it sent Wall Street into a tizzy. The company delayed its third quarter earnings by a month, citing compliance with the investigators requests, and canceled another analysts meeting. The company said the 3Q results would be forthcoming at the end of November 2006, but that there would be no conference Q&A call with company execs. The other shoe dropped in August 2007, when Dell admitted to falsifying quarterly returns from 2003 to 2006 and said it would restate its earnings by $50 million to $150 million. The New York Times wrote that many industry analysts were actually relieved to see the investigation resolved, and called it a turning point for the company.
Refocusing on competitiveness and growth

In its annual report for fiscal 2008, CEO Michael S. Dell, who had resumed the top company position just a little more than a year earlier, said that as the company neared its 10th year, Our strategy wasnt working as well as it had previously. Moreover, as we evolved we lost focus and allowed our cost structure to become
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noncompetitive. He said that the company had reviewed its processes and made decisionsamong them saving on operating costs by reducing its workforcethat enabled the company to post $61 billion in revenue and regain its position as top supplier of personal computers in the United States. Dell added that in the future, the company would focus on competitiveness and growth.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Making it to the list Dell made it to Corporate Responsibility magazines 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2009. For this recognition, companies in the Russel 1000 index evaluate companies on seven key areas, such as environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial and governance. February 2009: Going green Dell joined the green bandwagon by powering its 240,000-square-foot Oklahoma City campus with 100 percent wind energy, the latest action in its commitment to become the greenest technology company on the planet. In this endeavor on the use of renewable energy, Dell partnered with Oklahoma Gas and Electric. Both expect to avoid nearly 5,100 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Dell also announced its plan of further reducing its worldwide facilities greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2015. April 2007: Dude, its not 1999 anymore! Rival Hewlett-Packard beat out Dell for the No. 1 spot in the PC industry in the fourth quarter of 2006 and maintains its lead through spring 2007, prompting Michael Dell to roll out an ambitious plan to perk up business in April 2007. Dells four-point plan, reported in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, involved making the companys products less confusing and threatening for consumers, moving into emerging economies like India and Brazil, flattening and revising the management structure of the company, and providing cost-effective consulting services. Dells brand might have simply become less attractive, as laptops/notebooks, a particular weakness of Dells, are increasingly in vogue industry analysts predicted they would surpass desktops in U.S. market overall sales by 2008. Dell faltered with laptops because they are more difficult to customize than the traditional Dell desktop and are more expensive to manufacture. So far, though, the companys emphasis on international growth appears to be working, as international shipments exceeded American shipments in the fourth quarter of 2006a company first. Dell also might be shifting away from its trademark sales model, as it has been (gasp!) opening its own retail stores and making alliances with major outlets to feature its computers. The first step came in May 2007, when the company announced a deal to sell PCs through WalMart, which was followed by similar deals in the U.K., Japan and Russia.
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February 2007: Pulling the purse strings Dells increased input on day-to-day operations of the company meant new confidence for the companyand no bonuses for its workers. After a review of the companys performance, Dell announced belt-tightening companywide to make up for losses in recent years, including a suspension of bonuses for fiscal 2007. In a call for more efficiency, an internal memo declared that lack of profit is unacceptable and that employees should focus efforts on streamlining operations to push sales. Michael Dell followed his own advice by reducing the number of executives reporting to him from 22 to 12. How many of these changes were voluntary is unclear, though, as six executives quit the company since December 2006, ahead of this restructuring. February 2007: Tryin to throw arms around the world Dell made it abundantly clear that it sees international growth as the cure to its ills. As executives leave the company in droves, the company creates new posts for their international affairs. Dell hired an executive (from outside the company) to oversee its supply chain operations, creating another position from scratch in the process. Former Solectron CEO Michael Cannon was named as the companys first president of global operations. Cannons time at Solectron gave him experience in manufacturing services, and the company hopes to use his supply chain expertise to improve Dells international component manufacturing, purchasing and distribution operations. Steve Schuckenbrock, formerly of the outsourcing pioneer Electronic Data Systems (Ross Perots former company), was first hired as head of global services. With Cannon now heading the unit, Schuckenbrock was moved to senior vice president. His responsibilities include sprucing up and expanding Dells IT service offerings, including outsourcing and supply chain automation. At the time, these services were badly in need of an overhaul, as 64 percent of Dells revenue came from North and South America, and lackadaisical, outsourced customer service became a persistent complaint from Dells customers. These changes have received mixed reviews, as many pundits view more outsourcing as a problem and not a solution, and suggest that Dell open more stores locally to deal with customer service issues. Michael Dell has hinted that he agrees with these criticisms, at one point publicly wondering whether to shift away from the companys standby direct sales model. February 2007: The difference is Dell Dell rounded an arguably more significant turning pointKevin B. Rollins, previously CEO and right-hand man to Michael Dell, was ousted from the big seat, and the founder went back in. The shake-up stirred much speculation, as sales at the company had slowed, and industry criticisms of poorly designed computers and disastrous customer service were getting louder and louder, not to mention the companys financial issues with the SEC and the Justice Department. The board believed the company is better off with Dell in the top job, although perhaps the move was a superficial one for the sake of Wall Street, as Rollins had always emphasized his close working relationship with the founder. Dell, though, harkened back to his old dorm room days. As if to restore the companys luster,
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he was quoted by The New York Times as saying, It feels like 1984 and I am starting over again. Only this time I have a little more capital. March 2007: Chaotic accounting The Feds were quite right about Dells financial reporting, as the companys own audit committee turned up a chaotic accounting situation and evidence of fiscal impropriety. Dell had only reported preliminary figures for the last two quarters, and the company said its 2006 annual report would be further delayed while executives determined if any prior-period results were affected by this mistake. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice had not yet concluded its own investigation of the company, and Nasdaq was even threatening to delist it.
GETTING HIRED
Its not just a career, its a Dell!
The careers page on Dells website, www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp /careers/gateway/portal?c=us&l=en&s=corp&redirect=1, provides information on positions available at Dell the world over. The Dell careers site for the U.S. provides information on career paths in sales, customer service, IT, engineering, manufacturing and business. Job seekers, once they have selected their career path, can search open positions by function, location and keyword. To apply, they must first fill out a profile as well as an assessment questionnaire. In order for applications to stand out, Dell advises job seekers to put as many keywords and abbreviations, and as much industry jargon as possible in their resumes. In addition, Dell posts a schedule of recruiting events on its website, and potential hires are invited to visit Dells representatives. The company also has an employee referral program, so job seekers are strongly advised to work their contacts to see if they know anyone at Dell.
Benefits at Dell in the United States include health, vision and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts for health care or dependent care costs, and a healthimprovement scheme, with programs aimed at healthy pregnancies and managing certain conditions that reward employees with money when they reach certain goals. Dell also offers a 401(k) with company match and a discount stock purchase plan. Nice perks include adoption assistance, discounts on company merchandise, employee referral program, discounts on gym memberships and time off between Christmas and New Years. Dell offers a wealth of opportunities for students and recent graduates at the college and MBA levels. Dells internships are offered to undergraduate students with at least one semester remaining. Internships are offered to students pursuing a major relevant to the companys business need. Dell provides interns with company housing (including housekeeper) reimbursement for travel to the internship site, discount on Dell products and a discount health club membership. Dell also offers
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internships to students pursuing an MBA in the areas of marketing, HR, operations, program management, strategy, IT, finance, logistics and procurement.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Dude, youve gotten your foot in the door!
One source in sales gives the following advice: Its nearly impossible to get into Dell by simply sending in your resume from the street. Dell has this sort of buy and try system worked out with a temp agency known as Spherion. [It] screens and tests candidates and then hires them on as contract workers for a set per hour pay rate, and if you work out well and do your job, you will get a permanent job offer from Dell after about four to six months of contracting with Spherion. Most interviewees report two rounds of interviews. Both the first and second rounds were behavioral, notes one insider. His co-worker adds that he was asked traditional interview questions with qualitative focus. There is much less focus on problem-solving. For some positions, such as corporate strategy, there is limited use of the case method. Questions revolved around stories for leadership, teamwork, dealing with ambiguity, multitasking, project management, conflict management, which other companies was I considering, why Dell, walk me through your resume, innovation, and a big portion of the time for asking questions to the interviewer, around 25 minutes, reports an insider. Another hire cautions, HR is known for delays and slow turn around on hiring. Get the e-mail and/or phone contact information for the hiring manager and keep in touch.
Getting ahead
Responses about Dells culture were mixed. No matter what people say, Dell can be a great place to work, says a staunch defender. The culture and work/life balance has improved in Dell IT over the past two years, observes a member of that department. Expect, however, once hired that Dell is your life...work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but if you leave at 5 p.m. people will talk; 6 p.m. is the minimum. Dell is a very aggressive environment. [Hundreds] of emails a day and lots of conference calls, notes a respondent. His colleague adds that promotions and raises can be very hard to get. Networking is very important to progress, it matters a lot who knows you rather than what you know, adds a member of the sales team. There are lots of social activities and learning opportunities but never enough time to take advantage, says a coworker. However, there are diversity networking groupswhich are very active and help you a lot in networking. And they appear to have many members. You can find people from all nationalities, experience background, ethnic groups, [and] gendersin large numbers, adds a source. Her co-worker adds, Its a High-stress environment. Lots of lunch-and-learns to keep you up to speed. You will learn more than youd ever imagine, notes an awestruck intern.
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DIEBOLD, INCORPORATED
5995 Mayfair Road P.O. Box 3077 North Canton, OH 44720-8077 Phone: (330) 490-4000 www.diebold.com
DEPARTMENTS
Corporate Development & Finance Customer Solutions Group Financial Selfservice Solutions Global Development & Services Global Operations Global Security Marketing Human Resources Programming & Technical Sales & Support Strategic Relationship
LOCATIONS
North Canton, OH (HQ) Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Green, OH Lexington, NC Lynchburg, VA Princeton, NJ Amadora, Portugal Utrecht, The Netherlands Bangkok Basingstone, United Kingdom Bogot Budapest Buenos Aires Caracas Cassis, France Aix en Provence, France Cuauhtmoc, Mexico Erpe Mere, Belgium Genve Gyal, Hungary Hato Rey, Puerto Rico Johannesburg Leeds, United Kingdom Lima Madrid Manaus, Brazil Mapusa, India Meduode, Slovenia Milan Mississauga, Canada Moscow Pozna, Poland Quito, Ecuador Rome So Paulo Schweiz, Switzerland Singapore Strassen, Luxembourg Taipei Warszawa, Poland Wiener Neudorf, Austria Zellik, Belgium Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: DBD Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: Thomas W. Swidarski 2008 Employees: 16,658 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,170.1 2008 Income ($ mil.): 88.6
KEY COMPETITORS
Grg Equipment Co NCR Corporation Wincor-Nixdorf
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.diebold.com/careers
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THE SCOOP
Diebold to user: do it yourself
Diebold is a leading manufacturer of self-service kiosks, which range in function from ATMs to automatic check-in and checkout kiosks to electronic voting machines. The company also manufactures and installs safes and security systems for banks, stores and office buildings, as well as creating custom hardware and software for its customers. Finally, in addition to guarding countless reams of currency in bank safes, Diebold security systems protect the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.
From here to there

Charles Diebold founded his eponymous company in Ohio in 1859 as a manufacturer of sturdy safes and vaults. During the 1920s, Diebold specialized in large safes, and in 1964 it outdid itself by casting the doors for the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. In 1964, just as computers were beginning to affect Diebolds products, the company went public. After the automatic teller machine (ATM) was invented in 1967, Diebold created its own version of it, releasing one in 1970, along with a hightech (for that year) security system, whose cameras could be controlled by a computer. Diebold was soon dueling with rival ATM manufacturers IBM and NCR for dominance in the fledgling ATM market. The company also sought out other markets for its self-serve kiosks beginning in 1986, such as pay-at-the-pump gas pumps and self-service ticket kiosks for theaters, movies and trains. Diebold has embarked on foreign ventures, supplying ATMs in China and voting machines in Brazil, and specializing in ATM distribution in Taiwan and India. On local shores, Georgia and California purchased Diebold voting machines, as did Ohio and Maryland.
Rise (and fall) of the machines

But nearly as soon as Diebolds voting machines hit the market, people began discovering flaws in their design, both hardware- and software-related. The first batch of dysfunctional Diebold voting machines popped up in the 2002 Georgia election. Things only got worse for the company in 2003 when it accidentally released the source code for its machines on the Internet. The problems were compounded by the fact that Diebold machines are designed to store votes on memory cards, which can easily be erased or overwritten. In light of these issues, in 2004 California disallowed the use of Diebold voting machines in its elections. Diebolds machines were used in each of the last two U.S. Presidential elections and a wealth of conspiracy theories abound (especially on the Internet) that link the companys well-documented security struggles with specific voting machine
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performance in Florida and Ohio in 2000 and 2004, respectively. In late 2005, CEO Warren ODell resigned; though a company statement cited personal reasons for his departure, ODell had a well-documented history as a fundraiser for the Republican Party. In one August 2003 fund-raising letter targeted at the party faithful, ODell stated he was committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to [President Bush]. This prompted Diebold to change its executive lineup and amend its ethics policy to ban all executives from any political activity except the act of voting.
If you cant count votes, try rupees

While things might not exactly be going swimmingly for Diebold in its voting machines division, the company still successfully produces ATMs, and is moving aggressively into supplying India. As of 2007, the company controls about a third of the market, which is largely dominated by rival NCR. The market for ATMs is expected to grow briskly in the country, partly because a larger portion of the population is keeping its money in banks, and partly because credit cards are difficult to obtain and almost prohibitively expensive there. Diebold expects that the number of ATMs in India will grow 140 percent between 2006 and 2010.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Oops, Diebold did it again! The California secretary of state released a report detailing how a programming error in Diebold machines cause 197 votes to be lost in the November 2008 general elections. The report also contained several deficient audit trail logs in Diebolds Global Election Management System. Those votes were a big loss. Big enough that the California secretary of state indicated that the votes lost exceed the maximum votes that could be lost under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Although Diebold sent an email to California election officials before the election suggesting a way to prevent votes from being lost, the message didnt specify why this action should be taken. Instead, it suggested that it is very important that [the officials] follow these instructions. The investigation is ongoing. February 2009: Global leader for turnkey services For the third year running, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) ranked Diebold as a global outsourcing leader for turnkey self-service solutions. Based on criteria including company size and growth, management capabilities and corporate social responsibility (a first for the IAOP), Diebold is poised to take the award based on its security solution offerings to financial institutions to maximize their potential without compromising their level of security.
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January 2009: The Russian heist Diebold sent out a security update to its customers in Russia providing some details about criminals installing malware in their ATMs to intercept confidential user information and scan ATM folders for transactions handled in American, Russian and Ukrainian currency. Without going into the meat of the issue, the company advised customers that lost passwords, messing with the firewall and not using the Windows program that comes with Diebold ATMs could compromise the machines security and performance. The malware, identified by security vendor Sophos, seemed to have been the work of someone inside Diebold. It uses quite a lot of functions that are not documented, a Sophos virus researcher said. Unlike a virus, fortunately, this malware doesnt spread from computer to computer; criminals need access to an ATMs internal computer to access the code. Diebold didnt say in its security update how the ATMs have been tampered with, but promised to fix the problem. November 2008: Mobility and liability In partnership with ClairMail, a company that specializes in always-on, two-way customer interaction through mobile communications, Diebold offered mobile banking services as part of its outsourcing services. Taking advantage of ClairMails on-premise and managed service, the company offered banks and other financial institutions the ability to offer payment options and banking through a users mobile phone. On the home front, Artifex Software filed a case against Diebold for violating a general public license by putting Ghostcript, an open-source PDF processing software, into one of its commercial electronic voting machines. The open-source code is distributed for free under GNU public license, and companies that wish to use it for their own proprietary ends need to purchase a license from Artifex, who owns the copyright to the software. The case was transferred to district court. October 2008: A Russian connection
Following its foreign venture endeavors, Diebold offered functional solutions to Moscow-based Master Bank to transform its ATM machines into a network of currency exchange. Currency exchange is one of Russias most popular banking features, and agreements between banks and other financial institutions prove a little cumbersome, since banks generate little revenue and customers receive limited service. Through Diebolds Opteva ATM machines, customers can exchange paper and coin money from one currency to another, guaranteed to give the exact amount back. Three currencies are planned to be provided by Master Banks ATMs: the dollar, the euro and the ruble. This partnership is seen to be beneficial to Master Bank, as it transforms their list of services into a multifunctional palette of solutions for international customers.
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August 2008: Next stop, the Amazon? Banco de Brasil, Brazils largest bank, chose Diebold to provide ATMs and check dispensers, enabling the bank to reach customers and capture a new segment of the market as well. Diebolds new ATMs include skimming device technologies and an encrypted PIN pad to prevent identity and credit card theft. For safes and locks, Diebold promised to provide electronically accessible upper cabinet ATM doors with safe-locking capabilities, involving a trigger that freezes the safe shut when the lock is tampered with. In the agreement, Banco de Brasil received close to 10,000 units in all. This should be consolation to Diebold, since its hometown image isnt as squeaky clean as it likes. Complaints from a recent local election in Ohio spurred the company to fess up to knowing about a glitch in its machines that drops votes or stops counting them after it reaches a certain point. This snag, it seems, has been known by the people at Diebold for 10 years, and Diebold spokesman Chris Rigall reasons that election officials should have realized that this has been happening when they cross-tally the votes they count against the machines. Nevertheless, the company released a list of safeguards election officials could take (like reloading memory cards the day after voting to double check results, for example) to prevent dropped votes. Diebold assured the public that they are going to remedy the problem in time for the November presidential elections. June 2008: And the award goes to Kudos went to Diebold for incorporating features into its Opteva ATMs at no extra charge to its clients, enabling them to save between $1,200 and $1,500 per unit. This security feature detects skimming devices to help prevent credit card fraud and financial institution loss, both of which could amount to millions of dollars every year. For being a trusted partner and provider of security solutions, Diebold received the 2008 Retail Award for Delivery Channel Security from The Banker Technology Awards. This award recognized excellence and innovation in the banking technology industry.
May 2008: Across the channel and vineyards Diebold crossed the Atlantic and helped Peugeot roll out a centralized security system that monitors sectors as diverse as Peugeot subsidiaries in Coventry, the technical training center of Peugeot Citroen in the U.K. and multiple sites across France, around the clock. April 2008: Pilot project at Providence The U.S. Army awards Diebold Information and Security Systems (ISS), a Diebold subsidiary, with excellent ratings for two years in a row, adding up Diebolds excellent ratings run to five and a half years. These ratings measure customer satisfactionin this case, the U.S. government is satisfied with Diebolds services and support. Diebold ISS has earned excellent ratings in 12 of the last 13 award periods.
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March 2008: Diebold [not] for sale? United Technologies Corporation made a bid for Diebold, offering the company $3 billion so it could expand its electronic security business. Although there was a global economic slowdown, Diebold turned down the offer, saying that the transaction is not in the companys best interest and that the offer is too low, undervaluing the company. This marked the second time that United has tried to woo Diebold into an acquisitionthe company was rebuffed in 2006 when it made a similar offer to Diebold.
GETTING HIRED
Make yourself a career at Diebold
Diebolds careers site, at www.diebold.com/careers, provides information on job openings at the company. Jobs are searchable by location, title and function. In order to apply to a posting, job seekers must first create a profile.
Moving on up
What can you expect at your Diebold interview? One longtime employee fills us in: After an initial interview (or possibly two), the candidate would take a test to determine personality fit, intellectual fit, etc. If the test is administered, and the candidate does well, there is an offer extended. The candidate must pass a background check and drug test before officially joining the company.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Morale that lasts afterhours

Most days, working for Diebold is a good experience, notes one source. He goes on to add that the company is having a bit of a personality conflict right now, as [it] morphs into more of a high-tech company vs. an equipment company. His coworker agrees, morale is very good. Another chimes in, Good local managementsome really smart people, and a staff that is, overall, very passionate about doing the right thing for the customer. The culture is interesting, agrees another, hard work, customer focus and delivering results are probably the most respected characteristics of anyone who works here. Though the dress code is usually business casual unless otherwise specified, according to a respondent, and hours are flexible from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., notes another, there is no work/life balance for most of us, says another one in concurrence. So it is not uncommon
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to receive emails on Saturdays and Sundays, and to have work-related conversations with people well into the evening.
Interestingly conservative
Regarding the general business casual dress code, tell that to a senior female sales rep, who testifies to Diebolds being a conservative company. Our major customer is the banking industry, so we tend to dress like bankers and think like bankers. But from the same respondent, it seems a small price to pay as she notes, everything aside, there is a feeling that were all in this together amongst the sales staff. And I think thats what keeps us all here. Many employees have been with the company for more than 20 years. The company has a rich heritage of staff that truly care about the customer. No one is demanding that we work crazy hours, we all just do, so that our customers get the best possible experience.
Generous with opportunities

To echo that last item, it seems that the thing that distinguishes Diebold is its emphasis on allowing employees to move up the ranks. Jobs are posted internally, and you have to be with the company for a year before changing positions. Internal promotion is very good, says another worker whos been around a while. [The] company believes in internal grooming and growth for associates, but also has interest in new and diverse talented individuals, his associate agrees. That emphasis on internal growth can also translate to allowing each person to manage his or her growth. In the sales area, for instance, most managers leave the sales reps alone to get the job done. I have not experienced much micromanaging over the years. But there are disadvantages. The pay isnt as good as it should be, given the breadth and scope of all that we have to know and do. The sales representatives have probably close to 1,000 different products and services to offer clients.
Good provider
As for perks, a good year will take you to about $150,000, says a senior sales rep. Another sales rep agrees, as his base salary of $69,000 only slightly topped his commission, which averaged at $45,000. Another sales rep notes that based on a candidates experience, Diebold offers a range of $45,000 to $50,000 base, with commissions on a sliding scale, ranging from 1 percent to 2.5 percent of sales. If that sounds small, consider that there are ample opportunities to make special program bonuses. A first-year sales rep can expect to make between $80K to $90K. And Diebold also offers a company car, laptop, cell phone, health insurance and 401(k), says another. Oh, with insurance, and fuel, echoes the sales rep. And if youre touted as a good performer, you can be like this sales rep: My most recent salary package is confidential, as I left the company for a few months then returned. Its a long story, but they made me an excellent offer to return.
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DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC.

5 Sylvan Way Parsippany, NJ 07054 Phone: (973) 898-1500 Fax: (973) 898-4730 www.drs.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Finance Administrative Engineering HR IT Legal Maintenance Programming Quality Assurance Research & Development Systems Management Telecommunications
LOCATIONS
Parsippany, NJ (HQ) Alexandria, VA Allentown, PA Arlington, VA Bethesda, MD Bridgeport, CT Buffalo, NY Calverton, MD Chantilly, VA Chesapeake, VA Cincinnati, OH Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, MD Cypress, CA Dallas, TX Danbury, CT Dayton, OH Dulles, VA Elizabeth City, NC Fairborn, OH Fitchburg, MA Florence, KY Fort Gordon, GA Fort Irwin, CA Fort Monmouth, NJ Fort Polk, LA Fort Walton Beach, FL Gaithersburg, MD Garden City, NY High Ridge, MO Hudson, MA Huntsville, AL Irvine, CA Johnstown, PA Largo, FL Lorton, VA Melbourne, FL Merrimack, NH Milwaukee, WI Mineral Wells, TX Oakland, NJ Oklahoma City, OK Palm Bay, FL Polson, MT Prescott Valley, AZ San Diego, CA St. Louis, MO Sunnyvale, CA Tobyhanna, PA Troy, MI Vienna, VA Washington, DC Warner Robins, GA Wyndmoor, PA Bedford, Canada Carleton Place, Canada Farnham, United Kingdom Kanata, Canada Stuttgart, Germany
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: DRS Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Mark S. Newman 2007 Employees: 9,700 2007 Revenue ($mil.): $2,821
KEY COMPETITORS
General Dynamics Lockheed Martin Raytheon
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.drs.com/careers/index.cfm
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THE SCOOP
DRS is spelled D-E-F-E-N-S-E
DRS Technologies provides electronic products for defense, with operations divided into three segments: First, the command, control, communications, computers and intelligence group provides communications and display systems for ships, power systems and generators, intelligence and data processing equipment, and battleproofed computers. Second, the surveillance and reconnaissance group provides weapons targeting systems, sensors, night vision and laser sighting equipment, training systems for air combat and electronic testing. Third is the sustainment systems and services group, which provides electronic equipment for use in industrial and battle applications, vehicle armor and IT, engineering and logistics services. The companys customers include every branch of the Department of Defense (DOD), the British and Israeli armed forces, other defense contractors, NASA, FEMA and members of NATO. DRS systems are included in a number of high-tech fighting applications for land, sea and air, including the Abrams tank, Bradley fighting vehicle, Aegis destroyer, Virginia-class submarine, F-15 fighter and Hercules cargo aircraft. DRS was founded by engineers Leonard Newman and David Gross in 1968. Known until 1997 as Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems, DRS initially equipped Navy vessels with devices that could detect submarines distinctive acoustic signatures without revealing where the listening boat was located. After acquiring its first company in 1984, DRS gradually expanded its products to include optical, wired and infrared missile targeting systems, as well as specialized cameras, flight recorders, communication systems and sensors. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, DRS purchased its way into the increasingly popular unmanned vehicle line of business. DRS intends to continue to expand through acquisitions, especially in the areas where the largest contractors lack expertise.
DRS Technologies in the news

March 2009: DRS contracts for trailer welding DRS and Detroit Tool Metal Products (DTMP) shook hands on ammunition-trailer frame-welding services. The contract with DTMP supplies the welding needs of the construction of DRSs M989A1 Heavy Expanded Mobility Ammunition Trailer frames at its Missouri and Iowa Facilities. February 2009: $913 million richer DRS scored another contract with the U.S. Armys Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) to provide logistic support of Mast-Mounted Sights (MMS) on OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopters in the U.S. and on the battlefield, adding another $913 million to DRSs bank account. The agreement promised the U.S. Army spare components, depot repairs, field service, forward repair activities
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(FRAs), program management and engineering services to bolster troops in the U.S. and abroad from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2013. The contract, also foreseeing the possible phase-out of the MMSs critical parts, included obsolescence removal. December 2008: $531 million contract ceiling extension A $531 million Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract ceiling extension was awarded to DRS by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). Aside from its JV5 production contract, DRS will be providing an indefinite quantity of JV-5 ultra-rugged vehicle computing and display systems to comply with the U.S. Army's Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program and Blue Force Tracking (BFT) and the USMC situational awareness requirements through 2012. More than 40 types of U.S. Army and Marine Corps vehicles will hooked up with DRSs JV5 systems. August 2008: Mehmel named DRS President Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Robert F. Mehmel replaced Mark S. Newman as DRSs new president and chief operating officer. Newman believed that Mehmel is the man to do the job. Bob (Mehmel) has continually demonstrated his leadership skills and strong commitment to the company's growth. He has been instrumental in advancing the company's operations, merger and acquisition activities, and strategic initiatives. I am confident that his experience and successful track record of achievement will continue to serve DRS as we look to the future, Newman said. March 2008: Logistics support for U.S. Air Force The U.S. Air Force awarded a $13 million contract to DRS to reinforce Tunner 60K Cargo Loader/Transporters located at U.S. military bases worldwide. For one year, DRS will be providing U.S. bases with logistics support, which includes field service support, keeping the product operating smoothly at all times. The contract also involves sustaining engineering and supplying spare parts to military bases worldwide.
GETTING HIRED
Exploring careers at DRS
DRSs careers site, at www.recruitingsite.com/csbsites/drs/index.asp, provides a listing of job opportunities in the United States, Canada and international regions (Europe, the Middle East and Southwest Asia). Open positions are searchable by location and keyword; to apply, job seekers must fill out a web form with contact information and a plain-text version of a cover letter and resume. Hopeful applicants must also fill out a form that evaluates their skill level and compares it that of the job description.
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EMC CORPORATION
176 South Street Hopkinton, MA 01748 Phone: (508) 435-1000 www.emc.com
LOCATIONS
Hopkinton, MA (HQ) Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Michigan Minnesota Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey Massachusetts New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Washington Wisconsin
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: EMC Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President & CEO: Joseph M. Tucci 2008 Employees: 42,100 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 14,876.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): 1,345.6
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Services & Operations Americas & Global Sales Programs Content Management & Archiving Division Corporate Security Customer Service & Support Educational Services & Training EMC Cloud Infrastructure Business EMC cConsulting EMC Global Services & Resource Management Software Group EMC Storage Division Engineering Hardware EngineeringOther EngineeringSoftware Finance & Accounting Global Facilities Global Marketing & Customer Quality Global Real Estate Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing & Communications Product Management Professional Services Sales Technical Support Technology Solutions Group The Security Division
KEY COMPETITORS
Hewlett-Packard IBM Veritas Software
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
Full-time openings: www.emc.com/careers internships & New College Hire Openings: www.emc.com/college Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
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THE SCOOP
Information lives!
A world leader in information storage and management, EMC provides information lifecycle management (ILM) services, as well as servers, switches and routers for data storage. EMCs products are based on redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrangements which use inexpensive, easily replaceable components to store large quantities of data. These systems are used by clients as diverse as banks, internet service providers, airlines, government entities, and schools and universities. The company also provides network attached storage (NAS) servers and a line of software.
E=MC shared
Richard Egan and Roger Marino, two friends from their college days together as engineering students at Northeastern University, founded EMC in 1979 (they were the E and M in EMC). They wanted to manufacture circuit boards, but their only way into business was through distributing boards of a different kinda friend had designed particle-board desks for computer workstations, and wanted the two to sell them on the East Coast. The desk business provided the nascent EMC with some seed money, and in 1981, Egan used his connections at Intel, where he was a former manager, to start selling memory for desktop computers there. In 1986, EMC went public, and added disk drives to its product line the following year. In 1989, the company started selling data servers based on RAID formats, which were less expensive, less failure-prone and far more scalable than other storage systems then available. They proved to be a foundation for the companys success by 1995, EMCs RAID systems were outselling IBMs data storage. Five years later, EMC controlled nearly 35 percent of the data storage market. From there, the company looked into acquisitions to complement its core products, purchasing two companies in 2003 that specialized in information lifecycle management, a concentrated approach to data storage that separates information along specific and variable guidelines. The following year, EMC acquired a company that specialized in data backup and retrieving data from failed systems. The acquisitions continued in 2006 for EMC. It bought up seven companies that year, with areas of expertise ranging from software for content management, data deduplication, customer relationship management and data protection. The most notable acquisition was that of RSA in September for $2.1 billion. RSAs information security service, including identity verification, encryption and secure transfer of data, is a useful addition to EMCs line of offerings in the age of the Patriot Act, as security becomes an increasingly higher priority for businesses. Also in 2006, EMC took in $11 billion in revenue and made $1.2 billion in profits; revenue was up 15 percent over 2005.
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In 2007, EMC announced plans to expand its facilities in both India and China. In India, EMC is planning on investing $500 million by 2010 as demand for information management continues to grow on the subcontinent. It is doubling its timetable in China, planning to invest $500 million by 2013 as it establishes a facility for software development there. EMC is in fine corporate shape now, as it has recently recouped on its 2003 purchase of VMware shares for $635 million. EMCs report on its financial performance in 2008 shows a net income of $1.35 billion, a 12 percent increase year over year. Its the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the company.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Reaping awards
Fortune magazine included EMC as the only technology company on its list of the Worlds 10 Most Admired Companies for Product and Service Quality. The rankings were derived by the magazine from a survey of executives, directors and financial analysts across all industries. In the same month, EMCs Gregg Ambulous and Pete Koliopolous are named to CRNs 2009 list of Most Influential Channel Executives.
February 2009: Alliance with Microsoft to stretch to 2011 EMC CEO Joe Tucci and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a three-year extension of their alliance. The partnership combined EMCs information infrastructure solutions and Microsofts data center solutions and productivity applications to address customer requirements in virtualization, security and content development. January 2009: Six years of two-digit revenue growth EMC released its full-year 2008 financial results, showing that the company posted total consolidated revenue of a record $14.88 billion, an increase of 12 percent year over year. It was the sixth consecutive year of double-digit annual revenue growth for the company. GAAP net income for 2008 was $1.35 billion, or $0.64 per diluted share. December 2008: Business intelligence competence center launched The company announced the opening of a new engineering lab in Santa Clara, Calif., dubbed the EMC Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence/Analytics Competency Center. Through the lab, EMC brings together various vendors of data warehouse/business intelligence solutions including Greenplum, IBM, Microsoft, Netezza, Oracle, ParAccel, Sybase, Teradata and Vertica to help customers identify the appropriate solutions for their business intelligence needs.
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October 2008: A larger slice of the VMware pie EMC announced that it has bought 500,000 shares of VMware Class A common stock from Intel. The purchase brought EMCs ownership of VMwares total common outstanding stock to 84 percent.
GETTING HIRED
Get some data for your search
EMCs careers site, at www.emc.com/about/jobs/index.htm, provides information on entry-level and internship programs, benefits and, obviously, how to apply for jobs. Job listings are searchable by business, function, location and keyword. To apply, candidates must first fill out a profile. Job seekers must also pass a background check and drug test as a condition of employment. The company offers internships and co-ops for students majoring in business, marketing, finance, computer science, electrical engineering, law and allied fields of study. Applicants must have a 3.0 GPA or above, and will work on projects related to their major. Interns are eligible for employee benefits like discounts, paid time off and training. EMC also offers two entry-level programs, a rotational program in HR, marketing, finance or engineering, designed to groom the next generation of EMC leaders, and an associates program in customer service, sales, and educational and technical services. EMC offers benefits aimed at helping you and your family maintain a healthy lifestyle, achieve a work/life balance, manage your finances, plan for retirement and live a less stressful life. Perks include flexible work schedules, commuter and work-at-home benefits, on-site cafeterias and fitness centers, college admission coaching for children of staff and cash reimbursement for outside health club/health equipment/sports expenses. The company also offers 529 college investment plans, disability, health and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, 401(k) with company contribution and a discount stock purchase plan. Another interesting feature of EMCs website is that it provides additional information on the companys corporate culture. It likewise has corporate videos on the EMC daily grind. The company even has an online magazine for employees, the EMC.now!
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Hop on board with EMC
One programmer describes his experience: Two rounds of interviews, one with the HR recruiter and another with the hiring manager/supervisor. Another source points out that he found that the hiring process was clumsy. Anyone interested in working for EMC should definitely try to get a job there, says one hire. Another insider says that there is a disdain for slow decision-making and political BS. (EMC) has an exceptionally strong sales and engineering culture. One less-satisfied insider observes that there are many more VPs than necessary; far too many management layers. Hours at the company verge on the lengthy. There are no 40-hour workweeks, wails one contact. Fifty to 60 hours is normal at EMC, adds one co-worker. Absolutely no such thing as work/life balance, moans a programmer. Weekly hours in the 60s, explains another. Sources universally praise the company's training. EMC provides training that is second to none, says a respondent. Very good training, agrees another co-worker. Other benefits get high marks, too. Benefits [are] great. Benefits also extended to gay partners, adds an insider. Tuition reimbursement is good, notes another.
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EPICOR SOFTWARE CORPORATION

18200 Von Karman Avenue Suite 1000 Irvine, CA 92612 Phone: (949) 585-4000 Fax: (949) 585-4091 www.epicor.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Administration Consulting Customer Service Executive Management Human Resources Information Systems Legal Marketing Product Management Project/Program Management Sales Software Development Support Warehousing
LOCATIONS
Irvine, CA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Burlington, MA Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Lewis Center, OH Louisville, KY Minneapolis, MN Morristown, NJ Newburgh, NY Oakland, CA Parsippany, NJ Philadelphia, PA Portland, OR San Diego, CA Seattle, WA Almaty, Kazakhstan Ballerup, Denmark Bangkok Beijing Birmingham, United Kingdom Bournemouth, United Kingdom Bracknell, United Kingdom Bratislava, Slovakia Bucharest Budapest Dubai Espoo,Finland Frankfurt Guangzhou Jakarta Kiev Melbourne Monterrey Montreal Moscow Nacka, Sweden Nicosia, Cyprus North Sydney, Australia Northcliff, South Africa Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Poznan, Poland Prague Riga, Latvia Rome Seoul Shanghai Singapore St. Petersburg Taipei Tallinn, Estonia Tokyo Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong Vilnius, Lithuania Warsaw Westlands, Kenya
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: EPIC Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman, President & CEO: L. George Klaus 2008 Employees: 2,645 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 487.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 1
KEY COMPETITORS
Microsoft Corporation Oracle Corporation SAP AG
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
epicor73.recruitmax.com//main/careerportal
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Epicor Software Corporation
THE SCOOP
The map is the business territory
Epicor (formerly Platinum Software) provides companies with blueprints of their businesses with its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. The program essentially maps out how a company's data and applications fit together on a network. These data items can include anything from purchase orders and inventories to marketing costs, customer service and foreign currency transactions. The company was founded in 1984 by Gerald Blackie, Timothy McMullen and Kevin Riegelsberger, who developed The Platinum Series, the first financial accounting software for multiuser LAN-based environments. In 1992 the company, known as Platinum, introduced an accounting application for networks, designed to run with Microsoft products. Following a dip in revenue, the company brought in L. George Klaus as CEO in February 1996, who brought the company back to life. In 2000, the company introduced its Enterprise Applications Interface, a software bundle that combined resource planning, sales force automation and payroll and human resource programs to allow real-time information access throughout the enterprise. Also in that year, as an early victim of the tech downturn, the company announced a layoff of 11 percent of its workforce and the closure of several offices worldwide. The stumble proved to be brief, as Epicor acquired other companies in 2003, 2004 and 2005 in order to expand its offerings. In addition, the company was also named to the fastest-growing companies lists of both Fortune and Business 2.0 in 2006. In 2006, Epicor took in revenue of $384 million, an increase of 33 percent year over year. Profits decreased, however, between 2006 and 2007 on a steeper rate of taxation. Epicor received a number of awards in 2006. In June, it was ranked No. 5 on the Business 2.0 list of the 100 fastest-growing tech companies. It also got the nod from Fortune on its own 100 Fastest-Growing Companies listEpicor was No. 57the same year. It was still on that list in 2007, but did not make it in 2008.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Cause Klaus could do it Thanks to a strong sales team and reliable relationships with third-party vendors, CEO George Klaus was chosen as a 2009 Channel Chief by Everything Channel, a market research group that caters specifically to IT companies. I am honored to be recognized as a 2009 Channel ChiefCRNs acknowledgment of our channel teams continued investment in the reseller community demonstrates the value of Epicors strong, collaborative sales partnerships, said Klaus. Epicor joined the likes of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard as the best revenue-producing
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technologies sold through IT channels. Third-party resellers of Epicor products contributed 25 percent of the companys revenue in 2008. January 2009: Launching in the Middle East Epicor Software Corporation announced the launch of its next-generation ERP solution, Epicor 9, in the Middle East. Our history of innovation leveraging Microsoft technology continues with Epicor 9, said John Hiraoka, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Epicor. We are redefining the enterprise software experience for users, with more ways for them to interact with information residing in their ERP systemthrough the 2007 Microsoft Office system (Office Outlook 2007, Office Word 2007 and Office Excel 2007) and moreultimately driving increased efficiency as users are empowered to work smarter, faster and add increased value for their businesses. December 2008: And one product to rule them all
Customer Interaction Solutions magazine chose Epicor 9 as its Product of the Year awardee for the products (and the companys) vision and innovation in the industry. Epicor 9 is a first for the company, since it combines all existing capabilities across their product line and has a new service-oriented architecture. Bowing down to industry trends brought about by companies seeking products from multiple vendors simultaneously, Epicors new product promises to offer a multitenant, software-as-a-service option, supporting Microsoft technologies to enable more customized content.
April 2008: The choice for Challenger Technologies In Singapore, an IT products and services company selected Epicors end-to-end retail management suite, from the cashier that records each transaction to the data manager that takes note of product deliveries. This comes after almost four months of talks and taking care of logisticsChallenger Technologies, the IT corporation, chose Epicor way back in December 2007.
March 2008: Kasians choice Going international in a rather global way, Epicor was chosen by an international firm to manage its global operations. Headquartered in Canada, Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. chose Epicor because the companys software, Epicor for Service Enterprises, gives the full menu of services that construction firms need to keep their businesses goingbusiness management, project resourcing, financial streamlining, regulatory compliance and business performance analysis.
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GETTING HIRED
Grow a career at Epicor
Epicors careers site, at www.epicor.com/Careers/Pages/default.aspx, provides information about job openings in all of the countries in which Epicor operates. Positions are searchable by location, function and keyword. In order to apply, job seekers must send a cover letter and resume to the email address noted on the job posting. Epicor is currently searching for people in the areas of development, support, consulting and management. Oh, and dont forget to register once you get on the site, get a candidate profile running and join the companys talentpool. Epicor has a policy of promoting from within, so its probably better to start with the company when you are young, if youre planning to grow a career there.
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FISERV, INC.
255 Fiserv Drive PO Box 979 Brooklfield, WI 53008-0979 Phone: (262) 879-5000 Fax: (262) 879-5013 www.fiserv.com
DEPARTMENTS
Card Services Corporate Development Customer Centered Solutions Depository Iinstitution Services Fiserv Global Services Human Resource Interactive Technologies Internal Audit IP CheckAgain IP Compute Utility (Technology Services & Support) IP Fiserv SolutionsAustralia IP Northern Trust IP Operations ITI CustomerFile Outsourcing SW Region Houston ITI CustomerFile SE Region Bowling Green ITI Outsourcing Central Region Brookfield ITI Outsourcing Midwest Region Des Moines ITI Outsourcing NE Region Alastonbury ITI Outsourcing SE Region Atlanta ITI Outsourcing Western Region Los Angeles Lending Administration Lending Automotive Solutions Lending Easylender Lending Elending Services Lending Fulfillment Services Lending Mortgageserv Marketing Precision Computer Systems Technology Services
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: FISV Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Donald F. Dillon President & CEO: Jeffery W. Yabuki 2008 Employees: 20,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 4,739 2008 Income ($ mil.): 569
LOCATIONS
Brookfield, WI (HQ) Atlanta, GA Bellevue, WA Buffalo, NY Chicago, IL Corvallis, OR Dallas, TX Denver, CO Des Moines, IA Fairway, KS Glastonbury, CT Houston, TX Indianapolis, IN Kent, WA King of Prussia, PA Lake Mary, FL Los Angeles, CA Madison, WI Melbourne, FL Milwaukee, WI Moorpark, CA Nashville, TN New Berlin, WI New Hartford, NY Norcross, GA Norristown, PA Philadelphia, PA Phoenix, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Portland, OR Rocky Hill, CT San Antonio, TX San Francisco, CA Stafford, TX Valley Forge, PA Various, GA Walnut, CA Westerville, OH Singapore
KEY COMPETITORS
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. Metavante Technologies, Inc. Open Solutions, Inc.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.fiserv.com/careers.htm
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Fiserv, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Keeping the banking and insurance worlds going round
Fiserv provides more than 16,000 banks, investment service/communications/utility companies, retailers, associations/clubs, credit unions, thrifts and insurers with services ranging from funds transfer and credit card services to services for the providers of medical, property and life insurance. Fiserv also offers data warehousing and printing services, and specialized software for lenders. On top of all that, the company supports non-profits and self-insured businesses with their health benefits, with services that include everything from benefits administration to help for employees managing chronic diseases. The company is also Americas largest independent processor of checks. In 2006, Fiserv offered insurance services to four million people and processed 18 billion financial transactions.
Growing up so fast
Success came so quickly, the company was able to go public in 1986, just two years after its creation. A key component to that success has been an aggressive acquisition strategy; between 1984 and 2006 Fiserv bought more than 140 other companiesthe companys $50 million acquisition of the data processing arm of Citibank in 1991 was a notable feat. As Fiserv grew, it added related services like credit cards, stock transaction processing and data processing for the insurance industry. In 2006, the company bought seven more companies, two of them adding to its stable of auxiliary financial products. Then, in 2007, Fiserv acquired NetEconomy, the leading international anti-money laundering, anti-fraud and crime management company based in The Hague.
Fiserv, take two

Fiservs strategy for its acquisitions was to buy up profitable, well-managed companies in its target industries, and then largely leave them alone, while reaping the profits in order to buy more companies. Clearly, this strategy worked, as Fiservs revenue continued to increase, giving executives and shareholders reason to smile. The downside became obvious in 2006, when Fiserv had a patchwork of 77 more-orless nonintegrated business units, all of which sourced their own supplies and sometimes competed for business. In 2006, following his accession to CEO the previous year, Jeffery Yabuki embarked on a plan (cleverly called Fiserv 2.0) to reorganize the company into a lean, mean profit-making machine. Yabukis plan calls for integrating the efforts of Fiservs 77 business units into four groups, including buying of supplies in bulk, allowing customers to have a single point of contact at the company and cross-selling services to boost revenue. Fiserv 2.0 also involves offshoring some of the companys
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outsourcing to countries with lower labor costs. Yabuki predicts that by 2010, his plan for Fiserv will save the company $100 millionin addition to bringing in hundreds of millions more in revenue. In August, the company announced its intent for its largest acquisition yet, CheckFree, the nations leader in electronic bill payment programming. CheckFree is the leading online bill payment system in the U.S., processing more than one billion transactions per year.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Fiserv-ing BB&T BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., one of the largest financial holding companies in the U.S. with $152 billion in assets, partnered with Fiserv to easily manage workflow with compliance best practices by tracking and retaining all versions of RESPA three-day disclosures and other pre-closing documents sent to borrowers. Fiservs Secure Lending solution, BB&T says, will electronically deliver initial disclosures and other pre-closing documents, with an electronic signature option, to borrowers and will enable it to further enhance customer service with a competitive edge by delivering the documents immediately to their clients and allowing them to instantly execute the documents using electronic signatures. Fiserv also announced that President and CEO Jeffery Yabuki would ring the bell at Nasdaq on March 11th to open the trading session, marking Fiservs 25th anniversary. The company said it intends to celebrate its 25th year by once again affirming Fiserv's commitment to its clients to lead the transformation of financial services technology. September 2008: High up there
Fiserv ranked No. 4 overall in the 2008 InformationWeek 500 and No. 1 in the Banking and Financial Services Industry category. InformationWeek magazine said it chose Fiserv as one of the top-five companies because of its use of services-oriented architecture, as well as its innovative products, such as the recently launched MyMoney solution which pioneers a new channel for consumer access to financial services. The rankings recognize the most innovative users of technology in the U.S. July 2008: Revenue up by 38 percent Fiserv reported that total revenue for the second quarter of 2008 increased to 38 percent, largely because of the CheckFree acquisition. Second-quarter revenue was up $1.3 billion, from $939 million in 2007. The first half of 2008 yielded $2.61 billion in revenue, with the adjusted internal revenue growth at 3 percent in
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the combined financial institution services and payments, and industry products segments. May 2008: Having a MacDonald Fiserv hired Don MacDonald as its first chief marketing officer, whose main task will focus on refining the company's brand and product strategies, data analytics and client segmentation. MacDonald was previously the vice president and general manager of the sales and marketing group and director of Intel Corporations global marketing division, which is based in San Jose, Calif. MacDonald has also held positions in Mobile Products, Digital Home, Intel Japan and others.
GETTING HIRED
Find yourself at Fiserv
An environment where intelligence, innovation and leadership are valued and rewarded, Fiserv claims to hold true to two essential principles: that the client comes first, and people make a difference. Fiservs career options page, www.fiserv.com/careers.htm, helpfully provides a list of open positions (searchable by department, category, keyword and location) as well as information about benefits and company policies. In order to apply to a position, candidates must create a profile. Remember, to be considered for an open position listed on its website, it is necessary to apply online. General applications are not accepted. Job openings are updated frequently, so check back often. Dont worry if you have previously applied for jobs with Fiserv, you may log in to update your profile, apply to additional jobs and perform other actions. Fiserv is also an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. It welcomes and encourages diversity in its workforce.
Benefits offered by the company vary by business unit, but commonly consist of health and dental insurance, health spending accounts (plus pretax, life/accidental death/dismemberment insurance for both employees and their dependents), shortand long-term disability plans, 401(k) with company matching and profit-sharing contribution, stock purchase plan and educational assistance. Fiserv may conduct credit and background checks as a condition of employment.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Kind of inconsistent
An insider working at the CheckFree contact center appreciates the diversity exhibited by the company. Race and age barriers are broken, which speaks volumes about the companys equal opportunity policy. However, the insider also added that there are limited opportunities for advancement, noting that as an associate your only option to progress was to a team lead then a supervisor and manager. Despite this, the insider says that overall [it] was a good company to work for. [It] was very diverse (in terms of race as well as age). It does not seem to matter that you are giving the best customer service you can, the insider adds further. To them it is more about volume and time. They want you to help the customer or transfer them; they don't want you to wait on the line to ensure they get to the correct department or that the next representative knows exactly what they (customers) need even if they (poor customers) have been transferred around six times. To me that's a little ridiculous since I enjoy helping people. When you have a single mom crying on the phone because she keeps getting mistransferred and she needs to stop a payment today, I find it very coldhearted to just transfer them again and hope the next person knows what they're doing and what the customer is asking for, all just to make our numbers look good.
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FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR, INC.

6501 William Cannon Drive West Austin, TX 78735 Phone: (512) 895-2000 www.freescale.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company Chairman & CEO: Rich Beyer 2008 Employees: 22,900 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,226 2008 Income ($ mil.): -7,939
LOCATIONS
Austin, TX (HQ) Chandler, AZ Lake Zurich, IL Phoenix, AZ Tempe, AZ Bangalore Beijing Bucharest Campinas, Brazil East Kilbride, Scotland Guadalajara Herzelia, Israel Kuala Lumpur Munich Noida, India Sendai, Japan Shanghai Suzhou China Tianjin, China Tokyo Toulouse, France
KEY COMPETITORS
National Semiconductor Corporation STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments Incorporated
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overvie w.jsp?nodeId=0678436804
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Analog & Sensor Corporate Strategy Electrical Engineering Finance Human Resources Marketing Networking & Multimedia Process Engineering Research & Advanced Technology Sales Security Software Engineering Strategy & Business Transformation Supply Chain Management Technology
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Free your mind, the rest will follow
Freescale Semiconductor is a major player in the microchip arena, providing a catalog of 14,000 chips primarily for the transportation, wireless and networking industries. Freescale chips can be found in products from Sony, Whirlpool, Cisco, Bose, BMW, GM and former parent company Motorola. Freescale is a key supplier of microchips to the automotive and communications industries. Freescale existed as the microchip-making arm of Motorola for five decades. In 1965, the company began to develop chips that could process radio signals (a forerunner of the chips in todays cellular phones). Later, the division pioneered computer microprocessors, supplying Apple with the chips it would use for the revolutionary Macintosh.
Free to be you and me

Freescale isn't immune to the cyclical trends that often plague microchip companies; the industry constantly weathers slumping sales and predictions of its demise. Such a slump hit Motorolas semiconductor division from 2000 to 2003, as revenue fell each year, resulting in losses of $4.4 billion. Apparently 50 years was long enough for Motorola to play the faithful spouse, and it spun the division off as a separate company in October 2003. Much to Motorolas chagrin, of course, the wireless and mobile industries caught fire immediately after the sale, and the newly minted Freescale Semiconductor went on to post gains almost as soon as it was cut loose, bringing in revenue of $6.4 billion in 2006. Its success that year didnt come without sacrifices, though, as Freescale has cut 1,000 jobs since 2004. Freescale was suddenly a hot stock and investors could only stay away from it for so long. In fall 2006, rumors started flying that Freescale was a possible candidate for a buyout. Two teams of investors, one headed up by Blackstone, the other by KKR, both considered purchasing the increasingly profitable company. In September 2006, Blackstones bid of $17.6 billion was accepted. Freescale should have sent a thank-you card to (guess who?) Motorola, whose business still accounted for over a quarter of its revenue. In 2007, Freescale opened a facility in Noida, India. The company has nearly 1,000 employees in India, and has already established a facility in Bangalore. The 250 employees in Noida will be engaged in R&D and in the manufacture of systems on a chip. In the same year, the companys revenue was pegged at $5.7 billion.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: OEMs sent 45-nanometer comm processor samples Freescale sent OEM companies samples of its new communications processors based on 45-nanometer technology. The company said these processors may help reduce cost and power consumption levels for 3G and 4G broadband infrastructure equipment. Freescale says it is speeding up the delivery of these new communications processors and volume deliveries may be expected in the second half of 2009. February 2009: Next generation transmitter designs Freescale introduced its next generation of laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) RF power transistors to meet the growing demand for reduced power consumption in cellular transmitters. These devices are primarily engineered for high-data rate applications such as W-CDMA, WiMAX as well as emerging standards like LTE and Multicarrier GSM. January 2009: No buyers for wireless IC unit CEO Rich Beyer said that there have been no buyers for Freescales wireless handset IC unit and so the company may be forced to sell the beleaguered unit piecemeal to several parties instead of a single buyer. The companys cellular IC division had been in dire straits with fourth quarter 2008 sales skidding to $64 million from $344 million in the immediately preceding quarter and from $303 million in the comparable period a year ago. November 2008: Credit rating lowered from B+ to B Fitch Ratings lowered Freescales credit rating to B from B+, forecasting a negative free cash flow for Q4 2008 and the whole of 2009. Despite this rating, Fitch said Freescale has enough liquidity to support its cash usage over a two-year period. February 2008: Freescale acquires SigmaTel
Freescale and SigmaTel jointly announced that latters acquisition by Freescale for $110 million. SigmaTel is a privately held provider of analog intensive, mixedsignal ICs for the digital multimedia market.
GETTING HIRED
Set your career Free
Freescales careers site, at www.freescale.com/careers, provides information for students and experienced job seekers. Jobs are searchable by department, keyword, location and type; to apply, candidates must first create a profile.
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Nice perks offered by the company include sponsorship for professional organizations (if necessary), bonuses for good performanceof the employee and the company, bonuses for patents, on-site fitness centers or subsidies for off-site gym memberships, concierge service, and relocation assistance that includes everything from finding a place to live to shipping things. The student careers section of Freescales site provides a prcis of the companys internship and rotation programs. To qualify for an internship or co-op position, students must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and be studying finance, accounting or engineering on a full-time basis. Internships last 12 weeks and interns receive benefits and housing assistance. The company offers two rotation programs, one in engineering and one in sales, for recent graduates majoring in electrical engineering or computer science with backgrounds in wafer manufacture or chips for wireless, radio frequency and mixed-signal applications, and, of course, sales. Freescale posts online a schedule of its recruiting junketstops on the tour occur at such fine institutions as Texas A&M, Rochester Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon and Arizona State.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Insiders say that Freescales culture is political, wherein management is never wrong. Reflects a former product marketing engineer, Freescale tends to throw people at a problem rather than technology (or automation). This creates work for people that could be solved much easier with some good IT. This is from the company that created Six Sigma, which includes digital Six Sigma a method of taking people and their tendency to make mistakes out of a process for fewer mistakes and more reliability. Creativity and innovation are encouraged, as long as the real work gets done and the objective is met. However, jobs seem to be loosely defined at Freescale. The people are terrific. I enjoyed working with 90 percent of the employees. However, there seems to be a lack of accountability across the company. If something slightly out of the ordinary needed to get done, it was because you did it yourself or you cajoled someone else to provide you with the information, says a respondent. Freescale is very flexible for the most part, with flex-time and work/life balance policies. They also have more women employees than many other companies in the industry. A former insider states, I highly recommend Freescale as one of the better places to work if you have small children or plan to have them soon. This is one of the main reasons why Freescale has such longtime employees, and why so many of them are women. The women who worked there with me were hard workers, smart and experienced. In general, the companys strength is in its people. The empowerment to do ones job is a huge plus for employees. Some disclosed that salaries leave something to be desired, but are still competitive.
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FUJITSU LIMITED
Shiodome City Center 1-5-2 Higashi-Shimbashi Minato-ku Tokyo, 105-7123 Japan Phone: +81-3-6252-2220 www.fujitsu.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Consulting Corporate Industries & Distribution Solutions Marketing Planning Products Business Group Sales Services Solution Business Support Group Ubiquitous Product Solutions
LOCATIONS
Tokyo, Japan (HQ) Edison, NJ Fairfield, NJ Honolulu, HI New York, NY Plymouth, MI Richardson, TX San Jose, CA Sunnyvale, CA Washington, DC Abu Dhabi Akashi-shi, Japan Amsterdam Aomori, Japan Aomori-shi, Japan Athens Bad Homburg, Germany Bangalore Bangkok Batam, Indonesia Bedfordshire, United Kingdom Middlesex, United Kingdom Milan Mississauga, Canada Montreal Moscow Munich Nanjing, China Nantong, China Nassau Oslo Osterreich, Austria Paris Parit Raja, Malaysia Pasig City, Philippines Pathumthani, Thailand Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Pozuelo de Alarcon, Spain Prague Regensdorf, Switzerland Reynosa, Mexico Riga, Latvia Rivonia, South Africa Samutprakarn, Thailand So Paulo, Brazil Scarborough, Canada Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Seoul Shanghai Singapore Skopje, Macedonia Sofia, Bulgaria St. Michael, Barbados Sydney Taichung, Taiwan
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: 6702 Stock Exchange: TSE Chairman: Michiyoshi Mazuka President: Kuniaki Nozoe 2008 Employees: 173,733 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 4,700,000 2008 Income ( mil.): -20,000
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM NEC Toshiba
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.fujitsu.com/global/about/employment
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Fujitsu Limited
THE SCOOP
Everything IT
Fujitsu is one of Japans flagship companies, often working hand in hand with the government to further the state of Japanese industry and technological advancement. A major player in many areas of the high-tech industry, it is second only to IBM in computer manufacturing. The companys customers include everyone from governments and Global 500 companies to small businesses and consumers. Fujitsus offerings range from consulting and IT services (including outsourcing) to software for managing online transactions and manufacturing; of course it also makes and sells computers, servers, point-of-sale systems and electronic parts such as memory chips and capacitors. Fujitsus progressive policies in regard to the environment and its employees have earned the company a place on both the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Londons FTSE 4Good index.
From Tokyo to Cyberspace

Fujitsu was founded in the 1930s as an offshoot of the Fuji Electric Company. Fuji itself began that same decade as a joint venture of the Japanese Furukawa Electric Company (founded 1884) and the German Siemens AG (founded 1847). Fuji created Fujitsu in 1935 to oversee its production of telephones and automatic exchange equipment such as switchboards. In 1949, Fujitsu went public and subsequently began to manufacture computers during the 1950s, first for the government (the first was delivered in 1951) and later for industry (in 1954). IBM introduced the first transistorized computer in 1959, and its level of advancement sent shockwaves through the computer industry.
Fujitsu moved into the Internet Age of the 1990s with a vengeance. In 1994, it came out with InfoWeb, an Internet service for businesses, and followed with INTERTop, a user-friendly and portable way for people to access information and software on the internet. It was also still releasing supercomputersthe latest installment arriving in 1992. Fujitsu worked to expand sales abroad in the 2000s and also focused on hot new tech areas such as flash memory, outsourcing and systems-on-a-chip.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Empowering Nagoya Fujitsu Limited announced that it will boost Nagoya Universitys Information Technology Center with a new supercomputer. Fujitsu will proudly be handing over a three-headed computing hybrid that consists of the SPARC Enterprise
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M9000 UNIX server, the HX600 technical computing server and the FX1 high-end technical computing server. This 60-teraflop system will serve not only Nagoya University, but several other research institutions. May 2009 will be the first of two stages of operation, while the second will be in October of the same year. December 2008: Turning over Eudyna Fujitsu Limited has decided to reallocate Eudyna Devices Inc. (Eudina) shares to Sumitomo Electric (Sumitomo). The completion of the transfer occurred on April 1, 2009, based on the basic agreement. Until then, negotiations are still underway. This move by Fujitsu Limited foresees Eudinas growth as it aids Sumitomo in catering to its large customer base. November 2008: Buying out Siemens Fujitsu Limited and Siemens AG reported that by April 1, 2009, Fujitsu will have acquired Siemens 50 percent share in their joint venture, Fujitsu Siemens Computers (Holding) B.V. Fujitsu president Kuniaki Nozoe said the purchase is a move that strengthens their global growth strategy. Siemens CFO Joe Kesser agreed. We continue to focus our company on the strategic sectors energy, industry and health care. We are happy that our joint-venture partner Fujitsu will acquire our stake in Fujitsu Siemens Computers and will take the company to its next level of success, he said. Until April 1, 2009, Fujitsu Siemens Computers still operated as a joint venture. June 2008: Making it to the Top500 List Fujitsus supercomputer systems are included in the 2008 edition of the TOP500 list of the worlds fastest supercomputers, announced at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) 2008 in Dresden, Germany. Three of the recognized supercomputers were the T2K Open Supercomputer (HX600 Technical Computing Server) which ranks 34 on the list, the Supercomputer System (PRIMERGY RX200 S3 PC Server), 172 on the list and Supercomputer System (PRIMEQUEST 580 Mission Critical IA Server), ranking 335 on the list. The TOP500 list proves that Fujitsu is capable of unleashing its hardwares full potential through high-performance software development technologies, mixed with superior systems integration technology. March 2008: New Thai Data Center Fujitsu Systems Business (Thailand) Ltd. opened a new data center in Bang Na, Bangkok and caters to Japanese companies based in Thailand. The new data center boasted of its own PalmSecure palm vein biometric authentication system and an extensive range of prevention features such as fire and water-leak detection systems. A UPS (uninterruptable power supply), spare power lines and a private power generator also make sure that computer systems operate at all times. The data center in Bangkok promises high-quality data center services, owing its reputation to the technology and operational know-how gained from an expanding network of 80 Fujitsu data centers found in 16 countries worldwide.
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GETTING HIRED
Connect with Fujitsu
Fujitsus global careers site at www.fujitsu.com/global/about/employment/ provides information about opportunities at the companys global locations. In the section that deals with careers in North America, job seekers will find a list of openings at Fujitsu America, Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Fujitsu Computer Systems, Fujitsu Transaction Solutions and Fujitsu Consulting Holdings. Positions are searchable by category, location, company subsidiary and keyword. To apply, candidates must first create a profile.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

A diverse mix of cultures, limited career advancement
Being a multinational company, Fujitsu boasts of a diverse workforce. According to a source, the cultural diversity provided a healthy environment. The same contact added that at lunches, they were given the opportunity to taste different types of food. However, a knock on this is that, even though the company is heterogeneous as a whole, another contact contends that the company is too heavy on male-led management, even as they are attempting to promote diversity and are taking steps to improve. One insider notes that, due to micromanagement and office politics, there were few career advancement opportunities. Another that left the company due to (career) growth reasons seems to agree.
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GARMIN INTERNATIONAL, INC.

1200 E. 151st Street Olathe, KS 66062-3426 Phone: (913) 397-8200 Fax: (913) 397-8282 www.garmin.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: GRMN Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & COO: Clifton Pemble Chairman & CEO: Min Kao 2008 Employees: 8,919 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,494.1 2008 Income ($ mil.): 732.8
LOCATIONS
Olathe, KS (HQ) Salem, OR Badalona, Spain Brussels Cacem, Portugal Grafelfing, Germany Houten, Netherlands Seven Hills, Australia Shijr, Taiwan Southampton, United Kingdom
KEY COMPETITORS
Magellan MiTAC Digital Corporation TomTom N.V.
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Aviation sales/Support/Training Cartography Communications Customer Support/Call Center Engineering Executive Facilities Finance Human Resources Industrial Design Information Technology Legal Manufacturing/Customer Repair Marketing/Sales/Communications Operations/Planning/Purchasing Quality Assurance Warehouse Worldwide Sales
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.garmin.com/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Garmin International, Inc.
THE SCOOP
All who wander are not lost
No matter how far you go, Garmin will tell you where you are. The company is a leader in the market for aftermarket automotive GPS, but its products include GPS receivers for work and playfor every manner of transport, from feet and cars to boats and planes. The company provides a device so consumers can equip nearly everything in their lives that movesbikes, motorcycles, dogswith its own GPS receiver; (unfortunately, the company has yet to make one small enough for a keychain.) Garmins receivers come with other features, like MP3 players, fish finders, heart rate monitors and Bluetooth connectivity.
Revenues right turn

In 2006, Garmin posted revenue of $1.8 billion with a profit of $514 million. Revenue increased 72 percent over the preceding year, while profits were up 65 percent. The companys automotive division grew by 170 percent, while the fitness division brought in year-over-year growth of 20 percent. That same year, Garmin acquired Dynastream, manufacturer of wireless monitoring equipment for athletes, for $36 million. Garmin integrated Dynastreams athletic technology into a new generation of GPS devices for runners and bikers that can monitor distance, heart rate, calories burned and other useful bits of telemetry.
GPS for everybody!

Garmin will look to integrate the Nautamatic system with its existing line of nautical GPS solutions. It scored a coup in 2007 when it inked an agreement with Vanguard Car Rental, the parent company of National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car to put GPS devices in its vehicles. Rental car drivers should appreciate them, as they will usually be driving in unknown environments, and the devices will also allow consumers to experience a Garmin system firsthand.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Good old news Garmin maintainED its position as a global provider of GPS, according to Canalys, an IT market research firm. More people choose the product to guide them to their destination over any other Garmin competitor, and thats good news for Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble. For 20 years, Garmin has been committed to bringing its customers industry-leading innovation, quality, value, ease-of-use and support. Despite these difficult economic times, we believe that our higher market share
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validates our approach and are confident that we can continue to offer best-in-thebusiness products to attract more customers in the years ahead. November 2008: ODA approved The Federal Aviation Administration gave Garmin official authorization to conduct activities on the administrations behalf. The Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the company authority to issue supplemental type certificates (STCs), approving installations of Garmin avionics in aircraft. Garmin has a long history of working well with the FAA, said Gary Kelley, Garmins vice president of marketing. The ODA designation continues that legacy and reflects the high standards and experienced staff at Garmin. We are very proud to receive this ODA designation because it confirms our core principles of innovation, performance, quality, value and service. September 2008: GPS at a bargain Garmin cant claim to be the first to offer personal navigation devices (PNDs) at a bargain, but the companys Nuvi 205 sure is pretty nifty considering the capabilities it packs into its little body. Meant for general consumption and appreciation, the product clocks in at $199 (minus accessories, like an adapter for the car and windshield mount hardware). The product comes equipped with a touchscreen feature and optional services like FM radio and news from MSN Direct. August 2008: Acquiring distributor in Portugal Expanding its reach in the European market, Garmin acquired SatSignalEquipamentos de Comunicaes e de Navegao, S.A., a partner distributor in Portugal. The company was renamed Garmin Portugal and continues operations at its current headquarters located near Lisbon. June 2008: Cycling round Garmin
One of the only two American teams competing in 2008s Tour de France is picked up by Garmin. Team Slipstream-Chipotle became known as Team GarminChipotle, and the companys sponsorship is seen as fortuitous by sponsors, fans and the media amidst the doping scandal that has plagued the cycling world. Even so, Garmin didnt any chances, despite the fact that Slipstream never guaranteed that its athletes did not do drugs (Slipstream has one of the more rigorous testing cycles around, with their athletes required to submit urine samples every couple of weeks)the contract had a clause indicating that Garmin was going to withdraw sponsorship if widespread doping in the team is proven. April 2008: Garmin goes digital In a partnership that presents the convergence of high performance technologies, Garmin chose a French company as an internal complement to its navigation systems. DiBcom, a company specializing in designing chipsets for
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mobile TV reception, will have its front-end receiver incorporated into Garmins line of Nuvi portable navigation systems. Thanks to DiBcom, Garmins customers wont just know where theyre headed and how to get there; now theyll be able to watch TV shows while trying to get there! March 2008: Global leader in Portable Satellite Navigation Garmin owned the personal navigation market lock, stock and barrel as it announced that it sold more devices in 2007 than any other manufacturer, according to independent IT research firm Canalys. These figures validate our associates hard work and commitment to innovation, value, and satisfying our customers, said CEO Cliff Pemble. This was good news for Garmin, but what was even sweeter was that the count didnt include the companys hold in the aviation, fitness, marine and outdoor products, which just might make Garmin sales go through the roof. February 2008: Going up against the biggies Throwing its hat into the smartphone game, Garmin unveiled the Nuvifone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The companys first foray into the market was in partnership with AsusTek, a Taiwan-based company. The Nuvifone has two variations, each made and designed with a specific audience in mind. However, both models have a GPS heart beating at its center, and the Nuvifone makes great use of Garmins knowledge in the personal navigation device industry. The G60 model has all the reliable navigation capabilities that Garmin devices are known for, and a bonus for this little device is Ciao!, which is like a social networking site tacked on the back of a truck. This application lets friends stay connected and gives users directions on how to get to a friends location. Although its probably too early in the game to say whether the Nuvifone will join the smartphone big league, the companys focus on navigation might just change the game.
GETTING HIRED
Put your career into orbit with Garmin

Garmins careers site (at www8.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/employment.html) provides information about job opportunities and benefits at the company. Jobs are offered in the areas of administration, aircraft certification, sales and marketing, engineering, corporate communications, accounting, cartography, customer repair, MIS, HR, IT, manufacturing, operations and quality assurance. Positions are listed by function at my.garmin.com/iRecruitment/joblist.htm. In order to apply, candidates must fill out a web-based form. Benefits at Garmin include health and life insurance, 401(k), paid vacations and holidays, tuition reimbursements and discounts on company merchandise. Questions or comments can be sent to jobs@garmin.com.
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GENERAL DYNAMICS
2941 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 100 Falls Church, VA 22042-4513 Phone: (703) 876-3000 Fax: (703) 876-3125 www.generaldynamics.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: GD Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Nicholas D. Chabraja 2008 Employees: 92,300
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Auditing Administrative & Support Services Advanced Information Systems Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations Airlines Architectural Services Arts, Entertainment & Media Automotive/Motor Vehicle/Parts Banking Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Building & Grounds Maintenance Computer Services Computers, Hardware Computers, Software Construction, Mining & Trades Consulting Services Consumer Products Creative/Design Customer Service & Call Center Electronics Energy/Utilities Engineering Environmental Services Finance/Economics Financial Services General Management Government & Policy Health care Human Resources/Recruiting Information Technology Installation, Maintenance, & Repair Insurance Internet/Ecommerce Land Systems Law Enforcement/Security Services Legal Manufacturing & Production Operations Management Ordnance & Tactical Systems Personal Care & Service Product Management Project/Program Management Publishing/Printing Purchasing Quality Assurance/Safety Real Estate/Mortgage Research & Development Sales Science Telecommunications Transportation & Warehousing Waste Management Services
2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 29,300 2008 Income ($ mil.): 2,459
KEY COMPETITORS
Boeing Corporation Lockheed Martin Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation
LOCATIONS
Falls Church, VA (HQ) Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD Annandale, VA Anniston, AL Arlington, WA Atlantic Beach, FL Bath, MA Burlington, VT California, MD Chantilly, VA Charlotte, NC Chesapeake, VA Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, MD Eynon, PA Fairfax, VA Fort Bragg, NC Ft. Wayne, IN Hampton, AR Hattiesburg, MS Huntsville, AL Jericho, VT Kings Bay, GA Las Cruces, NM Lima, OH Lincoln, NE Linthicum, MD Marion, VA McHenry, MS Middletown, RI Montgomery, AL Muskegon, MI Needham, MA Newton, NC Norfolk, VA North Kingstown, RI Orlando, FL Pascagoula, MI Pax River, MD Pearl Harbor, HI Pittsburgh, PA Quincy, MA Rock Falls City, NY Saco, ME San Diego, CA Savannah, GA Scottsdale, AZ Sierra Vista, AZ Spokane, WA Sterling Heights, MI Tallahassee, FL Tampa, FL Taunton, MA Tempe, AZ Warren, MI Washington, DC Westminster, MD Woodbridge, VA Ashchurch, United Kingdom Calgary Dartmouth, Canada Hasting, United Kingdom Kaiserslautern, Germany Kanata, Canada London, Canada London, United Kingdom Madrid Ottawa South Wales, United
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.gdcareers.com/gdchq_jobs/main.cfm?pg=se arch
Kingdom Vienna
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition General Dynamics
THE SCOOP
One if by air, two if by sea
General Dynamics Corporation is a force to be reckoned with in the armaments market. It started manufacturing submarines and surface ships as The Electric Boat Company over 100 years ago, and started diversifying its business platform during the Cold War. Now it is an all-purpose defense contractor. The company focuses on four specific business areas: aerospace, combat systems, marine systems, and information systems and technology. These divisions account for, respectively, business aviation, expeditionary combat systems, submarines and surface ships (still manufactured under the name Electric Boat), and specialized IT products for defense and law-enforcement customers.
Engines of war
General Dynamics traces its roots back to 1899, when John Holland started The Electric Boat Company. Electric Boat sold submarines to the adversarial parties during the Russo-Japanese War, but primarily devoted itself to cargo ships thereafter, despite receiving orders for submarines from England and the U.S. during World War I. Diversification began in earnest as soon as the war ended. John Jay Hopkins, CEO at the time, purchased Canadair in 1946 and Convair in 1953, both manufacturers of business and military aircraft. The company adopted the General Dynamics brand name in 1952, to reflect its focus on contracting beyond the scope of boats and submarines. With David S. Lewis Jr. at the helm from 1971 to 1985, the company's revenue quadrupled, allowing it to further diversify with the acquisition of Chrysler's combat division in 1982.
Long war, big profits

The September 11 attacks put defense spending back into a higher gear, significantly quickening the pace of new contracts. In October 2001, as federal authorities were blocking GDs bid to buy NNS, other federal authorities were beckoning for the companys help. GDs National Steel and Shipbuilding Company got a $700 million contract to build a new class of logistics ships; its electric boat and land systems subsidiaries received contracts totaling $90 million for a variety of projects; and a number of other subsidiaries landed a slew of contracts totaling $107 million. Ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided steady sales of GD combat systems, such as the eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicle. Stryker debuted at the beginning of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and as of 2007, the company has made about 2,000 of them. Since the 2001 attacks, GD's combat systems unit's revenue and profits have tripled, and net sales and earnings each jumped by 18 percent from 2005 to 2006.
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Wireless post-war
GD is preparing for a slowdown in weapons spending, in form with the companys business model over the last 50 years. It first focused on IT as an avenue of growth in 1997, and information systems has indeed become the company's fastest-growing unit its revenue increased more than 34 percent from 2004 to 2006, to almost $9 billion. Therefore, the April 2007 news that GD had edged out No. 1 defense contractor Lockheed for the next large governmental contract was especially welcome. GD won a contract (with an estimated value of $5 billion) to provide a wireless communication network (Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP), for several governmental agencies. The project will allow 80,000 agents of the Departments of Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security to communicate securely on a common network, and the system will be adaptable to advances in wireless technology. VoIP technology will also be installed in the Pentagon as part of the PENREN (Pentagon Renovation) project, for which GD is a main contractor.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Outstanding 2008 General Dynamics reported fourth fiscal quarter and full 2008 financial figures. Fourth quarter revenue climbs to $7.9 billion from 2007s $7.5 billion. Earnings from continuing operations come in strong at $630 million, or $1.62 per share, against the previous years $578 million, or $1.42 per share. For the full year of 2008, all four business groups generated increased sales, operating earnings grew significantly faster than revenue and free cash flow from operations totaled 106 percent of net earnings, said chairman and CEO Nicholas Chabraja. Full-year 2008 revenue totaled $29.3 billion, up by 7.6 percent from 2007s $27.2 billion. January 2009: Axles to open doors
General Dynamics completed acquisition of AxleTech International from private equity firm The Carlyle Group. Talks between the companies started in November 2008. AxleTech manufactures and supplies axles, axle components, planetary axles, suspensions, breaks and aftermarket parts for military vehicles. It employs 1,000 workers globally and has facilities throughout the U.S., and in France and Brazil. Mike Mulligan of General Dynamics said the purchase opens doors to a market General Dynamics has never treaded before. We look forward to maintaining and strengthening the relationships that AxleTech International enjoys with its existing customers, and collaborating to create new products and pursue new markets together, Mulligan said in a press release November 2008: Shopping for flights General Dynamics announced complete acquisition of business-aviation services firm Jet Aviation for CHF 2.45 billion (about $2.18 billion) from Dreamliner Lux
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S.a.r.l. The companies began talks about the purchase in August. General Dynamics chairman and CEO Nicholas Chabraja said the purchase enables the company to capture additional growth opportunities in the business-aviation market.
GETTING HIRED
Have a Dynamic career
General Dynamics employment site, at www.gdcareers.com/gdchq_jobs/main.cfm, provides job seekers with information about hiring at the company. Each of GD's four main business units (aerospace, combat systems, information systems and technology, and marine systems) operates its own independent hiring and recruiting division. However, the main website does have a searchable list of jobs throughout the company. When Vault checked, the company was seeking accountants and engineers at Gulfstream, program managers, network technicians and financial analysts in the IT division; and accountants, production workers, database analysts, painters and HR managers at other divisions. The website also stresses the companys commitment to equal employment and diversity in the workplace.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Join the General
One hire says that his interview was very easy. One informal conversation with HR rep over the phone. One formal interview. A brief review of where I was stationed in the military and what jobs I held. Due to required security clearances through the Canadian government, it is often difficult to hire people who have just immigrated to Canada, an insider points out. Once in the office, contacts report that the company has very much a military culture. Many of the employees are ex-military (Canadian, British, etc.). Many layers of management as a result, adds a source. Lots and lots of red tape in this companyit can take forever to get something small done, wails an insider. Business casual dress code. Fridays, more relaxed. Cube environment, says a coworker. Another points out the flexible benefit package and the option to work a compressed workweek to get every other Friday off. The company is very big on career development, training and taking external courses, adds a respondent.
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HARMAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES, INC.

400 Atlantic Street, Suite 1500 Stamford, CT 06901 Phone: (203) 328-3500 www.harman.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Business Electronic System Integration Engineering Marketing Operations Planning Process Engineering Product Engineering Quality
LOCATIONS
Stamford, CT (HQ) Bedford, MA Burbank, CA El Paso, TX Elkhart, IN Farmington Hills, MI Franklin, KY Martinsville, IN Middletown, CT Northridge, CA Phoenix, AZ Prairie du Chien, WI Rancho Cucamonga, CA Sandy, UT Upper Saddle River, NJ Washington, DC Woodbury, NY Brussels Chateau du Loire, France Chester, United Kingdom East London, South Africa Groot-Ammers, Holland Gyeonggi-do, Korea Hamburg Heilbronn, Germany Hertfordshire, United Kingdom Karlsbad, Germany Kvistgaard, Denmark Midrand, South Africa Motola, Sweden Nagoya Regensdorf, Switzerland Salzburg, Austria Seoul Shenzhen, China Singapore Straubing, Germany Szekesfehervar, Hungary Tijuana Vantaa, Finland Vienna Villingen, Germany Wales Woerth-Schaidt, Germany
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: HAR Stock Exchange: NYSE President: Blake W. Augsburger Chairman & CEO: Dinesh C. Paliwal 2008 Employees: 11,694 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 4,112.5 2008 Income ($ mil.): 107.8
KEY COMPETITORS
Bose Boston Acoustics Pioneer
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.harman.com/about_harman/ careers.aspx
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Harman International Industries, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Turn it up!
Harman International manufactures stereo and entertainment equipment for the consumer, the professional and the automotive industry. The companys brands include Harman-Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson, Infinity and Revel. Cars with Harman systems include Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Porsche. Harman also makes aftermarket parts for car stereos so that consumers can add features like DVD players, navigation systems and louder speakers. Consumer products include iPod-compatible speakers and speaker systems for travel, home and boating. Professional products include mixing equipment for recording studios, headphones and microphones, loudspeakers and audio systems for theaters. The companys professional goods are sold under the brand names JBL Professional, Crown, Soundcraft, Lexicon and Studer. Harmans very existence owes much to its namesake, Dr. Sidney Harman, who brought the company back from the brink of extinction in the late 1970s, and who served as its chairman until 2008.
Semper fidelity
Harman-Kardon made an important leap in high-fidelity marketing in the 1970s by selling its products separately. An implicit invitation for purchasers to assemble the disparate pieces themselves, it actively encouraged customers to become aficionados of the latest sound equipment, igniting many an amateur debate over which equipment resulted in the best sound. The marketing gambit paid off and revolutionized the culture of home stereos even more than the companys work in the 1950s. And it was good for business, as Harmon-Kardon was ahead of its competitors in offering separate and interchangeable stereo technology. By 1976, the company was taking in annual profits of $9.1 million.
The political animal

The next year, President Jimmy Carter appointed Sidney Harman as his Undersecretary of Commerce, and Harman sold a controlling stake in his company to the large Chicago corporation Beatrice Foods. Harman watched from Washington as his company was nearly run into the ground. As soon as he was out of office in 1980, he gathered an investment of $55 million and repurchased Harman-Kardon. Henceforth, the company would be known as Harman International, but it was much smaller than three years beforeonly about 60 percent of its former operations remained, and its continued survival was far from assured. It started to acquire small, quality-oriented companies, largely leaving them alone to manufacture their luxury stereo equipment.
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The strategy was successful in keeping the company alive and growing throughout the 1980s, but a recession resulted in losses of $19.8 million in 1991. Harman, then 70 years old, promptly fired the president of the company and took over himself, moving to California to focus on the company (taking him across the country from his wife, who was elected to Congress in 1992). Harman merged 21 small subsidiaries into five main divisions and turned away from the high-end market, selling the company's wares in mass retail outlets such as Circuit City.
Not so perfect Harman-y?

The companys boardroom is far from a well-oiled machine: CEO Douglas Pertz abruptly left in August 2006, only four months after being hired. (In what must be some sort of record for return on a companys investment, Harman cut him a $3.8 million severance check!) Bernard Girod, his immediate predecessor as CEO, agreed to step in until another CEO was found, and in May 2007, Harman named Dinesh Paliwal, former CEO of ABB North America, as its new CEO and president. In 2008, when he was about to turn 90, Harman retired from the board and recommended that Paliwal assume the post of chairman and CEO.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: New team members to Asia field office Harman appointed several new staff members to the Harman Pro Asia team in an attempt to capitalize on their success with partners in Asia, Latin America and Canada. The Kuala Lumpur-based Harman Pro Asia office enhanced their team with three new additions: Eric Goh, Kit Roche and Raymond Tee. Eric, Raymond and Kit all provide more depth to the company, said David McKinney, senior director of sales (Asia). They each bring different qualities and experience to the Harman Pro team. This will help us in our goal to offer first class support to our distributors and partners in Asia. We are already seeing the benefit of being located in Kuala Lumpur and now, as the team expands, our distributors and customers will experience a stronger and more engaged Harman professional presence across the region. September 2008: New general counsel appointed Harman International announced that Todd A. Suko will succeed Edwin Summers, the companys top attorney since 1998, as vice president, general counsel and secretary. Summers remains with Harman, playing a senior legal role reporting to Mr. Suko. I am delighted to welcome Todd Suko to our senior executive team, said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman's chairman and CEO. His legal expertise is a natural fit with the company's strategy for optimizing our global footprint, expanding to new global markets, and building a best-in-class team. I am pleased that Ed Summers will continue his service to Harman from our location in
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Northridge, California, leveraging the contribution he has made to the company these past 10 years. May 2008: Outsourcing to Wipro Technologies Harman signed an agreement with Wipro Technologies to transfer responsibility of the formers information technology infrastructure to the latter. The deal will affect Harman information technology operations in 10 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Wipros scope of supply includes help desk operations, administration of desktop systems, servers and networking.
GETTING HIRED
Harman calling
Harmans careers site, located at www.harman.com/about_harman/careers.aspx, provides information for job seekers on open positions in the company. To apply, job seekers select their country and then proceed to create a profile.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Good health care benefits
Harman seems to put great value on the health of its employees. A respondent describes the company as very progressive when it comes to helping employees improve health. In fact, the same contact adds that there is a full-time nurse that attends not only to employees, but also to family members. Additionally, free flu shots and blood screening are also thrown in.
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HARRIS CORPORATION
1025 West NASA Boulevard Melbourne, FL 32919-0001 Phone: (321) 727-9100 www.harris.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Broadcast Communications Civil Programs Corporate Communications Corporate Development Corporate Relations Defense Programs Engineering Finance Financial Services Government Communications Systems Government Relations Human Resources Information Technology Services Internal AuditInvestor Relations Legal Marketing National Programs Operations Program Management RF Communications Sales Supply Chain Management Technical
LOCATIONS
Melbourne, FL (HQ) Alexandria, VA Annapolis Junction, MD Atlantic City, NJ Beavercreek, OH Bellevue, NE Chantilly, VA Chesapeake, VA Colorado Springs, CO Denver, CO Dulles, VA Eagan, MN Emeryville, CA Golden, CO Herndon, VA Las Cruces, NM Mason, OH Montgomery, AL Morrisville, NC Nashua, NH Norman, OK O'Fallon, IL Palm Bay, FL Reston, VA Rochester, NY San Diego, CA Satellite Beach, FL Sterling, VA Sunnyvale, CA Tinton Falls, NJ Washington, DC Calgary Berkshire, United Kingdom Ottawa
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: HRS Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President & CEO: Howard L. Lance 2008 Employees: 16,500 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,311 2008 Income ($ mil.): 444.2
KEY COMPETITORS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Boeing General Dynamics Raytheon
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.employment.harris.com/joblist.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Harris Corporation
THE SCOOP
Can you hear me now?
Harris is provides broadcast and communications technologies for use in peace and war. In the government arena, its customers include the Department of Defense and a wide range of government agenciesincluding the FAA, Census, NSA and NOAA. The companys commercial segment customers include domestic and international broadcasters and public and private telecommunications companies. In 2008, BusinessWeek ranked the company No. 72 on its InfoTech 100.
On the cutting edge of communication since 1895

Harris was founded in 1895 by two brothers in the jewelry business, Charles and Alfred Harris. When not providing baubles for the ladies of Niles, Ohio, their first successful invention was an automatic sheet feeder for printing presses in 1890. This device, which could work 10 times as fast as a human, became the foundational technology for the Harris Automatic Press Company, incorporated in 1895. Harris soon made other breakthroughs, including the first commercially viable offset lithographic press and the first two-color offset press. The brothers company quickly became a worldwide leader in manufacturing printing equipment. In 1957, Harris Automatic Press merged with Intertype Corporation, a provider of hot metal typesetting, to form Harris-Intertype. Soon, the company decided to expand its focus to types of communication beyond the printed word, to electronic means of communicating.
Bound for Florida groves

By 1967, Harris had found the right partner to modernize its technology. That year, Harris-Intertype acquired Florida-based Radiation, Inc., in a deal worth $56 million, but it was more of a merger between the two companies, as Radiations focus in electronics soon became the norm, and the corporate headquarters was moved to Florida. Radiation was a very successful government contractor that provided communications technology for the burgeoning American space program, but it had wanted to move into the commercial sector for some time. It was stocked with many accomplished engineers, and their examination of Harris technology soon resulted in a breakthroughindeed, one of their initial studies of the Harris printing technology led directly to electronic newsroom technology. Throughout the 1970s, a number of other acquisitions led Harris ever further away from its mechanical origins. It purchased General Electrics broadcasting division in 1972 and moved into data processing the same year with the purchase of University Computing Corporation for $20 million. Two years later, the company changed its name to Harris Corporation while divesting itself of the last traces of its corrugated
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paper machinery, and also purchased Datacraft Corporation, further broadening into data processing.
Ill process your data

The company was highly interested in data processing as an avenue of growth and grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with pursuits ranging from semiconductor operations to telephone equipment to television communications. In 1999, the company underwent major restructuring, and sold off its semiconductor business (then called Intersil), and its commercial fax and printer business (Lanier Worldwide). In March 2006, Harris was awarded a contract worth $595 million by the Census Bureau. The company was to provide handheld computers to enumerators, who go door to door counting households that do not return census forms. But the project has been beset by repeated delays and cost overruns, and in April 2008, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez announced that the Census Bureau would no longer use the handhelds to count households, instead reverting to traditional paper forms.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Multimillions, care of NASA NASA awarded Harris Corporation a 14-month, multimillion-dollar contract to develop Ka-band capable radios as part of the Communication Navigation and Networking reConfigurable Testbed (CoNNeCT), which will be installed onboard the International Space Station (ISS). CoNNeCT is currently scheduled to be launched to the Space Station via a Japanese H-II launch vehicle in 2011. We are excited to participate in this initiative, which will define the next generation of space radios for use on a variety of launch and exploration vehicles, as well as in the astronauts' space suits, said Frank Van Rensselaer, vice president NASA Programs at Harris Government Communications Systems. Harris has a rich history of SDR development dating back to 1988, and we have supported major NASA programs since the 1960s. We are committed to helping NASA realize its vision for the next generation of space exploration. December 2008: Good enough, competent enough for the Navy Harris Corporation announced that its SecNet 11 family of products has been certified for use by the U.S. Navy to provide information security for classified wireless networks in various military applications. The Navy has approved deploying SecNet 11 as part of the classified Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) wireless solution at Pearl Harbor and Camp Smith, Hawaii. NMCI is one of the world's largest internal computer networks, with nearly 700,000 users dispersed around the world. Harris is currently providing information technology integration, infrastructure, and operations and maintenance services for NMCI through its IT Services business.
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November 2008: Harris bags awards Harris Corporation bagged two Outstanding Product Awards for its newest broadcast technology solutions at the Beijing International Radio, Film and Television Equipment Exhibition (BIRTV) in Beijing, China. Harris won the awards for its Maxiva ULX series of liquid-cooled transmitters for high-power UHF applications and the X85 enhanced all-in-one processor. These prestigious award wins highlight the success of our strategy of providing next-generation products that support content throughout customers entire workflow chain, said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. October 2008: Opening a couple of new facilities in D.C. Harris Corporation moved into two new facilities in the Washington, D.C., area to handle its ongoing expansion and to provide better proximity to its growing base of U.S. government customers. The new Harris facility features encrypted wireless access, state-of-the-art video and display conference facilities, two multimedia customer briefing centers and a rooftop deck. Harris is expanding its presence in the Washington, D.C., area as part of our ongoing commitment to the U.S. government departments and agencies that we serve, said Peter Challan, vice president of Government Relations for Harris. For more than 40 years, we have been a leading supplier of communications and information systems to the U.S. government, and today support nearly 300 diverse government programs ranging from modernizing communications and IT systems for the U.S. Census Bureau to upgrading the FAA's communications network and providing avionics for the F-35 Lightning II. August 2008: Increase in quarterly dividend The board of directors of Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has increased the quarterly cash dividend to 20 cents per share, compared to the previous quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share. We are very pleased to announce this substantial annual increase in our quarterly dividend, said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president, and CEO. We reported excellent financial results for fiscal year 2008, with strong earnings and cash flow. Our track record of improving financial performance over the past five years has allowed Harris to provide consistent annual dividend increases. New orders and a robust pipeline of opportunities in the markets we serve are giving us confidence that fiscal 2009 will be another year of strong financial performance. This dividend increase further demonstrates the company's ongoing commitment to increasing shareholder value. March 2008: Most admired according to Fortune Harris Corporation was named one of the most admired U.S. companies in an annual survey by Fortune magazine. Harris ranked as the fourth most admired company in the Network Communications categoryup from seventh last 2007. The company was rated a 7.01 on the 2008 survey, compared with a 6.21 rating in 2007. Harris ranked second in the industry in financial soundness, long-term
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investment and social responsibility, and third in the industry for quality of products and services, quality of management, and use of corporate assets. Other companies in the top five for the category were Cisco Systems, Corning, Juniper Networks and QUALCOMM.
GETTING HIRED
Communicate your interest to Harris
Harris careers site, at www.harris.com/harris/careers/default.asp, provides job seekers with information about career opportunities at the company, benefits and job openings. The company hires people for both administrative (contracts, procurement, logistics, marketing sales) and engineering (mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, software, testing) positions. Harris allows job seekers to search for jobs based on department, level of education, job type and location. In order to apply, job seekers must first create a profile. Benefits include medical, dental and vision insurance, health and dependent spending accounts, 401(k) with company match and some locations arrange schedules to allow for three-day weekends. Harris offers its employees a tuition reimbursement plan that allows them to pursue advanced degrees and access to over 500 specialized courses in-house. In addition to recruiting through its website, Harris seeks experienced hires at a number of job fairs aimed at people with security clearances and an interest in engineering, aerospace and defense. College students shouldnt feel left out, though, as Harris makes stops at several universities across the U.S. including University of Florida, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State University, Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Florida Institute of Technology and the Rochester Institute of Technology, seeking students with majors in engineering, business, finance, accounting and allied disciplines. Harris offers internships to undergrads in engineering and business related disciplines. To make the shift from all-night study sessions and beer pong to neckties and morning commutes as easy as possible, Harris offers a program called GRAD (GRaduate Acclimation and Development). The program gives recent graduates a chance to socialize and network while attending sport events and performing community service projects. The campus section of Harris careers site also provides information on career paths in engineering and finance at the company.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Overall, a great company to work for
Harris is a great company to work for, says one source. The environment is laidback yet very professional. The same contact adds that there are also opportunities for advancement, thats why its no wonder that employees tend to be loyal to the company. Who wouldnt? However, one respondent warns that the company is not very diverse, as the majority of engineers are typically white males.
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HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY
3000 Hanover Street Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185 Phone: (650) 857-1501 Fax: (650) 857-5518 www.hp.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: HPQ Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, CEO & President: Mark Hurd 2008 Employees: 321,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 118,364 2008 Income ($ mil.): 8,329
LOCATIONS
Palo Alto, CA (HQ) Houston, TX Miami, FL San Juan, PR 172 International Locations
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Dell Fujitsu Siemens
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Planning Engineering Engineering Services Finance Human Resources Information Technology Learning & Development Legal Marketing Operations Personal Systems Public Affairs & Communications Quality Real estate & Workplace Services Sales Sales Operations Services Supply chain & Operations Technical
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
hp.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lan g=en
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Hewlett-Packard Company
THE SCOOP
Colossus bestride the industry
Hewlett-Packard is the top player in the PC industry, having beaten out rival Dell in 2006 in terms of market share. The company produces printers, digital cameras and servers, provides IT and consulting services, and makes networking products and software to tie everything together. Its computers range from desktops and laptops to handheld computers and calculators. Throughout the years, HP has acquired a string of smaller, startup businesses and moved into new markets such as graphics recorders, medical electronics and analytical instruments. The 2002 acquisition of longtime competitor Compaq vaulted Hewlett-Packard into the upper echelon of hightech companies, and the company also courted international customers by beginning to market itself in Canada, Japan and Europe. It founded HP Laboratories in 1966 to conduct basic research in the fields of physics, electronics and medical and chemical instruments. Hewlett-Packard is ranked No. 14 on the 2008 Fortune 500, and BusinessWeek recently ranked it No. 30 in the 2008 edition of InfoTech 100.
Loose lips sink ships (and computer chips)

Scandal rocked the boardrooms of HP when accusations of identity theft, pretexting (a form of identity theft that involves leaking personal information to phone companies in exchange for phone records) and snitching surfaced in 2006. This culminated in Californias Attorney General looking into the matter and board members resigning left and right. Ultimately, HP paid $14.5 million to settle the lawsuit brought by the state of California. Of more pressing concern to the company, the settlement affects HPs internal conduct until 2011, stipulating changes such as the hiring of an expert to review the company's investigations and board appointments.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Despite the scandal and intrigue, HPs revenue increased and placed it as the world leader of the technology market, surpassing IBM. Also, shareholders have impelled the company to seek out ever larger growth opportunities. Therefore, HP is reducing its expenditures and moving into new business areas. The company began a restructuring program in late 2005 that called for the elimination of over 15,000 jobs. HP is also moving to reduce its number of data centers from 85 to six and has been closing or consolidating a number of other offices to reduce its real estate expenses.
The Gutenberg method

An established player in the consumer printer market, HPs move to manufacturing printers and copiers was a natural step. The company operates its printer division on a blade-and-razor business model, whereby printers are sold near cost, and ink
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cartridges make up the bulk of profits. In 2007, it acquired Tabblo, a company with technology that makes printing web pages easier, which should help sell more canisters. The company isnt just pinning its hopes on rivers of ink, however. Also in 2007 it opened Neoview, its data warehousing service, which allows companies to keep and analyze vast quantities of data.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Gone to Korea and back Expanding its Korean connections, HP won a contract with the South Korean Shinhan Bank for technology solutions to help the bank manage its operations and maximize business efficiency. The deal, priced at a hefty $50 million, has a saleleaseback of Shinhans information technology assets as its centerpiece. The bottom line is that HP will help the bank dispose of old assets in an environmentally friendly way by simplifying the lifecycle management process of information technology. On the home front, businesses that keep a lot of data can either forego keeping everything or delete a portion of the data every few months or so to save space. Enter Virtual Array 6400 and 8400 from HP. Welcome to the HP revolution, where the company is pushing for changing how companies produce, allocate and consume technology resources. The products are flexible enough to handle nonHP vendors, and storage capacity can be adjusted for how big (maybe a building full of data?) or how small (OK, just a room) a virtual storage capacity is needed. HP hopes that these products reduce virtual waste and maximize efficiency, as access to and management of storage platforms can be easily achieved. February 2009: Coming out of the closet After years of offering Sun operating systems on its servers, HP formally announced its partnership with Sun Microsystems. Going after Dell and IBM has proved fruitful, and getting HP to formalize their relationship makes Sun's lineup of all the major server makers behind their operating system complete. HP is one of Solaris' early supporters, and since the operating system is open source, HP customers who wish to run it can do so on their servers. This formal announcement of partnership means that HP will offer support for Solaris-run systems for a fee, and plans to improve how HP software interacts with Solaris is in the works. November 2008: Overtaking IBM According to the IDCs server report, HP dominated the market for the second year running, cruising by with a comfortable 41.8 percent lead over competitor IBMs 37.6 percent market share. Whats more, it looks like HP is clinging strongly to its share of the market, bagging 37 percent of it based on revenue in the second quarter of 2008.
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August 2008: Let the research begin! There were no jabs about Dr. Frankenstein and Igor in HP's Innovation Research Awards from HP Labs. Researchers sifted through more than 450 proposals it received from universities across 28 countries to choose 41 recipients of research grants that could reach a maximum of $100,000, renewable for a total of three years. From human internet agents who could predict future events (a process called prediction economy) to quantum physics having the key to the next generation of semiconductors, these 41 proposals came from a wide range of knowledge bases and academics, with some submissions hailing from Russia and China. July 2008: HPs parting shot Just because HP turned away from the digital camera market owing to its poor business growth didn't mean that the company quit entirely. Apparently, HP still had an ace up its sleevean ace taken with a camera phone. Intellectual property rights to image processing algorithms have been licensed to Flextronics, a company that makes electronic modules for cell phones. Flextronics incorporates the algorithm in their modules, and HP gets paid in royalties for licensing their rights. If this venture proves successful, it might well be that HP becomes singlehandedly responsible for the push toward more realistic images taken with a camera phone. Those out in the market compromise quality for smaller lens size and maximum pixel ratio, but HPs algorithm can create high-quality images out of relatively ordinary lens and pixels, perhaps leading the way for more products like digital media players and gaming consoles to license HP's algorithm. May 2008: Breaking ground at home and abroad HP and Foxconn, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of electronic products, formally started the construction of a manufacturing facility in St. Petersburg, Russia. The factory, a joint venture agreement to pour $50 million into Russia, is expected to churn out up to 40,000 personal and commercial desktop PCs every month, once it gains full working capacity. Russian demand is driving the project, according to HP, which has 10 offices in Russia and a research lab in St. Petersburg. Back at home, HPs first annual Photonic Interconnect Forum showed what was brewing in the company's R&D labs. Using silicon photonics (nanoimprint lithography) instead of metal connectors to connect blades, boards, chips and cores on the same chip is something HP has been working toward achieving. HP hopes that by 2009, it will have worked in concert with another company to develop the first optical interconnect technology on a microchip. The invention, if HP and its partners get around to making it, is going to be a lot more efficient than traditional chip manufacturing. A complex microchip that usually takes 60 hours to create could take just 30 minutes with the use of nanoimprint lithography, enabling HP to churn out more chips in its manufacturing plants in less time.
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What likely was the biggest news that quarter was HP acquiring Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $25 per share, or $13.9 billion. This wasnt the first time that HP tries to snag a consulting firm; it made a bid for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2000, but was forced to drop it due to the economy and protests from Wall Street. The acquisition might well put HP a little behind main competitor IBM in a market yet to be entered by the companythe outsourcing and the services sectorsince EDS already has an established presence in that industry. March 2008: Acquiring Tower Software Tower, a document and records management software company based in Canberra, Australia, was in talks with HP about a prebid agreement for HP to acquire Tower. If the deal goes through, HP will add electronic records management to its arsenal of products, which is just in time, what with the wraith of Enron still haunting corporate America and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules and regulations that companies must follow. February 2008: Waaay cooler than the Wii Who wouldve thought that GPS had the potential to outwit the Nintendo Wii and displace it from wish lists everywhere? Thats what HP plans to do when it unveils a business model for Mediascape, a platform developed by researchers working with their U.K. counterparts. Said senior researcher Patrick Goddi, Mediascape is going to transform gamers into a mouse and a gamepad, blurring the line between the physical and virtual worlds. The glue holding together the fragments of digital media and the real world is GPS, the user's mobile device and sensors. Theres a whole host of implications for this technology, if it graduates from the research lab and is manufactured for mass consumption. Blogging might be a new experience altogether, and the line Im in your base, pawning your dudes, might just jump over to reality.
GETTING HIRED
Compute your options at HP
Hewlett-Packards careers site, located at h10055.www1.hp.com/jobsathp/content/ home.asp?Lang=ENen&jumpid=hpr_R1002_USEN, provides information for new and experienced job seekers on company organization and culture, benefits and job openings. HP is organized into five different groups: customer solutions (sales and customer service), technology solutions (servers and other equipment for large businesses), personal systems (consumer goods), imaging and printing (printers and scanners), and HP Labs, the R&D arm of the company. The site also offers a fairly extensive list of common positions in the company, including sales, business development and
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engineering. Job openings are searchable by location, function and keyword; to apply, candidates must first create a profile. HP also offers opportunities for interns and recent graduates. In the U.S., HP employees are given a budget with which to purchase benefits. Options include a 401(k) with company match, stock purchase plan and a retirement medical savings account for medical expenses during the golden years. Employees can also select between various health plan offerings, wellness programs, adoption and tuition assistance and discounts on HP merchandise.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Submit your resume on an HP machine
Ready for your interview? An insider reports that Questions are behavioralfor example:describe a time when you had to deal with an aggressive negotiator who would not share necessary information with you? With follow-up questions like would you change your approach in the future or how could you have improved that interaction? All I did was have a phone interview with the HR rep, then an in-person interview with my direct manager and two peers, says another source.
Chummy culture, and a lot of it

Culture at HP gets good marks, but many workers feel overwhelmed by the size of the company. [We have the] ability to work from home, flexible hours, benefits upon start date (which include matching pension, and flexible health plan, employee discounts, etc.)and a very teamwork-oriented culture, sums up one respondent. Culture is easygoing overall and the people are welcoming and friendly, says a coworker. [We have] strong senior managementa keen focus on the future and [know] exactly what the competitors are doing, boasts a sales contact. Others are less enthusiastic. One gripes about the slow, bureaucratic processes. Of course, with a company the size of HP, bureaucracy is pervasive. The culture of this large organization results in easy anonymity...a sea of employees strolling long walkways in jeans and tennis shoes on their way to places hidden by mazes of walls, notes a former intern. However, size has its advantages, too. Diversity is really good, notes an insider. Without question, one regularly sees employees from different cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds, concurs a co-worker. One contact reports that HP has a very diverse workforce. Which is just as well, seeing as there are over 300,000 people working for the company internationally. Another contact adds that HP pushes for supporting differences in gender, race and sexual orientation.
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Hours are the source of many gripes: 60+-hour weeks are the order of the day, notes one overworked respondent. Another co-worker agrees: Long hours (50 to 55 hours), too many meetings if you are in the business units. Expect the daily grind to go on a while. Opportunities for advancement are virtually nonexistent. With constant reorganizations, and downsizing, there is little room for career growth, a contact points out. No clear paths for advancement seem to exist, and so much depends on reorganization, says another. Political alliances are often the key to opportunity, advises an insider. There are some perks, though. Dress code is officially business casual, although in many offices you will likely see shorts, sneakers and T-shirts. Some habits die hard, notes a member of the finance department. The Houston HP campus has a great gym with lunchtime classes and extended daytime operations. Most people, if they wanted to, can find the time for a workout in the gym and take part in the available nutritional services and online healthy-living plans. The campus also has a three-mile enclosed, air-conditioned walkway with glass floor to ceiling walls that look out at extensive landscaping and beautiful trees. Many employees walk the loop during lunch or as a break in the afternoon. Also, while local restaurants are available in all the nearby strip malls, the campus itself has at least two cafeterias with pretty good food, from hand-tossed, made-to-order salads to traditional Tex-Mex and burger entres, adds a source.
Rocking the boat

With the recent economic downturn though, some HP insiders are feeling the crunch. One insider reports that gone is the everyday cheer that rules the day. In fact, the HP way, a company slogan, has come to mean a place where work is no longer nice and friendly. There is no security, according to a contact. Others complain about management. One respondent says all that management cares about is making their numbers and they treat employees like [L]egos or units of labor. Promotions are apparently rare, according to one source, adding that sometimes management doesnt realize that they are turning quality people away with the way they lead the team.
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HITACHI LTD.
6-6, Marunouchi 1-chome Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8280 Japan Phone: +81-3-3258-1111 www.hitachi.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: HIT Stock Exchange: NYSE Representative Executive Officer, Chairman, President & CEO: Takashi Kawamura 2008 Employees: 389,752 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 11,226,735 2008 Income ( mil.): -58,125
LOCATIONS
Tokyo (HQ) Basking Ridge, NJ Cupertino, CA Dallas, TX Farmington Hills, MI Harrodsburg, KY Hillsboro, OR Lawrenceville, GA Manchester, NH Norman, OK Peoria, IL Pleasanton, CA Roslyn Heights, NY San Diego, CA San Jose, CA Santa Clara, CA Schaumburg, IL Torrance, CA White Plains, NY Wixom, MI Apodaca, Mexico Bangalore Calgary Cedex, France Chengdu, China Chennai Dalian, China Duisburg, Germany Guangzhou Hanoi Hong Kong Jakarta Kanagawa-Ken, Japan Kanata, Canada Kuala Lumpur Makati City, Philippines Manchester, United Kingdom Milan Mississauga, Canada Mumbai Munich New Delhi North Ryde, Australia Paris Qingdao, China Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Xi'an
KEY COMPETITORS
Fujitsu Panasonic Corp. Toshiba
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.hitachi.us/about/recruit/index.html
DEPARTMENTS
Approximately 97 different departments.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Hitachi Ltd.
THE SCOOP
Microchips and what have you
Hitachi, whose name means rising sun, is a major conglomerate in Japan, where it is involved in a wide variety of industries. Its interests include everything from silicon to copper wiring, cast iron and cast steel; electronics equipment and microchips; electric plants that derive power from nuclear, thermal or hydroelectric sources; elevators and escalators; and a slew of consumer products from cell phones to LCD screens to white goods (domestic appliances). The company also provides logistical and financial services. Sometimes called the General Electric of Japan, the company is considered one of Japans five main electrical/electronics companies; the other four are Fujitsu Limited, Toshiba Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and NEC Corporation.
The dawn of Hitachi

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira as a repair shop for electrical equipment, but it soon moved to manufacturing small electric motors. A 1915 order for turbines provided a breakthrough for the company, and it moved from the fans they were then making to bigger pursuits. Hitachi was incorporated in 1920 under the name Kabushiki Kaisha Hitachi Seisakusho, and four years later it was producing electric trains. The company moved into the manufacture of elevators and refrigerators during the 1930s, while the following decade saw an emphasis on heavier machinery, including hydroelectric generators and construction equipment. In 1949, the company had its IPO. In the 1950s, Hitachi added scientific pursuits to its diverse resume, turning out an award-winning electron microscope in 1958 and a computer in 1959. The company built a nuclear reactor in 1961 and cars for a bullet train in 1964. Ten years later, the company opened a microchip manufacturing facility, and performed experiments with nuclear fusion six years after that. In 1993, Hitachi came out with a new bullet train, with speeds topping out at 170 mph.
Lumbering giant
The 1980s and 1990s were tough on Hitachi, as the company was forced to weather another period of stagnant and even declining sales after the Japanese economic bubble burst in the late 1980s. Its profits dropped 71 percent from 1991 to 1994. Simply put, the company was still focused on mature industries that put a premium on engineering and not on maximizing sales, and the Japanese economy was not helping.
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The Asian economy experienced a crisis starting in 1997 and Hitachi was eventually hit very hard, posting a loss of $3 billion in 1999. The company spent several of the following years cutting jobs and restructuring operations in order to put the company on a firmer financial footing. Despite these efforts, the company posted a loss again in 2002. In recent years, Hitachi has been attempting with more urgency to streamline its operations and divest its less profitable sectors, and is pursuing opportunities in more profitable areas such as data storage, hard drives and car parts.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Hitachi to close Czech plasma TV plant Hitachi announceD plans to close its plasma television manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic. The shutdown will cost 800 employees their jobs. Hitachi said that the plant did not meet promised quotas, and that orders for plasma screens have dropped within the past six months. March 2009: Kawamura assumes top post Takashi Kawamura has to bite the bullet after coming back to work as the new head of Hitachi Ltd. as he is compelled to sell parts of a company he took part in nurturing for 47 years. Along with Kawamuras appointment, the company will also undergo a major shuffling of responsibilities, hoping to bounce back from a $7.1 billion loss. Aside from internal restructuring, Hitachi will be a bit more pensive as its reputation dictatesabout its investors determination to ditch some of its poorly performing businesses, such as its flat screen and semiconductor ventures. February 2009: Losses in third quarter Hitachi reaffirmed its $7.8 billion annual loss forecast due to a reduced demand for electronic products and its struggling chip operations. The loss was said to be the biggest ever by a Japanese company. Hitachis proposed save would be letting go of unprofitable businesses, shutting down plants and internal restructuring, attempts that are foreseen to cut 200 billion in fixed costs by March 2010. It's hard to foresee the future these days, and the only thing we can do in such times is to cut fixed costs and try to generate cash flow, Hitachi Senior Vice President Toyoaki Nakamura said. January 2009: Big chunks Hitachi Ltd. declared a 16.2 billion budget for the acquisition of the majority of machine tool maker Hitachi Koki and 10.5 billion chip-making equipment manufacturer Hitachi Kokusai.
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December 2008: Entering solid-state memory business with Intel Hitachi and U.S. chip maker, Intel will be working hand in hand to develop potential hard disk drive successors called solid-state drive (SSD) memory devices. This indicates a strategic shift by Hitachi since the company, until now, has not committed to SSD technology. The agreement states that the SSDs manufactured will be developed by both companies while Hitachi covers the marketing, with the first batch to be shipped in 2010. Hitachi said that the SSDs would cater to businesses, mainly as servers and computer storage systems and that it would not follow Toshiba in manufacturing SSDs for laptops and consumer-based applications. September 2008: Flat TVs taking a backseat Flat screen TVs will be taking a back seat as Hitachi decided to cut down on plasma panels and to purchase them from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., as the company hopes to reduce losses from its flat TV production. Analysts said that Hitachis move to purchase plasma panels from Matsushita might be the companys way of slowly withdrawing from the flat screen TV business. The company has been grappling for three years from flat screen TV losses and still has to face fierce price competition from Sony, Sharp, Samsung and LG. July 2008: Hard drives bring home $50 million in bacon Hitachis hard drive operations raked in $53 million for the company from April to June, compared to the $174 million loss it incurred the year before. The companys hard drive success is its third straight quarterly profit. Hitachis hard drives compete with Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corp. March 2008: Hitachi acquires financial services consulting firm Hitachis consulting company, Hitachi Consulting, has acquired JMN Associates, a leading provider of consulting services to the financial services, real estate and insurance industries. San Francisco-based JMN provides business and technology strategy, process improvement, organizational change, project management and regulatory compliance services to its clients. Michael Travis, president and CEO of Hitachi Consulting, believed that this move by Hitachi will play an integral part in Hitachis future growth. He also added, We feel the JMN team brings us the critical skills, experience, and clients to enrich our offerings for the U.S. financial services industry.
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GETTING HIRED
Add some sun to your career
Hitachi provides a directory of its subsidiaries careers sites at www.hitachi.us/about/recruit/index.html. Of particular interest are Hitachi America, Ltd. (the headquarters in North America for parent Hitachi, Ltd.); Hitachi Computer Products America, which is involved in the production of printed circuit boards; Hitachi Software Engineering America; Renesas, a joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi for the production of microchips; Hitachi Data Systems; Hitachi Electronic Devices and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. These divisions careers sites provide information on job openings and benefits, which generally include health insurance, paid vacation and a 401(k). Applicants can submit their resumes and cover letters to the indicated email address on each site.
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HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO., LTD.

2 Zihyou Street Tucheng City, Taiwan 236 Taiwan Phone: +886-2-2268-3466 www.foxconn.com.tw
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: 2317 Stock Exchange: TPE CEO: Terry Gou 2008 Employees: 200,000
LOCATIONS
Tucheng City, Taiwan (HQ) Cypress, CA Fullerton, CA Harrisburg, PA Santa Clara, CA
KEY COMPETITORS
ASUSTeK Flextronics Jabil
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.foxconn.com/guide.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
THE SCOOP
The source for outsource
Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry is the major player in consumer electronics contract manufacturing sector; out-earning most of its closest competitors (and customers) by several billion dollars annually. The company makes parts for computers and communications devices (mainly cell phones) and other consumer electronics. Its areas of expertise include heat transfer and wireless technology. Currently, the company is exploring options in nanotechnology and environmentally friendly manufacturing. Its customers include Apple, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Sony. In 2008, Hon Hai Precision Industry ranked 17th on BusinessWeek's InfoTech 100 list, and Terry Gou (with a net worth of $6 billion) was ranked third by Forbes magazine's Taiwan's 40 Richest.
Knobs and buttons

Hon Hai Plastics Corporation was born to make television parts in Taiwan in 1974, although it shortly thereafter changed its name to Hon Hai Precision Industry. In 1981, the companys founder Terry Gou (a/k/a Kuo Tai-ming) shifted the companys focus to computers and adopted the trade name Foxconn (although Hon Hai Precision Industry is the company's legal name; adding to the confusion, the firm has two publicly traded subsidiaries, Foxconn International and Foxconn Technology Co.). The rechristened companys first order of business was to begin making plastic connectors for the rapidly growing PC industry. In 1982, the company started fabricating wires to go between its connectors. Hon Hai went public in 1991; five years later, it moved into the manufacture of computer cases for such clients as HP and IBM. Although the company attracted criticism for its secrecy and lack of financial transparency, within another five years it was Taiwans leading private sector computer company.
Inside the iPhone

In early 2007, Apple announced the impending arrival of the iPhone, its all-singing, all-dancing, wireless-internet enabled cell-phone/iPod combo. The device, which went on sale in June 2007, engendered demented levels of anticipation among Apple fans. Hon Hai Precision industry has the inside line on all thisliterally; it manufactures the electronic guts of the iPhone, and has ramped up its production lines.
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IN THE NEWS
February 2009: A better outlook for 2009? Hon Hai expects a profitable year in 2009, despite the constant drop in sales due to the global economic downturn. We definitely won't lose money this year, Chairman Terry Gou tells the press. We need to look at the longer term rather than quarter by quarter. However, he did not specify if his outlook applied to the Taiwan-listed Hon Hai Precision Industry, or its parent, the unlisted Hon Hai Group. January 2009: Increasing its capital Hon Hai Precision revealed its plans to increase capital by issuing up to $650 million in global depositary receipts (GDRs). According to an announcement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the company said it plans to issue no more than 370 million ordinary shares for a GDR offering. Hon Hai's shares dropped more sharply than the broader market, as the company endures increasing costs in China. December 2008: Cutting down Hon Hai said it has plans to cut its global workforce by 3 to 5 percent as the economic slowdown worsens more than expected. The worst has not come yet, Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou said in a statement. Hon Hai employs more than 400,000 worldwide. October 2008: A weaker third quarter Hon Hai reported a drop in net profit for the third quarter compared to a year ago. The company posts a net profit of T$17.82 billion ($540 million), against T$19.87 billion of third quarter 2007. The company is silent about the reasons for the fall. On the other hand, a Reuters article says Hon Hais third quarter result was still higher than the expected T$16.74 billion profit, based on analyst surveys.
June 2008: EU gives the go signal The European Commission gave the green light to Hon Hai Precision to buy electronics company Sanmina-SCI Corp.s Szekesfehervar, Hungary and Guadalajara, Mexico, plants. The $80 million to $90 million deal involves EMS, including the design and testing of electronic parts and assemblies for large computer makers, as well as handling returns and repair services. The commission said the purchase would not change significantly the position of Foxconn on the EMS market.
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GETTING HIRED
Looking for a Fox Hole?
Prepared to realize your Foxconnian ambitions? The companys careers site provides a list of job opportunities searchable by location. At press time, Hon Hai Precision Industries seemed to be searching for managers (in the fields of R&D, quality management, production and planning, operations, purchasing, supply chain, marketing and human resources) who are fluent in Chinese and are willing to work in and around China. Interested candidates can email their resume, stating the desired position, to hrvip@foxconn.com.
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IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS, INC.

70 Valley Stream Parkway Malvern, PA 19355-0989 Phone: (610) 296-8000 www.ikon.com
DEPARTMENTS
lAdministration Customer Service/Support Executive Management Finance Global Strategy & Communications Human Resources Information Technology Legal Operations Sales/Marketing
LOCATIONS
Malvern, PA (HQ) Gadsden, AL Hoover, AL Huntsville, AL Mobile, AL Montgomery, AL Aarhus N., Denmark Aberdeen Amsterdam Barcelona Barrie, Canada Bellshill, United Kingdom Bristol, United Kingdom Brockville, Canada Burnaby, Canada Calgary, Canada Cardiff Coulsdon, United Kingdom Dartmouth (Halifax), Canada Dublin Dsseldorf Edmonton Enfield, United Kingdom Exeter, United Kingdom Fort McMurray, Canada Fort St. John, Canada Frankfurt Gateshead, United Kingdom Geneva Grande Prairie, Canada Hagen, Germany Hamburg Hannover, Germany Inverness, United Kingdom Kelowna, Canada Kitchener, Canada Koblenz, Germany Laval, Canada Leeds Leipzig, Germany Lethbridge, Canada Lloydminster, Canada London, Canada London, United Kingdom Maidstone, United KingdomManchester, United KingdomMannheim Mexico City Milan Mississauga, CanadaMoncton, CanadaMontreal Munich Munster, Germany
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: IKN Stock Exchange: NYSE President & COO: Jeffrey W. Hickling Chairman & CEO: Matthew J. Espe 2008 Employees: 24,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 4,166.6 2008 Income ($ mil.): 91.3
KEY COMPETITORS
Canon HP Ricoh
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ikonrecruiting.com/ikon/jobboard/searc hjobs.aspx
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition IKON Office Solutions, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Princes of print
IKON Office Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Americas Corp., is the worlds largest independent distributor of copier and printer technologies and services. IKON offers systems from its mother company, leading manufacturers like Canon and HP, as well as the industrys broadest portfolio of document management services. The company has a worldwide team of service professionals who offer assistance with everything from on-site copy and mailroom management to off-site outsourcing of document services. IKON was originally the office supplies distribution division of a conglomerate known as Alco Standard; the division was spun off in 1997 and renamed IKON Office Solutions. Shortly before the spin-off, IKON began an aggressive acquisition spree in 1996 to expand its position in the IT and high-end office technology markets. By 1998, IKON had swallowed up roughly 200 companies and gained an enviable market position with 1,100 copier and office technology sales centers in North America and Europe. IKON had the second-largest network of its kind, behind Xerox. Although it had many profitable enterprises by the summer of 1998, IKON was saddled with debt and many of its distributors were performing poorly. To compound the companys financial problems, its investors filed a lawsuit claiming that IKON allegedly manipulated its books to finance its acquisition spree. IKON chose to settle with its investors for $111 million rather than go to court. In 2006, IKON reported revenue of $4.2 billion, with a profit of $106 million. These financial results were mostly the product of prudent cost-cutting measures. Revenue actually decreased 3 percent, or by $15 million, year-by-year, while profit increased by $46 million. It seemed that IKON was heading towards financial solvency when the merger with Ricoh was finalized in October 2008.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Enter world-class firms IKON has been selected by leading international law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP to deliver a comprehensive enterprise management solution for the firms New York and Washington, D.C., offices. IKON will leverage its portfolio of comprehensive document management technologies and on-site managed services, including IKON Service ExcellenceSM and the IKON TRAC SolutionSM.
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December 2008: Introducing RICOH Pro C900 IKON announced the addition of the RICOH Pro C900 digital color printer to its production portfolio. The RICOH Pro C900 redefines industry standards in the production print marketplace, with consistent 1200 dpi color output coupled with 90ppm speed, along with extensive workflow solutions and finishing options at an affordable price. October 2008: Ricoh completes acquisition of IKON Ricoh Co., Ltd., completed the acquisition of IKON for $1.6 billion. The transaction was done through Ricohs wholly owned U.S. distribution subsidiary, Ricoh Americas Corp. Pursuant to the merger agreement, former shareholders of IKON will receive $17.25 in cash for each share of IKON common stock. September 2008: Going legal IKON forms IKON Legal Enterprise Solutions, a strategic group that will leverage the companys full portfolio of document management technologies, on-site and off-site managed services, and a comprehensive set of litigation support services to best meet the needs of law firms and corporate counsel. May 2008: Redeeming its worth IKON announced that it will redeem for cash the remaining $100 million in aggregate principal amount of its Senior Unsecured Floating Rate Notes due 2012. The redemption price will be 100 percent of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest up to, but not including, the redemption date of June 30, 2008. As a result of this redemption and the redemption of $50 million on May 7, 2008, the company will incur an approximate $5.7 million loss from the early extinguishment of debt in the third quarter of fiscal 2008, ending June 30, 2008. May 2008: For service excellence and more VHA Inc., a national health care alliance, awarded its 2008 Leadership Award for Service Excellence to IKON. The company, along with four others, was recognized for its outstanding contributions, support and commitment in helping VHA members achieve their supply chain goals. Candidates for the 2008 VHA Leadership Award for Service Excellence are recommended and selected based on sales interactions with VHA members, overall customer satisfaction, and responsiveness to VHA staff and members. May 2008: Best in Canada The STAPLES Business Depot in Canada presented IKON with its Best Category Management for Business Services award at the Staples Global Conference. STAPLES Business Depot honored IKON with the award for the IKON WebPrint, a web-based print ordering and workflow solution that provides the backbone of STAPLES Business Depots online print procurement system.
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March 2008: Efficiency is key The company launched the IKON WebPrint, an ASP web-to-print solution for copy/print center operators. The solution is designed to make print order and delivery more efficient and cost-effective. Because the IKON WebPrint is hosted by IKON and accessed via a web browser, there is no hardware to buy and no software upgrades are needed. IKON WebPrint allows print operators to see order summaries and track jobs, and a production audit trail helps to measure and manage performance. Customers can modify or cancel orders at the click of a button, saving time and potential confusion, and can check a projects status online, thereby reducing phone calls and interruptions to the print center and further improving productivity. November 2007: Payback time IKON announced that its board of directors has approved the repurchase of $500 million of its common stock. IKON intends to repurchase up to $295 million of its common stock through a modified Dutch Auction self-tender offer at a price of not less than $13 per share or more than $15 per share. The minimum tender price represents a premium of approximately 21 percent over IKONs closing stock price of $10.77. September 2007: E&I-KON partnership IKON entered an agreement with E&I Cooperative Purchasing, the United States largest buying cooperative for higher education, to provide document management solutions and services to its membersmore than 1,500 tax-exempt colleges, universities, prep schools, hospitals, medical research institutions and hospital purchasing organizations. Because of the agreement, E&I members in the United States can now have access to contracted pricing on IKON document management solutions and services, including IKONs full portfolio of Canon products, which includes copiers, printers, color systems, scanners and fax machines. In addition, E&I members can now utilize IKONs Professional Services to assess their document workflow and provide a blueprint for improving efficiency and managing costs.
GETTING HIRED
Have a career at an industry IKON
IKON-ic hopefuls can click their way over to IKONs careers page, located at www.ikon.com/careers/default.asp. There, they will find information about benefits, training, diversity and, naturally, job openings. Open positions are searchable by keyword, part- or full-time schedule, category and location. To apply for a position, candidates must first fill out a web-based form.
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IKONs benefits include health, dental and life insurance, flexible spending accounts for medical expenses and day care, a retirement savings plan with company matching, an employee stock purchase program and tuition reimbursement. IKON has been hailed as one of Americas Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine and was included as one of the 50 Best Companies To Sell For by Selling Power magazine. IKONs training programs are also highly regarded, as it was named to Training Magazines Top 100 for the fourth year in a row in 2006. The company is also committed to supporting diversity and was named to DiversityIncs Top 50 Companies for Diversity in 2006 in recognition of its efforts in this arena.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Interviews left and right
IKONs recruiting process usually consists of a phone interview by the companys HR personnel, an interview with the potential boss and an interview with a potential coworker. An insider relates, My interview process involved a telephone interview as a screening call. This interview pretty much focused on my general background education, experience, why I wanted to change jobs, etc. The next interview was with my direct supervisor and one of my future co-workers. There are indicators, however, that the hiring process most often depends on the department and manager involved. An exasperated source who was interviewed for a supervisor position, for example, went through several rounds of interviews. The source reported, I had one telephone interview with the recruiter. I also had to answer a list of questions via email. Then, I had a face-to-face interview with the recruiter. Next I had an interview with two managers. After that, I had to come back for another interview with a different manager. The interviews consisted of the usual behavioral questionsnothing out of the ordinary. It just seemed a bit much to have to interview so many times for the position. Another source had a much easier experience, I applied for the role. Interviewed approximately 15 days later via telephone. I was offered the job about two days later and started about seven days later.
Flat-lining professional growth

The general attitude among IKON-ic respondents is dismay. Most insiders like the casual atmosphere in the workplace, but this is negated by perceived inadequate compensation, unfairness, wrong business processes and zero chance for professional growth.
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A recruiting specialist in the company states, The work culture is pretty laid-back. The idea is that you manage your business. This can easily be done from the comforts of your own home. A supervisor, meanwhile, complains about the discrepancy of workload between departments, The company seems to focus their work/life balance efforts on hourly employees and upper management. Hourly employees enjoy flexible schedules, including four-day workweeks. Upper management has the option to work from home occasionally. Supervisors, instead, are expected to work long hours in the office and take their laptops home with them to work even more. The supervisor adds, Opportunities for advancement are better in some departments than others. However, in other departments, people remain in the same position for years before advancing (if ever). There is not a clear, consistent path for advancement. A CSR answers, Its a good firm to work for if you dont have a higher degree of education. You do scanning, printing, faxing. People are friendly and treat you fairly. Population is very diversifiedpeople from different countries, with disabilities, different ages. There is some advancement available, but due to the limited number of jobs done by the company, there is not much space to grow. You can move from faxes to scanning, which is considered advancement, but from therebasically nowhere. A key accounts representative griped, The dress code, hours and diversity was awesome! My colleagues were beautiful. Everything else was terrible. Management has no concern for the atmosphere or morale of the employees. Promotions are based upon who you get in good with or how much kissing up you do.
Salary and incentives

The annual pay increase in IKON in recent years is 2.5 to 3 percent according to the survey. A financial support analyst says, The base salary was $56,650 which reflects a 3 percent increase over last years salary. The position was a pay grade 10, which standardizes the year-end bonus. The bonus for grade 10 is up to 12 percent, dependent on company performance. In 2008, the bonus was 90 percent of 12 percent or 10.8 percent of the 2008 salary. Vacation time for employees less than five years in service is two weeks. A third week comes at the five-year mark. The company offers tuition reimbursement based on grades. A supervisor explains that, even before the U.S. economy fell in 2008, IKON is doing OK in terms of staying afloat during these tough economic times. To stay afloat, the company has delayed merit increases, decreased bonuses for senior leaders, cut back on travel, and laid off employees. The company will weather this economic storm, but may do so by slimming down expenses and human capital.
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An insider reports, months after the acquisition, The company was acquired by Ricoh in November 2008. The company is restructuring to become more efficient and there will be some jobs cut due to the realignment. People on the corporate level are still wrestling with multiple taskings due to the restructuring so there is some apprehension about what the end result is going to be. Ricoh is solidly positioned to succeed in the industry if the economy recovers in the next year, but this may be a rough year for profits if the economy stays down for long.
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INGRAM MICRO INC.

1600 E. St. Andrew Place P.O. Box 25125 Santa Ana, CA 92799-5125 Phone: (714) 566-1000 www.ingrammicro.com
DEPARTMENTS
Business Development Channel Marketing Corporate Communications Corporate Strategy Data capture & Point-of-Sale Division Finance & Accounting Government & Education Sales Human Resources Information Technology & eCommerce Investor Relations Legal Affairs Marketing Marketing Communications Media & Community Relations Sales & Vendor Management Services Strategic Divisions Strategy & Communications
LOCATIONS
Santa Ana, CA (HQ) Buffalo, NY Carol Stream, IL Dallas, TX Harrisburg, PA Jonestown, PA Memphis, TN Miami, FL Millington, TN Mira Loma, CA Williamsville, NY Adelaide, Australia Anahuac, Mexico Barcelona Birkerod, Denmark Budapest Cham, Switzerland Christchurch Eastwood, Australia Heerlen, Netherlands Kista, Sweden Kowloon, Hong Kong Matraville, Australia Melbourne Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Montreal Mumbai Munich North Shore City, New Zealand Osborne Park, Australia Oslo Perth Rosebery, Australia So Paulo, Brazil Settala, Italy Shatin, Hong Kong Singapore Toowong, Australia Toronto Vancouver Vantaa, Finland Vienna Vilvoorde, Belgium Wellington, New Zealand Wiri, New Zealand
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: IM Stock Exchange: NYSE President & COO: Alain Moni CEO: Gregory M. Spierkel 2008 Employees: 14,500 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 34,362.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): -394.9
KEY COMPETITORS
Arrow Synnex Corporation Tech Data
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
phx.corporateir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98566&p=irolaboutIMCareers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Ingram Micro Inc.
THE SCOOP
IT products for the whole family
Ingram Micro Inc. is the worlds largest technology distributor and a leading technology sales, marketing and logistics company. As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services and product distribution. It ranked No. 69 on the 2008 Fortune 500 list. Since its beginnings, Ingram Micro has connected technology solution providers with vendors worldwide, identifying markets and technologies that shape the IT industry. In 1979, the husband-and-wife team of Geza Czige and Lorraine Mecca founded Micro D. Ingram Industries became a majority stockholder of Micro D in February 1986 when it acquired all common stock held by the companys founders and then all remaining Micro D shares in March 1989. The combined company, which is based in Santa Ana, Calif., was renamed Ingram Micro at that point.
Micro-expansion
By 1993, Ingram Micro had expanded to Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia through a series of acquisitions, and it became a publicly traded company three years later, listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, the company made its foray into the world of consumer electronics by acquiring AVAD, a privately held alliance of 12 companies distributing high-tech home goods like LCD TVs and computers for media and gaming. In 2006, the company acquired SymTech Nordic, a provider of AIDC and RFID equipment, as part of its global strategy to expand into adjacent technologies.
In 2007, Ingram Micro expanded further in the consumer electronics sphere with its acquisition of DBL Distributing for $96 million. DBL Distributing is a $300 millionper-year company specializing in the fast-growing market for consumer electronics. It primarily distributes about 17,000 products to independent retailers, and gives Ingram a leg up in the consumer market. At present, Ingram Micro provides customizable services for order management and fulfillment, contract manufacturing, contract warehousing, product procurement, product pack out and cartonization, reverse logistics, transportation management, customer care, credit and collection management services, and other value chain services. The company serves 150 countries and is the only global IT distributor with operations in Asia.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Restructuring of Nordic operations Ingram Micro announced that it will restructure operations in the Nordic countries to position the company for greater profitability. Through the restructuring program, the supplier will focus its broad-based distribution operations on the Swedish market while further developing its data capture/point-of-sale (DC/POS) business in four Nordic countries. The restructuring will entail the sale of Ingram Micro's broad-based distribution business in Denmark, and the closure of the company's broad-based distribution businesses in Finland and Norway. March 2009: POS portfolio expanded The company expanded its business relationship with IT leader Elo TouchSystems, a business of Tyco Electronics Corp., to include North America. Under the terms of the new distribution agreement, the Ingram Micro Data Capture/POS Division will support, market and resell the complete line of Elo TouchSystems touch monitor products including LCD touch monitors, touch computers and custom solutions to channel partners throughout North America. February 2009: Company bags distinguished IBM Tivoli VAD Ingram Micro earned the IBM Tivoli VAD for overall contribution as a value-added distribution partner (VAD). The award, which recognized Ingram Micro U.S. for its revenue growth and ongoing commitment to teaming and business partnership, was presented to Ingram Micro during IBM's Pulse 2009 conference. At the same time, the company announced that Ingram Micros Digital Signage Division has expanded its alliance with BroadSign International Inc., a leading worldwide provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for managing digital signage networks, to deliver the IT channel's first digital signage deployment kits supported by ongoing managed services.
December 2008: Micro portal for mobile solutions launched IGNITION, an online activation portal designed exclusively for IT solution providers who sell wireless activations as part of their mobile solutions, was launched by Ingram Micro. IGNITION is free to Ingram Micro channel partners. The new portal makes it easier for IT solution providers to manage commissions and activate wireless carrier services from the industry's major carriers including AT&T and Sprint. Support for Verizon Wireless is underway. August 2008: Giving back to Mother Earth Ingram Micro launched a service to help resellers easily identify "green" electronic products. EPEAT=(Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), managed by the nonprofit Green Electronics Council, is an environmental rating system that evaluates desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on 51 environmental performance criteria. Ingram Micro North America's product database now
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includes EPEAT ratings informationrankings of Bronze, Silver or Goldalong with other product data to enable resellers to easily identify environmentally preferable computer products.
GETTING HIRED
Catalog your options at Ingram Micro
Aspiring employees can point their browsers to phx.corporateir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98566&p=irol-aboutIMCareers, the online home of Ingram Micro careers. The site provides information about careers in the 39 countries in which the company keeps offices. Available positions can be sorted by function, location and keyword. To apply to a posting, candidates must first create a profile.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Sources say that Ingram Micro is tops when it comes to pay, incentives and in-house training opportunities. Salary was very good and more than I probably would have made in a similar role at another company. The annual bonuses are also very good. Benefits, perks and PTO were also very good. No complaints about the salary/benefits package, says an insider. There are a variety of developmental opportunities for employees if you want to pursue them. They offer Six Sigma training, management training, other in-house training classes that are very good that is definitely a strength of the company, says another contact. However, the culture can be very cutthroat and only highly competitive types may fit in well. Overall, I would describe the corporate culture (at least in the Buffalo office) as being very conservative, uptight and competitive. While a lot of people were nice, there was definitely an air of competition amongst colleagues, particularly at the management level, says an insider assigned to human resources. For someone who is very competitive and likes a cutthroat culture, this would be a good fit, the source adds.
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INTEGRAL SYSTEMS, INC.

5000 Philadelphia Way Lanham, MD 20706-4417 Phone: (301) 731-4233 Fax: (301) 731-9606 www.integ.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ISYS Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: John M. Albertine CEO & Director: John B. Higginbotham 2008 Employees: 569 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 160.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): 18.2
LOCATIONS
Lanham, MD (HQ) Chantilly, VA Colorado Springs, CO El Segundo, CA Toulouse, France
KEY COMPETITORS
General Dynamics Corporation Lockheed Martin Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation
DEPARTMENTS
Commercial Division Government Division Human Resources New Business Development & Technology
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.integ.com/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Integral Systems, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Keep your eyes on the sky
While they may be hundreds of miles from Earth, satellites are never far from the mind of Integral Systems Incorporated. The company provides software and hardware that allows satellites to send data to ground-based systems, including telemetry and automatically generated information about the statuses of onboard systems. The technology isnt a one-way street, either, as it lets satellites receive commands about orbit adjustments from down below as well. Integral Systems ace up its sleeve is its flexible software, which can talk to a variety of satellites, as opposed to other satellite-control software, which must be built from scratch for each device. The majority of Integrals business, about 82 percent in 2008, came from the U.S. government.
1982: A space odyssey

The company was founded in 1982 and went public in 1988. Integral developed its one-size-fits-all approach to satellite control during the early 1990s, and its business took off. The company opened a European office in Toulouse, France, in 2001, and acquired a number of companies involved in its industry in the following years. In 2002, Integral picked up a software company specializing in data processing and another involved in satellite communications, and it purchased satellite-related assets from Jackson & Tull the next year. The company has supported more than 205 different satellite missions for communications, science, meteorological and Earth resource applications. It was the first company to offer an integrated suite of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products for satellite command and control: the EPOCH integrated product suite (IPS). Integral had $116 million revenue in 2006. The company continued to perform well and had more than $160 million revenue in 2008 despite constant changes in the CEO position. It was one of Forbes Top 200 Small Companies in America in 2008. Integral is now under the helm of John B. Higginbotham, who joined the company in July 2008. Previously, he was the founder and former managing general partner of SpaceVest Capital (now Redshift Ventures). He was formerly chairman, now director emeritus, of the Space Foundation, a premier nonprofit organization supporting space activities, space professionals and education.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Mitsubishi selects EPOCH Mitsubishi Electric Corp. selected Integral Systems' EPOCH Integrated Product Suite (IPS) to support its DS2000 satellite platform, including all required telemetry and command processing, memory management and orbit analysis. Upon completion of the effort, Integral Systems' EPOCH IPS will provide a highly precise, integrated environment for DS2000 satellite operations and mission analysis. In its government dealings, Integral was awarded a $1.1 million contract option to complete the modernization of the Polar Acquisition and Control Subsystem (PACS) command, control and communications ground system for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). PACS, originally built and delivered by Integral, has provided automated control of NOAA's polar satellite fleet for over 15 years. February 2009: Buying satID IP Integral purchased intellectual property and other assets relating to the satID product line from U.K.-based QinetiQ Group PLC. Satellite operators around the world use satID to geolocate the source of satellite interferers, jammers and unauthorized users to ensure quality of satellite service. Integral Systems utilizes the satID capability in the RAIDRS program for the U.S. Air Force and other Integral Systems offerings. The satID product line and services will become a part of Integral Systems' Space Communications group. November 2008: Ground support A European subsidiary of the company inked a yearly renewable deal to support the Polar Mission Control System (MCS) over the next 15 years with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), an intergovernmental organization with 21 member countries. Integral also announced a contract with the French National Space Agency to provide telemetry and communications support for the Venus satellite. In concert with Newpoint Technologies, another Integral subsidiary, the company plans to manage and monitor satellite flight, and handle communications between the ground station and the satellite. May 2008: Canada calling In partnership with Telesat, Canadas national satellite communications company, Integral completed the initial phase of support activities for satellite fleet operations. Satellites from Loral Skynet were added to Telesats count: 11 satellites operated for Telesat and 14 satellites were run for other parties, making Telesat the fourth-largest commercial fixed satellite services provider in the world.
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GETTING HIRED
Take your career higher
Integrals bare-bones careers pages, at www.integ.com/employment.html, provide a list of open positions with accompanying job descriptions. Job seekers may choose to send their resumes to careers@integ.com or apply online by creating an online profile. At the time Vault visited the site, there were a number of open positions in engineering, systems administration, accounting and the legal department.
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INTEL CORPORATION
2200 Mission College Boulevard Santa Clara, CA 95054-1549 Phone: (408) 765-8080 www.intel.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Engineering Facilities & Site Services Enterprise Services Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing & Supply Chain Marketing Materials/Planning/Purchasing Professional Services Public Affairs Sales Security/Safety
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Acton, MA Albuquerque, NM Aloha, OR Annapolis Junction, MD Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Bellevue, WA Berkeley, CA Bloomington, MN Blue Bell, PA Boca Raton, FL Cambridge, MA Cary, NC Champaign, IL Chandler, AZ Chantilly, VA Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, SC Dallas, TX Danbury, CT Dupont, WA El Segundo, CA Farmington Hills, MI Folsom, CA Fort Collins, CO Fremont, CA Herndon, VA Hillsboro, OR Houston, TX Hudson, MA Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA Lafayette, CO Lakewood, CO Milpitas, CA Nashua, NH New York, NY Norcross, GA Oakbrook Terrace, IL Phoenix, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Raleigh, NC Rio Rancho, NM Riverton, UT Rockton, IL San Diego, CA Santa Ana, CA Schaumburg, IL Scottsdale, AZ Seattle, WA Washington, DC Wexford, PA Woodbridge, NJ 119 International Locations.
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: INTC Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Craig R. Barrett President & CEO: Paul S. Otellini 2008 Employees: 83,900 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 37,586 2008 Income ($ mil.): 5,292
KEY COMPETITORS
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Sony Corporation
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.intel.com/jobs
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Intel Corporation
THE SCOOP
The best chips youll never taste
Not only is Intel the worlds leading manufacturer of semiconductors, it has also become one of the worlds best recognized high-tech brands. For a company that sells the vast majority of its products to other businesses, rather than to consumers, such widespread name recognition is unusual. But the companys marketing efforts have paid off, causing consumers to actively seek out products that advertise their Intel insides. Intel was founded in 1968 by three legendary electrical engineers: Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove, all former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. The companys first products were dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) memory chips. It unveiled the worlds first microprocessor, the 4004, in 1971 to run Busicom scientific calculators. By the 1980s, Intels processor chips had become powerful enough to spawn the personal computer (PC) industry. IBM chose the companys 8088 chip to power its first PC in 1981. The 286 processor developed by Intel in 1982 was the first that was backward compatible with software written for older chips. This compatibility, along with Intels decision to license the design to other semiconductor manufacturers, helped make the x86 architecture an industry standard. In 1991, the company began to stress the importance of its chips for computer performance, and introduced the Intel inside logo.
Leap years ahead

Intel started varying its offerings beyond PCs in 1999. It unveiled prototype versions of its 64-bit Itanium processor, designed for enterprise-class, high-end servers. However, the product was beset with manufacturing problems, and the full-scale Itanium rollout did not occur until 2001. Intel also began offering consumer electronics such as toys, digital cameras and Internet radios, but the line of products were discontinued in 2001. Company revenue continued to grow steadily through the 2000sreaching a high of $38.8 billion in 2005but profits were dwindling. In 2006, the profit of Intel fell to $5 billion, from a high of $10 billion in 2000. In spring 2006, Intel named Paul Otellini its new CEOthe first non-PhD and nonengineer to run the company. He embarked upon the revision of Intels business model. His efforts have included an overhaul of the companys logowhich hadnt appreciably changed in three decadesand a new motto, leap ahead, which replaced Intel inside. He also hired Eric B. Kim, the man responsible for building up Samsungs brand name. Needless to say, Otellinis moves were met with skepticism by many Intel personnel.
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Otellini, however, remained steadfast with a vision for Intel to explore untraditional markets. Amidst layoffs of close to 10 percent of its workforce, Intel has churned out the Viiv and Centrino processors designed for home entertainment and mobile PCs, respectively. Otellini has also gone to lengths to cultivate a friendship with Steve Jobs, and was rewarded when Jobs decreed that future Macs would use Intels chips. Intel has also invested about $2.5 billion in China and will open a factory there in 2010. (AMAN: This sentence seems out of the blue, and unexplained. Maybe a further line about it would clarify it.)
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Intel warns AMD of patent deal violations Micro Devices (AMD) might be headed for the chopping block as Intel warned the company that it might have violated a 2001 patent cross-license agreement. Though Global Foundries spawned from the AMD shareholders pen, Intel says that it is not considered a subsidiary under terms of contract, which is beyond the 2001 patent cross-license agreement. Intel also claims that the meat of the agreement between AMD and ATIC invades a confidential portion of the Intel-AMD deal. The breach entitles Intels forfeit of AMDs rights and licenses with the company. January 2009: Shutdown in Malaysia, Philippines Intel announced the shutdown of two of its assembly test facilities, one in Penang, Malaysia, and another in Cavite, Philippines, to restructure some of the companys manufacturing operations and ensure that its manufacturing capacity is still at par with current market conditions. The restructuring will also affect the 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Oregon and wafer production operations at the D2 facility in Santa Clara, Calif. November 2008: Power up!
Intel launcheds what it touts as the worlds fastest processor for the desktop PC ever: the Core i7 processor family. The processor boasts unique features with names seemingly taken from Japanese super sentai series (think Power Rangers) like turbo boost technology and Intel hyper-threading technology. But wait, theres more! Desktop PCs can have that much power in an eight-core chip, meaning there are already eight threads for 16 separate engines to tackle anybodys dirtiest, nastiest computing chores (yes, that includes homework). The turbo boost technology assures users that they can always go overdrive with their PCs without having to worry about overheating.
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October 2008: Intel gets a boost Intel acquired NetEffect for $8 million. Tom Swinford, the general manager for Intels LAN access division said that the acquisition will give Intel its needed boost to the companys current Ethernet efforts. Swinford added that the combined power of the two companies Ethernet technologies will address our customers' most important 10 Gigabit Ethernet needs, including server virtualization, convergence of network and storage traffic, and server compute clusters." NetEffect was a company that specialized in Ethernet technology, providing solutions like iWARP, an Ethernet substitute for InfiniBand, and high-performance Network Interface Card products. March 2008: The new size that matters Imagine playing WoW on your cell phonewell, maybe not, but think of having the same capacity as the PC youve installed WoW with in the palm of your hand. Intels Core 2 Duo now comes in pocket sizes with Intel Atom and Intel Centrino Atom (previously christened Silverthorne and Diamondville). These miniscule, low-powered processors are specifically designed for MIDs (mobile internet devices) and a new breed of internet-centric computers coming in late 2008, equipping them with the best internet experience consumers canliterally pocket. Intels vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, Sean Maloney, believed that these tiny crackerjacks will be unleashing new innovation across the industry.
GETTING HIRED
Inside, leap ahead into a career Intels careers site, located at www.intel.com/jobs/index.htm?iid=ftr+jobs, provides information about job openings, student opportunities and benefits. Open positions can be searched by function, location and keyword. To apply for a job, candidates must first create a profile. There are also explanations of an assortment of career paths at the company. Opportunities at Intel for students include internships and entry-level positions in engineering, finance and marketing. Intel recruits at a number of colleges throughout the United States, and seeks hires at diversity fairs like the Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) and Women in Technology International (WITI). Intel also holds virtual recruiting events on its website; to participate, candidates must first submit their resumes to the company. Intel generally screens applicants by phone before they are invited to an office location for a face-to-face interview. Intels benefits for U.S.-based hires include stock for new hires and recently promoted workers, an employee stock purchase plan, bonuses, choice of health and dental
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plans, 401(k) with company contribution, on-site exercise facilities and flexible schedules. The company also offers tuition reimbursement for career-related courses and internal training. After seven years of employment, employees are eligible for an eight-week paid sabbatical.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Changing company culture, a sign of the times? For 40 years, Intel has been, and still is, one of the most desirable corporations to work for. Longtime and new employees, and even former ones, praise the companys relaxed, but challenging and nurturing environment. A former insider, who started working for Intel when he was 16, notes, It was an amazing opportunity and I finished high school and college while working there. I feel fortunate to have learned so much on the job and having real world experiences while also having Intel pay for my education. A source, who has been with Intel for close to 20 years, said, The corporate culture is relaxed but not entirely informal. Some individuals dress in jeans, but most are in semiformal attire. Hours are generally 8 to 5, but as you work up the ranks it can be more flexible. A recent hire from the design team apparently dreamed of entering Intel, For many engineers, working at Intel is a dream job, and you wont be disappointed after joining Intel. The dress code is informal, so I can wear my traditional outfit. Intel is not strict about hours, and offers work-from-home option, which saves [a] lot of gas. However, employee morale has noticeably dropped in recent years. This coincides with necessary layoffs and other cost-cutting measures that present CEO Otellini oversaw. Disgruntled workers, especially those who have been with Intel for a long time, cant help but compare the chip giants halcyon years (late 1980s to early 2000s) to the companys current situation. It used to be a fun and challenging place. I believe it to still be that way, however, in different ways. The challenges now are around politics. The one thing I can say is that the ranking and rating process is a complete joke. If you end up in a situation where you have a bad manager, you are pretty much out of luck, an insider says. Another source adds that the company is suffering from plummeting morale and poor leadership. These are compounded by a seeming lack of professional advancement opportunities in the United States as more and more work is outsourced to overseas affiliates.
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INTERMEC, INC.
6001 36th Avenue West Everett, WA 98203-1264 Phone: (425) 348-2600 Fax: (425) 267-2983 www.intermec.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: IN Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Allen J. Lauer President & CEO: Patrick J. Byrne 2008 Employees: 2,070 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 890.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 35.7
LOCATIONS
Everett, WA (HQ) Arlington, VA Charlotte, NC Fairfield, OH Sunrise, FL Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Brisbane Chatou Cedex, France Milan Danderyd, Sweden Dubai Dsseldorf, Germany Itajuba, Brazil Kuala Lumpur Lorenskog, Norway Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Montreal Nijmegen, The Netherlands Oslo Reading, England So Paulo, Brazil Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Sydney Toronto Wanchai, Hong Kong
KEY COMPETITORS
Hand Held Products, (acquired by Honeywell Corporation) Motorola, Inc. Zebra Technologies Corporation
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.intermec.com/about_us/careers/jobs
DEPARTMENTS
Corporate Strategy Finance G&A Human Resources IT Marketing Mobile Solutions Business Unit OPS R&D Sales Service Global Supply Chain Operations
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Intermec, Inc.
THE SCOOP
A vital link in the supply chain
Intermec helps companies get the right stuff to the right people at the right time. The companys name is a shortened version of its original moniker, Interface Mechanisms. Intermecs technology is used to organize everything from doughnuts to retirement plans and its clients include Krispy Kreme, NASA, the New York City Department of Sanitation and the Social Security Administration. Its products are portable computers, automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) labels and readers, and radio frequency identification (RFID) products. Intermec was established in 1966 as Interface Mechanisms, and soon began contributing to bar code technology and other interface products. By 1972, the company had invented the first computerized cash register. In 1991, Navy contractor Litton Industries acquired Intermec. Three years later, Litton spun off Western Atlas to work on more commercial applications. In the restructuring, Intermec was among those tapped to comprise Western Atlas. In 1997, Western Atlas spun off Intermec, which had been renamed Unova, as a separate company. Unova became Intermec Inc. in 2006.
Keeping track of business

Intermec built NASAs wireless local area network (WLAN), the worlds largest. Through the WLAN, NASA can easily locate any piece of its ground support equipment (GSE) in seconds anywhere within its vast 47-square-mile facility. Intermec is also collaborating with NASA in researching and developing new automatic identification tracking (AIT) system technologies that can have practical applications in space.
The Intermec board of directors elected Patrick Byrne as its new president and CEO in July 2007, only four months after former CEO Larry Brady announced his retirement. Byrne has a background in engineering, having worked for 24 years with Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, and he sits on the board of Auburn Universitys Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. The board also used the occasion to name a new chairman, selecting Allen Laurer, a director with the company since 2004.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Saudi Post awards contract to Intermec Saudi Arabias leader in mail and parcel delivery, Saudi Post, awarded Intermec a contract to enable its postal delivery team with CN3 mobile computers and add-on
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IP30 handheld RFID readers. The contract is a core component of the strategic partnership between the two organizations, and reflects Saudi Posts commitment to implement the most advanced technology available to improve delivery efficiency and provide enhanced services for its customers. February 2009: Strong 2008 closing Intermec released its fourth quarter and full 2008 financial results. Fiscal 2008 revenue climbed to $891 million, compared to $849 million the previous year. Net earnings also rose to $35.5 million, or $0.58 per share, compared to 2007s $24.3 million, at $0.40 per share. Our fourth quarter completed a strong year for Intermec, delivering record revenue, strong earnings and cash flow. Going forward, we are focused on our customer's priorities of improving the productivity of the mobile worker and the performance of their global supply chains, says Intermec President and CEO Patrick Byrne in a press release. December 2008: Driessnack sits as new CFO Intermec named Robert Driessnack senior vice president and CFO. Driessnack is expected to bring in his financial expertise and experience in global electronics manufacturing to Intermecs business. Dreissnack officially assumed the position in January 2009. Meanwhile, a press release said former CFO Lanny Michael left to pursue other opportunities. October 2008: Additions in the family Jeanne Lyon joined Intermec as the companys new vice president for human resources. Lyons previously served in the HR units of Roches Palo Alto Research and Development Center, KLA-Tencor and Cisco. Another addition to Intermec is Unitrin, Inc.s executive vice president and CFO Eric Draut, who is elected into Intermecs board of directors. Draut has served Duchossois Industries, AM International and Coopers & Lybrand. Aside from his responsibilities at Intermec, Draut also serves as chairman of the board of nonprofit Lutheran Social Services of Illinois.
July 2008: Making ends meet Intermec cut 260 jobs, about 11 percent of its workforce, and lowered its second quarter forecast due to declining shares. The company expected a $216 million to $218 million range of revenue, instead of the previously forecasted $227 million to $232 million. The layoffs were part of the companys move to consolidate service depots to streamline its production line.
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GETTING HIRED
Integrate your career with Intermec
Intermecs careers site, at www.intermec.com/about_us/careers/index.aspx, provides information on company ethics and job openings. The page has links to four subjects that may interest a potential job applicant: Intermec culture, employee testimonials, career opportunities, and co-op and internship program. Openings in the company are located under the career opportunities and co-op and Internship Program links. Jobs are searchable by location and keyword. To apply, interested parties must fill out a web-based form and upload their resume.
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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP.

1 New Orchard Road Armonk, NY 10504-1722 Phone: (914) 499-1900 www.ibm.com
LOCATIONS
New York, NY (HQ) Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire Abu Dhabi Algiers Almaty, Kazakhstan Amsterdam, Netherlands Andar C., Macau Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Belgrade Bogota Boigny-surBionne, France Bratislava, Slovakia Brussels Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Caracas Casablanca Guatemala City Colombo, Sri Lanka Curacao, Netherlands Antilles Dakar, Senegal Djibouti, Djibouti Douala, Cameroon Dubai Dublin Fort de France, France Giza Halandri, Greece Hamilton, Bermuda Hampshire, United Kingdom Hanoi Helsinki Herrenberg, Germany Hesperange, Luxembourg Ho Chi Minh City Istanbul Jakarta Johannesburg Karachi, Pakistan Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark Kiev Kingston Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Kolbotn, Norway La Molina, Peru Libreville, Gabon Lisbon Ljubljana, Slovenia Madrid Managua, Nicaragua Mexico City Montevideo, Uruguay Moscow Nairobi Nassau New Caledonia, France New South Wales Nicosia, Cyprus Ontario Oranjestad, Aruba Panama City Papeete, Tahiti Paramaribo, Suriname Petach-Tikva, Israel Port-Louis, Mauritius Prague Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Quezon City, Philippines Quito, Ecuador Ramallah, West Bank/Gaza Riga, Latvia Saint Denis Cedex, France Saint Jean de Braye, France San Jose, Costa Rica San Pedro Sula, Honduras San Salvador Sandton, South Africa Santiago Santo Domingo So Paulo, Brazil Segrate, Italy Selangor Darul Ehsan, Brunei Seoul Serbia, Macedonia Singapore Sofia, Bulgaria St. Michael, Barbados Stockholm Taipei Tallinn, Estonia Tashkent, Uzbekistan Tegucigalpa, Honduras Tokyo Trinidad Tunis, Tunisia Victoria Island Lagos, Nigeria Vienna Vilnius, Lithuania Vimercate, Italy Warsaw Wellington Windhoek, Namibia Yaounde, Cameroon Zagreb, Croatia Zurich
DEPARTMENTS
Consulting & Services Development & Manufacturing Engineering Finance & Accounting Global Business Services Global Sales & Distribution Global Services Global Technology Services Human Resources IT & Telecommunications Legal Legal & Regulatory Affairs Manufacturing Marketing & Communications Operations Research Sales Software Development Systems & Technology Group
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: IBM Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President & CEO: Samuel J. Palmisano 2008 Employees: 398,455 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 103,630 2008 Income ($ mil.): 12,334 Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
KEY COMPETITORS
Accenture Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) Microsoft Corporation
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ibm.com/employment/no_flash.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition International Business Machines Corp.
THE SCOOP
Big Blue
IBM is a dominant player in the tech industry. For many years, it provided computer hardware, but as that market has become increasingly low margin, IBM has moved into the more lucrative areas of offering IT services, business consulting and business software under the Lotus, Tivoli, DB2 Rational and WebSphere names. It is also expanding into video game chip design and nanotechnology. It also supplies servers, supercomputers and outsourcing. A most prolific patent filer, its efforts were rewarded with 3,621 patents in 2006 alone, the most awarded to any company, a distinction it has maintained continuously since 1992. In July 2006, IBM announced its software divisions revenue had grown 13 percent from the previous quarter, to $4.8 billion. The now-impressive returns on its services offerings earned the company a No. 13 rank on BusinessWeeks 2008 edition of the InfoTech 100.IBM also continues to make its computer engineering forefathers proud, as it recently announced a dramatic new advance in manufacturing microchips. In February 2007, the company touched off alarm bells at Intel when it announced the development of the fastest computer memory in history. At 10 times the performance level of current PCs, the breakthrough is loaded with potential for the computer industry, and raises the ante for Intel to develop equally fast technology. Apparently, the old master still has chops.
On to India
In 2006, IBM committed itself to an almost $6 billion investment in its Indian operations over the next three years; it plans to employ some 60,000 people in India by the end of in 2007. The company even went so far as to hold its annual investor conference in Bangalore in June 2006. It sees India as not just a source of inexpensive labor, but part of what CEO Samuel Palmisano calls a "globally integrated enterprise" where sophisticated functions, such as product design, will be dispersed worldwide (i.e., in India, China, Brazil, Russia and other growth markets).
Look out, MySpace

IBM made a splash in the social networking sector with the January 2007 announcement of its Lotus Connections software. The program, intended for the business world, is designed to afford corporate clients the kind of virtual world that other services (like MySpace and Facebook) have heretofore provided. Lotus Connections is more than a blog, though; it's an entire social networking system set up to encourage intra-office relationships (former CEO Louis Gerstner, who stressed this sort of collaboration, would be proud). Its components, in addition to a blog, include activities, notes pages (called "dogears"), individual profiles and community pages. Moreover, the connections software, like Lotus Notes, will
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compete with Microsoft, which is releasing its own social networking system soon, Microsoft Exchange. Ray Ozzie, Microsofts current chief software architect (and one of the heirs apparent to Bill Gates), should be familiar with Lotus Notes; he did create the technology, after all. It should be interesting to see the architect tackle his old creation.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Falling out Talks to acquire Sun Microsystems Inc. collapsed as Sun rejected IBMs $7 billion bid. A Reuters report said the halt in negotiations would hurt Sun as the buyout was supposed to be a means of survival for its falling market value. "If IBM got under the covers and didn't like what they saw, then what does that mean for other potential buyers?" said Revolution Partners technology banker Peter Falvey, as quoted in the report. April 2009: Building a smart city IBM partnered with the city of Parma, Italy, to create a Smart City. Parma, a modern city, has around 200,000 residents and is famous for its unique culture. The initiative allows the creation of an Innovation Board, on which IBM will serve. This board has the mission of finding innovative citizen services solutions leveraging new technologies: from info-mobility to security, to social services, Parma Mayor Pietro Vignali said. Parmas goal is parallel to IBMs Smarter Planet vision, which aims to better the quality of life by infusing intelligence into the world's systems, processes and infrastructure. March 2009: "Cloud computing" IBM, in what would be its biggest effort to sell software as a service, completed a deal involving a package of web-based collaboration software for businesses, which includes contact management, instant messaging and file-sharing programs. IBM says it will cost companies some $10 to $45 per user per month for its software suite, which it will host at its own data centers and deliver via the Web. "What you are seeing are the beginnings of the whole IBM company moving toward cloud computing," IBM Vice President Sean Poulley said. "Cloud computing," which is one of the latest innovations in Silicon Valley, refers to a variety of ways in which technology companies offer computing services over the Web from remote data centers, seemingly from the cloud of the internet. January 2009: Layoffs and fuming workers IBM cut jobs at several units. Lee Conrad, national coordinator of IBM employee association Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701 reported that the company has laid off 2,800 employees from its software, sales and distribution units and 1,200 more from its systems and technology group worldwide. There were also several layoffs
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from various IBM research groups, Conrad added. IBM has been silent about its intentions, which has increased employee anger within the Big Blue. January 2009: Patents all around In another record-setting performance, IBM became the first-ever company to top 4,000 patents in the U.S. in a single year, earning 4,186 in 2008, far from secondplace Samsung, which was issued 3,515 patents. The company also nearly tripled the patent total of rival Hewlett-Packard, and exceeded the combined patents of HP, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, Google and Accenture. This also marked the 16th consecutive year that IBM has led the field in U.S. patents. In a move to make inventions freely available to others, IBM said it plans to increase the number of technical inventions that it publishes to about 50 percent, or more than 3,000, yearly. November 2008: Nine straight IBMs Roadrunner project supercomputer placed No. 1 in the rankings of the worlds most powerful supercomputers for a record ninth-straight time. The supercomputer, located at the Los Alamos National Lab, remains the world speed champion and was the first in the world to operate at more than one quadrillion calculations per second while using roughly half the electricity as the second place machine. IBM also had more than 20 other systems in the top 50, and more than 30 in the top 100. The semiannual ranking is released by the World's TOP500 Supercomputer Sites. The organization noted that the top-20 most energyefficient supercomputers were those from IBM. March 2008: An acquisition towards better authentication technology IBM acquired Encentuate Inc., a California company based in Redwood City that provides identity and access management software focused on single sign-on and strong authentication technology. Encentuate will become part of IBM Software Groups Tivoli division, which seeks to capitalize on the formers ability to track and facilitate identity usage while helping to increase user productivity. IBM also said it will take full advantage of Encentuates audit and reporting capabilities that help in documenting efforts to meet governance and compliance requirements.
GETTING HIRED
Dive into the Blue
During a typical year, IBM hires more than 15,000 new employees in everything from accounting and data warehousing to Internet applications and software development. Hopeful IBM-ers should consult IBMs careers page (at www.ibm.com/employment), which provides information on job openings, career development and benefits. Not surprisingly, IBM scans the resumes it receives, and submissions should be in plain
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text format. Job openings are searchable by location, necessary degree, level and type. To apply, candidates must fill out a web-based form and upload a resume. Benefits include a bonus program, choice of fully paid health and dental plans, flexible schedules, generous vacation, 401(k) and discount stock purchase plan, educational leave of absence and tuition reimbursement, and highly regarded management training programs. IBM maintains a database of employee functions, locations and costs that allows it to assemble teams to serve clients quickly. For example, the database was used to locate employees in the Southern U.S. who could be swiftly sent to help rebuild software systems after Hurricane Katrina. For college students interested in joining IBM, the company provides opportunities for co-ops and interns pursing bachelors, masters and PhD degrees. IBM seeks students studying business, accounting, computer science, engineering and allied disciplines. MBAs and students of software development are welcome to apply to the Extreme Blue program, a hotbed of IBM innovation. IBM has entry-level positions in accounting, consulting, finance, marketing, IT, HR, electrical engineering and logistics departments (though other opportunities sometimes open up as well). IBM recruits at the College of William and Mary, Cornell, NYU and the University of Pittsburgh, among other well-known institutions. IBM also sponsors Project View and Project Able, programs that recruit diverse and disabled hires, respectively.
Living up to its name

For managers, IBM has an international development program that lives up to the companys name (International Business Machines). IBMs Corporate Service Corps program, which launched in 2008, allows executives to apply for trips to overseas locations (the international part), where they will work on specific technology solutions for local companies (the business machines part). And rather than standard corporate philanthropy, the Corps work is very nuts and boltsone project involves IBM employees helping entrepreneurs in Turkey seek out microloans, and another entails the ground-up creation of IT training programs for a Vietnamese tech firm.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Diverse backgrounds, mixed feelings
A developer in IBMs Toronto lab criticizes the companys attempt to try to be fun (via themed oasis areas) because the fun gets sucked out of the work since employees follow tight and strict guidelines. The same contact adds that although working at IBM is somewhat prestigious, the thought clearly wears out when employees are faced with really tight deadlines. One delivery manager in Bangalore says that the corporate culture at their India office is still evolving. The respondent also adds that since the firm is still growing in India, the opportunities for advancement are huge in terms of additional responsibilities. The same insider contends that in terms of designated promotions, employees have to hold the position for several years before being considered for promotion.
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INTUIT INCORPORATED
2632 Marine Way Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: (650) 944-6000 Fax: (650) 944-5656 www.intuit.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: INTU Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Bill Campbell President & CEO: Brad Smith 2008 Employees: 8,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,100 2008 Income ($ mil.): 477
LOCATIONS
Mountain View, CA (HQ) Calabasas, CA Cleveland, OH Clifton, NJ Fredericksburg, VA Menlo Park, CA Norcross, GA Orem, UT Plano, TX Reno, NV San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Tucson, AZ Waltham, MA Washington, DC Westlake Village, CA Woodland Hills, CA Bangalore Calgary Edmonton Maidenhead, United Kingdom Mississauga, Canada North Sydney Singapore Sundridge, United Kingdom Tokyo Wanchai, Hong Kong
KEY COMPETITORS
H&R Block Microsoft Dynamics Sage Group
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
about.intuit.com/careers
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Development Consulting Contact Center Customer Service Documentation Engineering Executive Facilities Finance & Accounting Government Affairs Human Resources Information Technology Legal Marketing/Web Marketing Operations Process Excellence Product Management Program Management Quality Assurance Sales Training & Development User Experience/Web Technology
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Intuit Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Cause Im the taxman
Intuit is one of the largest makers of accounting, personal finance and tax software in the U.S. In addition to Quicken, its marquee personal finance product, the companys offerings also include accounting software package QuickBooks and TurboTax, a tax preparation application. Two young entrepreneurs, Scott Cook and Tom Proulx, founded Intuit in 1983. Cook was 23 at the time, and Proulx was even younger, still a computer engineering undergraduate at Stanford University. The next year, the company released Quicken, its flagship accounting program. In 1991, Intuit launched QuickPay, a program for handling salaries in small businesses. The following year, Intuit went public, and also acquired a company with a method for filing taxes onlinethus TurboTax was born.
Quickens the pulse

Intuits 1994 acquisition of the National Payment Clearinghouse made the company a presence in the electronic banking industry, and it spread its wings in the secondlargest PC market in the world with the 1995 purchase of Milky Way, a Japanese software company. In February 1998, Intuit agreed to supply America Online with content for its personal finance channel and also announced a deal with Apple to prepare a new Mac version of its Quicken software. The companys acquisition of Rock Financial in late 1999 added mortgage-writing capabilities to its QuickenMortgage sitebut Intuit sold off its mortgage loans business in 2002, as it focused on its core accounting products; thereafter, the company primarily expanded into software for companies involved in construction. Intuits small business software took a step up in September 2006 when it acquired StepUp , a company that directs online shoppers to brick-and-mortar stores, for $60 million. Then, Intuit acquired Digital Insight for $1.4 billion later that year. By early 2007, Intuit had rolled out Personal FinanceWorks, a program based on Digital Insights offerings that allows users to pay all their bills within one program, as well as view pending checks and payments. The 2007 tax season proved to be an eventful one for Intuit. As the filing deadline approached, Intuits servers were slammed with an unusually large number of returnsthe company estimated that a million people used TurboTax to do their taxes that yearand its servers were unable to cope, resulting in delays and late filings. Intuit apologized and, in a rare stroke of munificence, the IRS extended its deadline for TurboTax filers. Although the company has noted declining sales of TurboTax and QuickBooks, Intuit has managed to stay out of the red zone. It posted revenue of $477 million in 2008.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: 10 percent growth in TurboTax units Intuit released the second of three updates for its fiscal year 2009 consumer tax products. Through March 14th, total TurboTax federal units increased 10 percent over the same period last year. "Tax season is progressing as expected," said Dan Maurer, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's consumer tax group. "Online growth continues to accelerate, and we believe our continued focus on ease to help taxpayers get the biggest refund they deserve will result in another solid tax season, he adds. February 2009: Profit plummets but beats market expectations Reuters reported that Intuit posted a lower quarterly profit on declining sales of its TurboTax tax preparation software and QuickBooks accounting software, but the earnings beat market expectations. Intuit, whose shares were up 0.5 percent in after-hours trading, reported a profit excluding items of 34 cents per share for its fiscal second quarter ended January 31st. Reuters analysts, on average, had forecast earnings of 27 cents per share. Revenue fell 5 percent from a year earlier to $791 million, short of the average forecast of $794 million. Net income was $85 million, or 26 cents per share, compared with $115 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier. Shares of the Mountain View, California-based company were quoted at $21.38 in extended trade, up from their Nasdaq close of $21.27. December 2008: Aligning organization to strengthen small businesses Brad Smith, Intuit president and CEO, announced that the company had formalized the structure of its small business ecosystem by aligning three business units under one new division. Kiran Patel, general manager of Intuits consumer tax group, was promoted to executive vice president and will lead Intuits small business ecosystem division. The division includes QuickBooks-related products and services, Intuit Payroll and Intuits payments business. Dan Maurer, Intuits chief marketing officer and the head of marketing for Intuits consumer tax business, replaced Patel as the consumer tax groups general manager. The three business units that comprise Intuits small business ecosystem have always worked closely with each other. This change, and Kirans leadership, will strengthen its power and will help us deliver even more value to our small business customers, said Smith. At the same time, Dan is a strong leader to head up our consumer tax group. His leadership will provide continuity and sustained momentum in our growing tax business. November 2008: A more modest outlook CEO Smith released financial reports showing that Intuit posted a quarterly loss and lowered its full-year outlook, saying there arent many new QuickBook users as small businesses are being unusually cautious. The company cut its fiscal 2009 forecasts for sales for QuickBooks accounting software and for revenue from payroll and bill payment processing services, as its small business customers get
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squeezed by the deepening recession. The software maker noticed there hasn't been an inflow of new QuickBooks users, which normally occurs during periods of economic downturn, and its payroll and bill payment processing service was hit by lower merchant transaction volume, said Smith. "Today's environment is certainly different than what we anticipated," Smith said on a conference call with analysts. August 2008: Revenue growth of 15 percent Intuit announced fourth-quarter revenue of $478 million, an 11 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. Revenue for fiscal year 2008, which ended July 31st, was $3.1 billion, a 15 percent increase over the prior year. "We had another successful tax season and a solid finish in small business," said CEO Smith. "With our focus on innovation and on solving customer problems with connected services, we are looking forward to another strong year in fiscal 2009," he added. March 2008: Touting strong future for small businesses Barriers to starting a small business will shatter and their success rates will improve over the next decade, according to study results that Intuit Inc. shared in briefings with members of Congress and small business industry leaders. The meetings focused on the importance of small businesses and their future impact on the U.S. economy. Intuit Senior Vice President Rick Jensen met with members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the House Committee on Small Business. The leader of Intuit's small business group, which serves more than seven million small businesses employing 17 million workers, also met with representatives from 12 small business associations, including the Small Business Administration, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Women's Business Centers and the Association of Small Business Development Centers. February 2008: Falling profit amid rising ad spending Intuit posted lower quarterly profit as it boosted advertising spending for its TurboTax tax preparation software and unit sales of its QuickBooks accounting software lagged its own forecasts. Its shares fell 3.5 percent in after-hours trading following the earnings report. Intuit reported net income of $115.2 million, or 34 cents a share, for the second fiscal quarter ended January 31st, compared with net income of $145.4 million, or 40 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 11 percent to $835 million. Intuit reported QuickBooks revenue of $175 million, up 5 percent from a year earlier, but Chief Executive Brad Smith said unit sales missed company targets. "It is really hard to put your finger on exactly what is going on in the small business category," Smith said in an interview. "Clearly macroeconomic conditions out there are challenging for small businesses today."
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GETTING HIRED
Getting into it
Intuits jobs page, found at about.intuit.com/careers/, lists open positions across the company. Jobs are divided into customer service positions and everything else. Customer service hopefuls have a number of hoops to jump through, beginning with filling out a web-based form, a multiple-choice test, Windows navigation test, role-play interviews and finally an actual interview. Those who aspire to hold another position with the company must create a profile to apply. Students interested in positions at Intuit can read up on programs for interns as well as entry-level programs for college graduates and MBAs. Intuit recruits at MIT, Stanford, the University of California and the University of Wisconsin. Intuit also visits San Jose State, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Boston University, Georgia Tech and Indiana University among others. An updated schedule of recruiting events is posted on its careers site. Internships are offered in the engineering, marketing, usercentered design, process excellence and finance divisions. Entry-level programs for recent graduates include a selection of rotational programs focusing on small businesses, finance and engineering. Intuit hires MBAs in the product management, brand management, finance and operations departments. As far as benefits are concerned, the company has a full range of stock option and stock purchasing plans, as well as a 401(k) program with company matching and a choice of health, dental and life insurance plans; it even provides domestic partner benefits. The stock purchase plan allows employees working 20 or more hours a week to buy Intuit common stock at 85 percent of market value. The company offers gym subsidies, commuting alternatives such as bike parking and van pools (only at headquarters), and matching employee donations to charities. In 2008, Intuit was named America's Most Admired Software Company and has been listed in the 100 Best Companies to Work For eight years in a row by Fortune magazine.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Balance your work and life at Intuit
Intuit promotes a culture of high performance and accountability, one insider says. However, its not all work as the company also emphasizes fun and teamwork, and sources remark that, aside from a laid-back office atmosphere, potlucks, charity events and team parties are de rigueur. There is also no dress code and a respondent describes the office attire as ranging from professional (usually those occupying senior leadership posts) all the way to shorts and flip-flops (mostly those who are at the front-line agent level). The work hard, play hard motto notwithstanding, there are some who have been disillusioned by the company. One source points out that, because Intuit had a drop in stock price, management decided to eliminate certain positions. One contact also shares that, even though Intuit tries hard to promote within the company, leadership development programs are conspicuously absent. The same respondent contends that even though Intuit offers a tuition reimbursement program to help employees get their MBA, this does not guarantee new opportunities nor will it necessarily catch the attention of leaders and recruiters within the company.
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JABIL CIRCUIT, INC.

10560 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33716 Phone: (727) 577-9749 Fax: (727) 579-8529 www.jabil.com
DEPARTMENTS
After-market Services Business Development Engineering Finance Human Resources Information Systems & Services Logistics Operations Management Quality Assurance Repair & Warranty Supply Chain Management
LOCATIONS
St. Petersburg, FL (HQ) Auburn Hills, MI Billerica, MA Louisville, KY McAllen, TX Memphis, TN Nashville, TN Poway, CA Round Rock, TX San Jose, CA Tempe, AZ Amsterdam Ayr, Scotland Beijing Belo Hoizonte, Brazil Bergamo, Italy Brest, France Bydgoszcz, Poland Chennai Chihuahua Coventry, United Kingdom Dublin Eindhoven, The Netherlands Gotemba-City, Japan Guadalajara Guangdong Hasselt, Belgium Hsinchu, Taiwan Huangpu, China Jena, Germany Kedah, Malaysia Kwidzyn, Poland Livingston, Scotland Manaus, Brazil Marcianise, Italy Meung-sur-Loire, France Nanjing, China Penang Pune Reynosa, Mexico So Paulo Shanghai Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, China Szombathely, Hungary Taichung, Taiwan Tianjin Tiszaujvaros, Hungary Tokyo Uzhgorod, Ukraine Vienna Wuxi, China Yantai, China
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: JBL Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: William D. Morean President & CEO: Timothy L. Main 2008 Employees: 85,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 12,780 2008 Income ($ mil.): 231
KEY COMPETITORS
Flextronics Hon Hai Sanmina-SCI
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.jabil.com/jabilcareers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Jabil Circuit, Inc.
THE SCOOP
The source for outsource
Jabil Circuit (the name is a portmanteau of its founders first names, James and Bill), is a contract manufacturer of electronics. Jabils customers include companies in a variety of industries, from mobile phone manufacturers to aerospace companies, including Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. For these companies, Jabil provides a roster of outsourcing servicesit sources parts and designs circuits, manufactures electronic products and encloses them in plastic cases, and finally ships them to distributors. Jabil also offers repair services.
Bill and Jays adventure

James Golden and Bill Morean founded Jabil in 1966 when they were contracted to build circuit boards by hand for a computer mainframe manufacturer near Detroit. Given the companys proximity to the car industry, it would inevitably be working on some project related to automobiles. Indeed, General Motors called upon Jabil to source, design and build circuit boards in 1976. Due to the growth of the consumer market for computers during the 1980s, Jabil got a contract working for the PC division of IBM in 1982, and developed in-house designs for motherboards seven years later. The company had its first IPO in 1993, and by 2001 had become part of the S&P 500. Jabil then expanded its business by purchasing two electronics manufacturing businesses: it snapped up Philips Contract Manufacturing Services in 2002, and bought Varians electronics manufacturing arm in 2005.
Geography of cost
In 2006, Jabil Circuit acquired Celetronix, an Indian electronics manufacturer with locations on the subcontinent in Chennai, Pondicherry and Mumbai. The company said it would, in a $250 million restructuring effort, be cutting an unspecified number of jobs as it moved its production facilities to countries with lower labor costs. To further this end, Jabil Circuit constructed a production facility in Zarkappatya, Ukraine, to provide electronic parts to local and European markets. That same year, Jabil Circuit reported revenue of over $10.3 billion, up 36 percent over the previous year, which came in at $7.5 billion.
Diversifying to beat the gloom

Despite the gloomy economic conditions in 2008, Jabil saw the year as a year of opportunities. The company diversified to cater to multiple end-markets. The move entailed a restructuring that saw Jabil, in early 2008, with three main divisions to
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Jabil Circuit, Inc.
accommodate 10 varying business sectors. It seems that Jabil was served well by its new organizational structure and its moves for diversification, as it closed fiscal 2008 with improving figures, ranking No. 212 in the 2009 list of the Fortune 500. Jabil anticipates the challenges of the current economic patterns, but recognizes the growth potentials of its sectors as well. After all, it has survived five recessions over the past 42 years. The company has also been looking into making clean technology products as an avenue for growth.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Bottom-line loss Jabil Circuit is restructuring, amidst announcements that it will reduce its workforce worldwide by 3,000 people to save on operating costs. As of February, the company was reported to have lost $42.1 million, or 20 cents per share, as compared to last years losses of $24 million, or 12 cents per share, during the same period. Despite this bleak atmosphere, stocks still rose after the companys executives expressed hope in seeing stability in its top business markets. November 2008: Inevitable lay-offs Due to a decline in customer orders tied to the global economic slowdown, Jabil Circuit was forced to lay off 150 workers from its St. Petersburg manufacturing plant. This came in light of a court dismissal of a shareholder suit against the company in April, which accused Jabil Circuits current and former executives of fraudulently backdating grant dates of stock options. October 2007: Good morning, Vietnam! Jabil Circuit opened a new factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which will churn out technology for Western markets. The company chose the location due to its cost-effective workforce and proximity to its other Asian facilities. The new facility significantly boosts Jabil Circuits size, bringing approximately 10,000 new employees into the fold.
GETTING HIRED
Electrify your career at Jabil
Jabils jobs site, at www.jabil.com/JabilCareers, provides information and a number of video clips for job seekers. The company is flexible about letting its workers choose to travel or remain in one location. The site does not specify where Jabil recruits, college-wise; however, it does mention that it is primarily interested in candidates with business and engineering degrees. Benefits vary by location, and internships are available.
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KLA-TENCOR CORPORATION
One Technology Drive Milpitas, CA 95035 Phone: (408) 875-3000 Fax: (408) 875-4144 www.kla-tencor.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: KLAC Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & CEO: Richard P. Wallace 2008 Employees: 6,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,500 2008 Income ($ mil.): 359
LOCATIONS
Milpitas, CA (HQ) Approximately 73 locations worldwide.
KEY COMPETITORS
Applied Materials Hitachi High-Technologies Veeco Instruments
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Applications Development/Field Applications Customer/Technical Support Electrical Engineering Engineering Support Services Facilities Finance HR IT & Services Legal Manufacturing & Engineering Manufacturing, Production & Operations Marketing & Sales Mechanical Engineering Optical Engineering Product Development Program Management Research Scientist Software Engineering & Development Systems Engineering Testing
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
ktcareers.kla-tencor.com/ps/welcome.html Email: hrconnect@kla-tencor.com staffing@kla-tencor.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition KLA-Tencor Corporation
THE SCOOP
Toward a more perfect microchip
A union of two longtime leaders in the semiconductor equipment industry, KLA Instruments and Tencor Instruments (each with over 20 years of experience), KLATencor Corporation is the world's leading supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The merger, formed in 1997, provides chip manufacturers with a comprehensive portfolio of products, software, analysis, services and expertise designed to help IC manufacturers manage yield throughout the entire wafer fabrication processfrom R&D to final yield analysis. KLA-Tencor offers solutions such as software and devices with which to inspect chips during the manufacturing process, so as to reduce the number of flawed chips and increase chipmakers revenue. Customers turn to KLA-Tencor for in-line wafer defect monitoring; reticle and photomask defect inspection; CD SEM metrology; wafer overlay; film and surface measurement; and overall yield and fab-wide data analysis. The company also offers a line of testing products to manufacturers of hard drives.
Chips to bet with

Ranked among the world's top-10 semiconductor equipment manufacturers and No. 95 on BusinessWeeks InfoTech 100 in 2007, KLA-Tencor is up for the challenge to meet the microelectronics industry's need for extremely sophisticated and expertly implemented process control and yield management solutions. KLA-Tencor continues to aggressively invest in new technologies that will address the yield management by continuously monitoring its development of technologies, platforms, software and support strategies to ensure that they comply with the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) current and future technologies roadmaps.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Inspector PVI-6 KLA-Tencor launched the newest addition to its ICOS divisions photovoltaic (PV) portfolio, the PVI-6, its latest inspection product designed for optical in-line dualsided inspection of PV wafers and cells. The PVI-6 provides customers with the capability to inspect solar wafers and cells at the highest speed and accuracy for all stages of the production process, enabling solar manufacturers to achieve substantial yield improvements and more accurate product classification.
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January 2009: A small triumph Despite posting a second quarter loss, shares of the company enjoyed a $1.01(or 5.3 percent) climb, finishing at $20.04. Although the company has been able to minimize losses, this increase is insignificant, however, considering KLA-Tencors 38 percent fall from $635.8 million to $396.6 million a year ago. January 2009: KLA-Tencor sales down "Business conditions in our markets have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks," said KLA-Tencor Chief Executive Officer Rick Wallace. This grim statement was bolstered by the microchip manufacturing equipment makers dismal sales performance for the fiscal second quarter. Shares drop to $21.13. November 2008: Layoffs on the horizon The company announced it will cut about 15 percent of its workforce by the end of June 2009 because of current market conditions. Employing about 6,000 people, the company expects to save about $165 million to $170 million by the end of fiscal year 2009 from the cuts, with a $15 million to $20 million charge in severance costs. July 2007: In cooperation with SEC The company settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The settlement dovetailed nicely with the June release of the companys financial results for 2007, wherein the company seemed to recover from its legal troubles; revenue and profits were both up significantly, at $2.7 billion and $528 million, respectively. May 2007: Catching a wave KLA-Tencor completed purchase of Therma-Wave, which manufactures devices that measure the effectiveness of the various steps in the manufacture of semiconductors, for $73 million. This addition boosted KLA-Tencors measurement division to address more process control needs.
GETTING HIRED
Test the waters at KLA-Tencor
KLA-Tencors careers site, at https://ktcareers.kla-tencor.com/ps/welcome.html, provides information about job opportunities and benefits for students, recent graduates and experienced professionals. The company typically conducts at least two rounds of interviews with a candidate (on-site or by phone), and may take two to three weeks to reply to a resume submission. Once selected for an interview, candidates gain access to the sites Candidate Resource Center, an area with various forms and directions to company office locations. The minute the applicant gets hired, he or she is given access to the New Hire Resource Center page of the site
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wherein the new employee can download required forms, find out what to expect on day one, get local information and more. Benefits at KLA-Tencor include health, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) with company matching and a profit-sharing plan. Perks at HQ include on-site sand volleyball and gym, pet insurance, commuter assistance, car detailing and a dentists office (so that all employees can be equipped with two shiny grills). Priding itself as a promoter of Knowledge Management, the company offers training and development programs for its employees for career advancement and growth. Interns are accepted, whether theyre pursuing a BS, MS or PhD; applicants must have at least a 3.0 GPA, and they will receive medical insurance and housing. The college careers site contains a crystal ball feature, so that students with degrees in physics, mechanical, chemical or electrical engineering, computer science or math can see what the future may hold for them at KLA-Tencor. The HR department at KLA-Tencor can be reached via email at staffing@klatencor.com (for experienced hires) or ur@kla-tencor.com (for university relations).
OUR SURVEY SAYS

If you wanna move up, pay the price
KLA-Tencor provides good opportunities for advancement since the company is always looking for ways to cut cost by outsourcing, says an insider. However, moving up the ladder comes with a price. If you're smart and willing to give up your life outside of work, this may be the place for you. If you're looking for life outside of work, look elsewhere, the insider continues. The company used to have a very friendly, laid-back type of environment. But recently, things turned around as people are becoming very unfriendly, everyone's always stressed out, working 13-hour workdays, required to be on support for 14 hours daily; it's become a very depressing and nonmotivating place to work, a source said.
Missing the old days

Most sources look back on their good old days with KLA-Tencor. KLA-Tencor (KT) was the company you wanted to work for back in 2000 the culture was all about teamwork and helping the customers to maximize their profits, a senior trainer shares. Over the past three years, though, the corporate culture has completely transformed into one of we are so big that if we cannot beat you, we will just buy you up, the source continues. Moreover, one insider cites the companys only strength as their diversity in the business market. But his colleague rebuts and gives credit to the company: Very aggressive and intelligent to identify the best person from candidates.
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KOFAX PLC (FORMERLY DICOM)

16245 Laguna Canyon Road Irvine, CA 92618-3603 Phone: (949) 727-1733 Fax: (949) 727-3144 www.kofax.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: KFX Stock Exchange: LSE CEO & Director: Reynolds C. Bish 2008 Employees: 1,162 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 169.9 2008 Income ( mil.): 16.8
LOCATIONS
Irvine, CA (HQ) Chicago, IL Barcelona Beijing Brondby, Denmark Budapest Buje, Croatia Cambridge Dubai Freiburg, Germany Hanoi Hampshire, United Kingdom Helsinki Hong Kong Houten, Netherlands Jakarta Kuala Lumpur Kungsbacka, Sweden Mechlin, Belgium Melbourne Mexico City Orsay, France Perugia Prague Rotkreuz, Switzerland So Paulo, Brazil Singapore Sydney Vienna Warsaw
KEY COMPETITORS
CA IBM Software Imation
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
hostedjobs.openhire.com/epostings/submit.c fm?company_id=15973
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Finance Acquisition & Integration Advertising, Marketing & PR Clerical & Administrative Customer Service Field Operations Human Resources Legal Manufacturing & Operations Products Sales Technology & Computer-related Transportation & Logistics
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Kofax plc (formerly Dicom)
THE SCOOP
Transforming the dead-tree into digital
Kofax (formerly DICOM) is a company focused on the very specific field of electronic data capture, but has unquestionably established dominance over this niche of the tech industry. Its products form the critical link between paper products and digital storage; its software takes all manner of communicationstext messages, emails, paper forms and faxesand turns them into data that can be archived and searched. More technically, the companys scanners and software use optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR) to turn paper into sleek, searchable, taggable ones and zeroes. Kofax handles scanning and digitizing documents, and using digitized documents for business process automation (BPA). Major Kofax customers include both the Swiss and Italian post offices, Japan Telecom, the Socit du Cheval Franais and Volkswagen.
Going paperless
Kofax has its roots in DICOM, which was founded in 1991 by Otto Schmid in Rotkreuz, Switzerland, and functioned largely as a distributor of hardware and software in the field of electronic data management. Demand for its products grew swiftly, and, by 1996, DICOM offered its stock for the first time in London. By 1999, the company had opened offices in London, Poland and Spain, as well as a number of other European countries. Also that year, DICOM acquired U.S.-based Kofax, whose scanners have become an industry standard, to become a division of DICOM. In 2004, the company purchased Topcall, another information-capture company.
Rounding up the bytes

In 2006, DICOM took in revenue of about $409 million, an increase of 16 percent over the year before. Sales were bumped up slightly by the companys $7.5 million acquisition of Learning Computers International, a German firm specializing in statistical analysis of text and machine data capture. But DICOMs revenue has increased every year since 2004, as companies generate increasing amounts of data that must be digitized for processing and storage. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has also been good news for DICOM, as it encourages firms to keep data for longer periods and to make vital documents easier to find in the event of legal action. According to a report compiled by Harvey Spencer Associates, a New York-based market research firm, the market for digital data capture increased 18 percent in 2006. The report also declared DICOM as the undisputed leader in document scanning, covering as much as 42 percent of the total market. In March, DICOM welcomed a new CEO in Robert Klatell, former VP of Arrow Electronics, a U.S. computer equipment distributor.
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Bringing in a relief pitcher for Kofax

To continue to expand its market share, DICOM embarked on a fairly intensive rebranding of its Kofax divisions offerings in 2007. Until DICOM embarked on this venture, potential Kofax customers were assaulted by a welter of branded offerings Mohomime, Capio, Xtratawhich didnt help at all with cross-selling the companys offerings. In 2007, Kofax launched an effort to rename its products. Instead of the opaque brand names above, all of the companys products will be named according to what they do; for instance, Ascent Capure will be renamed Kofax Capture, ImageControls will be renamed Kofax Imaging, and so on. The brands were also organized into three groups, with offerings tailored to businesses of varying sizes and functions. The renaming of the companys products was to be a gradual process, until 2009. But, to be less confusing, DICOM renamed the whole company Kofax plc in early 2008.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Introducing KTM 4.0 Kofax announced a new release of Kofax Transformation Modules (KTM), which automate the classification, sorting and separation of paper and electronic documents, and then extract and validate the accuracy of the information that they contain. One of the key benefits of KTM 4.0 is its learn-by-example technology, automating the classification and extraction of information from any form (structured and unstructured) or document type. Through feeding sample forms or documents into the system, customers can make the software recognize the form or document type and the specific location of critical business information that it contains, resulting in greater cost savings, accelerated deployments and less costly maintenance and provides more cost-effective applications with shorter ROIs. February 2009: Census tags Kofax Kofax was tapped by the U.S. Census Bureau to provide solutions for digitally capturing and processing more than 17 million pages of employment applications and related information per year. After a rigorous evaluation process, Kofax was selected to provide a solution to digitize, match and categorize millions of pages of employment forms and background materials, enabling the Bureau to reduce time-consuming manual tasks, automate paper-intensive activities and process vital data more efficiently, accurately and cost-effectively.
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January 2009: Also famous internationally The city of LausanneSwitzerlands fifth-largest municipalityjoins numerous others in ordering Kofax Express, the companys newest scan-to-archive solution for batch scanning applications, which will enable the city to digitize an average of 70,000 pages per month of new resident registration documents at 30 different customer service locations. The implementation of Kofax Express will enable the city to process application forms, visas, passports and other legal documents with content in multiple formats and languages. November 2008: Capturing not just documents, but awards too At the 2008 Document Manager Awards event in London, England, Kofax earned the Capture Product of the Year award for Kofax Capture 8.0, the worlds leading capture software. Sponsored by Document Manager magazine, the award recognizes the document management industrys most outstanding products, suppliers and projects of the year based on readers voting. Along with the award, the company also received recognition in the overall Product of the Year category for Kofax Transformation Modules 3.5, which combines with Kofax Capture to provide world-class automating processes instead of what would otherwise be manually intensive, error-prone and time-consuming data entry tasks. September 2008: Helping the children Kofax was awarded a contract with the Hawaii Child Support Enforcement Agency, a division within the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General, to provide a distributed capture solution to digitize more than 6,000,000 pages contained in over 110,000 existing child support case files. Kofax will enable the agency to process and digitize its case files, amounting to more than 200 different types of documents, such as court orders, judgments, payment data and other information related to child support cases. The new system will electronically capture the file content and make it accessible throughout the organization in a secure image database.
June 2008: A piece of the pizza In yet another high-profile requisition, Kofax was asked by Intesa Sanpaolo, Italys largest bank and one of Europes leading financial institutions, for a distributed capture solution to automate the processing of more than 30 million documents annually that originate in 14 of the banks branches in Italy.
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GETTING HIRED
Kofaxs careers site (at www.kofax.com/careers) provides information about some of the companys benefits and hiring processes. The company lists open positions on its site. To apply, candidates must submit a cover letter and resume via email. General inquiries may be addressed to jobs.kfx@kofax.com. Didnt find the position you were aiming for? Sign up to create your own Job Agent to search the companys job postings and identify potential matches based on your skill set. All you need to do is enter your name and email address, upload your resume, select how close of a match youd like and how often youd like to be notified. Do this once and youll be notified when job postings meet your criteria. Benefits at Kofax U.S. include medical, dental and vision plan options, short-term and long-term disability plans, life and AD&D insurance, supplemental and universal life insurance, flexible spending accounts, vacations, holidays, an educational reimbursement program, professional development and a 401(k) savings plan. Perks include an employee assistance program, a cancer (insurance) policy, 529 college savings plan, jury/witness duty, credit union membership, a company store, free beverages, company-sponsored league sports teams, an interest-free computer purchase program, an open-house once a month, on-site fitness centers and basketball courts.
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LAM RESEARCH CORPORATION

4650 Cushing Parkway Fremont, CA 94538 Phone: (510) 572-0200 Fax: (510) 572-2935 www.lamrc.com
DEPARTMENTS
Corporate Administration Corporate Communications Corporate Legal Corporate Marketing Customer Service Business Group Corporate Operations Customer Service Business Group Regional Operations Finance Global Field Operations Global Human Resources Global Information Systems Global Operations Global Products Investor Relations North America Field Operations Product & Strategic Marketing Sales Asia Sales Europe
LOCATIONS
Fremont, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Boise, ID Fishkill, NY Lehi, UT Manassas, VA Phoenix, AZ Richardson, TX South Portland, ME Tempe, AZ Vancouver, WA Agrate Brianza, Italy Beijing Bratislava Chungchungbuk-Do, Korea CorbeilEssonnes, France Dresden, Germany Dublin Fukushima, Japan Hiroshima Hsinchu, Taiwan Hyogo, Japan Jiangsu, China Kanagawa, Japan Kedah, Malaysia Kumamoto, Japan KyungkiDo, Korea Mlakarjeva, Slovenia Meylan, France Mie, Japan Munich Nagasaki, Japan Neuchatel, Switzerland Nijmegen, The Netherlands Oita, Japan Ramat Gan, Israel Rousset, France Shanghai Singapore Taichung, Taiwan Tainan, Taiwan Taoyuan, Taiwan Toyama, Japan Villach, Austria Wuhan City, China Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: LRCX Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: James W. Bagley President & CEO: Stephen G. Newberry 2008 Employees: 3,100 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,900 2008 Income ($ mil.): 509
KEY COMPETITORS
Applied Materials Dainippon Screen Tokyo Electron
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.lamrc.com/careers_1.cfm
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Lam Research Corporation
THE SCOOP
Etch-a-sketch
Lam Research, founded in 1980, has been a major supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the worldwide semiconductor industry for the past 30 years. The company provides semiconductor manufacturers with machines that use plasma (a state of matter in which electrons have become disassociated from their atomic nuclei) in order to etch the design of circuits onto silicon wafers during the manufacture of microchips. In order to prevent the entire surface of the wafer from being evenly removed by the plasma during the etching process, it is coated with resin, a material that protects the underlying wafer. Etching is performed several times on successive layers of the chip during the manufacturing process. Lams other products include devices to remove the resist used during photolithography and mechanical chemical cleaning machines that clean and level the surface of wafers following etching.
On the Lam
From its inception, Lam Research enjoyed a profitable ascent as one of the leading wafer manufacturers. Within three years, the company was profitable; within four, it had gone public. Lam did not just devote itself to increasing sales, but also to extensive research and development. The companys major breakthrough was the release of its first product with its new transformer coupled plasma (TCP) technology, which allowed for more efficient, consistent and high-quality chip production. The new technology quickly produced for the company $33 million in sales in 1993 alone. The year 1994 saw revenue rising 86 percent to $493 million and sales doubled. The company was growing, and added 400 new workers and four new facilities that year, in addition to expanding on its current locations.
However, by the mid-1990s, the semiconductor industry suffered a sharp decline in PC sales, affecting companies like Lam, which eventually forced the company to lay off over 500 employees in August 1996. Even the merger with OnTrak Systems, a firm specializing in a chemical microchip cleaning process, was not successful, posting a $33.7 million loss, and a slew of job cuts. Lam cut 14 percent of its workforce in February 1998, 20 percent of the remainder in June and 500 more employees in November; it also closed two of its plants and consolidated other offices. Losses were even greater that year, totaling $145 million. At that point, the company was still the fourth-largest maker of technology for chip-manufacturing worldwide, and remained optimistic amidst mixed financial results.
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More than wafer thin growth

It was not until 2006 that the company managed to get back on track, posting revenue of $1.6 billion (an increase of $100 million over the year before) and profits of over $300 million. At the end of 2006, Lam began acquiring facilities for its expansion and growth, notably, Bullen Ultrasonics for $175 million. These facilities, located in China and Ohio, are a source of the pure, flat silicon wafers that are the raw materials from which microchips are made. An increased demand for microchips and solar panels (which also require pure silicon) has heated up the market for these wafers, meaning that the division should provide good returns in the near future for the company. Industry analysts have noticed the companys recovery: in 2007, Lam moved up 14 places on Business 2.0s list of the fastest-growing technology companies to No. 7. It posted a three-year revenue growth of 36 percent, and ranked in the top 10 for earnings growth. The company might not be out of the woods yet, thoughit announced an internal inquiry into suspicious activity related to employee stock options grants in July 2007.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Revenue down Lam Research declared revenue of $283.4 million for the quarter of December 2008, a far cry from the $440.4 million of the September 2008 quarter. The company also experienced a $24.2 million loss during the last quarter of 2008. Company CEO Steve Newberry recognized that [t]he global semiconductor industry has entered one of the most difficult periods in its history, one that is presenting severe challenges to our customers and thus severely limiting investment in wafer fab equipment. He remained upbeat, though, saying that [w]hile this environment will persist near-term, we remain optimistic about our long-term technology roadmap in etch, clean and other new markets. During the pause in customer spending we are strategically targeting our capital resources to new penetration opportunities, qualifying our next-generation tools and delivering cost-effective technology solutions aimed at reducing our customers' production costs. August 2008: Advancing Taiwan Lam opened a new global training center in Hsinchu, Taiwan, with the support of the Taiwan government. The facility, which encompasses over 3,600 square feet, is equipped with 2300 and Alliance-based systems to handle 200 mm and 300 mm hands-on training. The training programs to be held at the center aims to help customers speed the ramp to production on new Lam Research process tools and enhance the productivity of their existing Lam Research systems.
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March 2008: Get SEZ! Lam announced the acquisition of the SEZ Group and about 95 percent of its outstanding shares. The purchase allows Lam Research to offer its clients a full array of wafer cleaning and decontamination solutions, with products incorporating SEZ's proprietary Spin-Process single-wafer technology, and single-wafer bevel and linear wet clean applications. Steve Newberry, president and CEO of Lam, noted, "With the addition of SEZ, we have increased our capability to provide single-wafer clean solutions to meet the increasing technology needs of our customers. SEZ is bringing not only top-quality operational and engineering capabilities to Lam, but also a talented group of employees and an excellent management team." Talks between Lam and SEZ started in December 2007.
GETTING HIRED
Leave your mark at Lam
Lams career site, at www.lamresearch.com/careers_1.cfm, provides information about openings for experienced candidates, college graduates and undergraduates. Jobs are searchable by function, keyword and location. To apply, job seekers must first create a profile. Benefits at Lam include a choice of health care plans, dental insurance, flexible spending accounts for health and dependent care, life insurance, sabbaticals, 401(k) plans and a discounted employee stock purchase plan. Undergraduates and recent graduates are invited to apply for internships and entrylevel positions, respectively. Internships are available for students pursuing a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD. Interns may participate in poster and essay contests, and are given ample opportunity to network with executives and other interns. Recent graduates are also invited to apply to positions in engineering, HR, finance, marketing, and R&D and software development, among other departments.
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LENOVO GROUP LIMITED

1009 Think Place Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: (866) 968-4465 Fax: (877) 411-1329 www.lenovo.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: 0992 Stock Exchange: Hong Kong Chairman: Chuanzhi Liu CEO: Yuanqing Yang 2008 Employees: 23,900 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 16,352 2008 Income ($ mil.): 484
LOCATIONS
Morrisville, NC (HQ) Offices in 94 locations worldwide
KEY COMPETITORS DEPARTMENTS

Accounting/Finance Administrative Communications Customer Service Engineering Fulfillment Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Procurement Project Management Public Relations Research & Development Sales Sales Inside Sales Sales Support Security Strategy & Operations Supply Chain Acer Dell Hewlett-Packard
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.lenovo.com/jobs/us/en/index.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Lenovo Group Limited
THE SCOOP
New thinking for a new world
Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer of desktop and notebook computers, servers, printers, monitors and peripherals. Its products also include cell phones and MP3 players. Lenovo is the top-selling PC manufacturer in China and is now the fourthlargest PC manufacturer in the world, after acquiring IBM's personal computing division in 2005. It has 7.5 percent share of the overall PC market share in 2008, according to research from iSuppli, trailing Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer.
The Legend continues

Lenovo was founded in 1984 as the Beijing Legend Computer Group by 10 colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company's first product, launched in 1987, was a Chinese character card and its first personal computer debuted in 1990. Four years later, the company offered its shares on the Hong Kong exchange, and it soon added laser printers to its product line in 1997. In 2000, sales of the company's products had taken off to the point where it was included in the Hang Seng index, a list of the highest-capitalized stocks traded on the Hong Kong exchange. In 2003, Legend changed its name to Lenovo, and the following year rolled out a line of computers for low-income customers, a significant area of growth.
What a great Idea

Lenovo and Microsoft teamed up in 2007 to develop a research center and also introduce FlexGo pay-as-you-go computing. The research center is located in Lenovos Beijing research institute and will focus on portable computing technologies. FlexGo aims to bring computers to low-income families and provide internet access for people who could not otherwise afford computers. In 2008, Lenovo invaded the global consumer PC market with its Idea line (IdeaPad notebooks and IdeaCentre desktops). The products first hit the market in the United States, France, Russia, South Africa, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, the Philippines and Singapore. Lenovo maintains rotating global headquarters throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, with two executive hubs located in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Beijing. Lenovo operates in 69 countries around the world. The company now employs more than 23,000 people worldwide, including 1,700 designers, scientists and engineers.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Optimized for Communicator Lenovo announced that it is the first laptop manufacturer to offer products optimized for Microsoft Communicator 2007. The products, which offer highquality audio and video ideal for multimedia and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, are ThinkPad X301, T400 and T500 laptop PCs. February 2009: Leadership changes Lenovo changed its executive team. Yang Yuanqing became the CEO, ceasing to be executive chairman of the board but continuing as an executive director. Rory Read is appointed as president and COO. Resigned President and CEO William J. Amelio was then appointed to be a special advisor to the company until September 30, 2009. Liu Chuanzhi was appointed as a nonexecutive chairman of the board. January 2009: Switchbox acquisition Lenovo considers its innovations the lifeblood of the company and acquired Seattle-based Switchbox Labs, Inc. to reaffirm its commitment to investing in new strategies and technologies. Switchbox Labs focuses on developing new consumer technologies, which are expected to become part of Lenovos products in the future. Switchbox co-founders Michael Sievert, Robert Dickinson and Blake Ramsdell also joined Lenovo. Sievert was named senior vice president company and will report directly to CEO Amelio. January 2009: Job cuts in Q1 2009 to affect 2,500 workers Lenovo announced a resource redeployment plan to remain competitive and efficient in the midst of the economic downturn. The company expected to lay off 2,500 employees worldwide during the first quarter of 2009, approximately 11 percent of its total workforce. The affected jobs include management and executive positions. The company also reduces operating costs in support and staff functions, and plans to reduce executive compensation by 30 to 50 percent.
As part of the restructuring plan, Lenovo is consolidating its China and Asia Pacific organizations into a single business unit to be called Asia Pacific and Russia (APR). The new unit is expected to help the company reduce its operating expenses and eliminate work redundancy. The actions we are taking today are not easy, and we will act with compassion and respect for the individuals in our company who are most affected, said CEO Amelio. December 2008: Teaming up with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes In order to build up its brand equity and attract customers, Lenovo and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes announced a partnership ahead of the 2009 Formula 1 season. Under this agreement, Lenovo notebook and desktop PCs will provide the teams mission-critical computing solutions, both at the race track and at the teams headquarters.
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November 2008: PC shipments grow in Q2 During the second quarter, Lenovo's worldwide PC shipments grew 7.4 percent but were still heavily affected by the current global economic crisis. As a result, Lenovos performance in the second quarter did meet management expectations. October 2008: Going broadband AT&T, Lenovo and Ericsson entered into an agreement covering the option to access broadband-speed internet via the ThinkPad notebook PCs. This alliance requires AT&Ts 3G service to be available on a full range of Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks, which come factory-equipped with Ericsson built-in mobile broadband modules enabled for AT&T LaptopConnect. September 2008: Lenovo joins Climate Group Lenovo joined international nonprofit organization The Climate Group, and, as part of that membership, has introduced a program that rewards consumers for recycling end-of-life devices, and offers them incentives to power new computers with renewable energy. The company also set a goal to avoid 33 million to 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide caused by older shipping methods and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions per year by 2012. May 2008: Shipments grow 22 percent; sales up by 17 percent Lenovo released full-year financial results for fiscal 2007-2008 (ending March 31, 2008) with growth figures better than the industry average. Excluding its mobile handset business, which it sold in March, Lenovo achieved consolidated sales from continuing operations amounting to $16.4 billion, a 17 percent increase year over year. The companys PC shipments also increased to 22 percent year over year, better than the industry average, estimated at 16 percent. The company also reported that the complete sale of its mobile handsets unit brought in a profit of $36 million and $20 million in the fiscal fourth quarter and full year, respectively. Lenovos PC shipments worldwide also increased by 21 percent. Lenovos notebook line continued to be the largest contributor to total sales, with shipments in the fourth fiscal quarter up by 38 percent year over year, and consolidated sales grew 22 percent to $2.3 billion or 61 percent of total sales for the quarter.
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GETTING HIRED
Grow with Lenovo
Lenovos career site, at www.lenovo.com/jobs/us/en/index.html, provides information about job openings and benefits. Open positions are searchable by location, type and functional area. When Vault investigated the site, there were a handful of positions listed, primarily in accounting/finance, customer service, marketing, IT and manufacturing. Benefits include a selection of medical plans, savings schemes for retirement, employee assistance programs, life insurance, disability benefits, tuition reimbursement and financial planning services. Lenovo is an affirmative action equal opportunity employer.
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LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.

740 West New Circle Road Lexington, KY 40550 Phone: (859) 232-2000 Fax: (859) 232-2403 www.lexmark.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: LXK Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Paul J. Curlander 2008 Employees: 13,800 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 4,528.4 2008 Income ($ mil.): 240.2
LOCATIONS
Lexington, KY (HQ) Boulder, CO Coral Gables, FL Casablanca Geneva Ontario Singapore
KEY COMPETITORS
Canon Epson Hewlett-Packard
DEPARTMENTS
Customer Services Finance Human Resources Information Technology & Web Legal Manufacturing Marketing Purchasing & Vendor Management Research & Development Sales Sales Operations Service Delivery Site Operations Supply Chain
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.lexmark.com/lexmark/sequentialem/home/0,6 959,204816596_1295219516_0_en,00.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Lexmark International, Inc.
THE SCOOP
The future of print
As one of the leading manufacturers of inkjet and laser printers and accessories, Lexmark bridges the gap between the "old" world of paper products and the new one focused on all things electronic. It produces laser, inkjet and dot matrix printers, multifunction machines (which also copy, fax and scan documents) and related supplies such as cartridges and imaging products for office and residential customers.
The past isnt so sad

Called by one analyst the "Rodney Dangerfield of printing companies" (since it seemed to get no respect), Lexmark used to be one of IBM's tiny divisions. When IBM decided to divest its hardware assets in 1991, the division was one of the first ones to get the boot, with IBM saying that the division didn't fit in with its core businesses. Despite that setback, Lexmark was formed out of that leveraged buyout between IBM and an investment firm. Being thrust into the printing spotlight forced Lexmark to do a lot of growing upit designed a framework that included units and teams previously handled for Lexmark by IBM, and it let go of half of its workforce but it grew up well adjusted to the market. Six years after being told that it just didn't fit in, Lexmark shot to the number two spot in the worldwide laser printing business, and as a bonus it was able to pare down its billion-dollar debt (an unfortunate part of the buyout) to just a little over the $100 million range. Not too shabby for a company that was forced to find its own way in the world.
The present doesnt look too bad either

The company owns much of the technology used in its products (through its investment in research) and also works in intangibles, offering technical support and custom business solutions for small and midsized businesses, government agencies and educational resources. Lest all of this sound incredibly pedestrian, the Lexmark name does carry some cachet: 75 percent of the worlds leading banks, retailers and pharmacies use Lexmark, and according to research from the Gartner Group, a liter of Lexmark printer ink is pricier than the same amount of first-rate whiskey or Chanel No. 5 perfume. Its newest line of color and monochrome laser printers and multifunction products (MFPs) announced in October 2008 received nearly 70 industry awards and broad recognition from leading technology publications and testing houses. One thing on the horizon that may help the company gain some strength is wireless printing for the tech-savvy home consumer. Notebook and wireless router sales are growing at an estimated 20 percent per year, and research firm IDC projects that by 2010,
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approximately 93.6 million households will have access to a wireless network, up 70 percent from current totals.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Increasing capability for product innovation Lexmark introduced Accessibility Solution, a new application designed to provide people with visual impairments easier access to Lexmark multifunction product (MFP) technology. This enables visually impaired users to set up copy, fax, email, FTP and scan jobs directly from their workstation rather than requiring use of the MFP touch screen display. January 2009: Printing perspectives To continuously become more competitive in the technological market arena, Lexmark entered a long-term multiyear agreement with Dell for printing technology. This agreement involves both companies pursuing development of broader printer models and related aftermarket cartridges manufactured by Lexmark and sold to customers under the Dell brand. This is one of the marketing strategies used by Lexmark to expand its market penetration. January 2009: Survival amidst economic downturn Lexmark announced the negative impact of the current economic turmoil and currency rate volatility of its 2008 revenue and operating income. Revenue is $4.53 billion, down 9 percent compared to 2007s posted revenue of $4.97 billion. To address the present economic weakness, CEO Paul J. Curlander said that Lexmark continues to take actions that will reduce our fixed infrastructure and business support costs, which are projected to generate savings of over $100 million in 2009. The company foresees that the 2009 restructuring plan will affect about 375 positions and is expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2009. It further expects a total annualized cost savings of $50 million when completed, with approximately $40 million in savings in 2009. October 2008: Yes, Lexmark can Lexmark proved that its concerned with employee and customer satisfaction when the company was named a winner of the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. According to the company, its flexible work/life program aims to achieve a balance between work and family, giving its employees an enriched quality of life, with the company benefitting through enhanced operational efficiency and achieved business goals.
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September 2008: Going green for the environment SmartWay, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the freight industry, has a new member in Lexmark. The group aims to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases. Lexmark pledged to go green and to consider its products impact on global ecology as part of its commitment to social responsibility. June 2008: Uniting with the United Nations Lexmark joined the United Nations (U.N.) Global Compact, the world's largest voluntary global corporate citizenship initiative. The Global Compact provides guidelines to businesses to ensure that their operations do not violate the tenets of human rights, labor, the environment and governance.
GETTING HIRED
Looking for Lex-elent employees
Openings at Lexmark's Kentucky headquarters and U.S. offices can be accessed through the company's website. International opportunities are accessible through each divisions web page available through a drop down menu on the main Lexmark website. The company also offers opportunities for students seeking a Lexmark career during college. Interested parties can work as an AYPT (academic year part time), co-op (alternating periods of work and study), or an intern (summer only) student. Program participants must have a GPA of 3.0, be eligible to work in the United States on a permanent basis and attend an accredited college or university on a full-time basis. All student positions are paid. Other benefits include free housing (fully furnished apartments) for individuals who live more than 50 miles away, paid holidays and personal days, company discounts, on-the-job training, and access to a "wide range of social and sporting events." If its finances havent been the healthiest of late, at least Lexmark promotes the wellbeing of its employees. Besides life, health, dental, vision and disability coverage, Lexmark gives its staff the opportunity to purchase stock and contribute to a 401(k) plan with a generous company matching plan. It further encourages employees' character growth by granting three paid vacation days in exchange for volunteer work, and offers technical training and funding for continuing education. Lexmark offers leadership training and participation development programs, such as Six Sigma Black Belt. Workers at the Lexington campus have access to convenient medical and banking services on site.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Traditional interview process
Several insiders note that they underwent two interviews and that the interview process is something a job seeker would normally expect. The first interview involves going over the applicants resume, references and prior experience in the position applied for. The second interview usually deals with how to meet the job responsibilities, if hired. As one source notes, the interviews are not stressful but rather easy.
Perks abound
Almost all of the respondents mention the no-dress-code policy of Lexmark. Apart from this, one source mentioned that the company is comprised of employees from different cultural backgrounds. One source notes, though, that there is no career advancement, while another contact counters by saying that there is career opportunity as the company expands its market territory. Besides the paid sick leave and holidays , Lexmark also sponsors holiday parties, at least in its company headquarters in Kentucky. In 2008, employees were given tickets to the Kentucky Derby as a year-end gift.
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LSI LOGIC CORPORATION

1621 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA 95035 Phone: (408) 954-3108 Fax: (408) 954-3220 www.lsilogic.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: LSI Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: Abhi Talwalkar 2008 Employees: 5,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,700 2008 Income ($ mil.): 283
LOCATIONS
Milpitas, CA (HQ) Allentown, PA Andover, MA Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Boulder, CO Colorado Springs, CO Englewood, CO Fort Collins, CO Fremont, CA Golden, CO Gresham, OR Irvine, CA Longmont, CO Los Angeles, CA Mendota Heights, MN Minneapolis, MN Norcross, GA Oxnard, CA Rochester, MN Roseville, CA San Diego, CA Waltham, MA Westborough, MA Westlake Village, CA Wichita, KS Bangalore Beijing Bracknell, United Kingdom Cork, Ireland Haifa HsinChu, Taiwan Kista, Sweden Madrid Meudon-la-Foret, France Milan Munich Pathumthani, Thailand Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Vienna
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microelectronics NXP Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.lsi.com/about_lsi/careers/index.html
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Administrative/Clerical Customer Service Engineering Finance IT Legal Manufacturing Marketing Operations Sales Technical Writing
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition LSI Logic Corporation
THE SCOOP
Large-scale integration for small-scale devices
LSI Logic Corp. (the LSI stands for large-scale integration) manufactures semiconductors for the digital audio and video, communications, networking and storage markets. LSIs storage chips are designed to allow computers to communicate with storage devices, such as tape drives and data storage servers. The company also offers custom-designed systems-on-a-chip (SOC) for the consumer market. LSI does not have its own fabs, but rather designs chips and then contracts with foundries for their production.
ASICsnot just snazzy shoes

Wilfred Corrigan, a British chemical engineer whose father had worked on the docks in Liverpool, founded LSI in 1981 after working for 20 years in the semiconductor industry, including a failed attempt as the CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor from 1974 to 1980 to diversify the offerings of the industry giant. When Schlumberger Ltd. purchased Fairchild in 1979 (only two years after Corrigan had started chairing the companys board meetings, in addition to serving as president and chief executive), Corrigan was shortly out the door. He picked himself up by the boot straps and founded LSI Logic the next year. However, for his new company he headed in the opposite direction from the old one, aiming small and specialized, where Fairchild had been large and general. LSIs initial product would be ASICs (application-specific integrated circuit).
Going abroad early

LSI went public in 1983, and Corrigan took the company international almost immediately, recognizing that strong support from overseas investors would be crucial to the companys survival. Japanese investors, perhaps remembering LSIs recent partnership with Toshiba, had acquired much of the companys stock in the IPO, and Corrigan quickly appealed for their support with the 1984 formation of Nihon LSI Logic, a private Japanese offshoot of his company. Nihons private offering raised $20 million, and left 28 Japanese investors with a 33 percent stake in the new venture. Months later, Corrigan tried the same thing with LSI Logic Ltd. in the U.K., raising $20 million there as well.
The future of memory

In May 2005, Corrigan introduced his successor as president and CEO, Abhi Talwalkar, a former executive in Intels enterprise and storage division. Corrigan has since stayed involved with the company as the non-executive chairman of its board.
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Talwalkar has received mixed reviews so far, as investors and analysts closely watch his ambitious plan to overhaul the now venerable LSI. At present, LSI Logic employs 6,193 personnel and maintains operations worldwide. The companys sales revenue for 2008 was reported at $2.7 billion.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: LSI is part of DoDs $40 million modernization program LSI Logic announced that its Engenio 7900 HPC storage technology is part of a $40 million-dollar U.S. Department of Defense project to modernize its data storage system under the Technology Insertion (TI-09) High Performance Computing Modernization Program. LSI Logics storage system will help increase the DODs data storage capacity to 2.4 petabytes. February 2009: Certified tree- (and people-) huggers Green thumbs up for LSI Logic as its Wichita, Kan., facility was certified by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) as Earth- and people-friendly. The certification guarantees LSI Wichita to be a safe and healthy workplace and environmentally friendly. November 2008: Welcome to the club Retired IBM executive Susan Whitney was officially welcomed by the LSI board of directors on November 12th, a timely replacement for board member Timothy Y. Chen, who resigned on the same date. Whitneys experience, as LSI CEO Abhi Talwalkar put it, will be invaluable to us as we continue to focus on increasing our worldwide opportunities in the storage and networking areas. September 2008: Still ahead of the pack
Banking on the benefits of new read channel and physical (PHY) technologies, LSI Logic released its SOC components for hard disk drives. The new 65-nanometer LSI TrueStore RC8900 iterative decoding read channel offers data transfer rates up to 4GHz and is compatible with 6GB/s SAS and SATA, as well as 4.25G Fibre Channel (FC-PI-2) protocols. This innovation propels the company ahead of the transition curve as storage industry participants shift usage from 3Gb/s SAS to 6Gb/s SAS interfaces in 2009. 2007: On a shopping spree Talwalkar backed up his talk with a bold movethe $4 billion takeover of Agere, a semiconductor manufacturer that specializes in chips for storage, mobile devices and networking. The deal more than doubles the size of LSI Logic (from 4,010 employees in 2006 to 9,100), and gives it a robust clutch of patents10,000 of them, to be exactwhich can be licensed to other manufacturers. Cost savings
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associated with the acquisition are estimated at $125 million for 2008. But they have came at a costLSI Logic posted second quarter losses of $378 million in July 2007, $340 million of which were attributed to charges from the Agere deal. In August, the company announced worldwide layoffs of 2,100 people, which might be unrelated, as they amount to the sort of manufacturing facilities Talwalkar planned on trimming before the merger. LSI Logic continued divesting its chipmaking resources that same month, selling off its phone and satellite-radio chip business to Infineon for about $450 million. LSI Logic acquired Tarari, Inc. for approximately $85 million in September. With numerous awards to boot, Tarari makes silicon and software that provides content and application awareness in packet and message processing. With Tararis acquisition, LSI Logic now adds a new class of advanced security and network control for service providers and enterprise networks. In November, LSI Logic acquired Metta Technology, a private company in Pune, India, which develops multimedia SOC technology and related software for consumer electronic products. This acquisition costs the company $7 million.
GETTING HIRED
Add some Logic to your career
LSIs careers site, at www.lsi.com/careers, provides a wealth of information for job seekers about LSI company culture, opportunities for training and advancement and benefits. Jobs are searchable by type, location and function. To apply, job seekers must first create an account. LSI offers its employees ample opportunities for training, 360-degree reviews and even has a tuition assistance program. Benefits include 401(k) with company matching, quarterly profit sharing, a stock purchase plan and credit union services. Medical benefits are comprised of a health plan and insurance.
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MANTECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

12015 Lee Jackson Highway Fairfax, VA 22033 Phone: (703) 218-6000 Fax: (703) 218-8296 www.mantech.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Programs & Operations Administrative Services Consulting Services Contracts, Purchasing, Legal & Proposal Services Customer Service & Technical Training Engineering & Support Services Engineers/Scientists Facilities Finance/Accounting Human Resources Information Technology Intelligence Investor Relations Legal Logistics Support Services Marketing, Sales & Business Development Multimedia Support Networks & Telecommunication Services Programs & Operations Publications & Graphic Arts Research Scientific/Analytical Security Systems Development Technical Analysis Technical Assistance & Support
LOCATIONS
Fairfax, VA (HQ) Alexandria, VA Aiea, HI Arlington, VA Bethesda, MD Burlington, MA Chantilly, VA Colorado Springs, CO Dahlgren, VA El Segundo, CA Ellicott City, MD Fairmont, WV Falls Church, VA Glen Burnie, MD Herndon, VA Hinton, WV Johnstown, PA Lexington Park, MD Miami, FL New York, NY Norfolk, VA North Charleston, SC Prince George, VA San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA Sarasota, FL Sierra Vista, AZ Springfield, VA Tampa, FL Vienna, VA Voorhees, NJ Wallops Island, VA Washington, DC Additional locations in 42 countries worldwide.
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MANT Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & CEO: George J. Pedersen 2008 Employees: 7,600 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,870.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 90.3
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) www.mantech.com/careers
KEY COMPETITORS
BAE Systems Computer Sciences Corp. Northrop Grumman
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition ManTech International Corporation
THE SCOOP
Ladies and gentlemen, its ManTech!
ManTech has a long history of providing its country with high-tech manpower (and, name notwithstanding, womanpower). The company provides information technology (IT) services to the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Justice (DoJ), the Navy and NASA. ManTechs national security offerings include intelligence analysis, information security and communications system support. On the IT side, the company offers network security, computational forensics and code analysis. ManTech also provides engineering test services to NASA and the Navy. The overwhelming majority of ManTechs revenue comes from the U.S. government; about 1 percent comes from NATO countries. In 2008, ManTech reported sales revenue amounting to $1.87 billion.
From the Cold War

Staten Islander George Pedersen and mathematician Franc Wertheimer founded ManTech in 1968 as a two-person operation; at the time, they had a single naval contract to provide war-gaming technology for submarines. Pedersen has remained with the company to the present day, and has steered the company into persistent growth by cannily focusing on acquisitions to leapfrog forward into new areas (his phrase), while remaining mindful of overreliance on federal contracts, diversifying its platform just before the end of the Cold War. The companys first acquisition came in 1971, when it bought a company that held a Navy Air Systems command contract; it had 18 employees, but it portended greater things. By the time of its IPO in 2002, ManTech had acquired 36 other companies. After going public, the company bought two companies every year, most notably Gray Hawk Systems for $90 million in 2005, a company with 500 employees, many of whom possess the security clearances necessary for highly classified contract opportunities. From its humble beginnings with submarines, ManTech has long angled to break into the intelligence field; its first foray came in the early 1980s, when it bought a small, intelligence-based interest from Raytheon Corp. for $1.25 million. And the hard work has paid off: in 2006, ManTech reported classified contracts worth $200 million.
to the war on terror

ManTech went public in 2002, a move that several analysts attributed to the War on Terror in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11th, but chairman and CEO George Pedersen insisted that he had taken 71 of his key executives to a company powwow the year before to discuss the trajectory of the business, deciding to focus
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away from commercial pursuits to government contracting once more. Pedersen subsequently hired Quarterdeck Equity Partners, a mergers and acquisitions consultancy, who suggested the company go public. To be honest, I didnt really want to do that, Pedersen has said, but the logic was overwhelming. And it really was the right decision. It was the right place and the right time: company revenue skyrocketed from $431 million in 2002, to $1 billion in 2006. Pedersen is thrilled, saying he expects it to someday reach $5 billion in sales. He also isnt leaving the company he started more than 30 years ago, and worked nights and weekends to bring to this point. I will remain chairman of the board until the day I die, he says, I love this business. I love what we do every day.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Get (cyber) smart ManTech announced that it closed the purchase of cyber intelligence firm DDK Technology Group, Inc. The Lanham, Md.-based DDK provides cyber security to the U.S. Department of Defense, focusing on Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). This acquisition continues ManTechs focus on the high-end intelligence arena and expands our footprint in cyber security to NCIS, said ManTech Chairman and CEO George J. Pedersen. February 2009: Highly optimistic ManTech reported fourth quarter financial results with a 15 percent increase in profit, hitting Wall Streets targets. The companys net income totaled $24.6 million, 69 cents per share, climbing from $21.4 million, 61 cents per share, in fourth fiscal quarter 2007. ManTech also releaseed its forecasts for 2009, with figures above the Streets expectations. The company forecasted earnings of $2.91, at $3.05 a share, and revenue of $2.10 to $2.20 billion. According to a Reuters article, analysts, on the other hand, eye for earnings of $2.93 a share, before special items, on revenue of $2.12 billion. December 2008: Shopping for growth ManTech announced the complete acquisition of IT provider EWA Services, Inc. EWA Services was a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Warfare Associates, Inc., and provides threat analysis and test and evaluation for agencies under the Department of Defense. In August, ManTech had already acquired cyber security provider Emerging Technologies Group, which also serves the DOD. These purchases are expected to contribute to ManTechs sales growth in 2009.
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December 2008: Best software and services company Forbes.com released its Americas Best Big Companies list and named ManTech best in its Software and Services category. The list was based on sales and earnings growth, debt to total capital, earnings outlook and stock market returns. This was the second time ManTech made it on the list. August 2008: Modernizing global networks ManTech was award a $124 million contract by the U.S. State Department to support the latters Bureau of Information Resource Management Program Management and Analysis Directorate during its Global IT Modernization (GITM) programme. May 2008: Among the best tech companies ManTech ranked No. 77 in BusinessWeeks InfoTech 100 list. The ranking was based on on shareholder return, return on equity, total revenue and revenue growth. A company press release said ManTech was was ranked overall at 77, was rated 16th best in shareholder return on equity and 33rd highest in revenue growth. May 2008: Quality OK! ManTech received International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001:2000 certification for its quality management system supporting the U.S. Army Regional Support Centers. The certification was awarded to organizations able to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory standards. In a press release in light of the certification, the company reaffirmed its commitment to provide world-class service and solutions to the Army.
GETTING HIRED
Work for the Man

ManTechs careers page, at www.mantech.com/careers/careers.asp, allows candidates to search for jobs by location and function. The site also has information about career fairs at which the company recruits, including job fairs aimed at helping people in the military transition to civilian careers. Benefits at the company include health, dental and vision insurance, tuition assistance, 401(k) and employee stock plan, life, accident and disability insurance, employee assistance program, pet insurance, auto and home insurance and retail discounts. The company also offers a wide range of professional development learning opportunities for employees through the ManTech University.
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MAXIM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS, INC.

120 San Gabriel Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Phone: (408) 737-7600 Fax: (408) 737-7194 www.maxim-ic.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Auditing Administrative & Support Services Advertising, Marketing & PR Analog/Mixed Signal Design Architectural Services Arts, Entertainment & Media Automotive/Motor Vehicle/Parts Building & Grounds Maintenance Bulk Storage & Delivery Chemical Engineering Circuit Design Consulting Services Consumer Products Customer Service & Call Center DC-DC Switching Converters Design Data Acquisition Digital Design Education, Training & Library Electronics Embedded Microcontroller Design Engineering Facilities Failure Analysis Finance/Economics Financial Services Full-custom Digital Circuit Design Gas Distribution General Managements High-frequency RF Circuit Design HR/Recruiting IC Characterization IC Design Industrial Engineering IT Installation, Maintenance & Repair Insurance Internet/eCommerce Internship Law Enforcement & Security Layout Legal Logistics Low-offset Amplifiers & Comparators Low-power Analog Circuitry Manufacturing & Production Mechanical Engineering Microcontrollers Military Non-volatile Memory Circuit Design Parametric Test PCB Design PCB Layout Precision Analog Circuitry Process Integration Process Module Production Control Production Planning Publishing/Printing Purchasing Quality/Reliability Radio Frequency Real Estate Retail/Wholesale Sales Semiconductor Shipping & Receiving Supply Chain/Logistics Systems Engineer Tax accounting Telecommunications Technology & Design Transportation & Warehousing Voltage References Yield Enhancement
LOCATIONS
Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Bannockburn, IL Beaverton, OR Boston, MA Champaign, IL Colorado Springs, CO Dallas, TX Fort Collins, CO Hillsboro, OR Houston, TX Irvine, CA Indianapolis, IN Melbourne, FL Milwaukee, WI North Palm Beach, FL Phoenix, AZ Providence, RI Raleigh, NC San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Jose, CA Tucson, AZ Alborg, Denmark Amsterdam Bangalore Batangas, Philippines Beijing Catania, Italy Cavite, Philippines Chengdu, China Chonburi, Thailand Daegu, Korea Dresden Gandhinagar, India Graz, Austria Grenoble, France Hannover, Germany Hong Kong Istanbul Kawasaki, Japan Lund, Sweden Madrid Marseille, France Milan Moscow Munich Newbury, United Kingdom Osaka Paris Pavia, Italy Reading, United Kingdom Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Stockholm Taipei, Tel Aviv Tokyo Wuhan, China Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MXIM Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President & CEO: Tun Doluca 2008 Employees: 9,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,052.8 2008 Income ($ mil.): 317.7
KEY COMPETITORS
Analog Devices National Semiconductor Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.maxim-ic.com/company/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Analog has not yet left the building
Maxim Integrated Products is a manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. Analog chips, while not as fast at crunching numbers as the digital variety, have their place in measuring quantities that vary continuously, like temperature and pressure, converting audio to digital signals (and vice versa) and power management. Maxims chips are used in the automotive, industrial, medical, communications and consumer products industries. A number of former General Electric employees founded Maxim in 1983, betting that analog circuits, which had been largely discarded in favor of their faster, snazzier digital cousins, might still constitute a viable segment of the semiconductor market. Indeed, demand for analog chips grew during the decade, largely for use in new technologies such as cell phones and portable electronics. The company posted its first profit on a years sales in 1988, and immediately had its initial IPO. Despite fluctuations in the health of the industry through the 1990s, Maxim played its analog chips to its advantagethey dont become obsolete as quickly as digital chips, and they can be made for much less money in older factories, thus insulating the company from the slings and arrows of the industrys outrageous fortunes. Also, Maxim was one of the few companies that hadnt switched to digital chips, and benefited by picking up the effective leftovers in the market. It was a strategy geared toward the long term, and the company invested in its employees and its R&D in the meantime, quickly earning recognition as an excellent place to work and a well-run, small, tech firm.
Survival of the fittest

While many of its semiconductor peers suffered through cycles of boom and bust, Maxim hummed along, seemingly immune. By 2006, Fortune noted that Maxim had the highest profits of any semiconductor company in the Fortune 1000. Suddenly, Maxim wasnt so small anymore, and it was soon encountering the sort of trouble befitting a large tech firm. In 2006, Maxim was investigated by the SEC for questionable options practices. The audit of the options practices delayed the filing of several forms with the SEC, which caused the governing body of Nasdaq to threaten to delist the companys shares from the exchange. That same year, CEO and leading co-founder Jack Gifford elected to step down from his post for health reasons, in favor of a consulting role. He was replaced by veteran Tunc Doluca. (Gifford passed away in January 2009.) In 2007, Maxim bought a factory manufacturing eight-inch wafers in Irving, Texas, for $38 million. The factory is capable of forming 20,000 silicon wafers, upon which microchips are created, per month. The factory, on 39 acres, has plenty of room to
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.
expand, and can max out at a capacity of 30,000 wafers per month. In 2008, the company reported revenue amounting to $2.05 billion.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Zilog products acquired Maxim announced the acquisition of the wireless control and secured transaction product lines from Zilog Inc. The purchase of Zilogs wireless control business was done jointly with Universal Electronics Inc. Maxim is looking at combining Zilogs wireless microcontroller product line with its ultra-low power infrared microcontroller line. January 2009: Weak across the board With a very cautious view of the global economy, Maxim continued to endure Q2 losses of $38.8 million, or 12 cents per share, as compared to net earnings during the same period in 2008 of about $107 million, or 33 cents per share. However, CEO Tunc Doluca is confident that the company will be able to manage its expenses prudently, and is banking on its wafer fab consolidation project to boost Maxims manufacturing efficiency. The company expects $290 million to $330 million in revenue in Q3.
EE Times reported that Maxim is pursuing cost-reduction measures, including reducing its headcount by 140 and pursuing unpaid time off to see some $25 million of quarterly operating expenses savings through June. The firm may also close down its facility in Dallas, in June, for additional savings of $10 million.
GETTING HIRED
Take your career to the Max
Maxims careers site, at www.maxim-ic.com/company/careers, provides information about job openings, culture, benefits, internships and entry-level programs. Jobs can be searched by keyword, function and location. It also has a Job Search Agent that does the job searching and automatically emails jobs that match. The company culture is distinguished by an emphasis on clear, efficient communication and continuous improvement of job functions. Benefits for Maxim employees include a choice of medical and dental plans, subsidized gym membership, 401(k) and stock purchase plan, life insurance and educational assistance. The company only acknowledges two holidays per year, but employees accumulate 12 floating holidays in addition to their annual allotment of vacation time. Hopeful interns and aspiring college graduates are invited to submit their resumes to Maxims database. College graduates may apply to positions in engineering, IT, finance, legal, accounting, customer service and purchasing.
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MCAFEE INCORPORATED
3965 Freedom Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Phone: (408) 988-3832 Fax: (408) 970-9727 www.mcafee.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Art Business Development Communications Customer Service Computer Services Engineering Finance Human Resources Information Systems Internet Legal & Governmental Affairs Manufacturing Marketing Network Administration Planning Production Management Production Public Relations Quality Assurance Sales Technical Support
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Miami, FL Plano, TX Amsterdam Athens Auckland Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Bryanston, South Africa Copenhagen Cork, Ireland Diegem, Belgium Dubai Guangzhou Guatemala City Hamburg Helsinki Hong Kong Istanbul Kfar Sava, Israel Kuala Lumpur Lisbon Madrid Makati City, Philippines Melbourne Mexico City Moscow Mumbai Munich Ontario Panama City Paris La Defense, France Polanco, Mexico Prague San Donato Milanese, Italy San Jose, Costa Rica Santiago So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Singapore Slough, United Kingdom Solna, Denmark Stockholm Sydney Taipei Tokyo Unterschleissheim, Germany Vienna Warsaw Zurich Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MFE Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Chuck Robel President & CEO: Dave DeWalt 2008 Employees: 5,563 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,600 2008 Income ($ mil.): 172.2
KEY COMPETITORS
Microsoft Symantec Trend Micro
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.mcafeecareers.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition McAfee Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Network defender
McAfee is a security technology company that provides software that fends off all manner of digital threats, like spam, spyware, phishing, identity theft and unwanted guests snooping about the network. McAfee began in 1987, when a Lockheed engineer named John McAfee started distributing his home-brewed antivirus software for free via an online bulletin board. News of his product spread by word of mouth, and soon satisfied users were convincing their bosses to pay to license the product for company computers. McAfee founded McAfee Associates in 1989, and left Lockheed in January of the next year, quickly turning a profit. Two years later, the company had its first stock offering. McAfee left the company shortly thereafter to pursue other interests, including Tribal Voice in 1997considered the first social networking siteand yoga instruction.
Aggressive tactics
McAfee found a new CEO in Bill Larson, a computer veteran from Sun and Apple and the acquisitions began! Larson immediately started growing the company beyond viral software, and targeted network management software as its best opportunity for expansion. Larson soon earned a reputation for playing hardball with his acquisitionsand acquisition targets. In late 1995, McAfee attempted a $1 billion takeover of Cheyenne Software, who felt strongly against it. Cheyenne sued McAfee to prevent the takeover, alleging securities fraud, and McAfee gave up the attempt. Larson next developed a rivalry with Symantecs then-CEO, Gordon Eubanks. The two companies sued each other, with McAfee seeking $1 billion in damages for defamation. Larson capped the activity with his issuance of a press release calling Eubanks an accused felon for trade-secret violations. But McAfees thirst for acquisitions was unabated by Larsons ugly dustups with other tech firms it merged with Network General in 1997 for $1.3 billion, its biggest deal yet. The new company was known as Network Associates until 2004after the tech bust, the company unloaded a number of ancillary businesses, and thereafter changed its name back to McAfee.
Where theres smoke

While revenue at McAfee was rising, the company was weathering a number of financial scandals, dating back to CEO Bill Larsons tenure. Larson, along with President Peter Watkins and CFO Prabhat Goyal, abruptly resigned in 2001, when fourth quarter revenue was $120 million below expectations. The next year, the SEC filed suit against Goyal and a number of other McAfee executives (but not Larson), alleging that the company inflated its sales figures by $622 million between 1998 and 2000. George Samenuk, an old IBM hand, succeeded Larson as CEO and managed
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to settle the matter for the relatively small amount of $50 million in January 2006. But in June of the same year, the SEC started another investigation of McAfee, this time looking at its stock options policies. The commission eventually found that illegal securities enhancements had been going on since 1997. In the brouhaha, the general counsel was sacked, and CEO Samenuk expediently decided to retire. McAfees 2006 revenue rose 16 percent over 2005 numbers, bringing in more than $1.1 billion for the year. Profits, however, were down by 1 percent year-over-year (they came in at $137 million). Four more acquisitionsSiteAdvisor, Preventsys, Citadel and Onigmain 2006 helped McAfee boost its offerings in online security. Rumors abounded about McAfees impending acquisition, but in 2007 Dave DeWalt was made its new CEO and tasked to turn the company around. In 2008, the company enjoyed a total revenue of $1.6 billion, making it to the S&P 500 index. Most of the companys revenue come from its North American markets, and mostly from clients in the business sector.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: HP to resell McAfee line worldwide McAfee entered into a global reseller agreement with Hewlett-Packard for the latter to resell its line of enterprise security products worldwide. March 2009: Crusade against cybercrime The company awarded grants amounting to $110,000 in line with the companys initiative to fight cybercrime. The fund will be used in programs to train law enforcement, prosecutors and judges on cybercrime. The first recipients of the grants were the Council of Europe and the National District Attorneys Association. February 2009: Expansion of SaaS business unit
Dave DeWalt, McAfee president and CEO, announced that the company has expanded its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business unit to include cloud-based services. December 2008: McAfee makes it to S&P 500 McAfee announced at close of trading December 22, 2008 that it has been added to the S&P 500. July 2008: Acquisition of Reconnex in the works McAfee announced a definitive agreement to acquire Reconnex, a privately held data loss prevention solutions provider, for $46 million in cash.
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GETTING HIRED
Secure a job at McAfee
McAfees jobs site, at www.mcafeecareers.com, provides information about job opportunities, training and benefits at the company. Job listings are searchable by location, category and keyword. To apply, candidates must upload a resume and provide contact information via a web form. The HR department can be contacted with any questions or comments at recruiting@mcafee.com. McAfees benefits vary by office location and job title, but the site assures candidates that flexible working conditions and emphasis on work/life balance are priorities for the company. McAfee also offers tuition assistance for job-related classes, as well as training in sales, technical skills, and management and leadership.
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MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS, INC.

501 Pearl Drive St. Peters, MO 63376 Phone: (636) 474-5000 Fax: (636) 474-5158 www.memc.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: WFR Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: John Marren President & CEO: Ahmad Chatila 2008 Employees: 4,600 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,004.5 2008 Income ($ mil.): 387.4
LOCATIONS
St. Peters, MO (HQ) Hillsboro, OR Pasadena, TX Sherman, TX Chonan, South Korea Hsinchu, Taiwan Kuala Lumpur Merano, Italy Munich Novara, Italy Paris Seoul Shanghai Singapore Tokyo Utsunomiya, Japan
KEY COMPETITORS
Shin-Etsu Handotai Siltronic SUMCO
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Corporate Development Customer Service Human Resources IT Legal Logistics Manufacturing Marketing New Products Quality R&D Sales & Marketing Subcontractor Operations Treasury
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.memc.com/jobs-splash.asp
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Silicon jockeys
MEMC is a global leader in the manufacture and sale of wafers and related intermediate products to the semiconductor and solar industries. MEMC has been a pioneer in the design and development of wafer technologies over the past four decades. With R&D and manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia, MEMC enables the next generation of high-performance semiconductor devices and solar cells. MEMC is a major provider of silicon wafers, which are used by both the microchip and solar panel industries. Wafers are slices of pure silicon crystals that have been grown from melted sand and are the raw material from which microchips are manufactured. MEMCs customers include foundries where microchips are made.
Mr. Sandman, grow me a dream

The M in MEMC stands for Monsanto, which is also the name of a Midwestern agricultural company, founded in 1901. By the 1950s, the company was experimenting with chemicals, which dovetailed with Cold War era advancements in electronics. In 1959, it established the Monsanto Electronic Materials Company (MEMC) for the manufacturing and development of silicon wafer technology. As wafer technology advanced and demand for microchips increased during the 1970s, MEMC was the first to move into selling wafers with a diameter of 100 mm, in 1975. Four years later, it was able to produce wafers with a diameter of 125 mm. The company had upped the ante to 150 mm diameters by 1981, and 300 mm a decade later.
Short and not so sweet Motech fling

In 2006, MEMC hashed out an eight-year, $1.6 billion deal to provide silicon wafers for solar panels to Taiwans Motech, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of solar panels. To sweeten the deal, Motech threw in partial ownership of itself and the option to purchase a solar panel manufacturing facility. However, things got rocky because the two companies were unable to reach mutually acceptable definitive agreements within the prescribed timeframe. In July 2006, MEMC ended its partnership with Motech. As a result, MEMC is now partnering with Chinas Suntech, a Motech rival, for a 10-year period.
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Growth Proposition
In spring 2007, MEMCs stock got a modest bump due to higher-than-forecasted earnings from the green energy sector. In May 2007, Standard & Poors moved MEMC shares from the S&P MidCap 400 to the S&P 500 index. For fiscal 2008, MEMC reported sales revenue of $2.01 billioncrossing the $2 billion mark for the first time. With 4,900 employees, MEMC enters 2009 focusing on continued cost, yield, and efficiency improvements, and with a new CEO, Ahmad Chatila.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Letting go of 200 MEMCs SEC regulatory filing revealed it cut 200 jobs in its manufacturing facilities in St. Peters, Mo., and Sherman, Texas. The move was reported to be part of costcutting. The filing also revealed that MEMCs Japanese subsidiary, MEMC Japan Ltd., let go about 100 employees in February. February 2009: Chatila as CEO Ahmad Chatila was appointed president and CEO of MEMC. Chatila previously served as the executive vice president of Cypress Semiconductors Memory and Imaging Division before joining MEMC. He is now also the head of global manufacturing. July 2008: Beyond the MEMC borders MEMC entered into an agreement with Tainergy in Taiwan for the supply of solar wafers to the latter over a period of 10 years. This definitive agreement ensures MEMCs stronghold in the solar market.
GETTING HIRED
Chip in at MEMC
MEMCs careers page, conveniently located at www.memc.com/jobs-splash.asp, provides information on job openings by location. Candidates can apply by emailing their resume and cover letter to the indicated address. MEMCs benefit package includes stock options, quarterly incentives, a retirement savings plan, medical and dental coverage (including prescription drugs), life insurance and education reimbursements.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Intensive interviews
Interviews at MEMC are usually intensive, consisting of five rounds of interviews. Says a process engineer, (I had) five rounds of interviews with manufacturing managers, the engineering manager and supervisor, HR and peers. According to the survey, process engineers are normally paid around $55,000.
Good but with reservations?

Work culture is good, according to an insider. The work hours are flexible, and the dress code is decent. However, opportunities for advancement and pay hikes seem to be limited. A source points out that the companys strength is in the demand from its market, but its weakness is the threat of losing out to sister sites in Asia.
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MTIER, LTD.
2300 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 1200 Arlington, VA 22201 Phone: (703) 465-9500 Fax: (703) 465-9502 www.metier.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company Chairman: Gerald McNichols CEO: Douglas D. Clark 2008 Employees: 55 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3.8
LOCATION
Arlington, VA (HQ)
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Oracle SAP
DEPARTMENTS
Business Development Consulting Services Knowledge Management Marketing Portfolio Management Office Services Product Delivery Professional Development Research & Development
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
tbe.taleo.net/NA8/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp? org=METIER&cws=1 Email: jobs@metier.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Mtier, Ltd.
THE SCOOP
Taskmasters for hire
Mtier Ltd, a leader in predictive project management software and services, derives its name from the French word mtier meaning specialty. The firm covers four main industriescommercial enterprise, systems engineering/consulting, government and defenseand provides services to highprofile clients, including BMW, IBM Global Services and Lockheed Martin, in addition to the FBI, U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy. Mtier was founded in 1998 by then-newly married couple Douglas Clark and Sandra Richardsonon the way back from their honeymoon, no less. If the firm could be said to have a key software, it is WorkLenza predictive project management software designed by Clark, which syncs with Microsofts Outlook email application and helps managers track ongoing (or future) projects. Mtier delivers its technology to private and public sector clients through partnerships with systems integrators and consultants. In 2005, the company collaborated with Lockheed Martin to create a system for handling the data from the 2010 census, which will be the first that allows people to fill out census forms online.
Inc. magazine has recognized it for the last four years as one the fastest-growing privately held companies on its Inc. 5000 list, and Mtier proudly boasts some staggering statistics to back up the claim. Mtier reported revenue of $3.8 million in 2008. Business growth seems on the uptrend.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Nomination for employee development
Mtier was named a finalist in the 2009 Helios HR Apollo Awards, which gives recognition to Washington-area organizations that promote employee development. The company was one of only nine finalists in the small business category. May 2008: Finalist in business Oscars Mtier was a finalist in three categories of the 2008 American Business Awards. These categories were: Best Overall Company, Best Management Team and Best New Product or Service. Dubbed as the business worlds own Oscars, the American Business Awards is the only national awards program that honors great performance in business in the United States.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Mtier, Ltd.
2007: Educational experience Mtier announced that it scored a deal to manage 200 investments for the Department of Education using its WorkLenz software. The deal with the DOE is structured so that the department doesnt have to invest in new computers, IT guys or bandwidth, paying Mtier for the use of its IT resources instead.
GETTING HIRED
Find your Mtier here
Mtier lists current job openings, and descriptions of those openings, on its careers site, at tbe.taleo.net/NA8/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp?org=METIER&cws=1. (Or just go to the About us link from metier.com and select Careers.) To apply for a position, candidates can submit a resume and cover letter to jobs@metier.com. Mtier provides information about the company via its Mtier Recruiting Video, which is available online.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Mtier employees consider the interview process difficult. Recalls a senior project analyst, It normally requires one to two phone and personal interviews. The interview with the COO/CFO is the most challenging. Some technical questions are also asked during the interview, so better be prepared. Salaries are usually between average and slightly below average, depending on your location. The salary of a project analyst is usually around $47,000. Bonuses are also uncommon and small. Shares have little or no value at all, shares an insider.
Mtier is a unique company to work for, according to an analyst. It has a lot of potential for growth, thus, it is a good place to start ones career. However, it is not suited for experienced professionals who are skilled enough to do most things on their own.
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MICRON TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED

8000 S. Federal Way P.O. Box 6 Boise, ID 83707-0006 Phone: (208) 368-4000 Fax: (208) 368-4435 www.micron.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MU Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Steve R. Appleton President & COO: D. Mark Durcan 2008 Employees: 18,250 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,800 2008 Income ($ mil.): -1,619
LOCATIONS
Boise, ID (HQ) Aguadilla, PR Allen, TX Boca Raton, FL Carlsbad, CA Corvallis, OR Duluth, GA Durham, NC Hopewell Junction, NY Houston, TX Lehi, UT Libertyville, IL Lincolnshire, IL Manassas, VA Melbourne, FL Meridian, ID Middlesex, NJ Minneapolis, MN Nampa, ID Nashua, NH Portland, OR Round Rock, TX San Jose, CA Wynantskill, NY Avezzano, Italy Bangalore Beijing Bracknell, United Kingdom East Kilbride, United Kingdom Erd, Hungary Giesshuebl, Austria Ismaning, Germany Kanata, Canada Les Ulis, France Nishiwaki, Japan Osaka Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Stockholm Taipei Tokyo Tsukuba, Japan Vantaa, Finland Virginia, Ireland Xiamen Xi'an
KEY COMPETITORS
Hynix Qimonda Samsung Electronics
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.micron.com/jobs
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Administration Business Development Communications Engineering Facilities/Site Services Human Resources Information Systems Legal Materials/Purchasing/Logistics Production Sales & Marketing Technicians
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Micron Technology Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Small chips, big business
Micron Technology is a major manufacturer of semiconductors for the consumer electronics, medical and automotive industries, including memory chips for computers, mobile phones, digital assistants, digital cameras and MP3 players, as well as image-sensing chips for cameras and medical equipment. Its subsidiaries include Crucial Technologies, which sells memory upgrades to the end-user market, and Lexar, which sells USB Flash drives, memory cards and card readers. Micron was ranked No. 427 on the 2008 Fortune 500.
Chip set
In 1978, a group of engineers incorporated Micron Technology in Idaho. At first, the company operated out of the basement of a dentists office, but by 1981, the new company had established its first fab for building semiconductors in Boise. Three years later, Micron had its first IPO. The company weathered a drop in the price of memory that drove several competitors out of the market in 1985, and continued to expand its operations through the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its business got a big boost in 1998, when it acquired Texas Instruments memory arm, and in 2001, when it picked up a stake in a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer. Following the burst of the tech bubble, the company was in the red for 2002 and 2003, but returned to profitability in 2004.
Braced for the plunge

In 2006, Micron acquired Lexar, a manufacturer of USB drives, flash memory cards and memory card readers for photography, industrial and communications customers, in a stock-for-stock merger. Microns revenue that year was $5.2 billion, with profits of $400 million. The good times did not last, though, as a number of flash memory companies struggled with falling prices early in 2007. Micron started to pool its resources with major competitors, who were also struggling with the market downturn: in February it announced a joint venture with Intel, whereby each companys Singapore-based flash production operations would work together.
Inside the Treasure Valley

At present, Micron has 22,800 employees. Micron is the largest nongovernmental employer in Idaho, and watched closely by the stateits Boise outpost is even referred to as Treasure Valley. Micron is in survival mode, as some employees term it. Despite threats coming from lower overseas manufacturing costs and lower prices for memory products, the company is still optimistic about business prospects, and is restructuring its IT and outsourcing a good part of the manufacturing process.
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Overseas locations are being explored, including Italy, Singapore, Japan, Scotland and China. In 2008 alone, the company had sales revenue amounting to $5.841 billion.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Waiting on the bench Micron cut its capital spending and says it will not join in on the new DRAM venture in Taiwan as of the moment. The company said it doesnt see anything compelling yet for it to participate. ''I would just say that we're still in discussions with the Taiwan government,'' Micron Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton said in a conference call with analysts. April 2009: Missing the target Micron posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. For its second fiscal quarter, the companys net loss narrowed to $751 million, or 97 cents per share, compared to $777 million, or $1.01 per share, in the second quarter of the previous year. Revenue dropped 27 percent to $993 million, below Wall Streets forecast of $1.15 billion for the company. According to a Reuters report, Micron and other memory manufacturers have been suffering a two-year decline in prices. However, the companys executives said that DRAM and flash memory prices seem to be recovering. March 2009: Cited for innovation Microns 32 GB, 34 nm NAND flash and 1 GB, 50nm DRAM was recognized by Semiconductor Insights (SI) for innovations in NAND Flash and DRAM technology. According to SI, the 32 GB, 34 nm chip is by far the highest density monolithic multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chip the industry has ever seen to date. The chip was jointly developed by Intel and Micron.
February 2009: Tired of waiting for the sun Micron announced today that it will phase out the 200 mm wafer manufacturing operations at its Boise facility. The move is due to the decreased demand for 200 mm specialty DRAM products and the worsening economic conditions. The company said it had been hopeful that demand would pick up for the products, but is, unfortunately, not likely to happen in the near term. The move will also cost approximately 500 to 2,000 jobs cut by the end of the fiscal year. February 2009: Patent suit Honorable Judge Ronald M. Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a stay order for the patent infringement case filed by Rambus Inc. against Micron. Judge Whyte declared the case had to be stayed
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indefinitely after recognizing an earlier ruling of the U.S. District Court of Delaware, holding that the patents were unenforceable under Micron.
GETTING HIRED
Chip in at Micron
Microns employment information is listed at www.micron.com/jobs, wherein job openings are classified according to location. There is information on open positions at the companysearchable by function and keywordbenefits, college recruiting and internships. Benefits include health, life, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) with company matching, bonus programs, stock purchase plan, generous vacation allowance, a free on-site fitness center in Idaho (with trainers and classes offered throughout the day) and an on-site health clinic at HQ, for physicals, ergonomic consultations and any other health issues that may crop up during the workday. The college recruiting section allows recent graduates to submit a resume, in addition to checking out potential positions at the company in information systems, engineering, technical jobs, production and operations management. Majors sought by the company include chemical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering/technology, mechanical engineering, microelectronics, physics, and production operations/management and allied areas of study. There is a helpful table at www.micron.com/jobs/northamerica/college/majors that correlates major areas of study with job opportunities at the company. There are also helpful pieces of advice for composing a resume and acing the interview. The company recruits at its offices in Allen, Texas, Boise, Idaho, Manassas, Va., and San Jose, Calif.
To be an intern at Micron, you must be enrolled in a course of study to attain a bachelors, masters or PhD, and have a minimum 3.0 GPA. Previous work and manufacturing experience are both pluses. Internships are offered at the offices in Allen, Texas, Boise, Idaho, Manassas, Va., and San Jose, Calif., in engineering, technical, ops management and information systems.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Get a little work at Micron
The defining characteristic of interviews at Micron seems to be efficiency. One engineer reports, The hiring process was very transparent and open. There was one HR interview and five to six technical interviews on ONE day. The interviews were very friendly, he adds. They let me stay over the weekend to check out the city and real estate/apartment [options], which was nice, says an engineer. Once hired, insiders have mixed reviews. Micron is a very fast-paced company, though it's often without a well-defined direction, sighs one worker. Corporate culture is laid-back, observes another. Just how laid-back is a matter of dispute. You are monitored daily on when you leave and come in, it doesn't matter if you were up until 4 a.m. on a support call, you better be at your desk at 8 a.m., explains one source. Extremely Big Brother-like, agrees her colleague. An early bird disagrees. Hours [are] very favorable, other than strict arrival at or before 9 a.m. As befits a company named for an itty-bitty unit of measure, moving up in the ranks can be incremental at times. Advancement is limited when trying to advance past middle-management, you are really waiting for someone to die, notes a morbid contact. However, the company makes the journey worthwhile with good benefits: 401(k) matching funds, medical, dental, and vision insurance, stock purchase plan. Vacation time is given very generously, rattles off one manager. Dress code, naturally, varies by function. Dress code can be casual to strict depending on where you work in the company. IT professionals working in satellite locations are allowed to wear shorts and sandals using discretion, while all main sites and manufacturing areas require long pants and close-toed shoes.
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MICROSOFT CORPORATION
One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-7329 Phone: (425) 882-8080 Fax: (425) 936-7329 www.microsoft.com
DEPARTMENTS
Account Management Administrative Services Business Development Channel Marketing Compensation & Benefits Consulting Content Publishing Corporate Operations Customer Research Customer Service Enterprise Sales Enterprise Support Finance Game Design Government & Community Affairs Hardware Engineering Human Resources Information Security IT Operations Leadership & Management Development Legal & Corporate Affairs Localization Marketing Operations Paralegal & Legal Support Product Design Product Management Product Support Program Management Project Management Sales Small & Medium Business Sales Software Development Staffing Strategic Consulting Supply Chain Tax & Audit Technical Treasury Usability User Assistance & Education Wireless & Telecom Marketing Worldwide Operations
LOCATIONS
Redmond, WA (HQ) Addison, TX Anchorage, AK Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Baltimore, MD Baton Rouge, LA Bellevue, WA Bentonville, AR Beverly, MA Birmingham, AL Bloomington, IL Bloomington, MN Boise, ID Boston, MA Bothell, WA Boulder, CO Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Cincinnati, OH Cleveland, OH Columbus, OH Costa Mesa, CA Dallas, TX Denver, CO Des Moines, IA Detroit, MI Downers Grove, IL Edison, NJ Fargo, ND Farmington, CT Farmington, MN Findlay, OH Ft. Lauderdale, FL Ft. Lee, NJ Grand Rapids, MI Greenville, SC Guaynabo, PR Hartford, CT Honolulu, HI Houston, TX Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA Iselin, NJ Issaquah, WA Jacksonville, FL Kansas City, MO Lebanon, NH Los Angeles, CA Louisville, KY Madison, WI Malvern, PA Manchester, NH Memphis, TN Miami, FL Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis, MN Mountain View, CA Nashville, TN New Orleans, LA New York, NY Oakbrook Terrace, IL Oklahoma City, OK Omaha, NE Orlando, FL Palo Alto, CA Philadelphia, PA Phoenix, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Plainsboro, NJ Portland, OR Raleigh, NC Redmond, WA Reno, NV Reston, VA Richmond, VA Ridgewood, WA Rochester, NY Sacramento, CA Salt Lake City, UT San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Santa Clara, CA Santa Monica, CA Seattle, WA Southfield, MI St. Louis, MO Sunnyvale, CA Tallahassee, FL Tampa, FL Tucson, AZ Tulsa, OK Waltham, MA Washington, DC Watertown, SD Waukesha, WI Wilmington, DE 84 International Locations.
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MSFT Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Bill Gates CEO: Steve Ballmer 2008 Employees: 95,828 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 60,420 2008 Income ($ mil.): 17,681
KEY COMPETITORS
Apple Google IBM Oracle
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.microsoft.com/careers
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THE SCOOP
Colossus of the computer world
Microsoft is the worlds largest software company and an undeniable force in the computing world. Its products are seemingly more ubiquitous than oxygen, and it takes some effort to avoid using them. It is the parent company of the Windows operating system, Explorer browser, the Office suite of programs (which include Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Access), the Xbox game system and the Zune music player. The company was ranked at No. 44 in the Fortune 500 in 2008 with revenue of $60.42 billion and a global workforce of 95,000. At present, the company has exhibited agility in responding to market conditions, and has been managing innovations well.
First-generation computer geeks

Microsoft traces its origins back to an unusual starting point for a market-leading corporation with a global presencea high school classroom. The seeds of the company that came to rule the worldwide software market were planted at Seattles Lakeside School in 1968, when a group of forward-thinking mommies bought a computer for the students. Tenth-grader Paul Allen and eighth-grader Bill Gates became friends while using the intriguing machine, and the two soon started accumulating massive computer-service bills. Their passion for computing quickly outstripped their economical resources as high school students, and the two boys began venturing downtown to a commercial computer center where they could use the hardware for free as long as they discovered and reported bugs in the centers system. After a great deal of bright-eyed pestering, they managed to learn the inner workings of the computers from the centers professional programmers.
BASIC beginnings
High schoolers Allen and Gates set up their first company, Traf-O-Data, in 1971. The plan was to use Intel 8008 chips to build computers to analyze traffic volume for municipal traffic departments. The company wasnt a roaring success, as Allen later admitted, but it gave the friends invaluable experience with microprocessors and software development. Allen and Gates had written a version of BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), for their Traf-O-Data machine. The program was written well enough to serve as the language for the Altair 8800, the first commercial microcomputer that was made by Albuquerque, N.M.-based MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telenet Systems). The duo sold Altair BASIC to MITS in 1975 and Microsoft was born. It was only in 1976, however, that Microsoft as a trade name was registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico. It was also during that year that Microsoft leased its first office space and hired its first full-time
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employee. By the time Microsoft relocated to Seattle in 1979, the company had 12 staffers.
Red-hot growth in the 1980s

This decade saw Microsoft in ascendance. In 1980 (the year future rival Apple went public and the year future CEO Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft), the company released MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) for IBMs new PC. Microsofts growth was assured because the new PC quickly became the industry standard and IBM had to pay royalties to Microsoft for every single PC that sold. Three years later, Microsoft introduced its computer mouse (which it had codenamed the Dove soap bar) and the first version of Word. In 1985, it introduced Windows, its first operating system with a GUI (graphical user interface). Then, in March of the following year, Microsoft went public on Nasdaq, with an initial offering of 3.095 million shares priced $21 per share at opening. The growing company was embroiled in controversy in 1988, however, when Apple filed one of the most famous and controversial copyright lawsuits in tech industry history against Microsoft. In its complaint, Apple revealed that it had entered into a secret pact with Microsoft in 1985 so that both companies could use the GUI pioneered by the Macintosh. When Microsoft released Windows version 2.03, however, Apple considered it too Maclike and filed suit.
Everybody v. Microsoft
In 1994, both lower and appellate courts found in favor of Microsoft in decisions still debated to this day. However, Microsoft emerged triumphant from the lawsuit only to put out another fire. Netscape Communications Corp. had released its Navigator the same year, a technology that soon became known as a web browser. A year later, Microsoft released its own web browser, Internet Explorer, along with the web portal MSN, to establish its own internet presence. The company also launched its own cable news channel the same year, a joint venture with NBC called MSNBC. In 1997, Microsoft finally resolved the litigation with Apple, agreeing to invest in $150 million worth of nonvoting Apple stock, and license Internet Explorer and MS Office to Apple PCs. Microsoft soon started packaging Internet Explorer into its Windows operating system, a practice that attracted the attention of lawmakers. The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of 20 state attorneys general charged Microsoft in May 1998 with violating antitrust laws by engaging in monopoly business practices. The suit claimed that Microsofts incorporation of Internet Explorer into Windows unfairly limited competition. In 1999, a judge ruled against the company, which settled with the 20 states between 2001 and 2004. Another antitrust case against the company was filed in Europe in 2003, where courts also ruled against Microsoft and ordered the company to pay a fine of $643 million, and release a version of its operating system without Windows Media Player.
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Positioning for the 21st century and beyond the Gates era
Somewhere in the first decade of the new millennium, Microsofts hegemony over computing services, both online and off, ceased to be absolute. The success of two very different companiesGoogle (who paired a highly effective algorithm for online searches with online advertising) and Apple (with its iPod personal music player and iTunes online music store)suggested that Microsoft could be lacking in imagination. It was a notion that Apple reinforced with a famous ad campaign that personified its Macintosh as a hip young dude and the Microsoft PC as a square businessman who hates being out of the office. By the mid-2000s, Microsoft moved to address its tendency of falling behind the waves of changing technology by beefing up its talent pool. Ray Ozzie, developer of Lotus Notes, was hired as chief technical officer in 2005; Craig Mundie came on board as chief research and strategy officer in 2006 to keep track of emerging technologies and prevent Microsoft from falling behind as it did with the Mac, Netscape, Google and the iPod; and the company reorganized its management structure and established strategic partnerships, such as the 2006 joint venture with Nortel in what the two companies called unified communications, a combination of email, voice communications, conferencing, instant messaging, video and data transfer. Later in the decade, Microsoft released a slew of products, some of which were better received than others. It offered Zune, its long-rumored alternative to the iPod, in September 2006. In 2007, it released the new operating system Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the programmable web browser plug-in Silverlight. In September of the same year, with a new entertainment division chief in the person of Electronic Arts alumnus Don Mattrick, Microsoft released its gaming console Xbox 360 with Halo 3, the latest version of the highly acclaimed videogame. In 2008, the company released Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, Vista Service Pack 1 and Surface, an interactive 30-inch table-like display that enables users to manipulate digital content with physical gestures. The year 2008 was also marked by the departure of Bill Gates from his day-to-day job at Microsoft to concentrate on philanthropic work. PostGates, Microsoft seems to be positioning for further growth, acquiring companies that could give it an advantage in areas that include online advertising, mobile computing and virtualization. In a May 2009 speech at Stanford University, CEO Ballmer said, These are tough economic times, but these are times that I think are rich in opportunity. As such, Microsoft is investing $9 billion in R&D because, as Ballmer would have it, In our business, youve got to be inventing new things.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Settling with TomTom In less than a month, Microsoft and TomTom seemed to have found a way to settle their differences, with the latter agreeing to pay Microsoft for coverage under the involved TomTom products. Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and
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deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing of Microsoft said that [w]e are pleased TomTom has chosen to resolve the litigation amicably by entering into a patent agreement. In February, Microsoft filed a patent infringement lawsuit against navigation device maker TomTom N.V. for allegedly infringing on a handful of Microsofts patents, which relate to car computing systems and navigation. Microsoft also included in its suit several Linux-based TomTom products, marking the first time that Microsoft has directly targeted Linux with patent litigation. February 2009: Battling Conficker Microsoft announced its collaboration with tech industry leaders to fight the Conficker worm. Also known as Downadup, Conficker targets the Microsoft Windows operating system and uses it to spread through the Internet. The company moves to disable domains targeted by the worm and even offers a reward of $250,000 for any information that would lead to the conviction of those responsible for Confickers release on the Internet. January 2009: Home appliances to the next level Microsoft partnered with Fugoo to make home appliances smarter and more useful. Fugoo is a neo-diginet (digital Internet) device development platform that reinvents home appliances by connecting them to the internet. This partnership opens up almost limitless possibilities for transforming ordinary household items, said Steve Guggenheimer, Microsofts corporate vice president of the original equipment manufacturer division. August 2008: Xbox rocks the elections Microsoft and political advocacy group Rock the Vote announced a collaboration that will enable Xbox 360 owners to register to vote, participate in presidential polls and voice their opinions to the presidential candidates through Xbox LIVE; the first-of-its-kind agreement aimed to reach voters below 30. Heather Smith, Rock the Votes executive director, said the partnership seemed natural. To realize our goal of registering two million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and theres no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, she adds. May 2008: Turning its back on Yahoo! Microsoft withdrew its bid to purchase Yahoo! CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement that the company had already tried its best efforts (raising the offer to a whooping $5 billion), yet Yahoo! resisted the tempting offer and even looked out for allies to avoid being bought. As a final word, Ballmer said: After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees, and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal. Microsoft had submitted a proposal to acquire Yahoo! in February 2008.
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April 2008: The Web is the future Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie announced in a memo that the PC era has ended and that the Web is now at the center of our experiences. The memo coincided with the release of Web synchronization system Live Mesh. Ozzie noted that Microsoft is now making necessary adjustments toward shifting the focus from PC to the Web. April 2008: Uplifting Latin America Microsoft announced collaborations with both their local and regional partners to further efforts to provide educational opportunities to marginalized people in Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, Brazil and Mexico. Chairman Bill Gates said Microsoft is committed to helping transform education worldwide in order to bring social and economic opportunity to underserved communities around the world. The company and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are pushing through with their joint effort in supporting Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), a program seeking to help people with disabilities and underprivileged children in Latin America. Through a $4 million joint fund, Microsoft and its partners will help increase the involvement of the private sector and improve job placement rates for people with disabilities in Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru for three years. March 2008: Not so fast Sony and Blu-ray may have pushed too far; Microsoft denied having talks with Sony and the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray technology into the Xbox 360 system. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it had agreed to develop software that will support Sonys Blu-ray HD format integration into the Windows operating system. But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the Mix 08 conference that they will only support Blu-ray in ways that are important.
GETTING HIRED
The basics
Microsofts careers page, at www.microsoft.com/careers/, provides information about job openings in the United States and abroad, career trajectories and benefits. Jobs are searchable by location, title and category; in order to apply, applicants must create a profile. Career paths include operations, human resources, marketing, support, financial, legal and sales. For recent graduates who might wish to work for Gates, the company provides information on internships and entry-level opportunities for graduates with bachelors and MBA degrees. Internships are offered in core technical, software design,
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finance, HR, IT, marketing, user assistance and publishing. Interns get subsidized housing and assistance in purchasing a car or bicycle, subsidized health club membership, discounts on software, parties and bus passes.
Heaps of praise
The company landed in the No. 86 spot on the 2008 Fortune list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work. (Internationally, its also been recognized as one of the best places to work in Canada, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Ireland and the entire continent of Europe overall.) The company has some heavily pampered employeesperks offered by the company include generous health benefitsand, at its Redmond campus, employees can take advantage of valet parking and on-site dry-cleaning. Recently, new HR Chief (and former product manager) Lisa Brummel, dubbed the consigliore of happiness, has implemented a number of changes to the companys benefits, human resources and internal communications policies to improve employee morale and retention rate (turnover hovered at 10 percent in 2005; it has since dropped to a more comfortable 8.3 percent in 2007). The grocery delivery servicewhich very few employees utilizedis gone, and in its place is Brummels newest program, Mobil Medicine, which dispatches doctors to pay house calls to sick employees. Brummel also spearheaded an overhaul of the employee performance review process, revamped the recruiting centers dcor (to be more hip and inviting, of course!) and is looking into opening satellite offices and implementing a telecommuting policy.
On campus
The Microsoft campus, in Redmond, Wash., is like a small city unto itself. From lawns and a quad to a really good cafeteria that has everything from junk food to gourmet (not to mention a 20-foot-tall chunk of the Berlin Wall and a manmade stream climaxing in a waterfall), Gates spared no expense to make his 30-building headquarters breathtaking. It features 4,000 pieces of artwork, 25 cafeterias, a company store and facilities for running and hiking, basketball, soccer, baseball and volleyball. Aside from the great corporate campus, the company offers its U.S.-based employees a choice of medical plans, dental and vision coverage, 401(k) with company match, discount stock purchase program, discounts to health clubs in some areas, discounts on merchandise, and event tickets and free beverages, including Starbucks coffee. To compete with Googles benefits, Microsoft recently started offering employees discounts toward the purchase of hybrid vehicles. The cafeteria, often noted as sadly institutional and subpar to Googles, is now colonized by popular area restaurants dishing up their specialties. Microsoft also has plans to offer a shuttle bus like Googles, complete with Wi-Fi.
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One unique culture-with-a-capital-C feature of life at Microsoft: the company is home to a 60-piece employee orchestra that holds six free concerts a year (on the Microsoft campus and at other venues around Seattle) and rehearses on Monday nights. It does not, however, count its trombone-playing chairman among its ranks.
Students, take note

Undergraduates interested in technical positions should pursue degrees in computer science or a related discipline, as well as be highly proficient in C/C++. Any internships or work experience in programming is useful, though not necessary. For a college grad, says one insider, if you havent done any intern work at Microsoft, the only thing theyll have to go by is your GPA and the college you attended. Unless you can whiz-bang the interview, most likely youll start in quality assurance (QA) as a developer. Microsofts policy of hiring the brightest people it can possibly find means certain sacrifices; the companys bias is toward intelligence or smartness over anything else, even, in many cases, experience.
For MBAs
Degrees from highly competitive schools are a must for the MBA who wants to work at Microsoft, though real experience, such as work on web sites and internships at software companies will get you far. Even for those applying to business-oriented departments, technical skills are very well received, since theres a glut of people applying who look very similar on paper. We hear that the company avoids hiring employees who cannot follow the technical side of the business. This does not mean that every marketing whiz is expected to know how to write sharp code, though; Ballmer knew little or nothing about computers when he joined up. Passion for technology is extremely important, but applicants need not necessarily [have] a background in it. Problem-solving skills and intellectual horsepower are more prized assets.
The war for talent

Insiders say Microsoft likes to confirm what you claim on your resume. Therefore, be ready to demonstrate any skills you have included in it. If you said that you can write C/C++ or Basic code, your interviewer may sit you down at a terminal and ask you to do it, say insiders. We also hear that interviewees up for software engineering positions are also sometimes called to write code on whiteboards. If you listed relevant course work, the interviewer may ask you problems related to those classes, so brush up on all your old subject matter. Still, Microsoft is perpetually locked in battle with other leading firms, in technology and finance, for access to top candidates. This is particularly true when it comes to minorities, as Microsoft strives to maintain a diverse group of employees. By most accounts the firm is fairly successful, although with some exceptions. One recruiter
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admits, In recruiting outstanding MBAs of color, we have the same problem as other companiesthe pool is not that big. The battle with rival firms has grown more heated in recent years as new CEO Steve Ballmer is responding to the Google threat by bringing in more executives from outside, a departure from the companys tradition of grooming homegrown talent. Brian McAndrews, who ran Microsofts online advertising department in 2007, insisted on some engineering oversight in addition to his other responsibilities.
Not for the faint of heart

The Microsoft interview is difficult to prepare for; its interviews are known for being as quirky as Googles, with the company asking abstract questions to see how interviewees think. The process even spawned a book, How Would You Move Mount Fuji? about the questions interviewers ask. Wild stories abound in which unfortunate applicants are confounded with questions that are confusing, or even unsolvable. The best way to prepare for these out-of-left-field queries is to expect them, and not to be rattled when one pops up. The interviewer wants to learn how you think. According to one insider who made it through the process, They are pretty harsh at interviews. However, they arent necessarily looking for the correct answers to their questions, but to see how you handle the question, and your thought process to come up with an answer. Microsoft wants employees who can brainstorm numerous possible ways to solve the knottiest problems, and then work through the possibilities rationally to find the best one. For the more traditional interview questions, learn as much as you can about the company. Familiarize yourself with all of its products, so that if the interviewers ask you to analyze a Microsoft business issue in a case interview (as they often do), you wont be stuck asking them to explain what the product youre supposed to improve or sell is.
One insider reports that Microsoft interviewers like to throw curveballs at job seekers by asking them to come up with repeated examples to questions like, Tell me about a time you came up with a creative solution. Theyll ask you that, and then go, Tell me about another time...and another...and another. They want to make sure that youre not just spewing out canned answers. One easy part is the dress code, however: The company advises candidates to dress casually for interviews, rather than break out their Sunday best.
The MBA Interview

For newly minted MBA grads, who rate the company as one of the top-10 postgraduation destinations according to a 2007 survey conducted by Fortune, Microsoft targets the top 15 or so [schools], and conducts early recruiting in
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November. Applicants go through an on-campus interview first with two people. If you pass that, they fly you to Redmond. For the second round, candidates interview with four to six people in one day. Three peers, one to two people in the lead position and one group manager, who is always last. Each meeting lasts for about an hour and applicants may interview with members of two different groups. The process is very intense, but somewhat disorganized, we hear. The interviewers do not agree ahead of time on which areas each will probe. As a result, the session entails a lot of overlapping questions. Most of these are questions about software. They are not too lofty. They are [just] looking for enthusiasm for software. The occasional real-world case question may sneak its way in somewhere during the day.
The last hurdle

Insiders warn that the interviewers email each other to find out candidates strengths and weaknesses during the session. While the meetings are very much improvised, those conducting the later interviews may try to tailor them according to the information they glean from their colleagues. The last interview is a good indication of where you stand: If you dont see the group manager, [they have decided] youre not worth it. Either way, candidates do not have to wait very long to find out their fate. The decision is made at the end of the day, based on the feedback of the recruiter and all the people who met with [the candidate]. Theres no mulling it over, though it may take a couple of days before the lucky phone call comes, adds one source.
One last thing

When entering into pay negotiations, several sources warn that the company lowballs acceptable candidates with below-average salaries that are supposedly boosted by the companys stock packages and benefits. One insider points out, however, that Microsoft no longer gives options, its all stock grants that vest over five years.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Results-oriented
The culture here is focused around doing great work, but it is also a very fun place to be, said one insider. The atmosphere is far from stuffy, leaning if anything toward sophomoric: We have a basketball hoop in our hall, which is a great way to blow off steam in the evenings or the middle of the day. While average citizens probably would like to write off software programmers as lonely and uncommunicative, Microsoft employees usually disagree. As one designer says,
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The atmosphere is very sociala good-sized chunk of my day is spent in other peoples offices or with other people in my office discussing how to accomplish some task or the latest industry news. Unlike at Hewlett-Packard or Intel, where cubicles dominate, Microsofts full-time employees work in real offices, which is so much nicer than rows of cubes and zero privacy. And while the company has swiftly grown into a multibillion-dollar monster, insiders say they dont feel lost. One respondent says that we work together in small feature teams, so even though this is a large company, you always feel like an important part of a team.
Lovin it
Job satisfaction runs extremely high at Microsoft, and insiders generally agree that it is a pretty great place to work. While one might expect a somewhat mercenary attitude, focusing on dreams of stock-fueled fortunes, sources more often cite the importance of their work. Its been very exciting to be a part of shaping the future of computing, says one respondent. Despite an uptick in turnover in recent years, and complaints about job advancement (vertical and horizontal movement is unusual and most wont see more than a couple of promotions in a five year period, claims one source), Microsoft has managed to hold onto many employees for the long run. I plan to stay here as long as I can because I enjoy the work and the people I work with, says one 10-year veteran.
A lot like being in college

A bunch of people in jeans and T-shirts banging away on computers late into the night? Shaky hands from heavy-duty caffeine buzzes, with empty soda cans littering the desks? Throw in a few togas and you know exactly what were talking about. Microsoft is late adolescence extended, and proud of it. From music groups to jugglers to various team sports, theres always something going on in the buildings or around the campus, says one Microsoft insider. In many ways, its so much like being in college. Although there are lots of group activities, the number of people who participate is actually pretty small, which is also not dissimilar to college life. And the attitude? How can people be so intense yet so laid back at the same time? asks one respondent.
Home? This is my home.

Microsoft employees had better appreciate their lovely Redmond campus; they certainly spend enough time there. Programmers work about 80 hours a week, we hear. But this doesnt mean that there is a consistent grind, week in, week out schedules at Microsoft often resemble college as well. Work hours vary based on where we are in a project cycleit is a lot like being in schoolyou slack off after finals and at the beginning of the semester and work extra hard right before finals.
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Insiders cite the flexible hours as a plus, but with a wink and a laugh: Theres a joke around here that goes, There are no set hours at Microsoft, you can work any 12 hours of the day you want, one insider tells us. Such long hours are not mandatory, we hear, but, generally, this is what youll have to do, not only to get your job done but also time youll need to obtain additional skills to advance your career. While most employees work at Microsoft because they genuinely enjoy doing their jobs, the long hours can affect them. You have to actively manage your time to make sure you keep a good balance in your life, remarks a respondent. Another says, Make sure you get your downtime.
Diversity issues
In October 2000, a handful of employees filed a $5 billion discrimination suit against Microsoft, alleging inferior treatment of salaried black and female employees. On the whole, though, Microsofts track record with women and minorities is good, probably because people are valued based upon their contribution to the company rather than some superficial quality. Sex and race are not a factor at all. Employee groups, including Blacks at Microsoft (BAM), are visible on campus, hosting career days for students of color. These factors weighed on a U.S. district courts decision to prevent the plaintiffs from bringing a class-action suit. Nonetheless, minority representation is skewed toward Indians and East Asians. Most of the blacks are not American but are from the Caribbean, South America or Africa. In what is a fairly progressive move, the company included sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy and has received recognition for its inclusion policies for transgender individuals. While the company is responsive to women on the whole, there may be a glass ceiling in effect. Of the top-20 executives, two are femalebut they represent HR and marketing. And only 17 of the 125 top executives are women (14 percent), but female employees, dont feel uncomfortable around the office. For a company founded in 1975 (with no holdover executives and partners from the days of fewer opportunities), this is still a surprisingly weak showing. One female respondent insists that it depends a lot on which department one is in: Im in marketing and I work with about 80 percent women.
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NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.

2900 Semiconductor Drive P.O. Box 58090 Santa Clara, CA 95052-8090 Phone: (408) 721-5000 Fax: (408) 739-9803 www.national.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: NSM Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Brian L. Halla 2008 No. of Employees: 7,300 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,890 2008 Income ($ mil.): 332.3
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Arlington, TX Calabasas, CA Chandler, AZ Federal Way, WA Fort Collins, CO Grass Valley, CA Indianapolis, IN Longmont, CO Norcross, GA Phoenix, AZ Rochester, NY Salem, NH San Diego, CA South Portland, ME Tucson, AZ Bangalore Delft, Netherlands Furstenfeldbruck, Germany Greenock, Scotland Hangzhou, China Hong Kong Kemi, Finland Melaka, Malaysia Osaka Oulu, Finland Suzhou, China Tallinn, Estonia Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Analog Devices STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.national.com/analog/careers Phone: (800) 672-4448
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Administrative Services Business Planning & Materials Engineering Executive Finance & Accounting General HR IT Marketing & Sales Operator Production/Manufacturing Support Standard Technician
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THE SCOOP
Analog chips for the digital age
National Semiconductor Corporation manufactures analog and mixed-signal chips for the medical, wireless communications, LCD, automotive and industrial markets. National Semiconductor divides its business into several segments: chips for power management, that direct the right number of volts to the appropriate part of the device; chips for LCD; Bluetooth chips; analog chips that turn data (pressure, temperature, sound) into digital data that can be handled by a computer, as well as data (pictures, sound); and high-reliability chips for military and aerospace devices. Major clients include Nokia, Sony, Apple, Motorola and Toshiba.
Electronics to chips
The company has its roots in 1959, when Dr. Bernard Rothlein, an employee of Sperry Semiconductorthe engineering offshoot of an old electronics company that traces its roots back to 1910took seven other engineers from the company and founded National Semiconductor in Danbury, Conn., just 20 miles north of Sperrys headquarters in Norwalk. The company initially produced integrated circuits, a new technology that had been invented the same year as the companys creation, and sales were slow to pick uponly $5.3 million by 1965. National Semiconductor was struggling, and its founders old company, Sperry Semiconductor, prevailed in a patent infringement in the 1960s, leaving National Semiconductor on the ropes.
Lets chip em at Silicon Valley

At this low ebb, the East Coast financier Peter Sprague (whose family had been in the electrics business since the 19th century) swooped in and bought the company in 1966. He recruited Charles Sporck, head of Fairchild Semiconductor at the time, to be National Semiconductors new CEO and president. (Sprague and Sporck presided over the company together until 1991.) Under its new leadership, the company moved its operations (and headquarters) to the hub of the Silicon Valley in 1967: Santa Clara, Calif. As semiconductors became increasingly prevalent in consumer electronics during the 1970s, National Semiconductor started to focus on providing chips for consumer goods, and had grown by 1971 to become the fourth-largest semiconductor company in the United States. During the mid-1970s, National Semiconductor began making inroads under Sporck into the cheap and productive Asian market. The company opened factories in Asia, one of the first semiconductor firms to do so. Sales figures reflected the correctness of Sporcks management: revenue was $42 million in 1970 and $365 million in 1976.
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Even stronger
Of course, National Semiconductors pursuit of low margins left it vulnerable as the Asian semiconductor industry matured. Into the 1980s, the company attempted to produce consumer products, such as digital watches and video games, and even its own computers, but they could neither match the low costs of Asian competitors nor the high-end wares of its American ones. Sporck was impelled by this spate of Asian competition to become an active agitator for federal trade protections. In fact, he was one of the main forces behind the 1986 Semiconductor Trade Agreement between Japan and America, which sought (in the name of fair trading practices) to open the Asian market to American competition and restrict the dumping of extra-cheap Asian products on the American one. But National Semiconductor was still one of the giants in the field, purchasing Fairchild Semiconductor in 1987 (which must have made Sporck smile) and further strengthening its position in the market, although the company was to be divested a decade later.
Chips spread to wireless networks and revenue reaches billions

When networking was all the rage, National Semiconductor started making network controllers. The company left the microprocessor market in 1999, where it could not compete with Intel and AMD, and focused on providing chips for communications and wireless applications. In 2001, the company shifted its focus to creating products for expanding wireless internet access and remote control of home heat and air conditioning. Two years later, it renewed its focus on analog and developed an energy-efficient chip that increased the running time for handheld electronics (like phones and music players) running off of battery charges, increasing chip activity times by as much as 400 percent. In 2007, National Semiconductor reported a revenue decrease from the previous year, from $2.16 billion to $1.93 billion as it further divested its digital businesses. In 2008, the company reported sales revenue of $1.89 billion.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Going solar National Semiconductor acquired Act Solar, Inc., a private company that is into power optimization solutions for commercial and utility-scale solar installation. This move widens the companys portfolio of power optimization technologies, which now includes new diagnostics and panel monitoring capabilities for solar arrays. A month earlier, National Semiconductors WEBENCH Sensor Designer tool received the 2008 Product of the Year Award from Electronic Products Magazine.
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March 2009: Q3 sales down, 850 jobs cut The company released financials for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 (which ended March 1, 2009) saying sales in the quarter summed up to $292 million, a 31 percent decrease from the second quarter and 36 percent down compared with the same period in 2008. As a result of this performance, the company said it has to immediately eliminate 850 jobs and close down its assembly and test plant in Suzhou as well as its wafer-fab in Arlington, Texas. February 2009: Teaming with Altera, Arrow The company announced that it has joined forces with Altera Corp. and Arrow Electronics on MotionFire, a new field-programmable gate array (FPGA) motor control platform that links fieldbuses to industrial Ethernet. The trio is targeting the platform at industrial, automotive, medical and consumer electronics applications.
GETTING HIRED
I have one word for you: semiconductors
National Semiconductors careers page at www.national.com/careers provides a searchable list of jobs at the company. In order to submit resumes for consideration, applicants must first create a profile. In addition to its openings for experienced hires, the company offers internships and co-ops, opportunities to gain academic credit while working. Opportunities for college graduates also exist in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, finance, HR and information services. Entry-level employees attend college club events, like baseball games, happy hours and movie nights, and can take classes at National Semiconductor University, which cover subjects from technical writing to speedreading.
Benefits offered by the company include a generous stock purchase plan, 401(k) with lavish company matching, health and dental insurance, on-site dry cleaning, and a gym and cafeteria at several sites.
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NCR CORPORATION
1700 South Patterson Boulevard Dayton, Ohio 45479 Phone: (937) 445-1936 Fax: (937) 445-5541 www.ncr.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MSFT Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Bill Gates CEO: Steve Ballmer 2008 Employees: 95,828 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 60,420 2008 Income ($ mil.): 17,681
LOCATIONS
Dayton, OH (HQ) Agana, GU Albany, NY Anderson AFB, GU Atlanta, GA Baltimore, MD Bentonville, AR Boston, MA Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Cincinnati, OH Columbia, SC Dallas, TX Detroit, MI Duluth, GA El Segundo, CA Germantown, MD Houston, TX Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA Morristown, TN New York, NY Peachtree City, GA Raleigh, NC Richmond, VA San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Suwanee, GA Viroqua, WI 358 International Locations
KEY COMPETITORS
Diebold IBM Wincor Nixdorf
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ncr.com/about_ncr/careers/index.jsp
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative/Office Professional Crossfunctional Management Customer Care Center Customer Engineering Customer Service Delivery Customer Services/ Support Services Customer/Sales Operations Engineering Finance Human Resources Learning Legal Management Information Services Manufacturing Marketing Product Management Professional Services Public Relations/Communication Quality Real Estate Sales Security Strategy Supply Chain Management
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition NCR Corporation
THE SCOOP
Its all about the cashregisters
NCR Corp. is a major provider of cash registers, ATMs, point-of-sale scanners, bar code readers, paper and other consumables. It also makes all manner of self-serve kiosks, from hospital and hotel check-ins and merchandise checkout, to event tickets and ordering at fast-food restaurants. The company also provides data warehousing services under its Teradata division, which spun off as an independent firm in October 2007. The company was founded in 1882 when former coal salesman and retail shop owner John H. Patterson bought a cash register manufacturer in 1882 and founded the National Cash Register Company two years later. The first office, with 13 employees, was located in Dayton, Ohio. In 1906, Patterson commissioned inventor Charles Kettering to design the first cash register powered by an electric motor. Within a few years, Kettering had developed NCRs Class 1000 register, which remained in production for four decades, as well as the O.K. Telephone Credit Authorization System, for verifying credit in department stores. Just five years later, the company had sold one million electric cash registers. In 1921, NCR introduced the Class 2000 accounting machine, which proved to be an important moneymaker: models of it were marketed up to 1973, making the 2000 the longest-lived of any NCR product. In 2008, NCR recorded sales revenue of $5.32 billion. headquartered company employs a staff of 23,200. The Dayton, Ohio-
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Entering the physician market
NCR and Greatwater Software collaborated to provide physician practices with a patient check-in solution that automates the registration process, minimizes repetitive data entry and delivers targeted health information at the point of care. Florida-based Greatwater Software is a health care IT solutions company that will provide NCR with hardware and software for its patient registration kiosks and will extend the companys self-service platform to include additional physician-specific applications. March 2009: Changes in Dundee NCR announced proposed restructuring in Dundee that includes the cease of manufacturing and reduction of 252 jobs. In a statement, NCR said it has informed its people regarding the proposal and is beginning a 90-day consultation process with union and employee representatives.
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February 2009: Introducing APTRATM NCR launched NCR APTRA Consumer Passport, a new software that enables consumers to deposit checks into their checking or savings accounts without leaving their homes and without purchasing any new hardware. The software works with any financial institutions online banking site and processes checks through a TWAIN-based scanner. January 2009: We are the Champion Global technology research firm Aberdeen Group named NCR a Champion in its Aberdeen AXIS Report for Retail Point of Sale (POS) Systems. As a global evaluation tool, Aberdeen AXIS assesses retailers based on market readiness and best value delivered to customers. NCR has performed above par. Our data shows that NCR provides 50 percent higher value to its customers when compared to the norm. According to our data and qualitative interviews with NCR customers, the main advantage of NCR POS software is the ease of integration, flexibility and scalability when combined with NCR hardware, said Sahir Anand, Aberdeen senior research analyst, quoted in a company press release. November 2008: Winning design NCRs SelfServ 25 ATM won the computer and business products category of the 2008 Chinas Most Successful Designs awards sponsored by Fortune China magazine and China Bridge International. Aside from its unique design and innovative product development, SelfServ 25 wowed the judges in meeting and exceeding customer needs. August 2008: Buying NCI NCR announced its purchase of NCI Ltd., a U.K.-based provider of teller connectivity software popular among financial institutions. NCR chairman and CEO Bill Nuti said this acquisition will ease the introduction of branch automation that will change branch productivity as well as user experience. Bringing NCIs expertise to NCR demonstrates our commitment to the teller automation market and underlines our intention to enhance NCRs total solution offer as we grow our assisted- and self-service business, Nuti said in a company statement. May 2008: Reaping awards NCR was included in the 2008 Global Outsourcing 100 by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). This award is given to companies who excel in the retail and consumer goods outsourcing arena.
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GETTING HIRED
Ring up your career at NCR NCRs careers page, at www.ncr.com/about_ncr/careers, provides information for both experienced and newly graduated candidates. Openings are searchable by region, function and keyword; in order to apply, job seekers must first create a profile. NCR has diversity groups for women, Hispanic, African-American, Asian, disabled and GLBT employees. Benefits include health insurance and a 401(k) plan. NCR also offers internships and entry-level positions for students and recent graduates in the United States and abroad. Interns must be pursuing a line of study related to one of the following business areas: IT, accounting and finance, procurement, engineering, professional services or marketing. Questions can be directed to University.Relations@ncr.com.
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NETWORK APPLIANCE INCORPORATED

495 East Java Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Phone: (408) 822-6000 Fax: (408) 822-4501 www.netapp.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: NTAP Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman & CEO: Dan Warmenhoven 2008 Employees: 7,999 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,300 2008 Income ($ mil.): 309.7
LOCATIONS
Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) 84 locations worldwide
KEY COMPETITORS
EMC Hewlett-Packard IBM
DEPARTMENTS
Business Operations Customer Support Engineering Facilities Finance General & Administration Hardware Engineering Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing NetApp University/Training Professional Services Sales Software Engineering Systems Engineering
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.netapp.com/us/company/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Network Appliance Incorporated
THE SCOOP
No, they dont sell USB-enabled fridges
Network Appliance (or NetApp) provides specialized data storage devices to companies involved in pharmaceutical and biotech research, computer animation, telecoms and manufacturing. Its customers include Yahoo!, Boston University, Chevron, BMW, Industrial Light & Magic, AGFA, the U.S. Army Command and the Swiss Federal Government. NetApps products are sold in 120 countries, and its stock is listed on the S&P 500. The company was founded by Michael Malcolm, David Hitz and James Lau, who were working for Auspex Corp., a file server manufacturer. They were all computer engineers, although, before his career in the computer industry, Hitz worked as a cowboy (yes, cowboy). NetApp started in 1992, when Malcolm, Hitz and Lau jotted down their business plan onto restaurant napkins, but they didnt get a product ready for retail until the following year. The young company went through the usual startup struggles; they posted losses their first few years in business and were having trouble finding investors. By 1994, it became clear that investors were growing wary of Malcolm, the co-founder who was then serving as CEO. Hitz and Lau brought in Daniel Warmenhoven, a 13-year veteran at IBM, as its new CEO in October of the same year, and he immediately set about convincing wary consumers of the benefits of NetApps unconventional new product. This product, the brainchild of Hitz, Lau and the departed Malcolm, was a wholly new and different type of technology, which is probably why it struggled out of the starting gate. Where data storage had historically been encumbered by specific network requirements and limitations, NetApp had pursued a quicker and easier approach. CEO Warmenhoven grew fond of using a refrigerator metaphor to describe it: The issues around data management were complex, Warmenhoven has said, but they neednt be. We built a data refrigerator. Open the door. Take something out. Close the door. Its a simple, dedicated, data appliance. As demand for its products increased, they found their way into the offices of Walt Disney, Boeing and Citicorp by 1998. The company hit a rough patch in the early 2000s, as the tech bubbles bursting caused tech spending to fall off, and it posted a loss in 2002. But NetApp picked itself up and restructured, returning to profitability the following year. It is currently in good financial health, as revenue and profits have increased in recent years, clocking in for 2008 at $3.3 billion in revenue and $309.7 million in profits.
Virtual storage
Contrary to what many people believe, magnetic tape data storagewhich dates from the era of UNIVAC-type mainframe computersis still a viable technology and used by many companies to keep their records on hand. And it has proven less expensive and more spatially efficient than storing data on discs until only recentlyit isnt used
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for much beyond infrequently accessed archives, however, since it can be very slow. NetApp, having conquered much of the frequently accessed archives, has turned its sights on these poor, slow systems; it wants to unstick these companies from tape. As such, in 2006, NetApp introduced its Virtual Tape Library (VTL), a device wherein backup software functions like a tape library while actually storing the data on discs. The data on the discs can also be compressed to allow for more efficient use of the space contained on the device, and it should save any IT department a bundle in costs. NetApp has consistently ranked as one of the best companies to work for according to Fortune magazine. The company currently employs 7,999 personnel.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: VMware partner status NetApp announced that it is now a VMware Authorized Consultant (VAC) partner, meaning it can help users optimize their VMware environments. It also announced that it has developed new storage and data management upgrades for VMware View that help deploy and operate virtual desktops faster. March 2009: Top vendor NetApp was named 2009 CRN Channel Champion for the Network Storage category. The largest technology integrator market study in the industry, the CRNChannel Champions measures the overall perceptions of vendor products and the services of solution providers. 2007: Need some A-SIS-tance? NetApp introduced the Advanced Single Instance Storage (A-SIS) a deduplicating program that reduces duplicate data entries, reducing the volume of data in a database by a factor of 20. By trimming the number of gigabytes a company has to mind, this program reduces the number of servers it must invest in and buy power for. The program is intended for companies that maintain large quantities of data, like telephone directories and medical records, or companies that need backup or store old electronic documents for legal purposes.
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GETTING HIRED
Store your career with Network Appliance
The NetApp careers site, at www.netapp.com/jobs, provides information about job openings and benefits for prospective hires. To apply for a position, applicants must create a job account with the company. NetApp is welcoming applications; although the data storage sector is going through hard times recently, NetApp actually increased its headcount by over 1,000 employees last year. In 2007, Network Appliance was named No. 6 on Forbes magazines 100 Best Companies to Work For list. It was praised for its accommodation of parents with special-needs children and widespread use of flex schedules. The companys stellar benefits include health, dental and vision insurance, a generous vacation plan, stock options for new hires as well as established employees and a 401(k) with company matching.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Phone interviews are common in NetApp. I had three rounds of interviews with different managers. The interview was pretty standard, nothing to throw you off course, a contact notes. Interns normally get about $18 per hour, depending on the department one is assigned to and the position. Another insider says, I think the class standing also has some impact on the compensation. The interns also get free lunches about once a week, which was really nice.
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NOVELL INCORPORATED
404 Wyman Street, Suite 500 Waltham, MA 02451 Phone: (801) 861-7000 www.novell.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Support Business Management Consulting Services Customer Services Education Finance Human Resources Information Systems Marketing/Product Marketing Operations/Facilities Product Management Sales Sales/Systems Engineering Software Development Software Development Management Software Test/Quality Technical Support
LOCATIONS
Waltham, MA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Bentonville, AK Cambridge, MA Chicago, IL Vienna, VA Bangalore Barcelona Beijing Bertrange, Luxembourg Bogot Bracknell, United Kingdom Brisbane Brussels Budapest Buenos Aires Kolkata, India Canberra City, Australia Caracas Champagne-au-mont-d'or, France Chennai Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Dubai Dublin Dsseldorf Edinburgh Espoo, Finland Frankfurt Guangzhou Hong Kong Horsholm, Denmark Istanbul Kfar Saba, Israel Lisbon Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Milan Monterrey, Mexico Montreal Moscow Mumbai New Delhi Nuremberg Oslo Paris Prague Rome Rotterdam So Paulo Shanghai Singapore Kiev Riga, Latvia Stockholm Sydney Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw Wellington Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: NOVL Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: Thomas G. Plaskett President & CEO: Ronald W. Hovsepian 2008 Employees: 4,000 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 956
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microsoft Red Hat
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
careers.novell.com/psp/css89prd/EMPLOYE E/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Novell Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Its all about networking
Novell has long been best known for network technology, but it is also making moves on the desktop environment. Its flagship NetWare network operating system connects desktops to corporate networks, integrating directories, storage systems, printers, servers and databases. Still the worlds largest networking software company, with more than 80 million users around the globe, its offerings include email (GroupWise), secure identity management (Novell Nsure), web application development (Novell exteNd) and cross-platform networking services (Novell Nterprise), all of which are supported by consulting and professional services (Novell Ngage). The company also distributes and supports SUSE Linux.
Novel-l engineers
The big name in Novells early history is Ray Noorda, who served as the companys CEO and guiding light for over a decade after its founding, but was not present at its birth. That distinction belongs to Dennis Fairclough, who was a computer engineer in the late 1970s, working at the Eyring Research Institute. ERI was a laboratory in Utah which contracted in computer research with the government, often hand-inhand with Brigham Young Universitys computer science department. Fairclough was also student at BYU while working at ERI, as were his fellow ERI engineers Drew Major, Kyle Powell and Dale Neibauer; they joined Fairclough at the inception of Novell Data Systems in 1979. Major, Powell and Neibauer left to found SuperSet Software in 1981, whose technology derived, naturally, from work they were doing at BYU and ERI. At present, Novell has a staff of 4,000 employees and had revenue of $956.5 million during fiscal year 2008.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Confident despite first quarter drop Novell released its first fiscal quarter 2009 financial results. Revenue totaled $215 million, a drop compared to $231 million for first quarter of 2008. Net income totaled $11 million, or $0.03 per share, against $17 million, or $0.05 per share, of first quarter 2008. Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian is confident about the months to come. While our invoicing was below our expectations in this weak economy, we continued to take actions to carefully manage our operating margin, he said in a statement.
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January 2009: Expanding data portfolio With the aim of boosting its data portfolio, Novell recently launched the myCMDB, which is the only web-based application that taps social networking to enhance the usability, accessibility and accuracy of the enterprise configuration management database (CMDB). Novell also launched other projects such as the iFolder, an open-source initiative for client software such as Linux, Mac OS X and Linux, and the Mono project, which offers the Mono and MonoDevelop for greater scalability and productivity for independent software vendors (ISVSs). December 2008: Delaying the bad news? Novell reported a narrower quarterly loss due to cost-cutting measures that acted to offset zero revenue growth. The company revealed a loss of $16.3 million, or 5 cents per share, in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, compared to a $17.9 million, or 5 cents per share, the previous year. October 2008: Taking over Managed Objects Novell announced an agreement to acquire Managed Objects, a business service management software provider. The acquisition would result in an expanded data center solutions portfolio that would give IT and business managers a better view of how their information systems work. The Managed Objects products are very complementary to our existing management and virtualization capabilities. By adding the Managed Objects toolset to the Novell(R) portfolio of data center solutions, we are unique in providing technology-agnostic and proven crossplatform solutions that span both the physical and virtual worldsall in one unified view, Joe Wagner, Novells senior vice president of systems and resource management, said in a press release.
GETTING HIRED
Networking will serve your career well

Novells careers site, at www.novell.com/job_search/servlet/eJobSearch, provides a list of open positions by location and function. Jobs are searchable by keyword and a user name and password is required. In order to apply for a position, interested parties must fill out a web-based form after registering in the database. Internship positions are also available. Novells benefits include health, dental and life insurance, 401(k) with company match and tuition reimbursement. Novell may be headquartered in Massachusetts, with offices in over 30 countries, but almost half of its employees (approximately 3,000) work at the companys Provo, Utah, campusthe company has been operating out of Utah Valley for almost two decades.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Try a Novell option
The corporate culture is open and honest, says one insider. His colleague, on the other hand, disagrees. The one constant at Novell is change, says employee respondent, quoting from the latest management best seller. Cost-cutting and expense minimization create an atmosphere of stress and fear, as well as degeneration of morale. Novell is trying to reinvent itself, so there is a good deal of culture change right now, says a more diplomatic co-worker. The constant changes mean that opportunities for advancement are slim. Despite the atmosphere of fear, uncertainty and doubt, life at the company goes on. Dress code is casual, except for the executive level, which is business casual or dress, says one source. Hours are fairly flexible. Diversity is as diverse as working in Provo, Utah, can be, says another associate.
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NVIDIA CORPORATION
2701 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95050 Phone: (408) 486-2000 Fax: (408) 486-2200 www.nvidia.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: NVDA Stock Exchange: NASDAQ President & CEO: Jen-Hsun Huang 2008 Employees: 5,000 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 4,097.9 2008 Income ($mil.): 797.6
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Bedford, MA Bellevue, WA Bothell, WA Boulder, CO Durham, NC Fort Collins, CO Houston, TX Madison, AL Salt Lake City, UT St. Louis, MO Bangalore Beijing Helsinki Hong Kong HsinChu, Taiwan Hyderabad Moscow Mumbai Munich Paris Pune, India Reading, United Kingdom Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Taipei Tokyo Wurselen, Germany Zurich
KEY COMPETITORS
AMD Creative Technology Intel Corp.
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
careers.nvidia.com Email: hr@nvidia.com
DEPARTMENTS
Architecture Hardware HR IT Software Systems & Applications Technical Marketing
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition NVIDIA Corporation
THE SCOOP
You can see everything from here
NVIDIA makes graphics processors, computer chips and circuit boards. The companys chips, which offer both two- and three-dimensional graphics, are used in personal computers and in motherboards built by other companies. NVIDIA chips are used in products made by some of the biggest names in the computer industry, including Dell, IBM and Sony. Its circuit boards find application in mobile phones, games and industrial design applications. Founded in 1993, NVIDIA is the widely recognized inventor of the GPU, or graphics processing unit, which generates modern, interactive graphics for todays personal computers, mobile devices, and gaming consoles. The company offers its GeForce products, which are aimed towards the entertainment and consumer markets, and its Quadro products, aimed towards professional design and visualization. NVIDIA also serves the high-performance computing market through its Tesla line.
Community service
The company also provides community-empowering initiatives through The NVIDIA Foundation, an employee-led program that seeks to help marginalized people by way of educational partnerships, medical missions and anti-hunger and antipoverty activities.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Fighting back NVIDIA formally filed a countersuit seeking to end Intels license on its patent portfolio. In February, NVIDIA responded to the court case filed by Intel, which stated that the four-year-old chipset license agreement entered into by the two companies does not extend to Intels future-generation CPUs that contain integrated memory controllers. Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA, said that the company had no choice but to defend itself and the rights we negotiated for when we provided Intel access to our valuable patents. He further told the press that NVIDIA did not initiate this legal dispute, and that Intel's actions are intended to block us from making use of the very license rights that they agreed to provide. September 2008: Addition by subtraction? NVIDIA announced that it will lay off 6.5 percent of its workforce, or about 360 employees, by October 26th, in a move to recover from lost market share and cut
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prices on some chips brought about by competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices.
GETTING HIRED
Visualize yourself at NVIDIA
NVIDIAs careers page, at careers.nvidia.com/pljb/nvidia/nvidiaemployment/applicant/index.jsp, provides information on job openings, benefits and college recruiting. To apply, interested parties must first create a profile and apply online or send their resumes via email to hr@nvidia.com. Prospective employees must also undergo a background check before an offer of employment is made. Benefits include a choice of health care plans, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), stock purchase plan, college savings plans, flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent care expenses and a generous vacation policy. Employees can also receive chair massages, on-site haircuts, laundry and dry-cleaning pickup and delivery services, a subsidized caf and a health club allowance. NVIDIA recruits students for internships, co-ops and entry-level positions. Interns and co-ops can join the software, hardware, architecture, systems and applications, technical marketing or IT departments. Interns tenures are heavily subsidized, from transportation and food at the caf to assistance in shipping things hither and yon. To apply, submit a resume to myfuture@nvidia.com.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Interviews at NVIDIA revolve around projects done while still studying, at least for engineers. Says one process engineer, After asking company-related questions, they started asking questions related to projects I did during my studies. They also asked questions that were aimed to test my people skills. Adds a hardware engineer, I was invited for a full day to be interviewed by five to six people, who were mostly engineers. The process was quite prompt. I got my offer in a weeks time. Interns, on the other hand, are recruited via school visits and face-to-face interviews. The company has recruitment programs with selected universities. Interviews are basically comprised of technical questions. I think theyre just looking to see if you are what is represented in your resume. They want to know if you can communicate well and be a good team player, recalls an intern. Salaries depend on the position and job description. Says an insider, Salary is around $30,000 to $60,000 for engineers. As a starting engineer, the average lowrange salary is around $40,000; median salary is around $60,000, and top salaries
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are around $70,000. With less than a year of experience, the actual salary is around $50,000 a year. For interns, the salary is about $4,000 a month. Benefits include housing for the first two weeks and car rental for the duration of the internship. Air fare is paid for. Dress code is casual and work hours are flexible, such that people generally work between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. At night and on weekends, only a handful of people will be working, according to sources. In general, NVIDIA respondents have this to say with regard to company culture: The work culture here is great, very client-focused and performance-driven. I am happy to be part of this organization, says an insider. His colleague, on the other hand, takes a more realistic view of things, the environment is like consulting, where you will definitely have opportunities to have engagements of different types. It is good to be able to try different things, but one gets a feeling of being very disposable, given that anyone could be asked to do your job. The organization is pretty flat, thus opportunities for advancement [are] limited.
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ON SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
5005 East McDowell Road Phoenix, AZ 85008 Phone: (602) 244-6600 Fax: (602) 244-6609 www.onsemi.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ONNN Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: J. Daniel McCranie President & CEO: Keith Jackson 2008 Employees: 15,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,054.8 2008 Income ($ mil.): -393
LOCATIONS
Phoenix, AZ (HQ) Austin, TX American Fork, UT Bozeman, MT Chandler, AZ Colorado Springs, CO East Greenwich, RI Gresham, OR Longmont, CO Lower Gwynedd, PA Plano, TX Pocatello, ID Portland, OR San Jose, CA Santa Clara, CA Sunnyvale, CA Twain Harte, CA Aizu, Japan Bangkok Bratislava Brno, Czech Republic Bucharest Hong Kong Hsinchu City, Taiwan Laguna, Philippines Leshan, China Oudenaarde, Belgium Piestany, Slovakia Roznov, Czech Republic Seremban, Malaysia Shanghai Sofia, Bulgaria Vilvoorde, Belgium
KEY COMPETITORS
Fairchild Semiconductor Infineon National Semiconductor STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/content.d o?id=1035
DEPARTMENTS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Accounting Engineering Facilities Financial General Management Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Operations Quality Sales & Marketing Security Supply Chain/Logistics Support & Administration Technical Writing Technicians Technology & Development
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition ON Semiconductor Corporation
THE SCOOP
Theyre always ON
ON Semiconductor is a leading provider of integrated circuits and standard components that control the flow of power and data through everything from cars to computers, televisions to game consoles and communications servers to MP3 players and mobile phones. With a catalog of more than 28,000 parts, the companys devices are used in electronics made by Intel, Continental, Siemens, Sony, Samsung, Motorola and Philips, to name a few. The company derives its name from its integral naturewithout its tiny chips, one simply cannot turn many machines on.
ON with the energy

Motorola sold off its semiconductor products division to a private equity firm in 1999, which then became ON Semiconductor. The following year, ON Semiconductor acquired Cherry Semiconductor, which provides power control chips to the car industry, for a quarter of a billion dollars. Also in 2000, the company raised $500 million in its IPO, which it used to pay down debt. ON Semiconductor introduced its GreenPoint power supply reference designs for desktop computers, LCD and CRT televisions and 60-, 90- and 200-watt power supplies for other devices, like printers. These operate at an efficiency of 83 percent12 percent more efficiently than a nonpower-saving chipand consume 300 fewer milliwatts when turned off. The 80 Plus and EnergyStar programs have recognized the chips for their efficiency.
Green as in cash
The GreenPoint chips seem to be bringing in green of a more financial sort, too: in 2006, ONs yearly revenue was $1.5 billion, up 22 percent over the year before. Profits also came in at a record-setting $272 million. That same year, the company purchased a factory in Gresham, Ore., from LSI Logic, a semiconductor vet seeking to slim down and go fab-less. At press time, ON Semiconductor has 14,172 employees. The company reported sales revenue amounting to $2.05 billion in fiscal 2008 but it registered a net loss of $393 million.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Settlement with Samsung ON Semiconductor announced a settlement with Samsung resolving the outstanding patent infringement actions on DRAM products filed against the company by the latter. At present, both companies have agreed to cross-license their respective patent portfolios for several years.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition ON Semiconductor Corporation
February 2008: Net loss reaches $393 million The company announced that total revenue in 2008 reached $2.05 billion, an increase of 31 percent from $1.56 billion in 2007. However, the GAAP net loss for 2008 was $393 million, a big slide from 2007, during which the company reported GAAP net income of $242.2 million. ON Semiconductor also announced its decision to close down its remaining Phoenix wafer-fab facility by the end of the first quarter 2010 and transfer production to another site within the companys manufacturing infrastructure. October 2008: Acquiring a Catalyst The company completed its acquisition of Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. in a stockfor-stock merger. Keith Jackson, ON Semiconductor president and CEO said, The merger represents another step in the transformation of ON Semiconductor. With the combination of ON Semiconductor's global footprint, effective channels of distribution, and top-tier customer relationships, we expect to be able to support a broader and deeper penetration of Catalyst's overall product portfolio. This should enable us to accelerate their revenue growth and increase market share. March 2008: Merging with mon AMIS In a stock-for-stock transaction estimated at $613 million, ON Semiconductor completed its acquisition of AMIS Holdings, Inc. in a bid to enhance ONs analog and power leadership. Under the merger agreement, stockholders of AMIS received 1.5 shares of ON common stock for each share of AMIS they own. AMIS stockholders now have a 26 percent stake in ON.
GETTING HIRED
Turn your career ON
ON Semiconductors careers page, at www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/ content.do?id=1035, provides information on careers in the United States, Asia and Europe. Jobs are searchable by function and location; to apply, hopeful ON-ers must first create a profile. Internships and opportunities for recent college graduates are also available at ON. The former are available to rising sophomores studying electrical, chemical or computer engineering, computer information systems, business, marketing, finance, supply chain management or allied fields. Most of the companys internships are based in Phoenix, Arizona, though some are in Rhode Island or another office. During their tenure, interns are eligible for paid holidays and additional compensation for time worked in excess of a 40-hour week.
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ORACLE CORPORATION
500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City, CA 94065 Phone: (650) 506-7000 Fax: (650) 506-7200 www.oracle.com
LOCATIONS
Redwood City, CA (HQ) Albany, NY Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Bala Cynwyd, PA Bellevue, WA Bentonville, AR Berwyn, PA Bloomington, MN Blue Ash, OH Boston, MA Boulder, CO Bridgewater, NJ Brookfield, WI Burlington, MA Cambridge, MA Charlotte, NC Chesapeake, VA Chester, PA Chicago, IL Cleveland, OH Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, MD Columbus, OH Costa Mesa, CA Denver, CO Eden Prairie, MN El Segundo, CA Encino, CA Fairborn, OH Farmington, CT Glen Allen, VA Grand Rapids, MI Harrisburg, PA Honolulu, HI Houston, TX Independence, OH Indianapolis, IN Irving, TX King of Prussia, PA Knoxville, TN Lexington, KY Liberty Corner, NJ Memphis, TN Miami, FL Minneapolis, MN Moon Township, PA Mt. Laurel, NJ Nashua, NH Nashville, TN New York, NY Northborough, MA Novato, CA Omaha, NE Onalaska, WI Orlando, FL Overland Park, KS Phoenix, AZ Plano, TX Pleasanton, CA Portland, OR Providence, RI Raleigh, NC Reston, VA Rochester, NY Rocklin, CA San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Sandy, UT Santa Clara, CA St. Louis, MO Stamford, CT Tallahassee, FL Tampa, FL Tarrytown, NY Teaneck, NJ Trenton, NJ Troy, MI Washington, DC Westchester, IL Wolfeboro, NH 92 International Locations.
DEPARTMENTS
Business Operations Computing Consulting Facilities Finance General Administrative/Secretarial Human Resources Information Technology Legal Marketing Manufacturing & Distribution Pre-sales Product Development Sales Support Training
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ORCL Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: Jeffrey O. Henley CEO: Lawrence J. Ellison 2008 Employees: 85,000 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 22,430 2008 Income ($mil.): 5,521
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microsoft SAP
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.oracle.com/corporate/employment/ind ex.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Oracle Corporation
THE SCOOP
Making the business world go round
Oracle is the worlds No. 2 business software company (behind Microsoft) and a leading provider of databases and programs for web development, enterprise performance assessment, supply chain, customer relationship and HR management. In 2008, BusinessWeek ranked the company No. 22 on its InfoTech 100 (its business software competitor, Microsoft, ranked ninth).
Spreading its roots

In 1977, Larry Ellison, a computer programmer at Ampex Corp., entered into a partnership with his current boss, Robert Miner. Ellisons intention was to form a company that would capitalize on technology first developed by IBM. He put up $2,000 of his own money and called the firm Software Development Laboratories. The company was renamed Relational Software Inc. in 1979 and finally became known as Oracle in 1983, after its flagship database product. The Oracle database was prophetically designed. As it was especially adapted to work with IBMs structured query language (SQL), a computer language that relayed information on how to store and retrieve information on databases, use of Oracle became widespread when the SQL language became an industry standard. Throughout the 1980s, Oracle produced several types of databases, each varied to suit different customers needs. In 1986, the company had marketing subsidiaries in 17 countries outside the United States and clients in 39 total countries; that year, it also issued shares for the first time. By the next year, Oracle was the worlds largest database management software company, with 4,500 clients in 55 countries. It was listed on the S&P 500 as a tech sector representative of the economy in 1989.
A behemoth of startups called Oracle

After teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, acquiring startups and changing its focus from selling mainframe storage solutions to data consulting services, Oracle has come a long way as a major player in the industry. In 2005 and 2006, the company snapped up 26 startups with complementary product lines to its own. Its biggest acquisition, however, was the purchase of Siebela supplier of customer relationship management (CRM) software, a growing software area thats expected to reach $10 billion in 2009for $5.8 billion in September 2005. The deal made Oracle the No. 1 supplier of CRM software, which is a blow to main competitor SAP. Oracle will be a force to reckon with for a very long time. As of fiscal 2008, the company achieved revenue of $22.43 billion. With headquarters in Redwood, California, it has a staff of about 84,233 employees.
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IN THE NEWS
April 2009: The Sun is ours After rejecting IBMs offer, Sun Microsystems agreed to merge with Oracle, creating a monster of a rival for IBM. While the deal is still being fine-tuned, at press time, analysts cheered the news. Oracle dished out approximately $7 billion or $9.50 per share for Sun. March 2009: Exceeding expectations Oracle went over Wall Street forecasts and posted a strong performance in the shares and revenue arenas. The company performed better than expected, earning 3 cents per share more than what analysts expected. Revenue in the third fiscal period (Oracles fiscal year ends in the middle of the year, unlike some companies that follow the calendar year) was higher than the previous years, with Oracle raking in $5.45 billion, which was 2 percent more than $5.35 billion in 2007. November 2008: Purchasing Primavera Oracle acquired Primavera, a leading provider of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions, to accelerate its delivery of mission-critical operational applications. The Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) and DKI Jakartas Education Office also signed an agreement for the rollout of OEFs ThinkQuest platform to government schools across the region. ThinkQuest is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to integrate learning projects into their classroom curriculum. September 2008: The Oracle train keeps chew-chewing Eager to beef up its list of acquired companies, Oracle bought out ClearApp, a player in the service-oriented architecture (where software products are evaluated against each other, performance-wise). Although no amount has been disclosed, this acquisition is nothing new to Oracle, a company thats been termed the Oracle Acquisition Machine by a columnist in The New York Times. In 2007, the company bought 11 companies. September 2008: Counting the Beehive in Oracle unveiled Beehive, a communication suite intended to rival software package players like Microsoft, Google and IBM. Collaboration software lets employees communicate and work together via a single software set. Oracles package contains applications for email, voicemail, instant message, shared calendar, web conferencing and shared documents. This package is compatible with Microsofts Exchange and Outlook. September 2008: I saw Oracle standing there Like the high school prom where the jock chose someone besides the cheerleader to be his date, Oracle entered the hardware part of the data warehousing market
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hand in hand with Hewlett Packard. A couple of jaws dropped, specifically Suns, since the two companies have been business allies for quite a while, with their CEOs counting each other as a personal friend. It was the economy, really, that drove a wedge between these longtime partners. Suns figures were on the decline, while HP is only starting to flex its data management muscle. Things will be strictly the same, with Oracles strong sales force wooing customers. Only this time, HP is going to make, deliver and service the gear. Technically, it seemed that Oracle became the bridge between HP and its potential pool of clients. But Oracle is also going to plant its database on HP servers. Since they are known for their vast amounts of storage, Oracle boosts its softwares performancethere is already a direct connection between the information requested and the person requesting it. August 2008: Changing of the guards. Again. Making him the fourth chief financial officer (CFO) in the four years since longtime CFO Jeff Henley retired, Jeffrey Epstein replaced Safra Catz as the companys chief bean counter. Catz returned to her title as co-president, a role she left when thenCFO Greg Maffei resigned after a measly four months on the job. As part of his duties, Epstein handles finance, finance operations, tax, treasury, real estate, investor relations, audit and customer leasing. August 2008: The best-paid CEO According to the Associated Press, Oracles CEO is the highest-paid chief executive in the United States, receiving a package worth $84.6 million. Ellison is currently worth $25 billion. APs calculation includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options in a fiscal year. Ellison raked in $544 million when he exercised his option to cash in on 36 million stock options in Oracles 2007 fiscal year. June 2008: Winded but theres windfall Considering the economy and its volatility, Oracle managed to impress analysts when it posted a 24 percent growth in revenue in the fourth quarter. Sales of new software licenses rise to $3.1 billion from $2.5 billion. "We are aware of the broader economic environment in which we operate, and we cant predict the economy from one quarter to the next," Oracles then-Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz said, and thats partly why the company gave a conservative prediction about its revenue generation for the year. But Oracles strong fourth-quarter showing boosted the companys confidence, leading one analyst to observe that Oracles sales culture and diversified product lineup are thriving in the currently grim economy. January 2008: Yes, but no, but yes Trying to jump back on the acquisition bandwagon, Oracle smoothly realigned its offer to buy BEA Systems after its original unsolicited bid was rejected. Three months after this firm refusal, with BEA saying that no, thank you, it can well manage on its own, Oracle acquired the company for a cool $8.5 billion, which was 14 percent more than its original share price bid offer. With the acquisition of BEA,
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Oracle holds the market for middleware business software (so-called since its between a companys database and payroll, human resources and inventory systems) since the acquired company is touted as a pioneer in middleware. After BEA rejected Oracles initial bid offer, no other buyer emerged.
GETTING HIRED
See your future at Oracle
Oracles careers page, at www.oracle.com/corporate/employment/index.html, provides information on job openings, college recruiting and benefits at the company. Jobs are searchable by function and location; to apply, interested parties must create a profile. The company encourages its employees to transfer between jobs after a year or two, and also provides ample training sessions on technical and nontechnical subjects, as well as tuition reimbursement. Oracle offers its staff a flexible benefits plan. Each employee is given a certain number of benefits credits; unused credits can be added to a flexible spending plan or 401(k) program, or taken as income. Benefits for purchase include health, dental and vision insurance; life, disability and flexible spending accounts. Oracle also offers some cushy employee perks, including discounts on auto and home insurance, computers, cars, amusements park admissions and more. Other benefits include the aforementioned 401(k), discount stock purchase plan, generous vacation time and flexible working hours. College students interested in joining Oracle can check out www.oracle.com/corporate/employment/college/index.html, which provides a wealth of information about the hiring process and life at the company. There is a page of advice for students attending campus interviews (dont dress up, ask questions) and a virtual tour of Oracles campus in California. Resumes can be directed to Larry Lynn, Director of Recruiting, at LSLYNN_US@oracle.com; any questions can be sent to college_us@oracle.com. Students who are still a few years away from their graduation day can apply for internships by sending a resume to interns_us@oracle.com; internships are available for computer science majors in product development. Oracle provides housing and transportation for interns.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Imagining situations
Planning to jump on the Oracle bandwagon? Some respondents report that they went through two to four rounds of interviews, with questions being asked of them mostly
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situational. But an insider comments that on the last interview, the questions were strictly technical, except the last that had a sprinkle of behavioral questions. One former applicant, who is now with the company, says that Oracle uses a computerized talent sourcing pool called iRecruitment, an Oracle product that it also sells. Apparently, the company is really looking for the right personality and fits with the right kind of experience. One respondent sums that up by saying that these people should be good workersand who will have good attitudes and not rock the boat. After all, one contact says that if they really want you, they will hire you right away for a permanent position.
If you like IT
Oracles working environment is pretty good for someone whos into computers and software. One insider reports, Working in Oracle is great in terms of technology. Also, theres plenty of room for advancement. The companys work culture is liberal and flexible, reports an overseas contact. Although the environment is pretty competitive, theres also the belief that employees are up against equally competent and driven colleagues, the insider continues. Another contact says that, due to the global reach of Oracle, the work culture here is very client-focused and performance-driven. The company also has a relaxed policy when it comes to the dress code. Dress code is business casual, except on your first day at a client site, one respondent reports. The current salary for consultants is about $77,000. Quarterly performance bonuses are dependent on utilization and corporate performance. Vacation time for the first three years13 daysis strictly accrued. Oracle also takes care of work permits. Oracle also gives its employees opportunities to grow. Reports one contact, You receive great training opportunities, which I have not seen anywhere else.
Great times ahead

Some respondents report that Oracles business outlook is very healthy. It helps that the company has acquired a lot of startups in other key areas of the information technology industry, making it a formidable player who cant be discouraged by the current economic downturn. I believe Oracle is gonna (sic) be the future of the programming area, predicts one insider. As an insider, I believe in Oracle and it has got a long way to go. One contact observes, Oracle is in a high-growth period, further adding that its a great opportunity to work in a company thats presently expanding its reach in the industry, since it offers a lot of room for career growth.
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PALM INCORPORATED
950 West Maude Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Phone: (408) 617-7000 Fax: (408) 617-0100 www.palm.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: PALM Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: Jon Rubinstein President & CEO: Edward T. Colligan 2008 Employees: 1,050 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,318 2008 Income ($ mil): -105.4
LOCATIONS
Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) Auckland, New Zealand Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Bogota Breda, Netherlands Caracas Hong Kong Lima, Peru Madrid Manila Mexico City Milan Munich Ontario Santiago So Paulo Singapore Sydney Windsor, United Kingdom
KEY COMPETITORS
Apple Nokia Research in Motion
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT DEPARTMENTS

Administration Business Development Customer Services eCommerce Sales Engineering Facilities Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Operations Product Marketing Professional Services Sales www.palm.com/us/company/careers.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Palm Incorporated
THE SCOOP
The power is in your hand
Palm Incorporated, which manufactures popular personal digital assistants (PDAs), has distinguished itself as a tech powerhouse and as a successful startup in a field rich with failures. Over the course of its development, the Palm has evolved from a device that kept phone numbers and to-do lists to an all-purpose address book, phone and email device. It isnt just for salesmen and executives anymore, either. Stanley Access Solutions is using the device to calibrate and repair automatic sliding doors, and doctors employ it to carry instantly updated medical records for their patients. The companys first handheld device, the Palm 1000, appeared in 1996, and in 2001, the first phone-equipped Palm hit the market, followed by the first phone and email Palm the following year.
The One isnt number one

In 2003, Palm acquired rival Handspring, and PalmOne, the companys official name after the merger, was born. In 2005, One was dropped from the name and the company officially became Palm. Thats not the only thing that dropped in the market, though. In 2006, customers were spending twice as much on smartphones as they did on handheld computers, the latter being Palms bread and butter since the introduction of its PDA a decade ago. As any tech-obsessed teenager can attest to, smartphones are all the rage in the market, with plenty of extras like cameras, music players, text messaging and calendar applications. This proliferation of extra functions has silenced a big rumble in Palms thunder, and the company was forced to reconsider its position in the handheld device market.
Also looming over the playing field is the fact that the mobile device landscape is already saturated with full-featured devices, such as Research in Motions BlackBerry and Apples iPhone. Palms got to do some quick and smart thinking if it wants to regain its share of the market thats been gobbled up by its competitors.
Revamping the Palm

At an investor conference, Palms CEO Ed Colligan revealed that Palm was revamping its production process in 2007, reducing the cost of parts by a third by standardizing the base on which its devices are built. This streamlining will also enable Palm to sell smartphones inexpensively, expanding the market for these gadgets. In June 2007, Palm agreed to sell about a quarter of its outstanding shares to Elevation Partners for $325 million to inject some capital into the company. Palm also hired Jon Rubinstein, the man who had spearheaded Apples design and production of the iPod; he will
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attempt to bring in the same sort of consumer-pleasing brilliance into Palms product line as he did into Apples. Shucking off old skin, CEO Ed Colligan announced in December 2008 that the company was going to stop development of handheld PDAs, the landmark device that was the companys daily bread for most of its lifetime. Although these products are planned to roll out as long as theres demand, Palm plans to stop production by 2009. That doesnt mean the company doesnt have an ace up its sleeve, though. The mobile phone market is looking pretty tempting to the company, and its dropped hints that its rearing to take on major companies like Apple and BlackBerry for a shot at major cell phone market share. Looks like going in another direction just might take Palm to a new and pleasing destination.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Get a turn of luck already For the seventh straight quarter, Palm posted a loss of sales revenue, reporting an almost 60 percent drop in share price from 89 cents to 53 cents in the same quarter from last year. A lots riding on Pres performance now, which Palm promises to launch in July, and the company hopes that taking a share of the handheld market, dominated by the iPhone and BlackBerry, turns its luck around and gives it much-needed revenue. Palm reveals that its poor sales performance is due to a decline in demand for its older handheld models. January 2009: Get ready for a rebound During the International Consumer Electronics Show, Palm showed off its Pre: a smartphone that uses Palms new operating system. A lot is riding on this smartphone, and Palm knows that its got to get the right people on its side to get at least a share of the smartphone market. Jon Rubinstein, Palms executive chairman, admitted that the games all up to application developers. The good thing is the companys got a good relationship going with the developers they have onboard. The bad thing is, with a whole lot of people out there developing programs for Apple or Microsoft, some companies, including Palm, are hard-put to court developers for their team. Whats important, Rubinstein said, is to reinvigorate those developers, but he remained mum on what the companys doing to woo these people. Nevertheless, Palms focused on rolling out the Pre in the first half of the year. The product has already been demonstrated at a recent developers conference in January, and web bloggers are abuzz about the Pre and whether it can bump Apple off the top spot, or if it even leaves a dent in Apples hold on the market.
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December 2008: Elevating Palm U2 frontman Bonos company, Elevation Partners, in concert with other investors, pumped a $100 million lifeline into Palm to help it launch its new operating system, codenamed Nova, that the company planned to launch at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January. This came as good news to the embattled company, whose smartphone revenue fell 39 percent in its second quarter. Thanks to Elevation Partners help, Palms going to put added momentum behind the new product introductions ... and will provide [Palm] with enhanced stability in unsettled economic times, chief executive Ed Colligan said in a statement. November 2008: Saying goodbye is never easy Like most companies in trying times, Palm laid off an undisclosed number of employees in its U.S. and overseas operations to better position the company for achieving profitability and long-term growth, according to a company statement. Although the one-year old Centro is still going strong, Palm still depends on its Windows Mobile-based Treo to shore up its sales. August 2008: Signs of life The Palm Centro sold two million devices, making it a lonely jewel in Palms recent history for helping the company get more market share, raising its portion from 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 13.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008. The big question, it seems, is whos buying a Centro when theres the iPhone, the BlackBerry and the Android? The question is the answer it seems, according to Palm: 75 percent of smartphone buyers are buying it for the first time, and consumers are looking for a phone thats new but familiar to their old handheld models, one thats internet- and user-friendly without alienating consumers with a gazillion capabilities and tools. Whatever this means, Palm hopes that itsr Centro floats its sales boat for a while, at least before it officially makes its entry into the smartphone market.
June 2008: Going strong, almost Despite strong sales figures thrown in by Palms Centro, the company continued to post a fourth-quarter loss due to the Centros strong showing being offset and overshadowed by weakening demand for Palms older models like the Treo and Pilot. Not counting stock compensation and charges, Palm lost 22 cents a share. April 2008: A write-down to the ego What appeared to be a trickle of loss turned into a puddle when Palm revised its net loss for the third quarter from $31.5 million to $57 million. This was seen as a result of the global economic downturn, one that has left companies, cities and student loan organizations suffering loss of confidence in auction-rate securities due to their performance.
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January 2008: Closing Palm Seven of eight Palm retail stores, along with 26 Airport Wireless stores, are to be closed before the end of the third quarter so the company can save on resources. Another thorn thats surely going to hurt the company is that it has indicated that its sales quarter will fall to $310 million from $320 million, despite analysts expecting $357 million in sales.
GETTING HIRED
Give your career a hand
Palms careers site, at www.palm.com/us/company/careers.html, has a search form for those seeking jobs; it can be sorted by location or function. Operations, marketing and information technology had several open positions recently, as well as some listings for internships. To apply, interested parties must upload their resumes and cover letters on a web-based form. Benefits at Palm include sabbaticals and 401(k) plans with matching contributions. Whats more, employees get the option to purchase Palm stock at a discount. Theres also identity theft insurance (to pay for those legal expenses and fees) and life insurance. Lastly, theres a fitness center thats free to all employees and contractors. However, these benefits are for U.S. employees only.
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QLOGIC CORPORATION
26650 Aliso Viejo Parkway Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 Phone: (949) 389-6000 Fax: (949) 389-6126 www.qlogic.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: QLGC Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman & CEO: H.K. Desai 2009 Employees: 900 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 597.9 2008 Income ($mil.): 96.2
LOCATIONS
Aliso Viejo, CA (HQ) Austin, TX King of Prussia, PA Mountain View, CA Roseville, CA Shakopee, MN Beijing Camberley, United Kingdom Dublin Munich Pune, India Taipei Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Broadcom Brocade Communications Emulex
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Customer Care & Support Engineering Facilities Finance & Accounting Human Resources Information Technology Legal Management Marketing/Product Marketing Operations Program Management Safety Sales Systems Simulation Systems/Sales Engineering Technical Writing
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.qlogic.com/CompanyInfo/CareersHome .aspx
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition QLogic Corporation
THE SCOOP
Peripherals are central here
In beautiful Costa Mesa, Calif., QLogics cyber gurus are hard at work on the decidedly unglamorousbut profitableside of high-tech products. QLogic supplies a range of clients (including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and IBM) with the integrated circuits and adapter cards used to connect peripheral storage devices to computer networks. QLogic provides components and adapters for storage area networks (SANs) and blade servers (servers made up of several interconnected computing blades, which consist of processors and memory). Its products include the SANbox switch and SAN Express, a line of switches and busses for low-cost storage options for small and medium-sized businesses. The companys stock is included in the S&P 500 index and was on the Forbes list of the 200 Best Small Companies for the eighth time in 2006, dropping off in 2007 but going back at No. 168 in 2008.
From the render farm to the Barnyard

In 2006, QLogics switches were used to create the supercomputer that rendered the characters for Nickelodeons computer-animated film Barnyard. The work involved animating dancing cows and rendering a variety of textures, such as scales, feathers and fur. The movie required the creation of a computer system with 80 terabytes of storage and 1,200 serversjust the connectivity job for QLogic. Also that year, QLogic acquired SilverStorm Technologies, another manufacturer of computer networking equipment, for $60 million. SilverStorm provides networking equipment to some of the worlds fastest and most powerful supercomputers at NASA, Sun Microsystems, Toyota and the Department of Defense, and helped QLogic earn revenue of $494 million and profits of $283 million in the year of its acquisition. The acquisition of SilverStorm beefs up QLogics numbers, as it had already acquired four companies since it was offered as a publicly held corporation in 1994.
Any port in a storm

In early 2007, QLogic passed an important milestone when it became the worlds most prolific vendor of fiber channel ports, with 2.9 million of the devices merrily sending data to and fro in customers networks. (The runner-up only shipped 2.74 million.) This translates into a market share of just under 50 percent, an increase of 7 percent over the previous year.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Got dibs on the first run QLogic unveiled new chips and cards for the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standard, and its a first for the company and for the industry. The FCoE standard is a nifty way of transferring massive amounts of data without getting tangled up in a million cables and switches and without servers screaming uncle and losing their cool, overheating. These new products should up sales from a measly 2,000 units to two million by 2013, according to a market watcher, since QLogics product introduction should make insiders and consumers curious about this new technology. October 2008: Oh no you dont Despite the global recession, everything remained sunny at QLogic as it posted a 22 percent increase in revenue and a 20 percent increase in income. Almost all products contribute to the sales growth, with host products generating almost $120 million in sales. QLogics switch products do very well, too, rising 36 percent in sales. The company is pleased with its performance despite significant challenges as a result of the current macroeconomic environment, CEO H.K. Desai said in a statement. June 2008: Going head to head Mellanox might own the field, but QLogic hoped to get a portion of it as it rolled out a new product aiming to take consumers away from what has been their only supplier of the 20 Gbit Infiniband adapter card. The card is seen as integral to high-performance clusters and the demand for this product is comfortably in the $120 million range in sales. Not to be seen as a bit player, QLogic touts that its card is on par with Mellanoxs product, saying that it performs equally with Mellanox in terms of bandwidth and latency, while in others it surpasses it, such as the ability to carry more clustering messages per second. QLogics rolling out of the 20 Gbit adapter card is a result of the company acquiring Pathscale, a startup that manufactures 2.5 Gbit/Inifiniband cards. March 2008: Its an honor The Technology Council of Southern California named QLogic Company of the Year. The council, which aims to help information technology companies succeed in the industry, bestows the award on Southern California-based IT companies that have made great contributions to the industry in the past year.
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GETTING HIRED
Link your career to QLogic
QLogics careers pages, at www.qlogic.com/CompanyInfo/CareersHome.aspx, provide information on job opportunities and benefits. Openings can be searched by location and function; operations, finance and accounting and sales were some departments seeking hires at press time. In order to apply, interested parties must fill out a webbased form with their contact information and work history. Theres also an option to create a job agent that personalizes the search and emails job openings when they arise. Benefits, for which employees are eligible from the first day of work, include a choice of health plans, dental and vision insurance, tuition assistance, stock purchase plan, incentives if the company does well, 401(k) with company matching, a wellness program with subsidized gym memberships, referral bonuses and 11 paid holidays per year, including a shutdown for December holidays.
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QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
5775 Morehouse Drive San Diego, CA 92121 Phone: (858) 587-1121 Fax: (858) 658-2100 www.qualcomm.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Business Development Engineering Facilities Finance Government Relations Human Resource Information Technology Legal Library & Information Services Manufacturing Marketing Procurement Project/Product Management Public Relations Sales Technical Support
LOCATIONS
San Diego, CA (HQ) Allen, TX Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Boulder, CO Bridgewater, NJ Cary, NC Champaign, IL Chandler, AZ Chicago, IL Clemmons, NC Concord, MA Kansas City, MO King of Prussia, PA Las Vegas, NV Los Altos Hills, CA Miami, FL New York, NY Portland, OR San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Santa Clara, CA Seattle, WA Washington, DC Albogatan, Sweden Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Brasilia, Brazil Breukelen, Netherlands Cambridge Dubai Dublin Espoo, Finland Farnborough, United Kingdom Gyungsangbuk-Do, South Korea Haifa Ho Chi Minh City Hong Kong Hsinchu City, Taiwan Hyderabad Jakarta Johannesburg Kanata, Canada London Madrid Markham, Canada Melbourne Mexico City Milan Moscow, Russia Mumbai Munich Munster, Germany New Delhi Noormarkku, Finland Nuremberg Osaka Paris Poole, United Kingdom Rome So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Singapore Stockholm Sulzbach, Germany Sydney Taipei Tijuana Tokyo Waalre, Netherlands
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: QCOM Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman & CEO: Dr. Paul E. Jacobs President: Steven R. Altman 2008 Employees: 15,400 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 11,142 2008 Income ($ mil.): 3,160
KEY COMPETITORS
Broadcom Nokia Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.qualcomm.com/careers/index.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition QUALCOMM Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Today, CDMA, tomorrow, the world!
QUALCOMM MANUFACTURES of software and microchips for cellular phones. A communications pioneer, the company invented the CDMA (code-division multiple access) code, which is a method of transmitting data over cellular networks, in 1989. It currently controls around 4,500 patentsfour out of five are related to CDMAand issues licenses to other companies that allow them to use its technology. CDMA enables the transmission of a much greater quantity of data over cellular networks than is possible with other technologies and currently stands as the worlds second most widely used wireless tech standard, used by about a fifth of all cell phone networks.
Adding a piece of flair

In 2006, QUALCOMM perked up its offerings with the $800 million acquisition of Flarion, a company whose most compelling feature is its intellectual property related to OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), a method of sending large filessuch as music and videoover wireless networks. While QUALCOMMs latestgeneration CDMA also works for sending large files, OFDM can be used when the potential for radio interference is particularly high.
A bitter breakup
But things arent all wine and roses for QUALCOMM. It became embroiled in a bitter legal battle between client Nokia and competitor Broadcom. In 2005, Nokia and Broadcom each filed lawsuits against QUALCOMM. A San Diego judge presiding over the patent case found for Broadcom, reasoning that QUALCOMM had deliberately concealed the patents in question from its competitora shady practice at best. After the litigation dust settled, Nokia announced that it was now partnering with Broadcom, a large ouch for QUALCOMMs bruised ego. But hey, theres the world to conquer! QUALCOMM still supplies about 95 percent of the chips for CDMA phones worldwide, collecting a royalty on each one. The firm is part of the S&P 500, has the No. 297 spot on the 2008 Fortune 500 and was No. 67 on BusinessWeeks 2008 edition of the InfoTech 100.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Its not over yet In an issue that has dragged on for years, a court dismissed Broadcoms latest complaint against QUALCOMM claiming that Broadcom was entitled to declaratory relief and double royalties due to a misuse of patents. Although an appeals court affirmed Broadcoms assertion to the patents in September 2008, the court ruled in QUALCOMMs favor in one of the three patents at issue. Though both companies shares are down after the decision, a market analyst said that the pending litigation is not important to performance. It doesnt change the playing field; what QUALCOMM has done is seen as a swipe at Broadcom and nothing more. But investigations into the companys dealings in Korea continue, with the Korean Fair Trade Commission submitting a case examiners report setting forth allegations about the lawfulness of the companys business practices in the country. In this case, QUALCOMM asserted that the company has done nothing wrong and plans to file answers to the allegations. These cases came in the aftermath of the resignation of Irwin Jacobs, QUALCOMM chairman and co-founder. His son, Paul Jacobs, succeeded him as chairman, a move similar to his assuming the CEO position when the elder Jacobs stepped down in 2005. September 2008: The biggest dessert is a big deal After scoring a deal with Dell to use its Gobi broadband wireless access technology, QUALCOMM scored another win when it inked a deal with Panasonic to use Gobi in the latters Toughbook notebooks, with an option to add WiMax (a system allowing the transfer of data wirelessly further than the Wi-Fi) support systems in the future. This was the first time that Panasonic used a single chip to support multiple networks in its notebooks, and previous Panasonic suppliers were seen not as competitors by QUALCOMM, but as potential clients who might be interested in incorporating the Gobi system into their communication modules.
In the mobile handset arena, QUALCOMMs hands are busy. The company was the first to introduce the Android mobile phone, a Google-backed operating system based on the open-source Linux system, but it is not alone. A few other companies are rearing to release Android-powered handsets, thanks to the Open Handset Alliance, a group of companies that aim to develop and promote the Android system over proprietary operating systems for mobile devices. The group includes Broadcom and Texas Instruments, along with QUALCOMM. The first Android resulted from Google and QUALCOMM working on the operating system for a couple of years, but even QUALCOMM is quick to say that the relationship is not exactly exclusive, so the company expects (and Google hopes) that QUALCOMM isnt going to be the only supplier of Android headsets in the future.
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July 2008: No war please Averting Mobile War III (after the brouhaha with Nokia and then Broadcom), QUALCOMM signed a deal with Nokia essentially allowing the latter to use the formers assets in return for paying a settlement and ongoing royalties. This came as a surprise to industry analysts who had been crossing their fingers and hoping for a peaceful end to the patent wars. Consumers are going to clap though, to celebrate their luck, since this begrudging union means that new QUALCOMMpowered Nokia phones are going to sprout new designs to pine for. March 2008: Another feather in the cap QUALCOMM went north in search of a pioneer in content-targeting services. Xiam Technologies, which provides wireless solutions, was bought by QUALCOMM for $32 million. The acquisition is expected to expand the companys offering in the targeted services portfolio.
GETTING HIRED
Opportunities for the chipper QUALCOMMs careers site, located at www.qualcomm.com/careers, provides plenty of intel for the aspiring employee. The site is elaborately customized, with particular information for interns, graduates and experienced hires. To apply for a position, job seekers must first create a profile with a resume and contact information. In addition to accepting resumes through its website, the company recruits at the NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) Convention and at the NSHMBA (National Society of Hispanic MBAs) Conference. If you get an interview with the company, note that interviewers will probably ask behavioral questions. The whole ordeal lasts about 45 minutes, and interviewees will meet with about five employees from various levels.
In 2009, Fortune named QUALCOMM to its list of the 100 Best Places to Work, landing in the top 20 at No. 16. According to the magazine, QUALCOMM allows any employee to make suggestions for new products (by cell phone, obviously) and a unique internship program that recruits 750 interns a year from 38 countries! Other perks include generous health benefits, job sharing, an on-site gym and dinner for employees working late. Other benefits for U.S.-based employees include a 401(k) with company matching, a discount stock purchase plan, medical and dental insurance, an honor system for sick leave, tuition assistance, scholarships for children of employees, flexible spending accounts for health care expenses and a charitable donation matching program. Benefits vary by office location, however.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Dont phone it in at Qualcomm
Want to get your foot in the door at QUALCOMM? One source reveals, I interviewed with four different people within the finance function, three out of the four I now work with closely, and one from the HR/recruiting function. The finance questions focused on my background and my working style; the HR questions focused on benefits and salary expectations. Others found the process quite amenable. Interviews were not stodgy or too formal the process was not painfulin fact, it was more conversational, says one hire. Interview was much more technical than any Ive had before, warns an engineer. Dont expect easy questions from QUALCOMM, advises another colleague. One insider offers, The interviewers try to gauge your knowledge and your thinking process, so questions are usually outside the applicants comfort zone and situational. They want to gauge your thought process toward getting the solution, the insider adds. If you dont hear anything from the company for a while, dont despair. QUALCOMM can and does take up to a month to get back to you if they are interested in you, says a source. Phone interviews, on the other hand, can be nerve-wracking, reports an insider. Worse still, they were group interviewsI was on speakerphone and they would take turns asking me questions, the insider adds. Most report that interview questions are typical behavioral questions concerning strengths and weaknesses or ones ability to multitask.
Cheer thy name QUALCOMM

Hires at QUALCOMM give their working environment high marks. The philosophy at QUALCOMM is work hard, play hard, according to a contact. Good working environment and active team players, says one entry-level staffer. The work culture is excellent, another co-worker gushes. Questions are encouraged and teamwork is a must, adds a newbie. Employee feedback is encouraged and frequently gathered, offers another contact. Working at QUALCOMM is like coming to a university to study. Every day you get to learn something new, adds an engineer. Theyre big on meetings...so big that they often entice your attendance with food and drinks! says one enthusiastic hire. If theres a downside, the employees arent letting on, except for this insider: QUALCOMM is a[n] email-based giant corporation, he sighs. QUALCOMM is hiring clever and competent yet laid-back guys, says an engineer. But dont despair, ladies! Theres loads of diversity. And QUALCOMMs all about equality, with one contact saying that female managers accounted for roughly 40 percent of my division, adding that the number of female engineers was roughly representative of the ratio of female engineering students.
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Aye to shorts and jeans

Hours at QUALCOMM are long. I have to stay at my office [late] in the evening, says one insider. The hours areflexible, says a colleague. Engineering departments could start late, but those working for international teams or customers are expected to stay late for conference calls. The hours are flexible, and so is the dress. The dress code seems to vary by employee and by group. Within my group, we are business casual Monday through Thursday with the option to wear jeans on Friday, says one hire. Another contact reveals, most dress [in] business casual with a few who wear shorts on a regular basis.
The only way is up

Opportunities for advancement are plentiful as well. Pretty much once youre in the only way left is up, observes an insider in San Diego. One programmer notes that he has access to the companys library, online courses, [and] technical training. Whats more, business outlook seems good, according to one insider, despite pending litigation and the current economy, adding that QUALCOMM weathers the storm because its the leader in its industry and is also successful due to high employee morale.
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RED HAT, INC.

1801 Varsity Drive Raleigh, NC 27606 Phone: (919) 754-3700 Fax: (919) 754-3701 www.redhat.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Administrative Business Development Channel Sales Consulting Documentations Engineering Engineering Services Executive Facilities Finance Human Resources IS IT Inside sales International Investor Relations Legal Marketing Product Management Project Management Quality Assurance RH University Sales Sales Engineering Software Engineering Support Training
LOCATIONS
Raleigh, NC (HQ) Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Denver, CO Huntsville, AL Marlton, NJ McLean, VA Minneapolis, MN Mountain View, CA New York, NY St. Louis, MO Tullahoma, TN Westford, MA Amersfoort, Netherlands Bangalore Beijing Brisbane Brno, Czech Republic Buenos Aires Chennai Cork, Ireland Dubai Espoo, Finland Farnborough, United Kingdom Hong Kong Kista, Sweden Kolkata, India Kuala Lumpur London Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Milan Montreal Mumbai Munich New Delhi Paris Pune, India Rome Sandton, South Africa So Paulo Seoul Singapore Stuttgart, Germany Sydney Taipei Tokyo Toronto Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: RHT Stock Exchange: NYSE President & CEO: Jim Whitehurst 2009 Employees: 2,200 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 523 2008 Net income ($mil.): 77
KEY COMPETITORS
Microsoft Oracle Sun
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.redhat.com/about/careers Email: training@redhat.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Red Hat, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Hats off to Linux
Red Hat makes a living by causing the big guys to squirm: it helped pioneer the use of Linux, the open-source computer operating system that has become a chief rival to Microsofts Windows and Suns UNIX. The term open source refers to a set of practices and principles that encourages access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. Most typically, the expression is applied to the source code of software. Through lenient or nonexistent intellectual property restrictions, the general public can access the source code. As a result, users can create software content through collaboration. The companys open-source software solutions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also runs a global training program that operates in more than 60 locations.
More adorn Red Hat

During the 2008 fiscal year, the companys revenue reached $523 million. This represented a nearly 25 percent increase from FY 2007, when Red Hats revenue was about $400 million. The company has also hired lots of new employees: in 2008 more than 2,200 people worked for Red Hat.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Rumors, jumps, pushes Shares of Red Hat were up in the market after rumors went around that industry giant Oracle planned to make a bid for the open-source company. The buzz has been heard for years, with backroom talks and other whispers, but one industry analyst said that the timing isnt right, since a possible IBM takeover of Sun Microsystems might affect Red Hats outlook and performance in the quarter both companies are Red Hat customers. Meanwhile, Cisco allied with Red Hat as it sells its data centers and moves into servers. Red Hats Enterprise Linux software is reported to be compatible with Ciscos Unified Computing System, and the move is seen to be beneficial to both companies on the financial and operational sides. February 2009: Uniting against a common competitor Red Hat and Microsoft might be on different sides of the fence, but mention VMware and these two companies unite forces faster than an analyst can utter What? Both companies believe that virtualization is part of the operating system,
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but virtualization market leader VMware thinks otherwise, preferring instead to think of it as separate from the operating system. To take back a portion of VMwares lead, Microsoft and Red Hat joined forces, with the former agreeing to support the latters Linux system under Windows Server 2008. In return, Red Hat agreed to support Windows Server 2000 in its Linux system. Will this alliance make it? It depends, really, on whether the two can work beyond just exchanging tests that confirm whether their operating systems will run on a different and altogether new chip structure, which is partly what the deal is all about. March 2008: What recession? Red Hat seemed impervious to the economic downturn as it posted a 27 percent increase in quarterly sales and earnings, exceeding analyst expectations about company performance. Confidently, it touted a rosy outlook for the fiscal year, predicting a growth of 30 percent across the board. Red Hat primarily serves corporate clients who use their own version of the open-source Linux operating system. The company provides training and technical support. Add it all up and Red Hat said it expected sales to balloon to $680 million, which was way more than what Wall Street predicted for the company. Pretty confident for a company that started the open-source system, but it believes that its Switzerland status remaining neutral and not being extra chummy to one specific providerhelps expand its clientele to customers whod otherwise be competitors in their own industries.
GETTING HIRED
Top Hat
In 2009, CIO Insight Magazine named Red Hat its Most Valued Vendor for the fifth year in a row. The magazine also recognized the firm as the No. 1 IT vendor doing business with companies in Japan. Although Red Hat is a large global enterprise, the firm said it has retained its smallcompany spirit. In the United States, full-time employees receive benefits that include medical, dental, vision, disability and basic life insurance. These perks kick in the first day of employment. If Red Hat associates (the company doesnt call them employees) are at least 21 years old, they are eligible to enroll in the companys 401(k) plan on the first of the month following their hire date. Other benefits include paid time off and holidays, as well as an employee referral plan. In addition, the company offers tuition assistance for job-related courses.
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How to hang your hat at Red Hat

Departments at Red Hat range from accounting to training. Recently, the firm was hiring for hundreds of positions including a help desk engineer in China, an office manager in Brazil, software engineers in Canada and a sales manager in Minnesota. The company also has an internship program for students, which allows interns to work inprofessional environment learning from Red Hats experienced management team. The firm says it looks for interns who are motivated, smart and industrious. Interns should be able to work well in high-pressure settings. Red Hat recruits at college career fairs. In addition, potential applicants can find more information about careers at Red Hat and apply for jobs online at www.redhat.com/about/careers. Applicants can search for openings by location, division (Red Hat or JBoss) or job category. The company keeps resumes in its database for six months. If you have trouble applying for jobs through the website, you should email the company at careers@redhat.com.
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RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED

295 Phillip Street Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3W8 Phone: (519) 888-7465 Fax: (519) 888-7884 www.rim.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: RIMM Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: John Richardson Co-CEO: Jim Balsillie President & Co-CEO: Mike Lazaridis 2008 Employees: 8,387 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 6,009.4 2008 Net Income ($mil.): 1,293.9
LOCATIONS
Waterloo, Ontario (HQ) Irving, TX Mississauga, Canada Ottawa Slough, United Kingdom
KEY COMPETITORS
Microsoft Nokia Apple
DEPARTMENTS
Corporate Executive Hardware IT Manufacturing Marketing Operations Sales Software Technical Support Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.rim.com/careers/index.shtml
393
Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Research in Motion Limited
THE SCOOP
Email in motion
Research in Motion (RIM) is best known to legions of on-the-go workers as the company that manufactures the BlackBerry, that pocket-sized tether to the office that provides instant access to email, text messages and phone calls. The company also manufactures radio modems for wireless phones and smart card readers to control access to its devices. RIMs revenue and profits both increased dramatically from 2006 to 2008its revenue from $2 billion to $6 billion, and its profits from $382 million to $1.29 billion. In 2008, BusinessWeek ranked it just outside the top 10 of its InfoTech 100it held steady at No. 11, which it occupied the year before.
Pager to BlackBerry and CrackBerry

Research in Motion did not emerge as a result of Japanese efficiency or U.S. innovation, but of Canadian fortitude. Michael Lazaridis (current co-CEO) and Douglas Fregin (former VP of operations who retired from the company in 2007) founded the company in 1984, on the cusp of the digital age. Early on, the company contracted in software development, electronic engineering and radio communications. RIM started with pagers, but the launch of the BlackBerry catapulted the company into the major mobile communications league. Subsequent incarnations of the BlackBerry have made some people CrackBerry addicts (a nod to its addictive potential). In 2006, RIM rolled out the device in Trinidad and Tobago, Greece, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Korea and 13 Latin American countries including Panama, Venezuela, Peru and Argentina. RIM also introduced new features courtesy of tech company-of-the-moment Google, including Google Talk and Google Local, enabling BlackBerry users to instant-message each other and to use Googles handy maps.
Lawsuits galore
Although things arent going well for RIM at the momentco-CEO Jim Balsillie has been asked to step down by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the company is fighting patent infringement lawsuits left and rightthe company is fighting back by toughing up its share of the mobile communications market. The introduction of the iPhone in June 2007 might have made iPod users into iPhone users (alas, not CrackBerry addicts), and Palm might have an ace in its Pre (which is launching sometime in 2009), but RIM is confident that the year is going to BlackBerry and its new smartphone models.
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IN THE NEWS
April 2009: The BlackBerry president It looks like U.S. President Barack Obama will get to keep a BlackBerry while in office after all. The BlackBerry 8830, to be used by the president, is in the final stages of development and the U.S. National Security Administration will soon check whether or not the encryption software on the presidential personal digital assistant meets national security standards. SecureVoice, the encryption software on the device, was developed by Genesis Key, Inc. President Obama will be able to text, email and call a group of selected individuals who will be given the same secure BlackBerry 8830s. Among these are the presidents top aides and First Lady Michelle Obama. President Obama was previously forced to give up his BlackBerry after his inauguration into office in January, amid cybersecurity concerns. Obama and his BlackBerry are inseparable, but since presidents are subject to the Presidential Records Act (according to which a presidents records could be subpoenaed, and that could include email), it was unclear whether Obama would be able to hold on to his BlackBerry after taking up shop at the White House. April 2009: The app world is a BlackBerry world RIM launched BlackBerry App World, its challenge to iTunes hold on the applications market in the handheld device industry. Like iTunes, BlackBerry App World is catering exclusively to CrackBerries, and it showcases applications made exclusively for the BlackBerry. But there are system specifications before a user can access the store. For one, the service is not available outside the Western hemisphere. This means that non-U.S., Canadian and U.K. residents are just going to have to wait for BlackBerry App World, the international edition. Also, the device software is geared for 4.2 or higher; no old Berries there, folks. Although the least expensive application comes in at $2.99, it could be a small price to pay for BlackBerry owners desperate to get their hands on some applications quite like those on offer from other (ahem) mobile phone providers. March 2009: RIMs line on the horizon Apple must be feeling the vertigo by now, since U2 announced that Research in Motion would sponsor the bands Live Nation U2 360 world tour. The news came as a surprise to those who understood that the band has ties with RIM competitors Applea U2-branded iPod came out in 2005 when the band released their album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomband PalmBono is a partner in an organization that is actively hyping up the launch of the Pre. According to U2 manager Paul McGuinness, the tour marks the first stage of a relationship and shared vision between RIM and U2.
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February 2009: Lesson learned After almost a decade of talks and negotiation, the CEOs and other executives of Research in Motion agreed to pay penalties imposed by the Ontario Securities Commission for illegal gains from options backdating. CEOs James Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis, along with other directors of the company, paid CAN$77 million dollars, or about $6.25 million. The company made a similar offer to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is also investigating their actions. January 2009: Think again An Ontario court effectively halted Research in Motions hostile takeover of Certicom when it ruled that the company violated nondisclosure agreements when it used information Certicom asked to be kept confidential in its bid. RIM said that conditions of its offer can no longer be satisfied. The company has had Certicom in its sights for quite a while, along with other companies who license Certicom technology in their devices. However, some analysts still think that Certicom will eventually end up with RIM. The only question remaining is when its going to happen. October 2008: GPL no-no for RIM At a BlackBerry developers conference in California, RIM engineers showcased some features of the BlackBerry Storm, one of three BlackBerry models the company planned to unveil toward the end of the year and in 2009. The BlackBerry Storm also is the first BlackBerry to feature a touchscreen, doing away with the trackball thats been synonymous with BlackBerries since their launch. Asked by some developers whether the devices source code is going to be opened to third parties, RIM responded that its something it is looking into, but that its a pretty big leap for the company to take. In other news, the BlackBerry Partners Funda RIM initiative that plans to invest in tech startupsannounced that it has made its first three investments: a mobile city guide, shopping guide, and trip manager and planner. Unlike the iFund, the BlackBerry fund is non-exclusivistit aims to help small companies that are developing applications not just for the BlackBerry, but for other phone models as well. September 2008: A closet BlackBerry for the hidden BlackBerry in you RIM unveiled a new kind of BlackBerry, boasting the same features and capabilities as its previous models, but with a twistor a flip. The Pearl Flip 8220 is not at all like its older BlackBerry siblings, since it looks like a standard-issue flip phone thats been a staple of mobile phone providers like Nokia and Motorola. Approximating the BlackBerrys keyboard is SureType technology, which, like a numerical keypad on a mobile phone, has multiple letters assigned to each keypad number. Other than that, the Pearl has the standard features of older BlackBerries, such as RIMs signature trackball.
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June 2008: Giving it back to the community CEO Mike Lazaridis uppeds his contribution to his hometown to $150 million by adding $50 million to benefit the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. Lazaridis founded the institute in 2000, and it has done work and research on quantum information and quantum gravity. May 2008: The most influential. Or one of them Aberdeen Group, a market consultancy firm, released its list of 100 most influential technology vendors for 2008, and RIM came in at No. 12. According to snapshot surveys taken by the group over five years of research, organizations look at the total cost of ownership, the functionality of the companys products, its stability, experience and reputation. February 2008: Its dj vu RIM should have learned its lesson when it settled a protracted legal battle against NTP in 2006 after letting the case drag on for four years, but it looks like this latest legal debacle against Motorola is going to share the same fate. After failing to negotiate satisfactory cross-licensing terms when the licenses expired in 2003, Motorola and RIM decided to take their battle in front of a judge, and this month they traded lawsuits, with allegations ranging from patent infringement (of course) and charging excessive royalties for its own patents. This lawsuit, which has taken longer than the NTP case, has many implications. Besides the obvious effect of Motorola and RIM focusing on case filing arguments and not on product development, theres an industry-wide implication should RIM successfully argue its side on Wi-Fi dual-mode devices. For one, RIM doesnt hold the patent for this, an Australian science agency does. And it looks like this science agency is keeping mum about what it plans to do to vendors of its patented technology.
GETTING HIRED
Add some Motion to your career

RIMs careers site, at www.rim.com/careers/index.shtml, provides information on the companys hiring process, benefits and job openings. Jobs are searchable by region and then by function. Interested parties may fill out a web-based form to apply. Students are welcome to apply to RIM as well. The company hires 300 to 400 interns every four months, in the areas of R&D, marketing, tech support, manufacturing, finance, legal, HR, sales and IT. Students pursuing any major are welcome to apply. Jobs are posted in September, January and May. RIM recruits at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, including the University of Seattle and the University of Saskatchewan. In addition to its internship opportunities, the company also offers summer jobs in administration and manufacturing.
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RIM usually conducts initial screenings over the phone (your phone need not be a BlackBerry). Once applicants have successfully vaulted over that hurdle, they are taken to a RIM office for subsequent interviews; the company will help with any travel arrangements. Interview questions are generally behavioral. RIMs offers of employment are provisional until the candidate passes reference and background checks, and the company does not recommend that job seekers end their previous employment until the checks are complete. RIMs benefits include salary and incentives, employee assistance plan and travel insurance, summer and holiday parties, and contests and giveaways. The company also subsidizes gym memberships and sports clubs, and provides an on-site clinic with massages, health education, ergonomic assessments and health fairs. And, of course, all employees get a free BlackBerry.
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RICOH COMPANY LIMITED

350 Campus Drive Marlborough, MA 01752-3064 Phone: (508) 323-1000 Fax: (508) 323-1111 www.3com.com Bridgeville, PA Brisbane, CA Brockton, MA Brookfield, WI Brooklyn, NY Camp Hill, PA Carpinteria, CA Cerritos, CA Charleston, WV Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Clearwater, FL Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, SC Columbus, GA Coppell, TX Cordova, TN Daytona Beach, FL Duluth, GA Englewood, CO Fairfax, VA Fairfield, NJ Florence, SC Fort Myers, FL Gainesville, FL Glastonbury, CT Greenbelt, MD Greenville, SC Gulfport, MS Hamilton Square, NJ Hampton, VA High Point, NC Hilo, HI Houma, LA Houston, TX Huntington Beach, CA Huntsville, AL Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA Iselin, NJ Jackson, MS Jacksonville, FL Johnson City, TN Kailua Kona, HI Knoxville, TN Lafayette, LA Lake Charles, LA Lakeland, FL Lenexa, KS Lihue, HI Little Rock, AR Livonia, MI Los Angeles, CA Lubbock, TX Macon, GA Madison, WI Maitland, FL Mandeville, LA Marlton, NJ Mendota Heights, MN Metairie, LA Miami Lakes, FL Miami, FL Mililani, HI Mobile, AL Monterey, CA Montgomery, AL New York, NY North Charleston, SC Oak Brook, IL Oklahoma City, OK Ontario, CA Owings Mills, MD Palm Desert, CA Pensacola, FL Philadelphia, PA Plano, TX Richmond, VA Riverview, FL Roanoke, VA Rochelle Park, NJ Rochester Hills, MI Rockville, MD Rohnert Park, CA San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA San Ramon, CA Santa Fe Springs, CA Sarasota, FL Savannah, GA Shelton, CT Shreveport, LA Tallahassee, FL Tempe, AZ Tinley Park, IL Tucson, AZ Tustin, CA Valdosta, GA Wailuku, HI Waltham, MA West Melbourne, FL Westborough, MA Westbury, NY White Plains, NY Wilmington, DE WinstonSalem, NC Woodland Hills, CA
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: RICOY Stock Exchange: Tokyo Chairman: Masamitsu Sakurai President & CEO: Shiro Kondo 2008 Employees: 83,400 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 2,219.9 2008 Net Income ( mil.): 106.46
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Development Engineering HR Marketing/Engineering Support Sales Service & Support
KEY COMPETITORS
Canon Hewlett-Packard Xerox
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ricoh-usa.com/careers Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
LOCATIONS
Tokyo, Japan (Corporate HQ) West Caldwell, NJ (US HQ) Addison, IL Albany, GA Albuquerque, NM Alexandria, LA Amarillo, TX Appleton, WI Arlington Heights, IL Arlington, VA Asheville, NC Atlanta, GA Audubon, PA Augusta, GA Austin, TX Baton Rouge, LA Birmingham, AL Boca Raton, FL Boston, MA Brentwood, TN
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Ricoh Company Limited
THE SCOOP
Company of many colors
Though best known as a manufacturer of printers, copiers and fax machines, the Ricoh Company also has interests in semiconductors, PCs and networking equipment, measuring devices, heat-sensitive paper for fax machines and receipt printers, and optical sensors. Other arms of the business also handle leasing and credit for the customers of its office equipment division. Ricohs products are sold in 130 countries. In 2006, Ricoh took in $16 billion in revenue.
You can print in any color you want, as long as its green
Ricoh is committed to making its effects on the planet as benign as possible. In 2006, the Japanese government awarded the company its Ecology Design Prize for a design for packaging toner for copiers and printersthe toners box was created to pack efficiently into a small space, the toner package is designed to be used multiple times and it is easy to clean and refill. Ricoh is also experimenting with manufacturing its printers and copiers out of plastics derived from plants. In 2006, the company was testing copiers made of 50 percent plant material in Japan. If the green plastics can stand up to the rigors of the office copier environment, Ricoh plans to take them global. Ricoh credits its founder, Kiyoshi Ichimura, for its environmental awareness; the company website proclaims that [Ichimura] developed a sense of corporate social responsibility that is talked about a great deal today, but was almost unheard of 50 years ago, and that he made an early and genuine commitment to social and environmental sustainability in ever[y] aspect of Ricohs business activities.
Golden opportunity
In early 2007, the company announced that it had restructured its American operations as Ricoh Americas. Lanier, an office products distributor acquired in 2001, would be folded into an arm of the organization called Ricoh Business Solutions. By the end of fiscal 2008, Ricoh had taken in revenue of $22 billion.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Going greener for the world Although Ricoh has been paving the way to environmentally friendly products through its own initiatives and in concert with its suppliers, it went one step further by joining the Eco-Patent Commons, an organization composed of businesses promising to transfer environmentally friendly patents to the public domain.
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Ricohs patent contributions included technologies that recycle removable cartridges responsibly and one that improves water quality. August 2008: Another notch in its belt Ricoh acquired IKON Office Solutions, an American office equipment distributor, for a hefty $1.62 billion to beef up its overseas business. The deal was approved by the board but it still needed final approval from federal regulators in the United States. By the end of 2008, Ricoh finally owned IKON.
GETTING HIRED
Picture yourself at Ricoh
Ricohs U.S. careers page, at www.ricoh-usa.com/careers, provides information about benefits, recruiting and job openings. Ricohs benefits include dental, medical, flexible spending accounts, 401(k) with company matching, a wellness program and tuition assistance. Dress at the company is business casual. Open positions are listed at www.ricoh-usa.com/careers/listing.pl?all, and are searchable by location or type. To apply, interested parties may submit their resumes online or email them to a recruiter.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Got the guts for Ricoh?
The interview process at Ricoh can be quite involved, reveals one contact: They want you to be aggressive during the process, adding that the applicant is sometimes expected to make the first move when it comes to asking about the status of his application. One applicant is interviewed for a couple of days, with the second day being in the field, where a tour of the company and an employee-buddy are involved. One contact offers tips on this field trip, though: You should be very active during the day by bombarding the employee with questions about the job. When it comes to company outlook, one participant is realistic but optimistic. [They] are having some trouble right now working Lanier [a company acquired in 2005] and Ricoh into one company. But this contact says that Ricoh is still the No. 1 company in their product sales. Although another insider cautions, that shareholders are losing money.
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THE SAGE GROUP PLC

North Park Newcastle Upon Tyne NE13 9AA United Kingdom Phone: +44-191-2943000 Fax: +44-191-2940002 www.sage.com Sage North America 56 Technology Drive Irvine, CA 92618-2301 USA
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sage.com/ourbusiness/people
LOCATIONS
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK (HQ) Irvine, CA USA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Dallas, TX Eugene, OR Herndon, VA Mayfield Heights, OH Pleasanton, CA Rocklin, CA Scottsdale, AZ St. Petersburg, FL Williamsburg, VI Alicante, Spain Bahrain, Saudi Arabia Bangalore Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Bilbao, Spain Bloemfontein, South Africa Cape Town Chatswood, Australia Coruna, Spain Deurle, Belgium Dubai Dublin Durban, South Africa Frankfurt Gaborone, Botswana Gent, Belgium Guangzhou Johannesburg Klagenfurt, Austria Liege, Belgium Lisbon Madrid Malaga, Spain Manama, Bahrain Manchester, United Kingdom Markham, Canada Matosinhos, Portugal Mississauga, Canada Monchengladbach, Germany Mumbai New Delhi Palma de Mallorca, Spain Paris Perth Port Elizabeth, South Africa Porto, Portugal Pretoria, South Africa Richmond, Canada Riyadh Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain Seville, Spain Shanghai Singapore Sydney Valencia, Spain Valladolid, Spain VillingenSchwenningen, Germany Warsaw Windhoek, Namibia Winnersh, United Kingdom Zaventem, Belgium
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting Customer Service Customer Support Finance General & Administrative Human Resources Information Services Legal Marketing/Public Relations Product Management Product Marketing Production Quality Assurance Research & Development Sales Training & Education
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SGE Stock Exchange: London Stock Exchange Chairman: Tony Hobson CEO: Paul Walker 2008 Employees: 14,500 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 986.8
KEY COMPETITORS
Oracle Corporation SAP AG Intuit
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition The Sage Group plc
THE SCOOP
Words for the wise
For decades, the U.K.-based Sage Group has evolved from a one-solution business to the regions largest software firm and the FTSE 100s only technology stock. Thats all the more remarkable since it markets its business-to-business products (formatted for PC/servers and internet access) chiefly to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of up to 500 employees. Of course, a whole lot of companies fit into that categorywhich goes a long way toward explaining Sages elephantine customer base of 5.8 million companies spread over 26 countries. It also has a global workforce of 14,500. The Sage Group offers both out-of-the-box software and custom solutions, which meet client needs in accounting/financial, HR and payroll, customer relationship management and payment processing. Its branded programs include Peachtree in the U.S., Simply Accounting (Canada), Ciel (France), SP PymePlus (Spain), Softline Pastel (South Africa) and Sage 50 in the U.K. A somewhat newer area for the firm presents industry-specific solutions, which in various geographic regions include health care, food distribution, transportation, manufacturing, real estate, construction, retail and not-for-profit agencies. The company also provides support services to 1.7 million of its clients, and its call-in customer service centers respond to 36,000 calls each day.
Sage strategies
The key to Sages success so far has been its organizational model. Each of its four regional businesses (North America, U.K. and Ireland, Europe and Asia, and South Africa and Australia) operates with relative autonomy, determining its own local strategies, acquisition possibilities and product line. Not only that, Sage tailors each offices productsmainly the ones focused on accounting, payroll and human resourcesto meet local requirements for tax structures, legal notification and other fiscal necessities. Sage is therefore considerably more flexible and responsive than its competitors, whose main products are mostly standardized and depend on company-specific upgrades About 50 percent of Sages business is derived from its accounting and financial products, and human resource and payroll options make up another 11 percent. Industry-specific applications such as health care, manufacturing and construction make up another 28 percent. However, in the next few years, the company expects to see increased revenue for the higher-margin support segment (which carries an 80 percent customer renewal rate) as companies more frequently request the bundling of custom solutions and support.
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Corporately conscientious
The organizations social responsibility policy is quite extensive, with chapters that touch upon employment, the marketplace, the local community and the environment. Besides stressing the importance of diversity in the workplace, Sage looks to develop the entrepreneurial spirit and sense of teamwork among its staff and provide social and intellectual growth. It calls itself an integral part of the communities in which its based and encourages its employees to volunteer locally and donate to worthy causes. Moreover, Sage has taken a great many steps to reducing the operations environmental impact by using recycled water for landscaping, minimizing the use of printed materials and packaging wherever possible and advocating limiting power usage in its offices in the U.K. and Europe. Sage prides itself on encouraging and supporting the development of its employees, with strong internal promotion strategies and reportedly low staff turnover.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: New CTO in the house Sage North America announced the appointment of Motasim Najeeb as the companys new chief technology officer. Najeeb, a 20-year Sage veteran, has recently served as the CTO and executive vice president of the engineering and operations division at TradeBeam, a global trade management software and service company. Najeebs new role in Sage will allow him to work more directly with research and development teams as well as other business leaders in the company. He is also expected to create some fruitful collaborations with Sages technology personnel on a global level. Najeeb will report directly to Sage North America President and CEO Sue Swenson, who said that Motasim brings an impressive track record of strong technical leadership thats focused on the needs of customers. As CTO he will play a critical role in leveraging our technology assets across North America so we deliver competitive and innovative products that enable our customers to better manage their business processes. December 2008: Somewhat steady The Sage Group declared a 7 percent increase in revenues for the year ending September 2008. The companys revenue increased to 1.3 billion, relatively higher than the 1.2 billion of 2007. Sage also revealed earnings before interest, tax and amortization of intangible fixed assets (EBITA) margin of 23 percent, which is an indication of recent business acquisitions and future investments. Paul Walker, CEO, noted that, [t]he strength and flexibility of our business model has helped us achieve solid results in difficult market conditions. As markets weakened in the U.K. and North America, we were rapidly able to adapt to the changing markets and proactively refocus our businesses in these regions. Our businesses in mainland Europe and [the] rest of [the] world recorded strong
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results through a combination of favorable market conditions and good commercial execution. October 2008: A couple more personnel changes The Sage Group announced that Marc Loup, a CPA who has held numerous finance positions in reputable companies, was appointed as the new chief financial officer (CFO) of Sage North America. The company also affirmed Greg Hammermaster as president of Sages Payment Solutions Division. Loupe, now responsible for all finance-related activities across the company, began his career at Deloitte & Touche, where he obtained his CPA license. He also spent 18 years with Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he was senior vice president of finance for the companys technology products. He was recently the senior vice president of finance of XOJET, Inc, a leading provider of global business aviation services. Hammermaster, meanwhile, will be tasked to look over all of Sages payment solutions division transactions, including its credit card operations based in Virginia and its check operations based in Florida.
GETTING HIRED
Work, wisely
In keeping with its decentralized structure, Sage doesnt keep a listing of all international vacancies (although its website states that one is in the works). The companys online presence (at www.sage.com) does, however, include links to the country-specific Sage websites in America and Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Belgium. (Note that some are not in English.) As might be expected, openings are generally concentrated in the areas of sales, customer support, and software design and development.
Sage employs about 1,400 at its Newcastle, U.K., headquarters, and another 3,000 in various U.S. locations. Each office shapes its own culture, with social events in all regions to promote and embed corporate principles. The company is said to be strong on training and recognition programs; in addition, some regions provide health awareness programs, and office workers in mainland Europe can take advantage of English lessons.
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SAMSUNG GROUP
Samsung Main Building 250, Taepyeongno 2-ga, Jung-gu Seoul 100-742 Korea Phone: +82-2-751-7114 Fax: +82-2-727-7892 www.samsung.com Samsung America, Inc. (HQ) 105 Challenger Road Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 Phone: (201) 229-5000 Fax: (201) 229-5080 www.samsungamerica.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SMSD Stock Exchange: KRX Vice Chairman & CEO: Yoon-Woo Lee 2007 Employees: 263,000 2007 Revenue ($mil): 105,206 2007 Income ($ mil.): 5,375
KEY COMPETITORS
LG Group SK Group Sony
LOCATIONS
Ridgefield Park, NJ (US HQ) Houston, TX La Mirada, CA Los Angeles, CA New York, NY San Jose, CA Secaucus, NJ Bogota Mexico City Panama City Santiago So Paulo Schiphol, Netherlands
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/career s/welcome/Careers_Welcome.html
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Financial Administrative Business Development Chemical Human Resource Legal Petrochemical Semiconductor
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Samsung Group
THE SCOOP
Korean clout
The Samsung Group boils down to far more than flat-screen TVs and cell phones. As South Koreas largest conglomerate, it is best known for its electronics, but it produces a number of other services and products as well. This is especially true in South Korea, where on any given day you could attend a Samsung Lions game (the groups Korean professional baseball team), tour the Samsung Museum of Art, ride a roller coaster at Samsung Everland, the largest amusement park in the country, or go on a shopping spree for mens wear, womens wear, sportswear and accessories made by Samsungs Cheil Industries, Inc. Consumers can grab a room at The Shilla Seoul (owned by Samsung affiliate, The Shilla Hotels & Resorts) and charge it to Koreas largest independent credit card issuer, Samsung Card Co. Ltd. If in need of medical attention, head over to the Samsung Medical Center. You can even apply for a life insurance policy at Samsungs Life Insurance Co., Ltd. The diverse company also sells chemicals and electronic chemical materials. These are just a few of Samsungs 32 affiliates, although the number is significantly down from the 61 Samsung boasted before the Korean economic crisis of the late 1990s. While the groups largest holding, Samsung Electronics, had a record year in 2004, a host of worrying issues remain ahead of the company, including Koreas shaky economic future. Whether Samsung can weather the storm remains to be seen.
$10 billion baby

The efforts paid off with Samsung Electronics entrance into the exclusive (and elusive) $10 billion club in 2004, when the company achieved eye-popping net earnings of just over $10 billion for the year (roughly double those for 2003). It was just short of repeating the feat in 2005, when it pulled in $9.4 billion. Cell phones were a large part of the success, keying the transformation of Samsungs reputation from a retailer of dodgy, second-rate VCRs to a peddler of premium-tech, premium-price cell phones. A July 2004 Forbes article noted that The cell phone is to Samsung what the Walkman was to Sonya slick growth engine and an icon of innovation. Suddenly Samsung is No. 2 worldwide, and it aims to supplant Nokia by 2010. The company may well be on that track, as it grabbed 22.4 percent of the cell phone market in the U.S. in 2008.
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IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Reorganization Due to continued losses in memory profits, Samsung declared that it is reorganizing its management ranks to boost its sagging bottom line and create fewer conflicts within its chip unit. The company had earlier announced a reshuffling in its executive personnel, with the appointment of Chang-Soo Choi as the president and CEO of Samsungs U.S. arm, Samsung Electronics America. Other key personnel appointments were Tim Baxter and Young Hoon Eom as copresidents of the companys consumer electronics division and Y.B. Koh as president of Samsung Austin Semiconductor. The shake-up not only included people, but also company divisions. Four major divisionssemiconductor, LCD, mobile phone and televisionwere shrunk down to two. The reorganization was made to jumpstart demand. October 2008: Hard times Samsung Electronics announced a profit of 1.22 trillion won, or $856.3 million, in the October quarter of 2008, a whopping 43 percent less than that of the previous quarter and 44 percent less than that of 2007. The company also declared a 6 percent loss in memory sales; however, Samsung insisted it is still profitable in the memory business. The future does not at all look good though: the company is expected to experience a severe downturn in both flash memory and DRAM memory, which is the current trend with all memory manufacturers. The decline was also predicted to be consistent for the remainder of 2008 and even 2009. In a major business move, Samsung also revealed that it is withdrawing its bid to acquire major flash memory player SanDisk Corp., an endeavor that was made public in September 2008. Samsung executives said that the company is backing down from its initial proposal after SanDisk rejected the bid. The latter has also been in progressive talks with NAND partner Toshiba, which meant there was little or no room at all for Samsung to strike a deal.
GETTING HIRED
A city unto itself
A truly global empire, Samsung Group has a workforce the size of a small city roughly 263,000 employeesoperating globally. The career section allows interested job seekers to click on openings by global region, and search by each specific Samsung company in the region. Register to submit to positions quickly online and receive email notification of matching positions.
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Programs for MBAs

MBAs should check out the site for a description of Samsung Electronics intensive 10-week MBA internship, offered to first- and second-year students from top MBA programs in the areas of R&D, strategy development, product marketing, sales operations and corporate planning in the digital consumer electronics, semiconductor and telecommunications industries.
Lending a hand
The group also prides itself on its strong philanthropic focus. Samsung spent over $1 billion on community outreach in 2001 alone and encourages employees to become personally involved through the Samsung Community Service Team. In 2008, Samsung, together with Microsoft, DirecTV and teen star Jordan Pruitt, awarded some $2 million worth of cash grants and software, technology and educational television programming packages to 31 schools across the U.S. through Samsungs Hope for Education program. According to the website, about 80,000 employees are currently involved in volunteer activities, around 70 percent of them have participated in these endeavors at some point and outstanding volunteers are recognized with awards. Check out the Community Activities page for more details on various programs.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Want it the Samsung Way? You might want to think it over
Samsung is a tough ride, one insider declares. Its a very demanding place to work, Samsung can be a very difficult environment, other respondents chime in. I was very surprised that teamwork was not a priority, observes one contact. The company has a Korean military structure. No questions, no chitchatjust follow your orders and get your work done quickly. Not surprisingly, Turnover is extremely high. I would guesstimate that 80 percent of non-Korean-born employees leave within a year, speculates one source. Even Koreans who lived and worked abroad find it hard to adjust to strongly hierarchical structure, or complete lack of formal rules and procedures, adds a colleague.
No merit for hard work

Though some agree that working at the company is generally a great experience and that it is full of learning, travel and managing challenging deadlines, insiders recommend not working at Samsung if you think very highly of your work and if you expect to be rewarded for it. The work environment is hostile and the Korean culture
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does not reward merit, hard work or results, and, [Y]our work will not be acknowledged nor recognized, asserts a source.
Whats work/life balance?

Want to take a break from this office? Not a chance. The phrase work/life balance evinces a sour expression from all Samsung lifers, and this is a non-expectation for employees, says an insider. Working hours can be long, and taking holiday is regarded by Koreans (including many bosses) as inappropriate, agrees a co-worker. If you left one night at 10 p.m. and got in the next morning 10 a.m. (rather than the rigidly enforced 9 a.m.) you would be sent a warning letter by the president! No consideration would be given to the fact that you had gone above and beyond the call of duty the previous night, says a third. The dress code was strongly enforced and it was part of my unenviable job to tell off those who wore jeans on Fridays, recalls another insider.
Are you male?

Diversity was limitedwhite and Korean and then very, very few Korean women and even fewer female managers. The hours were long due to the presenteeism culture. The opportunities for advancement were fine as long as you were male, adds one hire. Is it all so bleak? Benefits were very good depending upon your level: gym subsidy, life insurance, long-term disability cover, 25 days holiday, staff canteen, says an insider His colleague cautions, Heretics beware.
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SANDISK CORPORATION
601 McCarthy Boulevard Milpitas, CA 95035 Phone: (408) 801-1000 Fax: (408) 801-8657 www.sandisk.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SNDK Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman & CEO: Dr. Eli Harari President & COO: Sanjay Mehrotra 2008 Employees: 3,565 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 3,351 2008 Income ($ mil): -1,851.6
LOCATIONS
Milpitas, CA (HQ) Beijing Dublin Gordon, Australia Haryana, India Kfar Saba, Israel Madrid Migdal Tefen, Israel Montgeron, France Omer, Israel Sauerlach, Germany Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Taby, Sweden Taipei Tokyo Yokohama, Japan Wanchai, Hong Kong
KEY COMPETITORS
Lexar Micron Technology Samsung Electronics
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT DEPARTMENTS

Administration Engineering Facilities Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Marketing Operations Safety Sales Sales Operations Security www.sandisk.com/Corporate/Careers Email: careers@sandisk.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition SanDisk Corporation
THE SCOOP
No flash in the pan
SanDisk is a top purveyor of flash memory, the solid-state drive on a chip that allows a gigabyte of storage to fit on a fingertips worth of space. The companys products include USB drives, removable data storage cards for cameras, video recorders, cell phones and PDAs, embedded chips for long-term memory in computers and memory for MP3 players. SanDisk also makes the Sansa, the second-most purchased MP3 player (behind guess what fruit-named firms device), with a market share of 11 percent. SanDisk released its first flash memory chip in 1991, but the companys big breakthrough came in 1996 when it debuted a way to double the capacity of a flash chip. In 2000, the company formed a joint venture with Toshiba, called FlashVision, for the production of advanced flash memory. By 2002, all of the companys flash manufacturing was consolidated into Toshibas facilities in Yokkaichi, Japan. The two companies teamed up to increase manufacturing capacity even further in 2004, with the creation of Flash Partners. The next year, SanDisk demonstrated its commitment to new kinds of chip technology with the $300 million purchase of Matrix Semiconductor.
Mnemonic expansion
In 2006, SanDisk acquired Israel-based M-Systems, another manufacturer of flash products, for $1.5 billion. The new acquisition increased SanDisks control of the market for flash memory to about a third, and complements its product line quite well, since M-systems was in the business of manufacturing flash drives for sale under the names of other companies, while SanDisk primarily sells memory under its own name.
Price elasticity
Despite its previous ability to stay one step ahead of the cyclical drop in prices for memory chips, SanDisk proved susceptible to the recent freefall in memory chip prices that gripped the entire sector. In late 2008, the company announced that it would be cutting as much as 15 percent of its global workforce, or about 450 jobs, in the face of a bigger dip than anticipated in the price of its products. Industry analysts suspect that the drop in price is a sign that there is a glut of memory chips in the marketplace.
Resilient
Despite its job cuts, SanDisk charged ahead in September 2007 with the opening of a new $170 million microchip plant in Shanghai. The plant bodes well for Chinese engineers, as it is located close to both Jiaotong and Huadong Universities, and will
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employ an initial number of 700 employees. China, of course, is the worlds largest market for cell phones, which are powered by SanDisks No. 1 productflash memory chips. CEO Harari said that the new plant will install the company close to its customer base and hopes that it will serve as SanDisks strategic base of Asian operations in years to come.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: On the decline? SanDisk declared an $864 million fourth quarter revenue for 2008, which increased 5 percent from the previous quarter, but was down a dismal 31 percent from last year. Total revenue for fiscal year 2008 is $3.35 billion, down 14 percent from the previous year. Chairman and CEO Eli Harari said that we are very disappointed with our fourth quarter bottom line results, which included significant asset impairment and inventory related charges. We are focused on managing our business through the difficult global economic climate and limited visibility in 2009. Harari also mentioned that the company is taking significant steps to curtail our captive output, conserve cash, and reduce capital and operating expenditures, and that it believes that drastic industry-wide capital expenditure cuts announced for 2009 will contribute to a better balance between supply and demand and an improved pricing environment in our markets later in 2009 and into 2010. January 2009: An industry first SanDisk announced that it has released a new innovation in its roster of flash drives. The company is introducing the SanDisk Ultra Backup USB, the worlds first USB drive with a one-button backup function. The USB drive, which has capacities of up to 64 gigabytes, is designed to protect computer users photos, music, videos, personal and business documents, and other types of digital files, with the simple touch of a button, and without the hassle of software installation. It also protects onboard digital content with a dual layer of security, including password-protected access control and ultra-secure AES hardware-based encryption. September 2008: Thanks, but no thanks The SanDisk board of directors confirmed it refused an unsolicited, nonbinding proposal from rival Samsung Electronics to acquire the former for about $26 per share in cash. After several meetings with Samsung since its original expression of interest in an acquisition deal, SanDisks board of directors, with advice from its financial and legal advisors, concluded that the proposal was inadequate in multiple respects, and not in the best interests of SanDisks stockholders. SanDisk execs also said that the proposed deal significantly undervalues SanDisk given the long-term
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prospects of its business, and was an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of SanDisks current stock price, which is significantly depressed given industry cyclicality, the uncertainty resulting from the unresolved patent cross license agreement renewal with Samsung, and general equity market conditions.
GETTING HIRED
Get a flash-y career
SanDisks careers page (www.sandisk.com/Corporate/Careers) provides information on job openings at the company, both for graduates and experienced hires, as well as benefits on offer for employees. Recently, most of the openings seemed to be in engineering or finance. To apply, job seekers must first create a profile. SanDisk does not provide much information on what its college graduate career program entails, but recent grads are invited to submit their resumes to careers@sandisk.com. Benefits (which may vary by location) include health, dental, vision and employee assistance, health and dependent care, spending accounts, stock options, stock purchase plan and 401(k), discount tickets to amusement parks, free gym membership, events such as book fairs, picnics and holiday parties, and discounts on SanDisk merchandise.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Getting lucky
An intern from Austin, Texas, notes that in SanDisk, [t]he employee coordination is very good. We have get-togethers almost every week. The insider added that the [salary] package is decent. It goes well with experience. However, the intern also reveals that [t]here are no real benefits in the company. There are a short number of paid holidays, around 20 per annum. Nevertheless, employees will experience enjoyment and satisfaction, especially those who are interested in [the] area of systems and networking. Another intern also discloses the companys interview process. An interview round has some behavioral questions, he says. They asked me to design a card-shuffling algorithm. I answered it and after that we discussed a lot about parallel programming concepts in that algorithm. I already tried for this position in spring January 2007 and got a reject. I dont know why they rejected me. [The] next time, they asked [the] same questions and I answered the same answers. Now I was selected. It is luck. One positive thing about the company, he adds, is that there are relatively few layoffs, even in bad economic climates.
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SANMINA-SCI CORPORATION
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition
2700 North First Street San Jose, CA 95134 Phone: (408) 964-3555 Fax: (408) 964-3636 www.sanmina-sci.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Support Defense & Aerospace Engineering Facilities Finance/Accounting HR IT Legal Logistics/Transportation/Exporting/Importing Manufacturing/Operations Marketing Materials/Planning/Procurement/SCM Program Management/Customer Service Quality Sales/Business Development/Mergers & Acquisitions Technicians
LOCATIONS
San Jose, CA (HQ) Allen, TX Austin, TX Durham, NC Foothill Ranch, CA Fremont, CA Huntsville, AL Kenosha, WI Laredo, TX Livermore, CA Manchester, NH Newark, CA Oswego, NY Rapid City, SD Salt Lake City, UT Turtle Lake, WI Apodaca, Mexico Batam, Indonesia Calgary Campinas, Brazil Fermoy, Ireland Guadalajara Gunzenhausen, Germany Haukipudas, Finland Kanata, Canada Kuching, Malaysia Kunshan, China Lod, Israel Ma'alot, Israel Miskolc, Hungary Monterrey Montreal Ornskoldsvik, Sweden Pathum Thani, Thailand Penang, Malaysia Port Glasgow, United Kingdom Salo, Finland Shenzhen Singapore Suzhou, China Tatabanya, Hungary Toronto Wuxi, China Yasu, Japan
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SANM Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman & CEO: Jure Sola President & COO: Hari Pillai 2008 No. of Employees: 45,610 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 7,202
KEY COMPETITORS
Flextronics Hon Hai Jabil
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sanmina-sci.com/Info/HR/ career_op.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Sanmina-SCI Corporation
THE SCOOP
Leading the circuit board business
Sanmina-SCI is a leading contract manufacturer of electronics, whose services and goods can carry an electronics manufacturer from the drawing board to finished product. In addition to making circuit boards, cables and all manner of electronic viscera, the company offers precision machining and system assembly and testing. The company is also the worlds largest manufacturer of backplanescircuit boards that are connected to create a complete computer system. Its factories are located in 19 countries on five continents, with a workforce of more than 45,000. The companys customers include such tech industry heavyweights as Lenovo, Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia and Ericsson. Sanminas circuit boards find their way into all manner of electronic devices, from the tiny to the not at all tiny, from cell phones and computers to cars, and even airplanes. Because of the generally regarded fact that the electronics industry loses billions every year as a result of electrostatic damage, a great deal of thought in the circuit board industry has gone into preventing the damage caused by electrostatic discharge, or ESD. In 2006, Sanmina signed an agreement with Shocking Technologies, a company that develops Voltage Switchable Dielectric (VSD) materials, to find measures to incorporate protections against ESD into the circuit board itself, instead of relying on devices on the board surface or separate grounds, which impose limitations on chip design and performance. ESD protection in the chip substrate allows all the circuits on the board to be protected, yet removes obstacles to chip configuration and performance imposed by traditional methods. Sanmina hopes that this new technology will give it a leg up over its competitors in the increasingly commoditized circuit board industry.
IN THE NEWS
October 2008: Hari Pillai promoted Sanmina-SCI promoted 14-year veteran Hari Pillai to president and chief operating officer. Pillai, who has held several senior management positions in the company, is an integral part of the companys entry into the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) market. A graduate of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Hari Pillai was also one of the pioneers in the companys strategic planning and implementation, leading to the companys diversification and market leadership in various end markets such as medical and defense and aerospace.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Sanmina-SCI Corporation
January 2008: A comeback on the horizon? Sanmina-SCI announced a slightly positive gain in profits for the January quarter, reassuring worried investors with the expectation that the company is on the right track toward its long-overdue comeback. Sanmina-SCIs shares finished strong in mid-January after posting a dismal $1.19 during the first few days of the month, down 70 percent from last year. The company reported that first-quarter earnings per share for fiscal 2008, before charges, would meet or exceed [the] Wall Street consensus estimate.
GETTING HIRED
Sign me up for Sanmina
On Samina-SCIs careers website (www.sanmina-sci.com/Info/HR/career_op.html) there is a database of available jobs, searchable by location and category, which can include administrative, defense and aerospace, engineering, facilities, finance, HR, IT, legal, logistics, manufacturing, marketing, materials, mergers and acquisitions, program management/customer service, quality and sales. To apply, job seekers can fill out an email form online. Sanmina-SCIs careers site (www.sanmina-sci.com/Info/HR/career_op.html) provides information about all the benefits of life at the company, which include the standard medical, vision, dental and drug prescription coverage, life insurance and AD&D insurance. Personal benefits include paid vacation leave credits and holidays, personal leaves, sick leaves, bereavement leaves and jury duty leaves. Employees also have access to a discount stock purchase plan, 401(k) with company matching, tuition reimbursement, a work/life balance program and a credit union.
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SAP AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16 69190 Walldorf Germany Phone: +49-6227-7-47474 Fax: +49-6227-7-57575 www.sap.com SAP America, Inc. 3999 West Chester Pike Newtown Square, PA 19073 Phone: (610) 661-1000 Fax: (610) 661-1896
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Consulting Consulting Controlling/Finance Facility Management Human Resources IT/Data Processing Information Development Legal Marketing Pre-sales Product Management Production Public Relations Purchasing/Logistics Quality Management Research/Development Sales Service & Support Software Development Training Translation UI design Value Engineering Vocational training
LOCATIONS
Walldorf, Germany (Corporate HQ) Newtown Square, PA (US HQ) Alpharetta, GA Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Bellevue, WA Bloomington, MN Bristol, PA Burlington, MA Cambridge, MA Carlsbad, CA Cincinnati, OH Downers Grove, IL Edison, NJ Exton, PA Greenwood Village, CO Houston, TX Independence, OH Irvine, CA Irving, TX La Crosse, WI Lake Mary, FL Los Angeles, CA McLean, VA Miami, FL Morristown, NJ New Haven, CT New York, NY Palo Alto, CA Pleasanton, CA Portland, OR San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Scottsdale, AZ Southfield, MI St. Louis, MO Stamford, CT Washington, DC 114 International Locations.
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SAP Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Dr. Hasso Plattner Co-CEO: Henning Kagermann Co-CEO: Leo Apotheker 2008 Employees: 51,500 2008 Revenue ( mil.): 11,565 2008 Income ( mil.): 1,868
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microsoft Oracle
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sap.com/careers/index.epx Email: careers@sap.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition SAP Aktiengesellschaft
THE SCOOP
Systems for business
Germanys SAP provides software for businesses. (The firms name used to be the delightfully agglutinative SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung, which in English translates to Corporations Systems, Uses and Products in Data Processing.) SAPs software, scaled for large, midsized and small businesses, has a facet for nearly every line of business under the sun. It manages customer and supplier relations, product lifecycle, human capital, supply chain and manufacturingit even makes sure that accounting stays on the right side of Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley. SAPs software is tailored for nearly 25 industries, including banking, insurance, defense, health care, research, postal services, media, retail, utilities, railways, mining and consumer products. The company rounds out its suite of offerings with training, support and consulting services. As of 2008, SAP is the worlds No. 3 independent software vendor and has 2,400 partner companies and more than 82,000 customers in over 120 nationseveryone from the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team to Microsoft runs SAP. Waning sales, stiff competition and troubled U.S. operations had prompted SAP into some major restructuring. The development division was drastically overhauled, as development was linked to marketing strategies and attacking e-business markets. SAP also broke with its in-house development tradition and its tendency to develop without the aid of alliances and acquisitions, partnering with companies including Sun, Commerce One and Nortel. In an aggressive move in 2005, SAP bought a startup called TomorrowNow, which provides cut-rate tech support for the users of Oracle products, in the hopes that it can convince those users to migrate to SAP.
Are the numbers good enough?

SAP posted respectable numbers for fiscal year 2008. Revenue from software and software-related services was up 20 percent over 2007s totals as the company saved about 220 million in costs in the final quarter of 2008. Not immune from the economic crunch though, SAP announced it will be cutting its global workforce by 3,000 by the end of 2009.
IN THE NEWS
February 2008: Business Objects owned After executing its much-publicized takeover bid of French company Business Objects, SAP and its French arm, SAP France, announced that they will acquire
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the rest of the Business Objects securities through a squeeze-out procedure. Once the deal is done, SAP France will have gainedmore than 2.8 million Business Objects shares, eventually owning 100 percent of the latter. Talks of the acquisition were well under way in 2007 and, in October of that year, SAP made it known that it had reached an agreement with the Paris-based Business Objects, one of the last independent business intelligence software companies, in a deal valued at some 5 billion. The announcement was seen earlier as a direct response to Oracles acquisition of Hyperion, another small competitor in the business intelligence market. In previous years, SAP had avoided making big acquisitions, but the temptation of Business Objects (its client base overlaps with SAPs by 40 percent) was too great to pass up. The French firm will remain an independent subsidiary of SAP after the acquisition.
GETTING HIRED
Dont be a sap; join SAP!
SAPs careers site, at www.sap.com/careers/index.epx, provides hiring information for the 50 or so countries and regions in which the company operates. SAP has also laid out a new recruiting page in the United States, where wannabe employees can create pages for themselves in the companys talent registry and keep apprised of any new qualifications, degrees or long-term plans. However, as it stands at press time, SAPs job search page is fairly standard. There are separate search pages for those interested in working at SAP and at its development office based in Silicon Valley, SAP Labs. The HR department can be contacted at careers@sap.com with any questions or comments. Benefits offered by SAP include medical, dental, vision, tuition reimbursement, flexible spending accounts, a stock purchase plan and 401(k) with company matching. Career development plans in place at the company include succession planning, a career performance measurement tool and company-sponsored training from SAP University.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Striving for excellence? This is the right place for you
An intern noted that SAP in general offers a culture of personal responsibility, appreciation and excellence. The insider also said that employees are evaluated according to their individual performance and their performance in a group. Projects on strategy and structure of the enterprise comprehend interns in their
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teams, who strive for excellence and deliver good results. Another good trait of the company, according to the intern, is that even mid- or underperformers are appreciated, but they do not receive the same amount of responsibility and appreciation. Another contact hints at the number of hours an employee is required to put in. Office hours depend on position and in my case as an intern, were between 40 and 50 a week. Forty was the exception, not the rule. Career development and advancement are a little tricky in this part of the organization, says another intern, the overall part is small in comparison with the whole organization and career moves are more frequently out of SAP Managed Services into SAP AG, or vice versa. The respondent concludes by saying, I would like to stress the high degree of inside information and trust an intern may be confronted with even major strategic adjustments are a possible part of your dayto-day information.
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SAS INSTITUTE INC.

100 SAS Campus Drive Cary, NC 27513-2414 Phone: (919) 677-8000 Fax: (919) 677-4444 www.sas.com
LOCATIONS
Cary, NC (HQ) Arlington, VA Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Bedminster, NJ Boston, MA Cambridge, MA Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Denver, CO Detroit, MI Hartford, CT Irvine, CA Kansas City, KS Miami, FL Middleton, MA Minneapolis, MN New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Phoenix, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Rockville, MD San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Athens Auckland Bandariya, Saudi Arabia Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Belgrade Bogota Brasilia, Brazil Bratislava Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cape Town Caracas Copenhagen Dubai Dublin Espoo, Finland Glasgow Guangzhou Herzeliya, Israel Hong Kong Huizen, Netherlands Istanbul Jakarta Johannesburg Kiev Kuala Lumpur Lahore, Pakistan Lane Cove, Australia Lima Lisbon Ljubljana, Slovenia London Macedonia, Albania Madrid Makati City, Philippines Manchester, United Kingdom Marlow, United Kingdom Mexico City Milan Moscow Mumbai New Delhi Osaka Oslo Paris Prague Pretoria, South Africa Pune, India Riga, Latvia Rio de Janeiro Santiago So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Singapore Skanderborg, Denmark Solna, Sweden Strassen, Luxembourg Taipei Tallinn, Estonia Tervuren, Belgium Tokyo Vienna Vilnius, Lithuania WangenBruttisellen, Switzerland Warsaw Zagreb, Croatia
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Consulting Design Executive Finance Health & Wellness Human Resources Information Systems Legal/Contracts Marketing Procurement Sales Software Research & Development Technical Documentation Technical Support Training
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company CEO: Jim Goodnight 2008 Employees: 11,142 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 2,260
KEY COMPETITORS
Business Objects Cognos Oracle Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sas.com/jobs
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition SAS Institute Inc.
THE SCOOP
A very SAS-y company
SAS is one of the worlds largest privately held software companies and is also the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. SAS software is used by 91 of the top-100 companies on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list, has analyzed data provided by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Census, has managed customer loyalty programs at Marriott Hotels and Air France, monitors store performance for Subway and Williams-Sonoma and aids Merck and Pfizer in the development of new drugs. More than 45,000 customer sites in business and academia in over 100 countries use SAS software. SAS multitudinous offerings include data warehousing and software for data mining, product line management, customer relations management, software that detects money laundering and insurance fraud and programs that ensure companies are keeping on the right side of banking and accounting reform regulations like Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley. In 2008, the company enjoyed impressive revenue totals of $2.26 billion. SAS also gives back to the community by preparing students to become highly productive citizens in the future. Through educational programs such as The North Carolina 1:1 Learning Technology Initiative, which seeks to create future-ready schools in North Carolina, SAS focuses on helping the United States maintain its global competitiveness. The company also supports numerous outreach programs, institutions and associations around North Carolina state in their respective community-building endeavors.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: One of the elite For the 12th-straight year, SAS was included in Fortune magazines list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, rising to No. 20 in 2009, from No. 29 in 2008. The company is recognized for its health care, child care and work/life balance programs. Jenn Mann, vice president of human resources, said, At SAS, we foster an environment that encourages creativity and innovation while allowing employees to balance work and life. Creating a good work environment is important because it drives employee satisfaction which in turn contributes to world-class products and close relationships with our customers. SAS also has one of the lowest turnover rates. Each year, the company loses only 4 percent of its employees, which is remarkable considering the industry norm is a high 22 percent. SAS executives say this stems from building long-term
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relationships with their employees, creating a stimulating work atmosphere and rewarding employees for their competence and loyalty. February 2008: Nowhere to go but up SAS announced that it exceeded target revenue, ending 2007 with a whopping $2.15 billion, its 32nd-straight year of growth. Revenue for 2007 was up 15 percent, caused by an intense demand for analytics-powered business intelligence. With structured and unstructured data growing faster every day, its a great time to be SAS, said CEO Jim Goodnight. While the dust settles from the BI market consolidation, were free to focus on what organizations wantraw data assets transformed into useful, trustworthy, timely information for fact-based decisions. January 2008: Intelligence is key SAS was named among the top-12 most influential companies in business intelligence by Intelligent Enterprise magazine. The ranking, called The Dozen, is a list of companies that have been the most successful in providing technological business solutions and exhibiting exceptional vision, technology innovation and customer leadership in attaining strategic objectives.
GETTING HIRED
Have an analyzed career
SAS posts its current job openings on its careers site, at www.sas.com/ jobs/index.html. To apply, interested parties must first create a profile. Jobs are listed by region and then by country. While SASs emphasis on research and development requires a continuous supply of technically proficient workers, the company also has opportunities in sales, marketing and finance. When applying, be sure to include the job posting number indicated on the web page. SAS also posts a list of recruiting events, which are held at North Carolina state schools and Georgia Tech.
Beneficial treatment
Competition is stiff for career opportunities at SAS, mainly due to the gobs of perks and on-site facilities available to its employees. Keeping its staff happy is one of the companys secrets of successthe pampered employees save the company about $75 million per year in charges associated with finding and training new employees. The employee turnover rate (4 percent) is well below the industrys average (20 percent), and people want to stay for a reason. At the companys world headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, the swimming pool, fitness center, track, child care facilities, medical facilities and various other amenities
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encourage long-term careers and commitment while maintaining a high-quality workload and work ethic. In 2009, for the 12th consecutive year, SAS was granted a spot on Fortunes Best Companies to Work for list at No. 20, and its generous health benefits received special mention.
Mr. Hollands HR
Music lovers seeking employment with SAS might be impressed by this extra perk: the company uses daily performances of live music to keep employees at its Cary location relaxed. Daily during lunch, a food service employee or a member of the SAS choir (another company-sponsored extracurricular) takes a turn as pianist. SAS also runs a summer camp, Camp Awesome Adventure, at the headquarter site for its employees children.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Good, but could be better
Working at SAS isvery interesting, says an insider, It is a family-friendly place to work. However, the insider adds that as much as working for the company brings about a good professional experience, SAS would not be the company that a professional can build a solid career on. Another informant agrees, saying that People stay here so long the chances of a newcomer getting a promotion or a window office are zero. Raises and bonuses, according to the insider, are traditionally meager or nonexistent. Nonetheless, SAS uses its culture to attract potential employees. Culture is very different from other software companies in the area, a contact says, adding that there are several onsite cafes, recreational facilities including a pool, basketball courts, soccer fields, etc. Another insider notes that the dress code is very slack and hours are very flexible. However, the SAS culture also has its shortcomings. Administration is like that of a much smaller company, with a very amateurish HR department and lots of unwritten laws that can get you fired. There is no assistance for education. The company is also made up of a lot of baby boomers who have been in the company for a significant amount of time, which limits upward mobility, says the contact. Despite this, other coworkers insist that overall, if you have to work somewhere, this is a good place, noting that the hours are good and the benefits are some of the best around. They suggest, though, that the company leadership needs further development to make SAS a company to truly reckon with.
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SCANSOURCE INCORPORATED
6 Logue Court Greenville, SC 29615 Phone: (864) 288-2432 Fax: (864) 288-1165 www.scansourceinc.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SCSC Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: James G. Foody CEO: Michael L. Baur 2008 Employees: 1,059 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 2,175 2008 Company Income ($mil.): 55.6
LOCATIONS
Greenville, SC (HQ) Bellingham, WA Buffalo, NY Lenexa, KS Mendota Heights, MN Miami, FL Norcross, GA Southaven, MS Tempe, AZ Williamsville, NY Bad Homburg, Germany Brussels Crawley, United Kingdom Eindhoven, Netherlands Etobicoke, Canada Hessle, United Kingdom Mexico City Olivet, France Richmond, Canada Toronto Vancouver
KEY COMPETITORS
Ingram Micro PEAK Technologies Tech Data
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.scansourceinc.com/careers.aspx
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Finance Administration Corporate Operations Credit Customer Service HR Legal Mailroom Marketing Merchandising Partner Services Payroll Sales Technical Services
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition ScanSource Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Your source for all things scan-related
ScanSource is a distributor of electronic equipment, including bar code readers and other automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) devices, which are mostly used to control inventory in warehouses and stores. It also distributes electronic security products, voice, video and data equipment, and videoconferencing products. ScanSource also provides services like training, education, and pre- and post-sale support to its customers. The company is named as one of Fortunes Most Admired Companies in 2009.
Some code walks into a bar

ScanSource was founded in 1992 to provide bar code readers and other AIDC items to resellers. Despite the companys oddly fatalistic (and sort of non-sequitur) motto, Whats supposed to happen, happens, it has confidently ridden the wave of increasing demand for its products. In 1997, ScanSource moved into Canada and added telecommunications products to its lineup under the Catalyst Telecom division. Catalyst got a boost in 1998 with the acquisition of another telecom products distributor, and ScanSource started to offer logistics services under the ChannelMax name. It opened an office in Mexico in 2001, and got all the waffles it could eat in 2002 when it opened a European headquarter in Liege, Belgium. In 2004, keeping up with the pace of technology, the company started carrying RFID products (a fancy kind of neo-bar code that picks up radio frequency, hence the name: radio frequency identification). It also started offering security equipment.
Listage
In January 2007, ScanSource was named to the 131-spot on Forbes Platinum 400 list of the best big companies for the third straight year, ranking behind five other technology concerns. The companies on the list are evaluated on several criteria, including the amount of debt the company carries and growth in sales and profits. In April 2008, Fortune named the company No. 901 on the Fortune 1000, a leap from its No. 956 ranking in 2007.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Admirable ScanSource was included in Fortunes Most Admired Companies list. This year, Fortune included companies outside North America. ScanSource was one of only two companies recognized from South Carolina. Mike Baur, ScanSources CEO, believed that the companys strong relationship with manufacturers and the support it gets from its customers and investors were what help it stay ahead of the game. Baur added, To be considered one of the worlds most admired companies demonstrates the commitment and high quality of service and support that our employees provide to our reseller and vendor partners every day. April 2008: Steadily crawling up ScanSource ranked No. 901 in Fortunes 1000 list, a not so huge, but very significant climb from No. 956 in the previous year. ScanSource was one of only four companies from South Carolina included in the list. Mike Baur, ScanSource CEO, said he is glad that ScanSource has moved up the Fortune 1000 ladder. He also adds that the climb is a testament to our strong business plan and the execution of our employees. Baur attributed the companys success to its strong relationship with its vendor and reseller partners. January 2008: Predicting the future The second quarter ended with a 17 percent net sales increase, about $553.3 million compared to last years $473.7 million. CEO Mike Baur attributed the companys success to the fact that excellent execution by our sales and support teams worldwide allowed us to gain market share and achieve our financial goals, adding, We are also very pleased with the record quarterly sales growth of our newly formed ScanSource Communications business unit. After announcing the financial results for the second quarter, ScanSource was eager to face another year. The company expected March 2008 revenue to hit between $550 million and $570 million. June 2007: This time its right After a hiccup with the SEC about ScanSources 1994 to 1996 budget in 2006, ScanSource assured that it has complied with NASDAQ rules. CEO Mike Baur added that the company will focus more on developing its businesss growth markets.
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GETTING HIRED
Let ScanSource be your careers security system
ScanSources careers page, at www.scansource.com/employment.asp, provides everything youll need to know to become part of the companys workforce. Job openings are listed at www.prohire.com/candidates/default.cfm?szWID=11115&sz CID=50019, and candidates will have to create a profile to apply. Some of the benefits of working at corporate HQ include an on-site caf and gym with personal trainer (for working off all of those snacks), health, vision and dental insurance, 401(k) and stock purchase plan, a generous vacation package, tuition assistance, flexible spending accounts for child care and internships for employees children. The site also provides information about headquarters hometown Greenville, South Carolina, which is apparently located on a prime spot on the planet. This prime slice of planetary real estate boasts a temperate climate, proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the bustling cities of Atlanta and Charlotte, and some mighty fine barbecue.
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SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION (SAIC)

10260 Campus Point Drive San Diego, CA 92121 Phone: (858) 826-6000 Fax: (858) 826-6800 www.saic.com
DEPARTMENTS
Biopharm Manufacturing/Development Business Development/Marketing Clinical/Regulatory Commercial/Industry Relations Communications Consulting Employee Contracts/Pricing Defense/Intelligence/Geopolitical Engineering Environmental Executive Management Facilities/Physical Security Finance/Accounting/Business Management General Office Health Services Human Resources Internal Audit IT/Telecommunications Legal Lending Logistics Management Manufacturing Medical Research Operations Planning Procurement Product Engineering Project/Program Management Proposal/Publications Research & Development Skilled Trades/Technical Training
LOCATIONS
Alabama Alaska Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Washington, DC West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Utah 62 International Locations
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SAI Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: K.C. Dahlberg 2008 Employees: 44,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 8,900 2008 Income ($ mil.): 415
KEY COMPETITORS
Booz Allen Hamilton Computer Sciences Lockheed Martin
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.saic.com/career
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
THE SCOOP
Science for a safer world
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has built its business on fulfilling various scientific and engineering contracts with the Department of Defense and other government agencies, including the CIA, the National Security Administration and the U.S. Army. It also sometimes works with major U.S. and foreign corporations, but government contracts currently account for 90 percent of its business, more than half of them directly related to matters of national security. The firms areas of expertise range widelyfrom communications and computer networking to geologic exploration, from logistics to border security systems. Its current services include software and computer system development, plus integration and tech support for both. SAIC has played a role in high-profile projects like the cleanup of Three Mile Island to the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope and Americas Cup racing boats. On the 2008 Fortune 500, the company was ranked No. 289.
Employee-owned and -operated

At the end of the 1960s, Bob Beyster left a research position at General Atomics to start his own company, intending to perform contract research in nuclear physics. With the help of his longtime friend (and entrepreneur in his own right) Myron Eichen, Beyster began interviewing prospective employees in February 1969, using the concept of employee ownership as a focal point. Soon, SAIC had a home base in a small office in La Jolla, Calif., and by 1970, it had 20 employees, all of whom owned parts of the company. SAICs employees would own the company (which could be traded on an internal exchange) until the corporation offered some stock to the wider world in 2006.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: There is only one way ... and that is up. SAIC profits were up 21 percent despite the global economic slump. Last years sales, according to Washington Business Journal, reached $10 billion, a first in SAICs history. The company associates sales growth to its logistics, information collection and security, and defense IT sectors, which make up for the weakness of its commercial businesses.
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July 2008: All smiles Thanks to the companys employees, SAIC enjoyed a 15 percent increase in revenue. SAIC Chairman Ken Dahlberg strongly believes in the companys talent pool saying, Our employees dedicated work is delivering excellent contract execution and critical support to our customers. Our growing labor base and improving business discipline gives us increasing confidence that we can achieve our financial goals for fiscal year 2009. The company also has to credit the financial boost to recent acquisitions and contract demands that were met. January 2008: A bug-free Albania SAIC completed a project for the U.S. Department of State, helping extract 2,900 tons of obsolete and dangerous surplus munitions in the Republic of Albania. The removal and disposal of these old and dangerous munitions, SAIC Program Manager Steve Rader says, has made Albania a safer country. He also stated that getting hold of the munitions prevents them from falling into the wrong hands. These munitions are no longer available to be acquired illegally and used by terrorist groups, he adds. July 2007: Logistics shuffle SAIC and Northrop Grumman Newport News (Northrop) joint venture, AMSEC LLC (AMSEC) will be experiencing a reshuffling of responsibilities. The two companies decided to distribute ship engineering and logistics businesses to AMSEC while aviation, combat systems and strike force integration services business will be transferred to SAIC. Deborah Alderson, SAICs Defense Solutions Groups president, said that restructuring will help SAIC focus on its core business areas of command, control and communications, and enterprise solutions, and providing more depth in our solution offerings to our customers through the realignment of EMA and SSI into SAIC. The restructuring is officially completed on July 16th. 2007: Yes they did! Oh no, they didnt!
Vanity Fair released a controversial article on SAICs participation in the Iraq war, saying that the contractor supplied the war with brainpower and expertise. SAIC offered no response to the report.
GETTING HIRED
Apply yourself to a new career
SAICs careers page, at www.saic.com/career, has a searchable list of job openings, as well as a wealth of information about the company. To apply for a job, potential employees must first create a profile. SAIC offers many opportunities for training, including discounted admission to colleges near company locations and on-site
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graduate degrees in business and systems engineering. Benefits at SAIC include health, vision, dental and life insurance, paid vacation and nine holidays, tuition assistance, retirement plans with company matching, and shuttle buses and flexible hours for commuters. SAIC also provides information for college students who might be interested in internships or co-ops. Majors in engineering, computer science, finance, accounting, political science, security and intelligence studies, and similar areas, with GPAs of 3.2 or higher, are all welcome to apply. Interested students can either contact SAICs recruiters by phone at (610) 336-4316 for East Coast opportunities, or at (858) 8267624 for West Coast ones; by email form at www.saic.com/career/college.asp; or at a career fair. The career fair schedule is posted at www.saic.com/career/schedule.asp and stops include Texas A&M, Louisiana State University, UC San Diego and Brandeis University.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Have a career in the applied sciences
Sources report a straightforward interview process at SAIC. I had one round of interviews with the company that consisted of five separate interviews in one day, says one hire. I had three interviews in total, says another. He reports being asked questions like Why do you want to work [here]? and What do you bring to the table? The office I work in has a diverse mix of people, mostly well-educated academic types who get along well, says an insider. There is no training or support at all. Most new hires leave within two years, says one member of the finance department. The work and atmosphere for on-site government contractors matters much more on the government client than on SAIC corporate culture or interaction, notes one respondent. The hours are flexible. As long as you get 80 hours in, most managers dont care when you do it That said, certain positions will require a lot of hours, warns a member of the finance department. The workplace isnt bad. The hours are good, but there is little to no opportunity for advancement at the current location, says one source at a satellite office. SAIC offers its employees a lot of opportunity, especially for ex-government personnel with security clearances. If you have a top secret clearance, you are golden, says an insider.
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SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.

920 Disc Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066 Phone: (831) 438-6550 Fax: (831) 429-6356 www.seagate.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: STX Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman, President & CEO: Stephen J. Luczo 2008 Employees: 54,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 12,708 2008 Income ($ mil.): 1,262
LOCATIONS
Scotts Valley, CA (HQ) Bloomington, MN Fremont, CA Longmont, CO Milpitas, CA Minneapolis, MN Miramar, FL Oklahoma City, OK Pittsburgh, PA Shakopee, MN Shrewsbury, MA Beijing Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom Haarlem, Netherlands Hong Kong Marlow, United Kingdom Munich New Delhi Paris So Paulo Shanghai Shenzhen Sydney Taipei Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Fujitsu Hitachi Global Storage Western Digital
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.seagate.com/www/enus/about/jobs_at_seagate
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Consumer Solution Customer Service Engineering Engineering Services Finance/Accounting General Management Human Resource Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Materials Operations Support PR/Communications Product & Process Development Quality Sales & Product Line Strategic Planning & Corporate Development Technical Support
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Seagate Technology L.L.C.
THE SCOOP
Save me, Seagate
Seagate is a major manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, controlling around a third of the market for the devices in 2007. It sells them to OEM manufacturers of PCs and servers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, along with DVR and consumer product manufacturers; through the distribution channel to system builders, resellers and distributors; and at retail, under the Seagate name, to consumers who wish to pump up their drive capacity independently. Seagate hard disks come in a variety of sizes and capacities, from 1.8-inch drives for use in smaller consumer applications, to 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives for use in computers, on-demand television systems and data storage servers.
Seagates got your back

As the largest independent manufacturer of disc drives, and the share leader in most market segments, Seagate has exhibited strong financial and operational performance over the years. In 2007, sales were up nearly 25 percent over 2006, to $11.4 billion, and profit topped $900 million.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: A cooler way to preserve tradition Years of Chinas cultural heritage will be stored into Seagates FreeAgent desktop family, the Beijing Opera Theatre announces at its 30th anniversary at the Chang An Grand Theater. FreeAgent will be backing up over 1,400 works, some of which were performed 70 years ago. Wang Yuzhen, president of The Beijing Peking Opera hopes that digitally preserving tradition will help the next generation and people from other cultures appreciate the beauty of the Peking Opera. With its long history and countless classic works, we need a great deal of digital storage to help us preserve these beautiful classics. Unfortunately, some classic works have been totally destroyed due to improper storage We are working with Seagate to prevent this type of loss, he adds. March 2009: The knight in not so shining armor Small businesses need not worry about storing needed data. Seagate released a new family of storage solutions specifically aimed at small businesses data storage needs. The BlackArmor can power up a small business with up to 50 employees and can provide two to eight terabytes of memory.
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Seagate, together with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has also given gamers and bandwidth-hungry computers a reason to raise their swords (or gamepads) and shout Ahu! 300-style after both companies offered a public demonstration of Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gigabit/secondthe next-generation of high-speed data transfer. The increasing reliance of consumers and businesses worldwide on digital information is giving rise to gaming, digital video and audio, streaming video, graphics and other applications that require even more bandwidth, driving demand for PC interfaces that can carry even more digital content, said Joan Motsinger, vice president of Seagates Personal Systems marketing strategy. She also believes that the SATA 6Gigabit/second is capable of meeting higherbandwidth demands. January 2009: The dawn of a new headache Stephen Luzcos return as Seagates CEO isnt exactly triumphant as he faces towers of paperwork, all marked please fix. Luzco announced that the company will be braving a major revamp after a $496 million loss, a slump blamed on the focus on hard disk drive production. Before Luzcos re-ascent to the seat, Seagate saw former CEO Bill Watkins and COO Dave Wickershams resignations, as well as pink slips for 6 percent of its employees. The remaining employees could only shake their heads at the salary cuts instituted the same month. Luzco, on the other hand, believes there is still hope for the future, though laden with countless obstacles. December 2008: Full access Unhook the velvet rope. Seagate now has VIP access after being given a Full Authorized Economic Operator (AEOF) certificate by the European Union (EU). The certification allows Seagate to breeze through the 27 EU members customs nitty-gritty, plus a skip-the-line at customs in United States and Asia. Seagate also made a bold move by relying on wind technology to power its Northern Ireland plant in Springtown. This green shift by Seagate is aided by Irelands leading renewable energy company, Airtricity. John Spanger, vice president at the Springtown facility, also left other companies a chunk of wisdom to chew on: We are not a heavy or conventionally dirty industry and we have no smokestacks to shut down, but we do not view that as a warrant for complacency. November 2008: They are not biodegradable but Seagate promises that the Savvio 15K.2 Hard Disk Drive is still the greenest and the fastest drive in the world. Savvio will not only still be performing at its Seagate best, but will also work at record-low power consumption. If that still isnt impressive, it may not be the smallest (probably breaking this hard drives record number of -ests appended) but it is 70 percent smaller than the usual hard drive. But thats not all! It also boasts of a self-encrypting drive option and a server capacity of 146 GB. Yes, it really would be nice to find the Savvio 15K.2 HDD biodegradable then again why think about burying your files underground?
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September 2008: Mash up! Seagates EVault, MetaLINCS and Seagate recovery services were collectively branded with a name that sounds a bit like a robot from Star Wars: i365. This company will be aiding smaller to midsized enterprises by providing them with its software, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and managed service solutions. The moniker came from a very cute but insightful mission: to provide protection to businesses critical information 365 days a year. The i365 will be building on its 22,000 customer base and expanding in North America and Europe. Seagate also set up shop in its new hub, the NASDAQ Stock Market, a move from the New York Stock Exchange. CEO Bill Watkins believed that the companys investors will enjoy fast, high-quality trades in a more cost-effective structure for Seagate. Watkins also announced that speculations about Seagates bid for microchip expert SanDisk are false. April 2008: Retirement plans? Charles Pope may be retiring from his role as CFO, but he plans to keep himself busy by focusing on Segates Services group. Popes seat will be taken by Patrick OMalley, Seagates finance treasury senior vice president. Seagate CEO Bill Watkins believes that the role swap is a very good transition for the company. Pat OMalley has been a valued senior executive during some of Seagates most dramatic years of change, and I have every confidence that he will serve us well as our new CFO, he says.
GETTING HIRED
Drive your career at Seagate
Seagates careers site, at www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/jobs_at_seagate/, provides a searchable list of jobs and information on Seagates culture, benefits and hiring events. The benefits include several health insurance options, dental insurance, medical and dependent care spending accounts, 401(k) with company matching, profit-sharing, discount stock-purchase plan, tuition reimbursement, adoption assistance and work/life balance assistance. Recruiting events are posted on the site as well (though there were none listed at press time). However, several internship positions were listed in the searchable jobs database. To apply, job seekers must first create a profile on the site.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

A hard days night
It seems Seagate has evolved into a dreary and cutthroat workplace. An insider noticed: [W]hat used to be a fun environment, aims to cut your bonus or commissions at every avenue. They are currently trying to hire people who will do more for less. I am now expected to do more for less, though I did very well and went way over my quota, this turned into me having hundreds of accounts taken away making the achievement of my quota impossible. The same respondent, a client services representative, says that his base salary is $40,000 and that he had the opportunity to increase his salary to $50,000 if he met quota. I would have made even more with the new bonus structure if they hadn't taken all my accounts away that I could renew, he adds.
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STMICROELECTRONICS N.V.
STMicroelectronics N.V. 39, Chemin du Champ des Filles C. P. 21, CH 1228 Plan-Les-Ouates Geneva, Switzerland Phone: +41-22-929-29-29 Fax: +41-22-929-29-88 www.st.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Planning & Development Communications Design & Application Development Design Support EH&S, Sustainable Excellence Executives & Cross-function Management Finance, Control & Audit Human Resources Information Technologies Legal Logistics & Warehousing Marketing Operations Support Planning Process & Product Engineering Production Product & Test Engineering Purchasing Quality R&D Sales Site Services
LOCATIONS
Geneva, Switzerland (HQ) Aliso Viejo, CA Austin, TX Bensalem, PA Carrollton, TX Cary, NC Edina, MN Houston, TX Huntsville, AL Indianapolis, IN Kansas City, MO Kokomo, IN La Jolla, CA Lake Oswego, OR Lawrenceville, GA Lexington, MA Livonia, MI Longmont, CO Parsippany, NJ Phoenix, AZ Portland, OR Quakertown, PA Redmond, WA San Jose, CA Schaumburg, IL Voorhees, NJ Bangalore Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Budapes Casablanca Chennai Grasbrunn, Germany Grenoble, France Hanoi Hong Kong Istanbul Izmir, Turkey Johannesburg Joinville, Brazil Kista, Sweden Kuala Lumpur Lahore, Pakistan Madrid Manaus, Brazil Marlow, United Kingdom Mexico City Milan Moscow Mumbai Nagoya City, Japan Nasr City, Egypt Noida, India Nummela, Finland Osaka Ottawa Paris Pasig City, Philippines Penang Prague Pune, India Rome So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen, China Singapore South Netanya, Israel Stuttgart, Germany Taegu, Korea Taipei Tokyo Toronto Veldhoven, The Netherlands Warsaw Zaventem, Belgium
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SMSD Stock Exchange: KRX Vice Chairman & CEO: Yoon-Woo Lee 2007 Employees: 263,000 2007 Revenue ($mil): 105,206 2007 Income ($ mil.): 5,375
KEY COMPETITORS
Infineon Technologies NXP Texas Instruments
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
jobs.st.com
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition STMicroelectronics N.V.
THE SCOOP
Its a small world, after all
STMicroelectronics (ST) is among Europes top chip manufacturers, and is one of the firms nudging the world toward smaller and smarter gadgets. As consumers demand more secure credit and ID cards, smaller cell phones, cars that can operate more reliably, give directions, entertain occupants and play movies, ST is stepping up to bat. The company makes semiconductors and microchips for the automotive, communications, consumer, industrial and computer industries, in addition to being a leading manufacturer of smart cards (those nifty plastic cards with a microchip inside that store and process information). Its major customers include Cisco, Delphi, Ericsson, Nokia, Maxtor and Siemensin other words, all of the big-name consumer and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) companies. ST manufactures the motion-sensing chips that help enable Nintendos popular Wii video game system, as well as some of the RFID (radiofrequency identification) chips that control Wal-Marts respected logistics chain and the chips that deliver the video and sound in several recognized cellular handsets. In 2007, ST developed a lab on a chip with the ability to test for the presence of avian influenza.
From failing chips to merged behemoth

ST traces its roots back to 1987, when the French and Italian governments decided to merge their semipublic semiconductor endeavors. One of the merger partners, Italian SGS Microelettronica, was headed by Pasquale Pistorio, who in the early 1980s had turned the company into a lean, mean profit-making machine. Before Pistorio arrived, SGS Microelettronica had been an unprofitable behemoth, churning out commodity chips on outdated equipment and rapidly losing share to Japanese and American competitors; Pistorio transformed it into a firm with efficient facilities putting out specialized microprocessors. The other merger partner, Thomson-CSF, was also outdated, debt-ridden and unprofitable, not to mention partly owned by the French government. Undaunted, Pistorio worked his management magic on the newly merged entity, now known as SGS Thomson. Needless to say, the merger put the combined companies balance sheets way out of whack.
Profiting through the tech bubble

In 1994, the company had a stock offering in both New York and Paris. In the late 1990s, the company took its IPO proceeds and invested them heavily in new factories in Europe, China and Singapore. In 1998, it changed the company name to STMicroelectronics and floated an offering on the Italian stock exchange. STs highly
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diversified product mix allowed it to weather the tech bubbles burst in 2000 with aplomb, posting profits when other companies in the sector were faring poorly.
Flashing the Flash

In 2002, ST acquired two semiconductor companies, cementing its position high in the global pecking order of chip manufacturers. In 2005, Pistorio, architect of STs rise to prominence, rode off into the sunset, replaced by longtime ST executive Carlo Bozotti. The following year, in early 2006, ST announced it was seeking a buyer for its flash memory division. ST fully reconfigured the flash division by January 2007, and in May, announced a joint venture with Intel, which also had an unprofitable flash department they were looking to fix. The two firms then pooled their flash memory divisions into a new business called Numonyx. In July 2007, it announced a pact with IBM to collaborate on (big surprise) chip manufacturing. The next month, it revealed that Nokia would be transferring its cell phone chip design team to ST (comprising about 200 employees), and that the two firms were now even better buddies, trumpeting deeper ties for future exploits.
The broad vision

ST aims to be a broad-range semiconductor supplier. Its vision, as stated on its website, is to become the undisputed leader in multimedia convergence and power applications, dedicating significant resources to product innovation and increasingly becoming a solution provider. In 2008, it had sales offices in 36 countries worldwide and posted revenue of $9 billion. In terms of percentage of sales, Europe accounts for the highest percentage of STs sales at 29 percent, followed by Greater China at 25 percent, North America at 12 percent, Asia Pacific at 22 percent and Japan at 5 percent. The remaining 7 percent is accounted for by emerging markets that include India, Russia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: More than 4,000 pink slips ST announced that it would lay off 4,500 employeesabout 9 percent of the Swiss microchip companyworldwide after posting a fourth quarter net loss. But the depressing news isnt over; despite a foreseen $700 million save this year, CEO Carlo Bozotti predicts there will be more losses saying that the market will drop more than 20 percent. July 2008: Volting in as ST-NXP Wireless ST and Philips-founded semiconductor company NXP announced that they will start tackling the impending change in the wireless industry together beginning August 2nd. This new amalgamation of key wireless operations is called ST-NXP
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Wireless, a venture whose seeds were planted on April 10, 2008. ST has an 80 percent stake in the joint venture. Armed with a gamut of communication and multimedia patents, ST-NXP is capable of dealing with UMTS (Universal Mobile Transmission System) for the TD-SCDMA standard and other cellular, multimedia and connectivity capabilitiesthings more commonly known as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio, USB and Ultra-Wideband (UWB). January 2008: Re-Genesis The company shook the dust off its hands after completing requirements and is now ready to take over Genesis Microchip Inc. Through Genesis, ST will finally be able to tap into one of the fastest-growing segments in consumer semiconductors, the digital TV market. Corporate Vice President and General Manager of STs Home Entertainment & Displays Group Philippe Lambinet assured customers that with the merger, STs already capable technologies would be bolstered by Genesis expertise to answer their bellowing calls for integrated DTV solutions. ST also has new people to look up to. Carlo Bozotti now sits as president and CEO, together with a new batch of executives. Bozotti replaced Pasquale Pistorio who has served ST since 1980. Orio Bellezza, assistant general manager of the frontend technology and manufacturing department now takes his seat as the units new executive vice president and general manager. November 2007: Scratching each others backs ST and Nokia closed a deal to bond together on the licensing and supply of integrated circuit designs and modern technologies for 3G and what it could be in the future. As part of the agreement, 185 highly skilled Nokia engineers will be relocated to ST in Geneva. The contract also allows ST to produce 3G chipsets based on Nokias modem technologies. As a capper to the agreement, Nokia awarded ST with a design win of an advanced 3G high-speed packet access (HSPA) chipsetSTs first in the 3G line. The ST-Nokia agreement was first announced on August 8, 2007.
GETTING HIRED
Put some ST in your career
Interested in joining ST? Walk your fingers over to jobs.st.com, where the company provides information on the organization of the company, diversity, career paths and training through its unique ST University. Benefits vary by location. The company hires about 6,000 people per year in 140 different jobs in such fields as engineering, logistics, marketing, quality and R&D. Internship opportunities are also available for undergrads in France, Tunisia and Morocco. To apply, candidates must first create a profile online.
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STRATUS TECHNOLOGIES
111 Powdermill Road Maynard, MA 01754-3409 Phone: (978) 461-7000 Fax: (978) 461-3670 www.stratus.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Administrative Customer Service EngineeringSoftware Manufacturing/Logistics Marketing Sales Tech Support
LOCATIONS
Maynard, MA (HQ) Allen, TX Aquadilla, PR Atlanta, GA Bloomington, MN Edmonds, WA Nashville, TN New York, NY Phoenix, AZ San Francisco, CA Tampa, FL Ashford, United Kingdom Athens Badhoevedorp, The Netherlands Ballerup, Denmark Bangkok Beijing Beirut Bogot Bratislava Bryanston, South Africa Bucharest Buenos Aires Budapest Cairo Caracas Chatswood, Australia Dubai Dublin Ecublens, Switzerland Eschborn, Germany Istanbul Jakarta Kanagawa, Japan Kowloon, Hong Kong Kuala Lumpur Lahore, Pakistan Lima Lisbon Ljubljana, Slovenia Madrid Makati City, Philippines Manila Melbourne Mexico City Montevideo, Uruguay Moscow Msida, Malta Nanterre, France Nowy Sacz, Poland Oslo Ostrava, Czech Republic Prague Riyadh Rozzano, Italy Safat, Kuwait San Jose, Cost Rica Santiago So Paulo Seoul Singapore Stafa, Switzerland Tokyo Woodbridge, Canada Zagreb, Croatia
THE STATS
Employer Type: Private Company Chairman, President & CEO: David C. Laurello 2006 Employees: 70 2005 Revenue ($ mil.): $272
KEY COMPETITORS
Hewlett-Packard IBM Sun Microsystems Dell
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.stratus.com/careers/index.htm
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Stratus Technologies
THE SCOOP
Heavenly performance
As befits a company named for a variety of cloud, Stratus Technologies does not believe in down. The company makes servers for use in industries like public safety, finance, transport, pharmaceutical manufacturing and governmentall arenas in which servers play a crucial role in delivering essential services, and an offline machine is even more of a crisis than it would otherwise be. Stratus servers are down, on average, for just over five minutes per yearand they dont even have to be taken offline for maintenance. Stratus servers are designed so that each part of the machineCPU, memory, power supplycomes in duplicate. If one power supply stalls, it automatically switches to the other, so that it wont bring down, say, the system that controls the planes around New York Citys JFK airport. The unique layout of the companys computers is only compatible with the limited number of operating systems capable of coping with such a setupoptions are limited to Microsofts Windows Server, Red Hats Linux or Hewlett-Packards flavor of UNIX. Stratus customers include the Shanghai Stock Exchange, AT&T, the FAA, the distribution arm of CVS and Purdue Pharmaceutical. Stratus controls 15 percent of the market for these specialized servers.
Rollercoaster of a decade
The 2000s have been a roller-coaster ride for Stratus, with minor dips and turns and a lot of firsts and yelps of exhilaration. The only low point in the companys recent history was when it was forced to cut 20 percent of headcount in 2005 due to a loss in profit. But its been smooth cruising before that and since then. In 2002, the company introduced the Uptime Meter, designed to keep track of the percentage of time that its servers are up and runninglast time Vault checked, Stratus has their servers running at 99.99 percent. Catering to companies on a budget, Stratus unveiled the Solutions Services Group in 2005, a provider of software, hardware and know-how for corporations that want to set up their own servers out of pocket. Finally, in 2007 Stratus snagged the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company as a client, and Stratus is responsible for directing rail traffic, which isnt peanuts, especially if a reliable server could spell the difference between arriving on time, or even arriving at all.
IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Xcellent Stratus swam in a sea of thumbs-up from its peers at the XChange Solution Provider 2009 event. Stratus Avance earned an Innovative Technology Solution
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XCellence Award for its potential to generate new revenue streams, strong market opportunity and the audiences willingness to represent the product. Allan Jennings, general manager of Stratus Avance business group, said that the companys goal was always to provide its customers with the best possible solutions. It is great to see our Avance software recognized for innovation by the solution provider community, he said. December 2008: Namaste, India! Stratus pushed through to Middle Asia for expansion despite the economic depression. Stratus ftServers will be travelling to India to provide fault-tolerant server assistance to three new services: a nationwide Windows-based payment infrastructure by PRIZMS Payments, the nations first online tea auction by The Tea Board of India and a nationwide online trading expansion by MCX. India is certainly among the leading nations to aggressively invest in electronic trading and financial services, and has been for more than a decade. It shows no signs of slowing down. Stratus vice president for the Asia/Pacific Region, Freeman Nung said. India is a rapidly developing economy because it sees its future clearly and has the conviction to do what is needed today to realize that vision. January 2008: Happy new year Stratus had more reasons to pop the cork and celebrate than just ushering in a new year. Stratus products have been recognized by several institutions. InfoWorld magazine has awarded the years Best Fault Tolerant Award. Paul Venezia, an InfoWorld reviewer, applauds the ftServer 4400s bulletproof resistance no matter how heavy the load. Stratus also ranked No. 72 in American Bankers Fin Tech 100 list. Denny Lane, director of product marketing and management, was grateful for the audiences recognition of the companys efforts. These organizations did extensive surveying and testing to arrive at their conclusions, and were honored to be among the companies they singled out for distinction. March 2007: A step towards virtualization
Stratus and NEC released their first quad-core fault-tolerant server, the ftServer 6200. CRN.com explained that this joint venture by Stratus and NEC consists of two completely redundant servers. The server is equipped with one or two Intel Xeon processors, 24 GB of memory, up to three SAS or SATA hard drives and LockStep technology, which allows the two servers to process the same data and applications. This technology allows one server to seamlessly get the job done when the other server gets bogged down with too much data or processes. The project is a result of the two-year joint venture by Stratus and NEC, and is scheduled for shipping in mid-July.
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GETTING HIRED
Have a stable career
Stratus careers page, at www.stratus.com/careers, provides information about job opportunities and benefits. To apply for a position, job seekers must first create a profile. Stratus also offers opportunities for co-ops and interns. The companys benefits are generous, with the standard health, dental, long-term care and life insurance, as well as a flexible spending account for dependent or medical expenses, 401(k) with company matching, tuition reimbursement and a company fitness center at Stratus headquarters.
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SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.

4150 Network Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Phone: (650) 960-1300 Fax: (408) 276-3804 www.sun.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: JAVA Stock Exchange: NASDAQ Chairman: Scott McNealy President & CEO: Jonathan Schwartz 2008 Employees: 33,556 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 13,880 2008 Income ($ mil.): -403
LOCATIONS
Santa Clara, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Beaverton, OR Boston, MA Broomfield, CO Burlington, MA Chicago, IL College Park, MD Denver, CO Ft. Lauderdale, FL Hillsboro, OR McLean, VA Menlo Park, CA Pittsburgh, PA Plano, TX San Diego, CA 86 locations throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, Canada and Mexico.
KEY COMPETITORS
Hewlett-Packard IBM Microsoft
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sun.com/corp_emp
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Corporate Information Systems Customer Service/Field Service Software Engineering Hardware Engineering Human Resources Legal Manufacturing Marketing Sales Technical Consulting Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Sun Microsystems, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Let the Sun shine in
Need something computer-related? Sun can provide it, as there are few things in the computing universe that are not dreamt of in its philosophy. The Santa Clara, Calif.based company manufactures all manner of products, including software, servers, data storage centers, workstations, computer chips (Suns line of chips is known as SPARC) and an operating system (Solaris), as well as networking and security hardware. Sun also offers consulting and support services. The company is the leading maker of UNIX-based servers and it also developed Java, a popular programming language that can run software on everything from desktop computers to cell phones and smart cards. The company has embraced open source formatting of UNIX, Solaris and Java, letting computer programmers around the world access them for free, with Sun charging for updates and services. Sun can be found in tech hotspots like the Silicon Valley area and up-and-coming, tech-friendly areas like Kazakhstan and Poland.
Around the world in four years

Sun was founded in 1982 with all of four employees, including former CEO Scott McNealy. International expansion swiftly followed, with a location in Europe in 1983, Canada in 1985 and Asian and Australian outposts the next year. Suns big break was its introduction of NFS technology in 1984, which became the standard for network file sharing operations. The company expanded its NFS technology to PCs in 1986, the same year it first offered its stock to the public. Sun partnered with AT&T in 1987 to develop the UNIX operating system, and it had annual revenue of over $1 billion by the next year. It reached a major milestone in 1993, when it was added to the S&P 500. The company introduced Java, the any-platform programming language, in 1995, the same year that the first full-length computer animated movie, Toy Story, was partly created on Sun computers. The company agreed to license Java to all hardware and software manufacturers in 1996, and Java soon found its way onto the 1997 Mars mission.
Sun burst by the tech bubble

The 2000s were marked by Sun acquiring a number of companies to broaden expertise in networking and data storage. The early part of the decade was marred, however, by a protracted legal battle with Microsoft over the inclusion of Java in Internet Explorer, and by the bursting of the dot-com bubble, which hit Sun especially hard. Microsoft settled for $1.6 billion in 2004, but Sun had suffered through two straight unprofitable years by then. The company scrambled to cut costs, firing 9 percent of its workers in 2004.
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Return to Sunshine
In 2005, following its belief that open-source formats are the key to future success, Sun released more than 1,500 patents into the public domain, among them the source code for Solaris, Suns offering for the UNIX operating system. It released the Java source code for free in November 2006. In the same year, the company announced Sun Grid, a system whereby companies can upload data in order to be crunched or stored by Suns computers as a way for IT departments to keep a lid on costs. Sun posted its fourth consecutive year of losses since 2002. In fiscal 2007 (the year ending June 30, 2007), the company returned to profitability with net income of $473 million as compared with a net loss of $864 million for fiscal 2006. Sun landed on the 184th spot of the Fortune 500 in 2008 with revenue of $13.8 billion. However, it posted a net loss of $403 million. It has figured in recent merger talks with IBM.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Sun accepts Oracles offer; turns down IBM Sun Microsystems will merge with Oracle. After rejecting IBMs $7 billion offer, an offer lower than its original offer of $10 to $11 per share, Sun will now merge with Oracle for almost the same amount, or $9.50 per share. While the deal still has to be finalized, analysts are already cheering the merger. April 2009: Sun helps Uncle Sam build national health info network Bill Vass, president and COO of Sun Microsystems Federal, announced that opensource technologies from Sun will help build the National Health Information Network (NHIN) that will enable the secure exchange of health information among multiple agencies in the United States. January 2009: Net loss of $209 million in Q2 fiscal 2009
Sun released financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 (which ended December 28, 2008), showing $3.2 billion in revenue, a decrease of 10.9 percent compared with the same quarter in fiscal 2008, but an increase of 7.7 percent compared with $2.9 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. On a GAAP basis, net loss for Q2 2009 was $209 million, however. November 2008: Restructuring launched to reduce costs by $700 million Suns board of directors announced a restructuring program to align the business with the global economic climate. The plan includes job cuts numbering 5,000 to 6,000, or between 15 and 18 percent of the companys workforce and a reorganization into three new business groups called application platform software, systems platforms and cloud computing and developer platforms. CEO Jonathan Schwartz said Sun expects to reduce costs by $700 million to $800 million due to
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the restructuring, but the benefits will only be felt by the third quarter of fiscal 2010. August 2008: Share repurchase up to $1 billion The companys board authorized a repurchase of Sun Microsystems common stock worth up to $1 billion. This repurchase came on the heels of a $3 billion repurchase plan announced by the board in fourth quarter 2007. CEO Schwartz said the repurchase will allow the company to pursue its strategic growth plans.
GETTING HIRED
Your time to shine
Suns careers site, at www.sun.com/corp_emp, tells you everything youll need to know in order to find your own place in Sun. Sunny hopefuls can check out job opportunities hither and yon at www.sun.com/corp_emp/zone/index.html. Sun is looking for students with degrees in business, marketing, CS or computer engineering and allied disciplines. Sun recruits at a large number of schools, including Brigham Young, Boston University, Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, MIT and Yale. It also gladly accepts resumes from students attending schools outside its recruiting circuit. Engineering students are encouraged to acquaint themselves with the SEED program, Sun Engineering Enrichment & Development, for young engineers. The SEED program is one of Suns largest mentoring programs and pairs promising college recruits (as well as established employees) with distinguished engineers, Sun fellows, VPs and directors who have volunteered to be mentors. Sun also offers internship opportunities for college and MBA undergraduates pursuing certain areas of study. Interns are paid (they even get overtime!) and have access to the fitness facilities where they work as well as the opportunity to attend networking events with executives.
Depending on the position, the interviews may take several rounds. There are a couple of rounds, for example, for relative junior engineer positions. The applicant gets to meet with a few senior engineers and a couple of managers. For more seniorlevel applicants such as a manager, the interview can be a real challenge, as it may take more sessions, including interviews with prospective employees to unit vice presidents. A Vault source who interviewed for the position of lead development manager went through nine rounds. Candidates can also get the latest on benefits, culture and student recruiting. Benefits include a choice of health plans, dental, life and disability insurance, 401(k), fitness centers, adoption assistance, emergency child care and discounts on everything from company stock to recreational outings to Sun productsyou can start your own server farm!
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With a program unique to Sun called Open Work, employees have the ability to work anytime, anywhere, using any device. More than 55 percent of the workforce currently participates in the program. Sun promotes a healthy work/life balance by allowing its employees the work flexibility they need in order to maintain a family, hobbies and other work-unrelated responsibilities. As long as high-quality work is being produced, it doesnt matter when or where Sun employees do it. Company culture, as befits a California company, is laid-back. Sun is willing to be flexible about hours and telecommuting, and the dress code is casual. The companys employees also have a tradition of pulling pranks on April Fools Day. One year, the VP of research found his Ferrari floating in a pond, while the next year, several executives offices were joined to accommodate a par four golf course. Other notable pranks have involved peacocks, sharks and a 60-foot wooden arrow. Since the companys early days, on Friday afternoons employees have been invited to have pretzels and beer with the executives. Sun embodies a culture of transparency, encouraging its employees to voice their opinions, air complaints and make suggestions for a better work environment. Much like a professor hosting office hours, Suns top execs have adopted an open-door policy, where all employees are invited to interface with Suns top dogs. Have a new idea? Share it with the CEO!
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Growing in the Sun
Sun Microsystems is described by insiders as a great place to learn technology, a great engineering company, and a place that gives its team members enough flexibility to get creative. The work culture varies across departments, with some more laid-back than others. Sun is a great place to learn technology, and to practice engineering. One gets to know great engineers in Sun, and can learn quite a bit from them. If you are a college grad or have an innovative mind, you can benefit from it, says a contact working in Suns Sunnyvale, Calif., location. A lead development manager based in Boise, Idaho, says, Working at Sun is exciting and flexible. I am able to manage and operate my team with little corporate influence. My team works out of a small satellite office where we are allowed to work and develop as we need. The flexibility allows us to get creative and increase sales without any major red tape. Working with Sun is a great experience Sun is a much bigger organization than any other, with deep customer relationships, which is a real advantage to me, says an insider from Suns base in Denver.
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There are some negatives, however. It is hierarchical, seniority-based, slow in transition, and work is not distributed evenly among individuals in the same group or among different groups, says a contact. These characteristics have negative implications and cost [the] company quite a bit. Since its hierarchical, upper-level management knows little about a layer down. An engineer can stay invisible despite contributions. Seniority values more time of stay versus merit. The more one gets to know environment, knows more about tricks, politics, resources, and will get more stability or even more vacation Some people are really working hard and interestingly not rewarded. And some have adapted to play organizational games to survive, the source adds. In the salary area, an insider says, Sun pays well in the upper 75 percent of the market. However, salaries have not been increasing that much recently.
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SYBASE INCORPORATED
One Sybase Drive Dublin, CA 94568 Phone: (925) 236-5000 Fax: (925) 236-4321 www.sybase.com
LOCATIONS
Dublin, CA (HQ) Albany, NY Alpharetta, GA American Fork, UT Bellevue, WA Bethesda, MD Boise, ID Boulder, CO Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Concord, MA Concord, NH Corvallis, OR Dallas, TX Doylestown, PA Englewood, CO Houston, TX Irvine, CA New York, NY Novi, MI Orem, UT Parsippany, NJ Philadelphia, PA Phoenix, AZ Reston, VA San Diego, CA Tampa, FL Abu Dhabi Ankara Athens Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Belgrade Bogota Brasilia, Brazil Bratislava Bristol, United Kingdom Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Cape Town Caracas Carnaxide, Portugal Casablanca Chengdu, China Chennai Copenhagen Dubai Dublin Dsseldorf Frankfurt Guangzhou Guatemala City Hamburg Helsinki Herrenberg, Germany Istanbul Jakarta Johannesburg Karachi, Pakistan Kiev Kista, Sweden Kuala Lumpur Lima London Madrid Maidenhead, United Kingdom Mexico City Milan Mississauga, Canada Moscow Mumbai New Delhi North Sydney Osaka Oslo Ottawa Panama City Paris Pasig City, Philippines Pokfulam, Hong Kong Prague Pune, India Quito, Ecuador Riga, Latvia Riyadh Rome San Jose, Costa Rica San Salvador Santiago So Paulo Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Sofia, Bulgaria Colombo Taipei Tallinn, Estonia Tel Aviv Tokyo Toronto Utrecht Vienna Vilnius, Lithuania Warsaw Waterloo Wellington Xian Zagreb, Croatia Zaventem, Belgium Zurich
DEPARTMENTS
Business Operations Consulting/Professional Services Corporate Development Customer Service & Support Engineering Finance Human Resources iAnywhere Information Technology Legal Manufacturing & Logistics Marketing Purchasing Real Estate & Facilities Sales Senior Management Sybase 365
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SY Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President & CEO: John S. Chen 2008 Employees: 4,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,131.9 2008 Income ($ mil.): 138.6 Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in)
KEY COMPETITORS
IBM Microsoft Oracle
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.sybase.com/about_sybase/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Sybase Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Make information work for you (wherever you are)
Sybase, once a leader in software for database applications, is reinventing itself as a provider of software for mobile communications. Currently, the company is somewhere in the midst of these two areas. Its database unit specializes in servers and software for handling and analyzing large amounts of data in a short amount of time, principally for companies in the financial, government and health care sectors. In addition to Sybases traditional information management business, the company has two major mobility-focused subsidiaries, Sybase iAnywhere and Sybase 365. Its clientele includes 91 companies in the Fortune 100. The iAnywhere business unit develops mobile middleware software that allows wireless devices to communicate seamlessly with each other, for instance, allowing laptops to talk to BlackBerry devices, and vice versa. On the other hand, Sybase 365 is one of Sybases newer subsidiaries, focused on mobile services, messaging technology and applications (SMS and MMS) and m-commerce (thats mobile commerceor purchasing via cell phone. This subsidiary processes more than six billion messages a month for more than 2.2 billion mobile device users worldwide about 77 percent of the worlds subscribers.
System Database forms Sybase

Sybase was formed in 1984 when tech whizzes Mark Hoffman and Robert Epstein came together with the goal of marketing a relational database management system (RDBMS), calling their new venture Sybase (short for System Database). When the product was released in 1987, its use was limited to IBM and a handful of other hardware platforms. In 1988, Sybase formed an alliance with Microsoft, which had previously licensed Sybase technologies, to co-develop and sell versions of Sybases RDBMS with its operating systems. In 1990, the company began pursuing an aggressive growth strategy, purchasing SQL Solutions, a database consulting company, then going public in 1991, and buying multimedia application tool designer Gain Technology in 1993. By emphasizing service, pushing international growth, providing quick delivery and specializing in databases for UNIX systems, Sybase had become the second-largest supplier of software for relational databases by that time, trailing only Oracle.
System 10 fails; cofounder ousted

Then, the company introduced the ill-fated System 10 in 1993, which simply proved too slow. The flop provided rivals Oracle and Informix with a golden opportunity to eat into the companys market share. Cofounder Hoffman attempted to right the ship in 1996, removing David Peterschmidt as CFO and eliminating the COO position, but
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the Sybase board ousted him later in the year. (Hoffman would go on to found Commerce One.) Later that year, Sybase bought another company and got a new CEO in one fell swoop, when it purchased Powersoft for $950 million and installed its cofounder, Mitchell Kertzmann, as Hoffmans replacement. Kertzmann quickly began to streamline operations by laying off staff and selling non-core businesses, but left in the middle of the process to head an Oracle spin-off in 1997. Sybase president John Chen immediately took the vacant position, and has served as chairman, CEO, and president ever since.
Rebound from fourth place

In the 2000s, Sybase bought Home Financial Network (internet financial services) for $130 million and software integration specialist New Era of Networks, for $373 million, in 2001. Sybase then poured some money into advertisements to spread some brand recognition and catch up with Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. It was to no avail, as Sybases database software sales stagnated to 3 percent growth by 2006, and the company found itself entrenched in fourth place in the market. But Chens reorganizing would soon start to bear fruit; in 2003, Chen selected the mobility sector as Sybases next great area of growth, and began looking for acquisition possibilities. He selected iAnywhere Solutions as Sybases flagship line for mobile products, and soon started beefing up the mobility initiative with acquisitions: AvantGo in 2003, Dejima in 2004, Solonde and iFoundry in 2006. Then, Sybase made a successful $425 million bid for Mobile 365, now Sybase 365, the companys flagship messaging and mobile services unit. Sybases revenue and profits have increased in recent years. In terms of revenue, the level in 2006 was $876 million, followed by more than $1 billion in 2007 and then by 10 percent growth in 2008. In its 2008 annual report, Sybase reported $640 million in cash.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: New version of iAnywhere Mobile Office launched Sybase released a new version of its iAnywhere Mobile Office solution offering email, calendar, tasks and contacts and corporate directory lookup. The new version will also be available on the iPhone and can be downloaded directly from Apples App Store. March 2009: Sybase enters complex event processing business The company introduced Sybase CEP (complex event processing) which will be embedded initially in RAP-The Trading Edition capital markets platform. CEP is an emerging technology for building management information systems with applications in such areas as business activity monitoring, business process management, enterprise application integration and network- and business-level security.
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February 2009: iAnywhere, Marvell collaboration on telematics Sybase iAnywhere announced that it will work with Marvell Semiconductor to develop next-generation Bluetooth technology, codenamed Seattle that will enable the simultaneous use of handsfree operation, data (phone book) synchronization, in-car audio streaming and in-car video streaming by multiple users in one vehicle. Other expected applications of the new technology are automated toll payments and traffic management systems. January 2009: Best quarter, year in company history Sybase released financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2008, saying the figures make the quarter and year the best yet in the companys history. Total revenue in the quarter was $305.1 million and $1.13 billion for the full year. This showed a 10 percent revenue increase year over year. John Chen, Sybase chairman, president and CEO, says this is the first time that the company registered revenue of more than $300 million.
GETTING HIRED
Relate yourself to Sybase
Job seekers can check out the Employment section of Sybases website, at www.sybase.com/about_sybase/careers, to either upload a resume or search current job openings by category, location or keyword. Sybase offers a competitive benefits plan featuring medical, dental, vision and life insurance, employee stock purchase plan and stock awards, 401(k) plan, education assistance program, adoption assistance program and even on-site child care and fitness centers at some locations. The company prides itself on its lack of gratuitous layers of management and its many flexible career paths; there are ample opportunities for career development through Sybase University. College students can join the Sybase family, at least until their classes start. The company offers internships and co-ops at various locations. Interns get paid holidays, access to fitness facilities (if available) and training on any software they may utilize at work.
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SYMANTEC CORPORATION
20330 Stevens Creek Boulevard Cupertino, CA 95014 Phone: (408) 517-8000 Fax: (408) 517-8186 www.symantec.com
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Brand Management & Communication Business Development Consulting Consumer Business Contingent Worker Corporate Security Development Executive Office Finance & Accounting Fixed Term Employee Global Services & Support Human Resources Information Systems Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Operations Purchasing Sales Services & Support Technology Training Web
LOCATIONS
Cupertino, CA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Boston, MA Cary, NC Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Columbia, MD Columbus, OH Culver City, CA Dallas, TX Denver, CO Edison, NJ Ft. Lauderdale, FL Glastonbury, CT Houston, TX Kansas City, KS King of Prussia, PA Las Vegas, NV Minneapolis, MN New York, NY Omaha, NE Orlando, FL Phoenix, AZ Sacramento, CA San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA San Juan, PR Seattle, WA St. Louis, MO Washington, DC Aschheim, Germany Auckland Baerum, Norway Bangalore Beijing Budapest Calgary Copenhagen Dublin Edmonton Guangzhou Helsinki Hong Kong Istanbul Johannesburg Kista, Sweden Lausanne Madrid Maroussi, Greece Melbourne Milan Montreal Moscow Mumbai North Ryde, Australia Ottawa Paris Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Prague Reading, United Kingdom Regina, Canada Sandton, South Africa Seoul Shanghai Singapore Starnberg, Germany Sydney Taipei Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Vienna Warsaw Wemmel, Belgium Zaltbommel, Netherlands Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SYMC Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & CEO: John W. Thompson 2008 Employees: 17,500 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,874 2008 Income ($mil.): 1,127
KEY COMPETITORS
McAfee Microsoft Trend Micro
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.symantec.com/about/careers/index.jsp
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Symantec Corporation
THE SCOOP
Safety for data
If the Web is the Wild West, Symantec is the sheriff. In addition to its Norton Antivirus line of PC protection, the Cupertino, Calif.-based software company has made its name developing utility programs, which manage and protect files from computer crashes and viruses. It also produces fax software including the pcANYWHERE, WinFax and ACT! lines. Symantec produces internet development tools in the Cafe product lines. It also releases the ominously named Internet Security Threat Report, a biannual analysis that summarizes the changing nature of malicious activity on the internet, as well as the Internet Threat Meter, which uses the same color-coded advisory system as the Department of Homeland Security, adapted for the internet. Symantec operates in 40 countries and counts 475 of the Fortune 500 as users of the companys solutions.
Hendrix rocks Stanford! The tech one, that is ...

Unlike most other Silicon Valley startups, Symantec didnt get its financing by maxing out its founders credit cards. The company started out in 1982 with brainpower from Stanford and a grant from the National Science Foundation. The fledgling companys first product didnt ship until 1985. The company built on founder Gary Hendrixs expertise in natural language processing, releasing as its first product a simple database program that could manipulate data using commands in the form of English sentences instead of formulas. This functionality earned the program the name Q&A. But despite a nifty user interface, it never really caught on to the extent that similar programs, like Lotus 1-2-3, did.
Buying up the competition

In 1987, the company embarked on a series of acquisitions that powered it along for over a decade. Symantec went public in 1989 to further finance its acquisition strategy and snapped up Peter Nortons eponymous company hot on the heels of its IPO. At the time, Norton was known for its data-protection and crash-recovery software, and its name lives on in Symantecs modern versions of the same products. Symantecs purchasing spree slowed somewhat after the company incurred a $40 million loss as a result of its 1995 acquisition of Delrina.
Belt-tightening after the shopping spree

In the early 2000s, however, business rebounded, largely on the strength of the companys Norton utility and antivirus programsespecially as viruses matured into ever more annoying forms, such as the notorious Melissa virus. Symantec beefed up its backup in 2005 with its $10 billion-plus purchase of Veritas, a software provider
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for backing up data. The company snapped up eight more companies in early 2007, including outfits specializing in security for instant messaging, anti-file-piracy programs, networks and server monitoring. A few months later, Symantec was back to its usual ways with the purchase of Altiris, a provider of network and device security, for $830 million. Despite the brisk pace of acquisitions or perhaps because of them, Symantec scaled back its earnings forecast by about 25 percent in early 2007.
Geared up for souped-up viruses

Symantecs security software is well placed for future profits as computer viruses grow even more serious. The malefactors of the internet have progressed from the relative pranks of viruses like Mydoom and Slammer into serious identity theft propositions, which target banks and consumers for data such as credit card numbers and bank account numbers.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Salem takes on CEO role Symantec announced the appointment of Enrique Salem as CEO. Salem has been with Symantec for 16 years. The new CEO is a computer science graduate of Dartmouth College and had been named as 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. March 2009: Online backup service launched The company launches Norton Online Backup, an online consumer data backup service. Up to 25 gigabytes of online storage is made available for up to five household computers per account. The retail price for the service is $49.99 and additional storage may be purchased in 10-, 25-, 50- and 100-GB increments.
February 2009: The return of Norton Utilities Symantec reintroduced the classic Norton Utilities to provide users with tools to give your PC an instant tune-up and get it running like new again, as Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of Symantecs consumer business unit, would have it. The product will retail in the United States for $49.99. January 2009: Solid fiscal third quarter results The company released financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 (which ended January 2, 2009), saying the figures indicate better than expected performance. GAAP revenue was $1.51 billion in the quarter. However, GAAP net loss was $6.81 billion, compared with $132 million net income in the same quarter last year. According to CEO Salem: Effective sales execution and our teams ability to successfully highlight the near-term ROI benefits of our solutions enabled us to deliver stronger than expected revenue against the backdrop of a challenging
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global economy ... We are well positioned to continue our success and emerge from this economic downturn as a stronger company. January 2007: $200 million savings target Symantec announced that it plans to cut costs by $200 million as a way to keep costs aligned with expected revenue. To achieve the savings target, the company will curtail spending on consultants and air travel, lay off 800 employees and introduce a hiring freeze.
GETTING HIRED
Find a secure career
Symantecs careers site, at www.symantec.com/about/careers/index.jsp, provides information on the companys benefits and culture. The culture at this company, which was among Fortune magazines Most Admired Companies in 2008, is marked by the companys four principal valuestrust, innovation, value and customer-driven. Benefits include health, dental and vision, as well as 401(k), stock purchase, paid pregnancy and disability leave, generous vacation allowance and kits for parents of children of all ages. The company also offers employee- and managementnominated bonus programs. Internships are available for college students in the divisions of finance, information technology, product management, product marketing and software architecture. College recruits are also put to work in those areas. To qualify for these positions, students must major in a relevant field. For graduate students, Symantec funds a graduate research fellowship. In order to apply, point your browser to www.symantec.com/about/careers/search.jsp. There were a handful of jobs posted on the site when Vault visited, including software engineer positions in Beijing, China, as well as manager and engineer slots in Georgia and California. To apply, candidates must create a profile on a page offering a secure sign-in.
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SYNNEX CORPORATION
44201 Nobel Drive Fremont, CA 94538 Phone: (510) 656-3333 Fax: (510) 668-3777 www.synnex.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SNX Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Robert Huang President & CEO: Kevin Murai 2008 Employees: 7,672 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 7,770 2008 Income ($ mil): 83.8
LOCATIONS
Fremont, CA (HQ) Beaverton, OR Carson, CA Chantilly, VA Fremont, CA Glendale Heights, IL Greenville, SC Grove City, OH Keasbey, NJ Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA Miami, FL Norcross, GA Olive Branch, MS Richardson, TX Beijing Calgary Chengdu, China Guangzhou Guelph, Canada Halifax Mexico City Montreal Shanghai Telford, United Kingdom Toronto Vancouver Winnipeg, Canada
KEY COMPETITORS
Bell Microproducts Ingram Micro Tech Data
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.synnex.com/careers/careers.html Email: recruiting@synnex.com staffing@synnex.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Corporate Credit & Customer Service Customer Advocacy Financial Operations Legal HR IT Logistics Marketing Product Management Purchasing Sales/Technical Services
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Synnex Corporation
THE SCOOP
Theyre IT
Synnex describes itself as a business process services company servicing resellers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) all over the world. Synnex offers distribution, assembly and marketing services of products from about 100 IT OEM suppliers to more than 15,000 retailers and resellers of computer equipment throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Among its key suppliers are Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft and Seagate. Founded in 1980 by current Chairman Robert Huang, the company was known as Compac Microelectronics until 1994, when it changed its name to Synnex Information Technologies, Inc. Motivated by the desire to simplify the distribution of its products, Taiwanese circuit board manufacturer MiTAC bought a majority of the company in 1992. Six years later, Synnex won contracts with HP and IBM to assemble computers and servers. The company expanded into Mexico and China by 2002, and started selling its stock on NYSE for the first time in 2003. MiTAC maintains a majority stake in the company, and Matthew Miau currently serves as chairman for the boards of both MiTAC and Synnex. Synnex branched out beyond its sales of computer parts in September 2006 when it created a new consumer electronics division, NEXCE. It hopes to provide consumer electronics retailers with all the latest gadgets, from flat-screen TVs to GPS devices to digital cameras. Synnex acquired five companies in 2006 and 2007 to expand its offerings. In April 2006, it purchased Telpar, a distributor of point-of-sale equipment and equipment for auto-ID technology like bar code scanners and RFID, for $5 million. It bought a Canadian supplier of ink for printers and copiers for $17 million the following month. In September, Synnex acquired Concentrix, a marketing services firm. In 2007, the company acquired the Redmond Group of Companies and the computer wholesale division of Insight for more consumer electronics offerings. Synnex also obtained the tech support firm Link2Support, and a controlling interest in HiChina Inc., a wellrespected Chinese e-commerce company. In 2008, Synnexs consolidated revenue was $7.8 billion, the same year it landed the 350th spot on the Fortune 500.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: EPS of 59 cents in Q1 2009 results Synnex said that its revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 (which ended on February 28, 2009) amounted to $1.73 billion, a 1.13 percent decrease from the
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Synnex Corporation
same quarter in fiscal 2008. However, net income for the first quarter was $19.5 million, translating to earnings of 59 cents per diluted share, compared with $16.8 million or 51 cents per diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. The company says the EPS level for first quarter 2009 exceeded even the Wall Street estimate of 52 cents. Kevin Murai, Synnex president and CEO, is pleased with the result, saying: I am very pleased with the Synnex teams ability to produce strong bottom line results and solid returns, especially in a challenging demand environment. We increased our market share, while at the same time delivering good gross margins and effectively managing our costs. November 2008: Chairman Huang, President Murai The companys board of directors elected Robert T. Huang as chairman of the Synnex board and appoints Kevin Murai president and CEO. April 2008: Climbing up to No. 350 on the Fortune 500 ladder
Fortune magazine named Synnex as No. 350 on its ranking of 500-largest companies based on revenue for the fiscal year 2008 (ended on November 30, 2007). It was 10 notches up for Synnex from its 360th place in 2007. The company is one of seven IT distribution companies on the Fortune 500.
GETTING HIRED
Assemble your career at Synnex
Synnexs careers page, at synnex.com/careers/careers.html, provides information about job openings, benefits, training and how to apply at Synnex. Jobs are only searchable by location; to apply, resumes and cover letters may be submitted via email to the specified address, or by fax or snail mail, using the information on the How to Apply page (at www.synnex.com/careers/how_to_apply.html).
The companys benefits include medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), discount stock purchase, tuition reimbursement for approved courses, a generous employee referral programand discounts on merchandise and gym memberships for employees and their families. (There is even pet insurance.) New sales hires are offered three weeks of training. Theres also the Synnex Knowledge Transfer Team for employees knowledge transfer needs. The company also has information about two selected locationslovely downtown Fremont, Calif., where the company HQ is located, and Greenville, South Carolina.
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TECH DATA CORPORATION

5350 Tech Data Drive Clearwater, FL 33760 Phone: (727) 539-7429 Fax: (727) 538-7803 www.techdata.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TECD Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Steven A. Raymund CEO: Robert M. Dutkowsky 2008 No. of Employees: 8,300 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 23,423 2008 Company Income ($ mil.): 108.3
LOCATIONS
Clearwater, FL (HQ) Fontana, CA Fort Worth, TX Miami, FL South Bend, IN Suwanee, GA Swedesboro, NJ Aalst, Belgium Alfragide, Portugal Barcelona Basingstoke, United Kingdom Birkerod, Denmark Dublin Gland, Switzerland Helsinki Mexico City Milan Mississauga, Canada Montreal Munich Oslo Paris Prague Richmond, Canada Rotkreuz, Switzerland StockholmTernat, Belgium Utrecht Vienna Warsaw
KEY COMPETITORS
Ingram Micro Inc. SYNNEX Corp. Westcon
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.techdata.com/content/visitor/abouttd/ta mpabay.aspx Email: hrisadmin@techdata.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Corporate Corporate Accounting Credit & Customer Service Finance/Legal Finance/Tax & Treasury HR IT Latin America Sales Logistics & Integration Services Loss Prevention Marketing Purchasing Real Estate/Corp Services Sales/Technical Services
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Tech Data Corporation
THE SCOOP
Technical definition
Tech Data sells the tech to store your data, among other things. The company is a wholesale distributor of computer equipment with a catalogue ranging from Adobe to Xerox that it sells to retailers and value-added resellers (that is, companies that assemble your computer for you, like Dell). It also offers some technical support services to its customers as well. Tech Datas customers include 100,000 IT solutions providers in 100 countries. The company is No. 105 on the Fortune 500 with net sales of $23.4 billion in net sales as of the end of fiscal 2008. Tech Data dates back to the days when data was stored on magnetic tape rather than thumb drives. The company got its start in 1974, selling such computer essentials as magnetic tape and disc packs to the users of mainframe computers in Florida. At the time, though, another revolution was brewingthat of the personal computer. The company moved into supplying the personal computer market in the 1980s, and revenue increased in step with growth in that sector. The company had its first stock offering in 1986. Three years later, the company expanded into Canada, its first steps in a strategy of expansion that would take it through the 1990s. In 1994, Tech Data entered Europe through its acquisition of Paris-based Softmart International. It started serving Latin America in 1997 with a facility in So Paolo, Brazil. In 2003, the company purchased another European distributor in order to grab more market share overseas. In 2006, Tech Data announced a new CEO. The new guy in the big chair is Robert M. Dutkowsky, formerly CEO of Egenera, a server management company, and before that, of IBM. He succeeded Steven A. Raymund, who had served the company as CEO for two decades. In 2008, Tech Data posted sales of $23.4 billion, the highest in the companys history.
Tech Data is in the Fortune 500 Hall of Fame for being among only a handful of companies that have risen more than 250 slots on the list within the last 10 years.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Tech Data becomes exclusive U.S. distributor of Pelco Tech Data announced that it secured an exclusive distributorship of Pelco video surveillance and security equipment in the United States. Tech Datas physical security specialized business unit will be tasked with reselling Pelcos security product line, which includes IP surveillance cameras, video recorders and displays, as well as surveillance camera accessories such as lenses, enclosures and mounts.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Tech Data Corporation
December 2008: Partnership with Vizioncore The company said that it entered into partnership with Vizioncore, a leading provider of software solutions for virtual and physical server management, to make the latters products accessible to value-added resellers. April 2008: Record-high sales land Tech Data on Fortune 500s 105th slot Net sales of $23.4 billion in fiscal 2008 (ended on January 31, 2008)Tech Datas highest sales everenabled Tech Data to climb four slots to land at No. 105 on the Fortune 500.
GETTING HIRED
Tune up your career
Tech Datas careers site, at www.techdata.com/content/visitor/abouttd/tampabay.aspx, provides information about benefits, job openings, and working in Tampa Bay. Benefits include basic life insurance up to $50,000; medical, dental and vision insurance; 401(k) with company match and discount stock purchase plan and tuition reimbursement. Nice perks include a subsidy for day care for young children, pet insurance, discount laser eye surgery, and a fitness center and library at one location. In order to apply to a position, candidates must first create a profile. While the company is one of the largest employers in Florida, it has some trouble attracting applicants because it lacks name recognition outside of the tech sector. The companys location in sunny Tampa Bay might also be considered a perk of the job. Temperatures are mild, with a January average of 60 degrees, and there are plenty of activities to suit all types in the area, ranging from sailing and fishing to the Gasparilla Pirate Festival to football, the Salvador Dali museum and the orchestra.
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TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON
Torshamnsgatan 23, Kista Stockholm, 164 83 Sweden Phone: +46 10 719 00 00 www.ericsson.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ERIC Stock Exchange: Nasdaq President, CEO & Member of the Board: Carl-Henric Svanberg 2008 Employees: 78,750 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 208,930 2008 Income ($ mil.): 11,667
LOCATIONS
Stockholm, Sweden (HQ) New York, NY Plano, TX Research Triangle Park, NC Vienna, VA Washington, DC 256 International Locations.
KEY COMPETITORS
Alcatel/Lucent Huawei Nokia/Siemens
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Business Unit Global Services Business Unit Multimedia Business Unit Networks Communications Engineering/R&D Engineering/Services Facilities & Security Finance Human Resources & Organization Legal Legal Affairs Management Manufacturing Operational Development Product Life Cycle Management Project Management Sales & Marketing Sales Support Sourcing Supply Technical Sales Technology
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.ericsson.com/ericsson/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
THE SCOOP
Backbone of the wireless world
Ericsson is a giant in the field of communications, providing both wireless and wired networks and products that include base stations, switches, land-line networks, and copper and fiber optic cables. Among its more specialized offerings are pico cells (small devices which improve cell phone reception within buildings or other enclosed spaces). Its services include network design and maintenance, support and consulting. Ericsson is a leader in the global system for mobile (GSM) communication networks, and is responsible for about a third of them worldwide. In addition, some 40 percent of all mobile phone calls go through its networks each day. Ericsson also manufactures mobile phones through a joint venture with Sony.
Dits into bytes

Ericsson was founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson. The company started out repairing telegraph equipment, but Ericsson saw the potential in the telephone when it arrived in Sweden the following yeartalk about foresight! By 1886, Stockholm had the worlds largest number of phones per capita. The company expanded abroad during the turn of the century and by 1900, 90 percent of its revenue came from countries as far away as Egypt and Australia. Thanks to this global presence, Ericsson profited during World War I, manufacturing switches for trains and electricity meters. The global conflict brought not only a spike in business for the company, but also things like political revolutionsand the companys fortunes were (adversely) affected when its Russian factories were taken over by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Alleviating the setback somewhat was Ericssons merger the same year with SAT, the Swedish telephone service provider. Ericssons fortunes didnt pick up during the Depression, as the company narrowly escaped being taken over by an American competitor in 1932. Profits started to improve in the 1940s as the company was called upon to manufacture arms and communication devices for World War II (although Sweden was technically neutral at the time, their companies traded with the Axis powers). About this time, Ericsson began to specialize in crossbar switches, which were used to direct telephone calls. At the time, a crossbar switch was the smallest device that could handle a large number of calls, and by 1955 the company had installed them in Finland, the Netherlands, Brazil, Australia and Mexico. Ericsson introduced a digital switch in 1976, which was both smaller than the crossbar model and could accommodate more calls.
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Cellphones for everyone?

The early years of the 21st century have seen Ericsson experiencing diminishing returns which the company hopes can be offset by the enormous growth potential of markets in the developing world. Countries in Southeast Asia, for example, have mobile phone market penetration of 40 percent. However, subscribers are signing up in droves and that area is projected to account for 100 million new mobile phone users within the next four years. These new subscribers will live in areas where services like electricity are spottyand will need phones that can cope with the conditions. In addition, though these consumers may be willing to pay for mobile phones and related services, their funds are weak. Ericsson will have to figure out a way to make an affordable phone for someone who earns the equivalent of a few dollars per day.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Gaining ground Ericssons HSPA Evolution, the latest high-speed broadband access technology, enhanced Mobilkom Austrias mobile broadband services, boosting the latters network capacity and enabling peak data rates of up to 21Mbps. This confirmed Ericssons leadership in the mobile broadband technology industry in Europe alone. Furthermore, Ericsson decided to give Ascom a piece of the action when it entered into agreement with the company to divest its TEMS-branded products business, which consisted of tools for air interface monitoring and radio network planning. This move by the company will enable it to refine its business portfolio and focus more on the service business. At the same time, Ericsson was selected by China Unicom to supply WCDMA networks and services for 15 Chinese provinces. The networks will enable millions of subscribers in China to enjoy highspeed 3G mobile communications. Ericsson likewise inked an agreement with Telkomsel for the supply, deployment and integration of GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA radio access networks (RAN) in Indonesia. 2007: Mobile phones everywhere The entire Ericsson family is moving forward with its global goals for mobile phone service. Sony Ericsson and the French company Safran SA announced a plan to manufacture inexpensive phones using Safrans technology. Also, the Ericsson parent company joined the fun, announcing the start of work with an Indian mobile phone provider to establish cell stations in the power-deprived Indian countryside. In an environmentally friendly flourish befitting its status as a grande dame among European companies, the plan involves the use of plant-derived diesel fuel to power the cell towers.
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January 2007: Expanding networks Ericsson moves to keep abreast of networking trends in the developed world as it completes its $2.1 billion acquisition of Redback Networks, a provider of routers that connect to internet, telephone and cable TV systems. These devices are becoming increasingly popular with the convergence of different communication media and as consumers keep demanding higher bandwidth and higher-quality transmissions. January 2006: Some Marconi for company Ericsson grew in fits and starts, with expensive acquisitions, falling phone prices and record revenue. Ericsson finalized its $2 billion purchase of the Marconi Company. A telecommunications firm with roots in the 19th century, Marconi had recently fallen on hard times, having lost a record $9 billion in 2002. After the purchase, Ericsson spent nearly $300 million in restructuring costs and cuts 1,600 jobs. By October, the company claimed to be breaking even. In the meantime, Ericsson saw average phone prices falling, further cutting into profits. 2006: Gripen-ing revenues Ericsson posted revenue of $25 billion, a figure bumped up by the $500 million sale of its defense technology division, which manufactures communications equipment for the Gripen fighter jet. Ericsson ranked No. 55 on the Business Week InfoTech 100, ahead of its rivals Motorola and Nortel, but behind Nokia, which is ranked No. 17.
GETTING HIRED
Make networking your career
Ericssons careers site, at www.ericsson.com/ericsson/careers, provides information for students and experienced hires about working at Ericsson. Jobs are listed by location and function. In order to apply, candidates must first create a profile. Ericsson also accepts resumes for general inquiry. Positions at Ericssons R&D facilities are listed separately. Any questions can be directed to staffing@ericsson.com. Benefits at Ericsson vary by country, but generally include a bonus based on team and company performance and a stock purchase plan. The company also offers numerous avenues for training and sharing expertise, as well as moving about in the organization. Ericsson also offers internships for college students. Benefits offered to interns include relocation assistance, salary and paid vacation. The company posts a schedule of college visits.
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OUR SURVEY SAYS

Grueling screening process
Applicants have an edge if they graduated from premier universities or institutes. An engineer trainee from India says candidates from premier institutes are being shortlisted, and then there is a round of tests on core subjects. Based on the test, candidates are again short-listed for the interview, says the same contact. A research engineer from Canada affirms to have undergone two rounds of interviews and comments the atmosphere was very pleasant. Apart from my professional profile, expertise and career goals, I especially appreciated the discussion about my personal interests and hobbies. Role playing can also be part of the hiring process, recalls a project manager from Sweden. Ericsson has a demanding evaluation process consisting of both personal interviews and role plays, which [in effect] made me confident about the situation I would encounter as employee. [It also gave management an idea] of how I would react in these situations.
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TERADYNE INCORPORATED
600 Riverpark Drive North Reading, MA 01864 Phone: (978) 370-2700 Fax: (978) 370-2910 www.teradyne.com
DEPARTMENTS
Applications Business Group Business Unit Call Center Tech Support Corporate Compensation Documentation/Training Engineering Environment/Health/Safety Facilities Field Application Field Operations Field Service Finance Human Resources Import/Export Information Technology Manufacturing Manufacturing Engineering Manufacturing Management Marketing Communication Material Handling Material Planning Operations Order Management Payroll Product Marketing Product Support Production Purchasing Sales Security Test Development Traffic/Transportation
LOCATIONS
North Reading, MA (HQ) Allentown, PA Austin, TX Boise, ID Chandler, AZ Essex Junction, VT Folsom, CA Irvine, CA Richardson, TX San Jose, CA Bangkok Bayan Lepas, Malaysia Beijing Bracknell, United Kingdom Hong Kong Kaohsiung City, Taiwan Kumamoto, Japan Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines Meylan, France Milan Mississauga, Canada Muar, Malaysia Muntinlupa City, Philippines Munich Rousset, France Saint Denis, France So Paolo Selangor, Malaysia Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Stockport, United Kingdom Suzhou, China Taoyuan, Taiwan Tianjin, China Tokyo Zhubei City, Taiwan
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TER Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Patricia S. Wolpert President & CEO: Michael A. Bradley 2008 Employees: 3,600 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,107 2008 Income ($ mil.): -397.8
KEY COMPETITORS
Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Advantest Corporation LTX-Credence Corporation Verigy
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.teradyne.com/hr
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Teradyne Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Testing, testing
Teradyne, one of the worlds leading manufacturers of automated test equipment (ATE), used to analyze semiconductor chips and circuit boards. These bits of electronics, once vetted by Teradyne, wind up in everything from aerospace equipment, automobiles, computers and defense electronics to telephone and data systems. Notable consumers include Boeing and the U.S. government. Teradyne was founded in 1960 by MIT graduates Nicholas DeWolf and Alexander dArbeloff, who headquartered the company in a downtown Boston loft overlooking a hot dog stand and was a location that the founders could both walk to from their homes. DeWolf and dArbeloffs idea was to take high-tech test equipment out of the lab and put it on the production line, increasing the speed and accuracy of the tests performed on newly manufactured electronics. The company initially produced testers for integrated circuits, resistors, transistors and diodes. But when Teradyne began using computers to speed up the testing process in the late 1960s, it created the ATE industry of which it is one of the current leaders. The company started Teradyne Components (later Teradyne Connection Systems) in 1968 to produce electronics connection assemblies, and the firm went public in 1970. In 1972, Teradyne began developing a telephone system testing device called 4Tel.
Expanding...and going to China

The company formed its computer-aided engineering (CAE) group in the 1980s by purchasing and combining Aida Corporation and Case Technologies. Decreased military spending in the early 1990s hurt sales, but a $63 million contract from the German national telephone system put Teradyne back on top in 1993. The company started its software and systems test unit in 1994. As demand for PCs grew in 1995, so did sales of the companys semiconductor testing equipment, lifting Teradyne to the $1 billion sales mark for the first time. In late 1999, the company announced that it would spin off this software division. The following year, the company acquired two competitors, and opened its first location in China in 2003.
Moving
In 2006, Teradyne announced it would be moving its headquarters from Boston to North Reading, a town in Massachusetts about a half-hour north of the city. The company posted revenue of $1.38 billion (a slight dip from a 2004 peak of $1.4 billion), with a profit of $198 million the same year. Shortly thereafter, in 2007, they acquired ATE assets for $17 million from Mosaid, an Ottawa-based semiconductor company, in a bid to bolster Teradynes R&D for memory testing. Teradyne posted sales of $1.1 billion in 2008 and employs 3,600 worldwide. It is recognized as the leader in system-on-a-chip (SOC) testing.
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IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Cost reductions in 2009 to reach $190 million Teradyne revised its financial projections for the first quarter of 2009 (ending April 5, 2009) saying a continued deterioration in the semiconductor equipment market is forcing the company to further reduce costs. The companys revised projections for the quarter include sales between $115 million and $120 million and net loss per share between 42 cents and 40 cents on a non-GAAP basis. The forecasts are lower than those provided earlier by the company, which were $125 million to $145 million in sales for the first quarter of 2009 with a loss per share between 38 cents and 31 cents on a non-GAAP basis. President and CEO Mike Bradley said the company will be forced to further cut costs by $50 million, bringing the companys planned reductions in 2009 to $190 million. January 2009: Fiscal 2008 ends in a loss The company released a report on financial performance for fiscal 2008 saying it posted sales of $1.1 billion, but that the preliminary GAAP loss from continuing operations was $65.3 million. To reduce costs by some $140 million, Teradyne also announced that it will cut its workforce worldwide by 14 percent and implement a 10 percent temporary pay cut. November 2008: The Eagle has been landed The company announced that it completed its acquisition of Nasdaq-listed Eagle Test Systems Inc. (ETS). With the acquisition, ETSs common stock will no longer trade on Nasdaq. CEO Bradley says Eagle Tests solid franchise in power management and analog test applications will complement Teradynes SOC test applicants. May 2008: Celebrating 35 years in Japan Teradyne announced that it has moved its Japan headquarters from its first location in Kumamoto, Kyushu Island, to Yokohama as the company marks 35 years of operation in the country. The Japan unit manufactures the IP750 line of image test sensor systems which tests image sensors in digital cameras and recorders worldwide.
GETTING HIRED
Test your limits
Teradynes careers pages, at www.teradyne.com/hr/, provide information on benefits and job openings, as well as diversity at the company and its involvement in the community. Benefits include getting a share of 10 percent of the companys pre-tax profit twice a year (in February and August); a 401(k) plan; a savings match-up from
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the company of up to the first 5 percent of your pay; health insurance for you, your spouse of whatever gender, and your children as well as tuition reimbursement and company-sponsored classes. In order to apply to a position, job seekers must first create a login. Job search options include directly applying online, leaving a CV and setting up a search agent for automatic email alerts. If youre of the student persuasion, Teradyne offers everything from interview tips to internships. Student opportunities are available through the career center on campus. Interviews are initially given on campus; subsequent rounds happen at Teradyne locations. Internship opportunities are also distributed through college career centers.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Exceptional talent pool, good environment
Insiders give Teradyne a thumbs-up as a company that employs talented people and maintains a good working environment. It seems that those who manage to land jobs get so stoked on Teradyne that they stay for the long haul. They like the relaxed dress code, flexible hours, the companys high integrity and professionalism. Check out the longevity of employees at Teradyne as an indicator of the good working environment, says a systems engineer in the companys Agoura Hills, Calif. location. Until I came to Teradyne in 1997, I had never met such a group of diverse employees in my life, including both work and personal interests. The camaraderie was very satisfying and I never witnessed anyone stealing credit on team projects. My job encompassed many different activities from the mundane to the very challenging and fun. In my opinion, in terms of standards and professionalism, Teradyne sets the highest bar, says an administrative assistant.
A systems engineer says: Teradyne is a company with high integrity, always concerned about the customer first. Employees are considered the most important resource in the company. We are given authority and responsibility over our jobs, are kept well-equipped and supported in all aspect of our jobs. Opportunities abound within the context of the companys products. Teradyne works at the bleeding edge of the electronics world given the task of developing test systems two to three years in advance of market need. The culture is one of respect for each others experience, training and capabilities. Our contacts say that the salary and benefits are competitive, with a survey done each year to ensure that the package is in line. Increases are based on reviews of individual work plans. I had been given very generous salary increases over the last four years. Teradyne does annual salary reviews based upon individual goal plans and how employees did against those plans. When I began, I was making $31,000, says an administrative assistant who was making $49,000 plus overtime in 2008.
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TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED

P.O. Box 660199 Dallas, TX 75266-0199 Phone: (972) 995-2011 Fax: (972) 927-6377 www.ti.com
DEPARTMENTS
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Broadband Digital Consumer Applications Digital Control Applications Digital Signal Processing (DSP) DLP Technology Educational & Productivity Solutions (E&PS) Engineering Facility Services High-performance Analog Human Resources Logic Management Marketing Quality Radio Frequency Identification Technology & Manufacturing Group Wired Digital Media Wireless Wireless Infrastructure Wireless Networking
LOCATIONS
Dallas, TX (HQ) Alpharetta, GA Attleboro, MA Austin, TX Baltimore, MD Boston, MA Burlington, MA Chicago, IL Detroit, MI Duluth, GA Fishkill, NY Ft. Lauderdale, FL Germantown, MD Houston, TX Huntsville, AL Indianapolis, IN Irvine, CA Jackson, MS Kokomo, IN Laurence Harbor, NJ Longmont, CO Manchester, NH Mansfield, MA Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis, MN Palo Alto, CA Philadelphia, PA Pittsburgh, PA Plano, TX Portland, OR Raleigh, NC Rochester, MN Rochester, NY San Diego, CA San Jose, CA Santa Barbara, CA Seattle, WA Sherman, TX St. Louis, MO St. Petersburg, FL Sunnyvale, CA Tempe, AZ Tucson, AZ Warren, NJ Warrenville, IL Warwick, RI Woodland Hills, CA Customized for: Vinay (vinayk2012@email.iimcal.ac.in) Alborg, Denmark Espoo, Finland Freising, Germany Herzliya, Israel Kisa, Sweden Lund, Sweden Northampton, United Kingdom Oslo Ottawa, Canada Oulu, Finland Raanana, Israel Toronto Vancouver Villeneuve-Loubet, France
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TXN Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President & CEO: Richard K. Templeton 2008 Employees: 29,537 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 12,501 2008 Income ($ mil.): 1,920
KEY COMPETITORS
Freescale Semiconductor QUALCOMM STMicroelectronics
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
focus.ti.com/careers/docs/careersportal.tsp? sectionId=150
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Smaller, faster, better
The company that brought you the handheld calculator (in 1967) is now helping to make computers and cell phones even smaller and faster. Texas Instruments (TI) manufactures analog technologies, digital signal processors (DSP) and microcontroller unit (MCU) semiconductors. In 2008, the company was the fourthlargest chipmaker in the world, according to market research firm iSuppli; it was No. 185 on the Fortune 500 list; and No. 1 among semiconductor companies in Fortunes Most Admired Companies for the fifth consecutive year. TIs revenue in 2008 was $12.5 billion.
Oil to Electronics
TI was initially founded as an oil prospecting venture in 1930 called Geophysical Service, Inc. (GSI) whose high-tech method of reflection seismography to discover oil and gas deposits set it a class above its Texas peers. In 1941, GSI divested its oil prospecting division to the oil company that would become Amoco. The technological branch of GSI changed its name to Texas Instruments Incorporated a decade later to reflect its focus on electronics. In 1952, the company bought a license that allowed them to manufacture germanium transistors and began its now historical work in the semiconductor industry. The company created the first practicable silicon transistors in 1954, and a pocket transistor radio later that year. In 1958, engineer Jack Kilby created the first microchip on a strip of germanium in a TI laboratory (he was awarded a Nobel Prize for his efforts in 2000). The company developed the single-chip microprocessor and the single-chip microcomputer in the 1970s.
No More Oil!
In the mid-1990s, chip prices fell, and TI refocused itself in the face of industry-wide instability by completely divesting GSI in 1991. TI then concentrated on what it does bestits calculators, which had begun to set new sales records, and its microchips for all kinds of electrical devices, notably cell phones. Nevertheless, a collapse in memory chip prices hurt the company in 1998; TI sold its memory business and focused more intently on producing DSPs. By the end of the 1990s, the company seemed to have weathered the industry-wide drop in sales quite well. Revenue had increased, due in part to a rise in demand for cell phones. As a step into the burgeoning Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market, TI formed an agreement with Clarent Corporation in 2000 to develop new VoIP solutions. The market didnt look up for long, though, as a slumping chip market
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forced the company to lay off some 2,500 employees in 2001. TI eventually turned itself around, with help from a reviving market for semiconductors, in 2002 and 2003.
Onto Chips...
In January 2005, the company announced it had integrated most of the computing functions that power wireless phones onto a single chip. These chips, which initially became available in mid-2006, can incorporate features like an MP3 player and ringtones, an FM radio receiver, color display and are even more efficient with power than phones built with multiple chips. TI believes in the cell phone revolution, and sees many possibilities for internet communications moving from laptops and desktops to pocket-sized devices that can handle music, video, email, web browsing and video games. Wherever cell phone technology goes, TI and its chips plan to be along for the ride.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: TI sues Citigroup, two other banks over $524 million securities Texas Instruments sued Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., accusing the banks of misleading it into buying $524 million of auction-rate securities that have become illiquid and cannot be easily converted to cash. In a complaint filed before a Texas state court in Dallas County, TI said the banks falsely marketed the securities, which were backed by student loans, as a low-risk, liquid alternative to other short-term investments. March 2009: Ranges for Q1 2009 revenue, EPS narrowed TI announced an update to its first quarter 2009 revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecast. The expected financial reports were: revenue range between $1.79 million and $2.05 billion (previously forecast at $1.62 to $2.12 billion) and EPS at between $0.08 loss and $0.00 breakeven (previously $0.11 loss and $0.03 profit). March 2009: In the company of best corporate citizens
Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine cited TI as No. 59 in its 10th annual Best Corporate Citizens list. It was the seventh such citation for TI in nine years. The list was based on publicly available information and ranked Russell 1000 companies on their performance in environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financials and governance.
January 2009: TI canceled plans to sell wireless baseband unit The company said it changed its mind on its plan to sell its wireless merchant base station IC division because it cannot find buyers willing to pay what the unit is worth. Instead, TI said it will slowly wind down the business and continue plans to concentrate its remaining wireless IC investments in its OMAP applications processors which power higher-end cellular handsets or smart phones.
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January 2009: Net income dipped 86 percent, 12 percent of workforce let go TI announced that it will shed 3,400 workers (about 12 percent of its workforce) as it restructures operations following one of the worst sequential and year-overyear quarterly performances in the history of the company. TI expects the job cuts to result in $700 million in annual savings when combined with the benefits from earlier reorganization plans. July 2008: Analog business reorganized, power management unit added TI reorganized its analog business, adding a power management unit and appointing a senior executive to lead the new division as the company pushes for a closer relationship with OEM customers seeking improvement in power consumption. The new unit is to be led by Steve Anderson, a 19-year semiconductor industry veteran. October 2007: Fastest DSP launched The company released a faster version of its TMS320C6455 DSP. The processors speed increased from 1 GHz to 1.2 GHz, giving it the fastest single-core DSP on the market. Despite the speed increase, the price of the chip remains unchanged at $245, so the extra speed is essentially free, TI said.
GETTING HIRED
Instrumental careers
TIs informative careers site (focus.ti.com/careers/docs/careersportal.tsp?sectionId=150) has information for job seekers of every age and experience level. The site has nifty facts about the company, as well as lists of benefits and job opportunities in 10 regions including North America, Europe and the Middle East, China, India, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. Jobs in the United States can be accessed through the CareerFinder tab. After deciding on a prospective job location, applicants are advised to use the sites Fit Check tool with two tabsone named education and experience check, the other workplace and values checkto determine whether they fit the TI bill. If its still a go, an applicant must get a CV ready and an RTF document is preferred. In order to qualify for a job at TI, employees must pass a drug test.
High achievers wanted

TI offers co-op and paid internship programs that require a commitment of two academic terms. Setting the bar high, TI requires that students have a 3.0 GPA and preferably be pursuing a degree in engineering, science or finance. The company offers paid relocation, relocation assistance and employee benefits. MBA internships are available as well.
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Recent graduates can find out about job opportunities on the site, too. TI posts a college recruiting schedule (forthcoming at time of publication). Positions are available for graduates with engineering and finance degrees, and for those in doubt, theres the Fit Check tool. Once youve jumped through all the hoops in the TI hiring process, the company amply rewards employees with generous benefits, like stock purchase plans, 401(k)s, bonus programs, customized health benefits, flexible work options, and perks like a corporate concierge, childcare resources, parenting programs, on-site cafeterias and fitness facilities. For TIs efforts in this area, its been included in Fortunes list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work. The company has also received accolades for its diversity program, as well as its employee retention.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Add a little Texas to your resume
Insiders report that TI is surprisingly conservative for a high-tech company. Its conservatism is surprising, considering that it is a youth-oriented company, not the best place for people over 40, according to one hire. Work hours are long with 50 to 60 per week being the norm. Frequent weekend [and] holiday work, notes an insider. The company talks about work/life balance, but thats all talk. You are expected to work very long hours; something a lot of the companys working moms struggle with, agrees a colleague. Pay and opportunities for advancement are open to all and based primarily on showing good results, adds a source. A software engineer in Dallas says, TI has a technical ladder so you can advance in the company without going into management. A Freising, Germany-based DSP test application engineer simply loves working with TI: The environment is great, you get a guide which helps you getting started, the people are friendly, work hours are flexible, you do good you get promoted soon. Insiders say that while new hires get average pay, increases are based on performance appraisals which get rave reviews from a contact: I always thought the review process at TI was excellent. It was not a popularity contest since several people were involved. Because of TIs review process and their salary curve, I was able to advance quickly and get very high raises due to my good performance, says an engineer. An application engineers notes that hires with less than a year of experience may start at $50,000 a year. If you got a masters degree and want to join TI as a project engineer, you will get something around $70,000 to $80,000. PhDs usually get around $90,000 to $100,000. Sure, the pay and perks are great. But they all mean business. The harder you work, you get paid more.
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TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES, INC. (TSYS)

1600 First Avenue Columbus, GA 31901 Phone: (706) 649-2310 Fax: (706) 644-8065 www.tsys.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TSS Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Philip W. Tomlinson President & COO: M. Troy Woods 2008 Employees: 6,921 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,939 2008 Income ($ mil.): 250.1
LOCATIONS
Columbus, GA (HQ) Atlanta, GA Boise, ID Golden, CO Jacksonville, FL Norcross, GA Roswell, GA Tempe, AZ London Shanghai St. Catharines, Canada Tokyo Toluca, Mexico York, United Kingdom
KEY COMPETITORS
BA Merchant Services Elavon First Data
DEPARTMENTS
Assessment & Consulting Business Continuity Management Card ServicesPersonalization Client Acceptance Client Relations-PCS Conversion Project Management DBS Support Dialer Support DTS Quality Assurance DTS Technology FCS Implementation Services Finance Hosting Implementation Team Information Security Internal Audit IT Card Applications IT Statements/TS2 Correspondence IT-Project Office Marketing Platform Development Press Room Product Support QA Risk Management SS - Statement Production Strategic Planning System Development Systems Management TLP Group TSYS Analytics TSYS Business Support Services TSYS Prepaid Services
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.tsys.com/careers
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Total System Services, Inc. (TSYS)
THE SCOOP
Pay up
Total System Services, Inc., better known to its closer friends as TSYS, is one of the worlds largest credit card payment processorsserving banks and private-label card issuers the world over. The company offers its clients credit authorization, payment processing, merchant acquiring, account management, e-commerce services, card issuance, call-center operations, customer loyalty programs, prepaid programs and fraud monitoring.
Charging ahead
The credit card system was in its infancy in 1959 when The Columbus Bank and Trust Company (now part of Synovus Financial Corp.) became the second bank in Georgia to issue cards to its customers. Within five years, the banks card holders increased by more than ten times, and CB&T installed a computer to process transactions in 1966. With time, the bank became increasingly interested in creating a computer system to further automate the work. By 1969, it had written creditprocessing software, which would become known as the Total System in 1973. Among its achievements, the Total System became the first of its kind to process cards from Visa and MasterCard (then known as BankAmericard and MasterCharge, respectively). The divisions revenue was $6 million in 1980. Two years later, when CB&T decided to spin it off into a subsidiary known as Total System Services (for obvious reasons), revenue stood at $10 million. TSYS, as it would soon be popularly known, was then processing over one million accounts for 60 banks in 28 states.
Plans for world domination

In 1992, TSYS added mass mailing capabilities to its transaction processing services for billing and marketing purposes. Three years later, the company inked a deal with Mexican bank Controladora Prosa, expanding abroad under the name TSYS de Mexico. Geographic expansion continued in 2006 for TSYS; the company acquired Card Tech, a U.K.-based company, and made further inroads into Asia with a deal to handle transactions for the credit arm of Toyota. Shortly thereafter, the company announced a joint venture with Merchants, a South African subsidiary of the IT firm Dimension Data, which would incorporate call centers and payment processing for card issuers in Europe and the Middle East. Growth overseas proved to be lucrative for the company, as revenue from international transactions increased by nearly 25 percent between 2005 and 2006.
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Hey, big spender

In October 2006, Bank of Americawhich accounted for nearly a quarter of TSYS total revenue that yearopted to move its credit card processing over to MBNAs system, following the merger of the two companies. TSYS didnt predict that losing business with Bank of America would cost a 25 percent decline in revenue for 2007, though, forecasting only a decrease of between 3 and 5 percent for the fiscal year. The company was vindicated when it posted total revenue of $1.806 billion in 2007, a 1 percent increase from $1.722 billion in 2006, counting the Bank of America termination fee.
Breaking free
In October 2007, Synovus agreed to distribute its TSYS shares to Synovus shareholders, making TSYS a fully independent company. In his 2007 letter to stockholders, chairman and CEO Philip Tomlinson saw the spin-off as an opportunity for TSYS to fulfill its potential of a broader investor base and better position in its industry. The following year, the company did enjoy its newfound freedom, establishing itself in Austria and Turkey, and bagging new deals in Germany and the United Kingdom.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Caring for health care TSYS announced partnerships with mPay GatewayT and Nova Libra to meet the needs of health care professionals and patients by offering point-of-sale payment solutions. With this collaboration, medical providers are now able to calculate the patient portion of the service fees before a patient leaves the doctors office, beginning the collection process immediately. This solution also provides institutions and professionals with a seamless collection process and patients with a better understanding of their fees. March 2009: Swiping the Indian market TSYS appointed a managing director for its units in India and South Asia as part of the companys initiatives to strengthen the financial card market in the region. Amit Sethi, a global payments industry veteran, will sit as TSYS India and South Asias managing director, responsible for business development and outsourcing activities in the region.
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January 2009: Happy at the figures TSYS reported its fourth quarter and 2008 financial results, highlighting a 7.4 percent to $1,939 million revenue growth compared to 2007. The formidable challenges resulting from the current worldwide financial crisis exceed anything that we have ever seen in our history. We are extremely proud of the way our team has met these challenges We expect 2009 net income to be in the range of slightly down to flat, which reflects our commitment to successfully managing our business in these difficult times, said TSYS chairman and CEO Philip W. Tomlinson. November 2008: Going beyond plastic TSYS acquired Silicon Valley-based payments technology firm Infonox. With this addition, TSYS looks into expanding global payment capabilities through Infonoxs plug-and-play platforms that will enable new payment channels, such as mobile phones.
GETTING HIRED
Charge your career at TSYS
TSYS provides a wealth of career-related information on its website, located at www.tsys.com/careers. There is a searchable list of job openings (as usual, interested candidates must create a profile in order to apply). The company accepts unsolicited resumes. Theres also information on the wealth of benefits offered by the company, which include career development opportunities, including tuition reimbursement, a cafeteria-style benefits plan with health, dental and vision options, 401(k), discount stock purchase and profit sharing plans, and work/life balance programs, including time off to volunteer at a childs school. The company also offers a generous wealthbuilding and retirement savings program and awards up to 21 percent of an employees gross salary for wealth-building through a combination of established programs.
Up close and personal

Among the reasons to work for TSYS is the close relationship between managers and their employees. TSYS also offers extensive orientation sessions and training for new hires. Not all insiders have nice things to say about the management. One source grumbles about the incompetence at the managerial levels, adding that TSYS has a serious excess of layers of middle-level managers. The company says that senior executives maintain monthly or quarterly cultural trust committees to collect firsthand feedback from team members about morale and the companys culture.
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Chattahoochee choo-choo
TSYS helps employees balance work and life in other ways, as well. The companys campus, conveniently located on the beautiful Chattahoochee River, offers such sumptuous amenities as a caf for lunch or takeaway dinner, a 15-mile park for running or biking, an on-site gym, a cozy library and child care facilities. Theres also a full-service bank, mini-mall with a dry cleaners, florist and beauty salon. And dont forget the wonderful attractions of Columbus, Georgia, just 100 miles south of Atlanta.
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TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED

935 Stewart Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Phone: (408) 481-8000 Fax: (408) 481-7781 www.trimble.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TRMB Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Ulf J. Johansson, PhD President & CEO: Steven W. Berglund 2008 Employees: 3,600 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,329.2 2008 Income ($ mil.): 141.5
LOCATIONS
Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) Alpharetta, GA Chantilly, VA Corvallis, OR Dayton, OH Deerfield Beach, FL Folsom, CA Fremont, CA Huntsville, AL Long Beach, CA Plano, TX Santa Clara, CA Tempe, AZ Waltham, MA Westminster, CO Bangkok Beijing Chennai Christchurch Danderyd, Sweden Dubai Eersel, Netherlands Fortitude Valley, Australia Hohenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Germany Hook, United Kingdom Ipswich, United Kingdom Jena, Germany Kaiserslautern, Germany Madrid Melbourne Moscow New Delhi Paris Raunheim, Germany Richmond Hill, Canada Seoul Shanghai Singapore Stuttgart, Germany Sydney Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Vimercate, Italy Wunstorf, Germany
KEY COMPETITORS
Leica Geosystems Magellan Navigation Topcon
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.trimble.com/employment.shtml
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting & Finance Administration Business Development Engineering HR IT Manufacturing & Production Operations Sales & Marketing Service, Support & Training
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Trimble Navigation Limited
THE SCOOP
Wherever you go, there you are
Trimble is in the business of marrying GPS, laser and wireless technology so that its customers never feel out of place. The companys products are used in agriculture to level fields and guide tractors; in construction and mining to guide heavy machinery for earthmoving operations, keep track of trucks and aid in surveying; and in automobile navigation systems. The company also provides products for precise timing in cellular networks, wireless ticketing for law enforcement agencies and the management of mobile workers.
Location, location, location

Trimble has been the guiding light to the lostor rather, the guiding electromagnetic radiationsince 1978, when Charlie Trimble and some of his associates from Hewlett-Packard set up shop in California. Trimble began by working with navigation devices that used the LORAN (Long Range Navigation) system, powered by terrestrial radio stations. But when GPS hit the scene in 1982, Trimble made good use of the new technology in products for surveyors, mapmakers and geologists. The company expanded into marine navigation in 1984, and purchased a business to begin developing differential GPS (DGPS) technology to provide increased accuracy for the fleet management market. In 1990, the company was publicly listed on the Nasdaq. During the 1990s, Trimble worked to combine communications and GPS technology into the same device and in 1995 developed a GPS device that could be plugged into laptops and PDAs. In the early 2000s, the company continued to expand its product offerings through research and development, and via acquisitions; Trimble formed a partnership in 2002 with construction and mining vehicle manufacturer Caterpillar, to install positioning technologies in its wares.
Acquisition position
Trimble seems to have a simple company-building strategy: buy and hold. Since the start of 2006, the firm has purchased nine companies involved in GPS, fleet management and related industries. A highlights reel of its acquisitions that year would include a shot of Trimble cementing a deal to acquire the intellectual property of XYZs of GPS, a company that specializes in devices for GPS measurements of volcanoes and oilfields; Trimble purchasing Quantm, a company which works to identify the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly routes for roads, pipelines and canals; as well as the purchase of retail goods tracking firm Eleven Technology. Trimble kept the acquisitions ball rolling with its purchase of BitWyse, a developer of software for engineers, in May of that year, while the final months of
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2006 saw the company purchase concerns in the law enforcement, construction project workflow software and mobile mapping fields.
IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Going green Trimble unleasheD new versions of the Vehicle Diagnostic Service and the GeoManager at the National Cable Show in Washington, D.C. The GPS-based Vehicle Diagnostics offers reduced fuel cost and CO2 emissions by controlling engine idle time and allowing managers to view fuel consumption while driving or idling. GeoManager 9.0, on the other hand, features Microsoft Virtual Earth satellite and birds-eye view mapping and real-time traffic. Combined, these two solutions are meant to save fuel, fleet and environmental costs dramatically. March 2009: Building its name in construction Trimble announced its purchase of software provider QuickPen International. Based in Englewood, Colo., QuickPen provides state-of-the-art 3D CAD software for detailed HVAC ductwork and piping models. The QuickPen software will enable Trimble to provide complete and compelling solutions for our building construction customers in the HVAC, mechanical and plumbing industries, said Pat Bohle of Trimbles building construction division. February 2009: Gloomy outlook? Trimble reported its 2008 financial results with revenue of $1.33 billion, 9 percent higher than 2007s results. However, 2008s fourth quarter compared to 2007s shows 14 percent decline in revenue, 73 percent decrease in operating income and 48 percent decrease in net income. We currently expect the first quarter to reflect the confusion of the fourth quarter, said Chief Executive Steven Berglund in a statement. A Reuters report on Trimbles results also says the company would cut 10 percent of its workforce. October 2008: Partnering for the utilities market Trimble partnered with PC manufacturer Panasonic Computer Solutions Company to provide bundled utilities solutions specifically for utility field workers. The partnership combines Panasonics Toughbook notebooks and Trimbles GPS Pathfinder ProXT and ProXH GPS receivers to provide the ideal mapping, geographic information system (GIS) and CAD applications solutions.
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October 2008: Acquiring for agriculture Trimble announced its purchase of privately held Tru Count, Inc. The Ames, Iowabased Tru Count manufactures and distributes air and electric clutches that automate planter row shut-off. The move is expected to expand Trimbles reach in the agriculture market. We are well positioned to support the flow control and application market and Tru Count offers affordable, industry-leading solutions that work with virtually any planter. Most importantly, the interoperability of their products supports Trimbles strategy to provide universal brand compatibility while offering an affordable, total solution for farmers to manage input costs and save money, Erik Arvesen, general manager of Trimbles agriculture division, said in a statement. January 2008: Workman questioned Trimble releases a statement to respond to inquiries on CTO Dennis Workmans academic credentials. Word spread about Workmans credentials, questioning whether he indeed held a PhD from MIT. Trimble checked with MIT and confirmed that Workman completed 72 units of course work but lacks records and even his masters thesis does not have a grade. MIT indicated that Workman may need to re-enroll, but Workman does not intend to do so. President Steven Berglund of Trimble does not seem to be bothered by this. From years of direct personal experience, I know that Dennis is a person of the highest integrity. If any mistakes were made here, I am confident that they were honest mistakes, and we consider this matter resolved, Berglund said in a statement.
GETTING HIRED
Find your place at Trimble
Trimbles careers site (www.trimble.com/employment.shtml) provides up-to-date and comprehensive job information worldwide for experienced hires, recent graduates and college students seeking internships. The site also allows job seekers to create profiles enabling them to be automatically alerted to future new jobs in their area of interest. Trimble is particularly interested in graduates (of any degree level) who specialized in accounting, computer science, IT, marketing, and agricultural, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, among other majors. Internships are available for qualified students. To apply, send your resume as a text document (no fancy formatting, please) to college_recruiting@trimble.com. To submit your resume for consideration for a specific position, you must first create a profile on Trimbles site.
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UNISYS CORPORATION
Unisys Way Blue Bell, PA 19424 Phone: (215) 986-4011 Fax: (215) 986-2312 www.unisys.com
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting/Finance Administrative/Secretarial Communications Distribution/Logistics/Procurement EngineeringHardware Engineering Software Facilities General Management Human Resources Information Systems Consulting Legal Manufacturing Marketing Medical Network Management/Architecture Programming/Development Project Management Quality Assurance/Test Sales Systems Architecture Technical Support/Help Desk Services Technical Writing/Documentation Telecommunications/Ttelephony Training Web Design/Graphics/Content Web Development
LOCATIONS
Blue Bell, PA (HQ) Albany, NY Allentown, PA Anchorage, AK Augusta, ME Baton Rouge, LA Bellevue, WA Bismarck, ND Boca Raton, FL Boise, ID Brisbane, CA Brookfield, WI Burlingame, CA Carlstadt, NJ Centennial, CO Charleston, WV Charlotte, NC Chesapeake, VA Chicago, IL City of Industry, CA Concord, CA Coraopolis, PA Culpeper, VA Eagan, MN Glen Allen, VA Grand Rapids, MI Greenwood Village, CO Hampton, VA Hato Rey, PR Holland, OH Houston, TX Irving, TX Madison, WI Malvern, PA Miami, FL Mission Viejo, CA Montgomery, AL New York, NY Norcross, GA Okemos, MI Overland Park, KS Pennsauken, NJ Phoenix, AZ Plymouth, MI Portland, OR Raleigh, NC Reston, VA Rochester, NY Roseville, MN Salt Lake City, UT Sharon Hill, PA Shelton, CT St. Louis, MO Tallahassee, FL Trenton, NJ Tualatin, OR Tukwila, WA Virginia Beach, VA West Des Moines, IA White Plains, NY 116 International Locations.
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: UIS Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: J. Edward Coleman 2008 Employees: 28,000 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 5,233 2008 Income ($ mil.): -130.1
KEY COMPETITORS
EDS Hewlett-Packard IBM
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.unisys.com/about__unisys/careers/index.htm
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Unisys Corporation
THE SCOOP
The Unisys universe
Unisys provides technology serviceseverything from servers to outsourcing to consultantsintended to transform an average company into a lean, mean, profitgenerating machine. The company offers a full menu of services, including software development, support and administrative functions, IT infrastructure, business security consulting and the companys flagship product, the 3D visible enterprise, which allows management to see the consequences of a business decision before its put into motionkind of like a business flight simulator for CEOs. Unisys works with clients in the financial services, communications and transportation sectors, among other industries. It counts among its clients the U.S. Army, the government of Malaysia and the Irish Times, for whom it set up an RFID cargo-tracking system, created a national ID card system, and helped bring into the digital age, respectively. Unisys systems are used at 22 of the top 25 banks worldwide, and half of all checks written each day are cleared by the company. Unisys security consultants help in keeping passengers and cargo secure at 600 of the worlds airports by tracking luggage and cargo, and the firm processes nearly 200 million health insurance claims each year for Medicaid.
Opening up for the future

Unisys has recently taken a page from other struggling computer firms and turned to open source formatting (or, the use of software for which manufacturers charge no licensing fee) as a way to offer its IT services cheaply and efficiently to its clients. In August 2007, the company demonstrated its utilization of disparate open source technologies at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. The Open Solutions Alliance, a tech firms organization devoted to open source formatting, sponsored the event. Unisys is a founding member of the OSA and was the first IT company of its type to join the organization, so it is deeply invested in open sources as a way forward.
Media res
In March 2007, Unisys sold its media holdings to Atex, a U.K.-based software company, for an undisclosed sum. Unisys media division provided its customers with editorial, advertising and multimedia content for the internet. A few months later, in June, Unisys inked a deal to provide the Department of Defense with $28 million in parts and support for its RFID supply chain.
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IN THE NEWS
April 2009: Going federal Unisys was awarded another government contract, this time, at the federal level. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) tapped Unisys to compete for task orders under Alliant, the largest single IT contract the federal government has ever issued. This award will allow us to continue to provide innovative solutions to our federal government clients in areas ranging from desktop management and enterprise outsourcing to converged security and applications modernization through a convenient and versatile contract, Ted Davies, president of Unisys federal services division said in a press release. March 2009: Modernizing law enforcement Unisys was awarded a contract by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to modernize the states law enforcement communication system. The 18-month contract involves upgrading the Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network (CLEAN) by allowing state troopers to communicate directly with other local, state and federal law enforcement units through a high-capacity, highavailability network. October 2008: Enter Coleman Unisys named its new chairman and CEO: J. Edward Coleman. Coleman was elected by the companys board, recognizing his leadership in driving corporate transformations and turnarounds in the IT industry. Previously, he has worked with Gateway, CompuCom and Arrow Electronics Enterprise Computing Solutions Group. Coleman was thrilled to join Unisys saying the company has tremendous assets to work with and expects to work with its people to create an exciting new future. December 2008: Cost- and job-cutting
Unisys announced its plan to cut 1,300 jobs, or more than 4 percent of its workforce, worldwide. The company will also suspend matching contributions to its 401(k) plan as it intends to cut $225 million in costs. Unisys suffered this year with shares dropping around 88 percent and its name taken out of the S&P 500 index (replaced by Peoples United). In addition to the layoffs and the 401(k) pay suspension, Unisys also plans to forgo salary increases and consolidate its facilities in 2009. April 2008: Securing L.A. Unisys was tapped by the Port Authority of Los Angeles to design and manage a biometric system to control employee access to restricted areas in the port. This project is part of the federal Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) program, which aims to enhance security in maritime transport and manage threats in U.S. ports. Unisys has already integrated several other largescale identity programs, including Australias passport system using biometrics;
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Malaysias smart card program, MyKad; and the Port of Halifaxs biometric access control system.
GETTING HIRED
Unite yourself with Unisys
Unisys jobs site, at www.unisys.com/about__unisys/careers/index.htm, gives information on the companys benefits and job openings. Benefits include options such as health, 401(k), dental and flexible spending accounts. The company also has the Unisys University, to foster everyones budding managerial talent, at five global campuses. Nice perks include a generous slate of work/life programs, including compressed workweeks, job sharing, telecommuting and part-time employment. At some facilities, there are nurses stations, gym facilities and aerobics classes to keep employees in tip-top shape, as well as nifty services like photo developing, dry cleaning and car washes, plus employee discounts on things like flowers, museum admission, restaurants and cars. Job openings are divided by region. In order to apply, candidates must first create a profile. Unisys has plenty of internship and co-op opportunities for people who havent officially entered the working world. The company partners with INROADS to provide internships and co-op opportunities to minority students, and offers internships to foreign exchange students. Internship positions are listed under the Job Openings link.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

They should call it Multisys

One source praises the companys hardworking and skilled professionals, while a co-worker notes that many basic internal business processes simply did not work, and that he had occasional contentious battles with the internal bureaucracy. The management ranks are made up of professionals from all over the mapeach bringing their own methodology, observes one longtime insider. An engineer agrees: At least one department used matrix management. Sources report flexible hours (come and leave any time you want) but that they can be very longmost of the higher-level executives work 70 to 80 hours a week. There is a flexible dress code (mainly jeans and business casual although on a rare occasion I think I saw someone wearing shorts), according to a member of the engineering department, while in the upper ranks, Dress was always suit and tie.
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VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES, INCORPORATED

35 Dory Road Gloucester, MA 01930 Phone: (978) 282-2000 Fax: (978) 283-5391 www.vsea.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: VSEA Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman: Richard A. Aurelio CEO: Gary E. Dickerson 2008 Employees: 1,545 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 834.1 2008 Income ($mil.): 98.4
LOCATIONS
Gloucester, MA (HQ) Beaverton, OR Mesa, AZ Newark, CA Newburyport, MA Plano, TX Chu Pei City, Taiwan Dresden Houten, The Netherlands Kanagawa, Japan Meylan, France Pyungtaek City, Korea Shanghai Singapore
KEY COMPETITORS
Axcelis Technologies Nissin Electric Sumitomo Heavy Industries
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.vsea.com/hr.nsf/docs/work-vsea
DEPARTMENTS
Administrative Buying Customer Service Electrical Engineering Finance & Accounting HR IT Legal Manufacturing Mechanical Engineering Quality Systems Engineering
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Isnt it ionic?
Varian is one of the leading manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment. The companys machines implant semiconductor substrates, like silicon or germanium, with ions (or charged particles) in order to produce transistors with the specific properties required by the circuit in which it will be used. These ion implantation devices work by accelerating ions to sufficient energies such that they lodge in the crystal structure of the silicon. (The process is also known as doping.) Ions of arsenic, phosphorous and boron are most commonly implanted in semiconductors manufactured in large quantities. Each wafer of semiconductive material is individually implanted with ions, so it is critical that the machines be consistent. Varians equipment can fit 50 billion identical transistors on a 300mm (about a foot long) piece of silicon. The pieces of machinery that Varian makes arent like ray guns out of Star Wars, thoughtheyre about the size of a garage and can weigh 50,000 pounds. Varians equipment falls into the categories of high current (for injecting ions deep into silicon pieces), medium current and high energy. Because it makes equipment for semiconductor manufacture it is at the mercy of the volatile chip industry. In order to stay ahead of the competition, the company spent over $90 million on R&D in 2006.
Coming up roses
In fiscal 2006, Varian pulled down $730 million in revenue, its highest to date, with profits of $94 million, up 30 percent over the previous year. The good news continued into 2007 when Varians market share, which is calculated by some analysts to be nearly 40 percent, got a bump when rival Applied Materials announced that it would be closing one of its plants in England. Analysts expect Varian to pick up some of the slack when the factory closes in late 2007.
Major windfall
Varian was awarded a $30 million contract to provide several of its ion implanters to a semiconductor manufacturer. The deals also include service for the devices. The contract represents the largest deal in Varian history.
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IN THE NEWS
January 2009: Below expectations Varian released its first quarter financial results with drops in year-ago period comparisons. Revenue totaled $107.4 million, against $254.1 million for first quarter 2008. The result also falls below the companys forecasted range of $115 million to $125 million. Varian is doing what it can to adjust to the present conditions. CEO Gary Dickenson says, We have implemented significant cost reductions across the company to make sure that we continue to remain in a strong financial position regardless of the length of this downturn. We also continue to invest in product and applications development initiatives to drive future growth and margin expansion, and continue to be optimistic that our product and technology roadmaps will give us leverage in the recovery. October 2008: Down the slope? Varian reported fourth quarter and fiscal 2008 financial results with figures sliding down compared to the previous year. The company posted $834.1 million in revenue for 2008 against 2007s $1.1 billion. Fiscal 2008 net income declines to $98.4 million, or $1.32 per diluted share, compared to $142.2 million, or $1.73 per diluted share, in 2007. We are continuing to invest in new products and applications to grow market share and the total available market for ion implantation equipment. We believe that we will exit this downturn a stronger company that is optimally prepared to capitalize on the next upturn, CEO Gary Dickenson said in a press release. July 2008: Best supplier VLSI Researchs annual survey of large semiconductor equipment makers revealed that Varian tops the list as best large supplier of chip making equipment. The list was based on 4,565 surveys from chip manufacturers, evaluating each company on 13 criteria that includes equipment performance and customer service. May 2008: Among the best in Massachusetts Varian moved up three spots to No. 10 in The Boston Globes annual list of the 100 best performing companies in Massachusetts. The ranks were based on a composite score of annual sales, sales growth, profit-margin growth, and return on equity, according to The Boston Globe 100 website. Varian has been included in the list for six consecutive years; in 2007, it was ranked No. 13. Varian set a number of records in 2007. We grew our sales to over $1 billion and achieved a 64.5 percent overall worldwide market share for our products. We are very proud to be a contributor to the Massachusetts economy, said Varian CEO Gary Dickerson in a statement.
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GETTING HIRED
Cozy up to a semiconductor
Varians careers page (www.vsea.com/careers) provides information on benefits and job openings at the company. Candidates may have to undergo a background check before they are hired. Benefits of working for the company include tuition reimbursement, stock purchase plan, 401(k), health and dental insurance, and, for those who work at HQ, life in the quaint seaside town of Gloucester, Mass. The careers site has a list of open positions for which job seekers can apply online, and a college recruiting schedule. It also accepts resumes for general inquiry.
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VERISIGN INCORPORATED
487 East Middlefield Road Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: (650) 961-7500 Fax: (650) 961-7300 www.verisign.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: VRSN Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman & Interim CEO: D. James Bidzos President & COO: Mark McLaughlin 2008 Employees: 3,300 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): $961.7
LOCATIONS
Mountain View, CA (HQ) Dallas, TX Dulles, VA Dallas, TX Dulles, VA Olympia, WA Overland Park, KS Providence, RI Tampa, FL Washington, DC Watertown, MA Ballerup, Denmark Bangalore Beijing Berlin Biot, France Cape Town Fribourg, Switzerland Geneva Gurgaon, India London Madrid Malmo, Sweden So Paulo Singapore Sydney Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Entrust Technologies RSA Security Symantec
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.verisign.com/verisign-inc/careers/index.html
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Facilities Finance HR IT Legal Marketing Public Relations Purchasing Quality Research & Development Sales
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition VeriSign Incorporated
THE SCOOP
For your security
VeriSign is striving to become the de facto standard for internet security. The companys main product is the SSL certificate, which provides security for transactions that happen over the internet. The technology is used for email, access control for corporate intranets, virtual private networks (VPNs) and online retail. The companys digital identification products and verification services are recognized by national authorities all over the worldeven the FBI uses them. VeriSign is involved in the cutting-edge areas of VoIP and RFID supply-chain management, and offers its customers internet consulting and help in meshing different network standards together. In addition, VeriSign is the go-to authority for registering all .com, .net and .tv domain names, which it wholesales to retailers, and it manages part of the system that allows computers to look up domain names on the internet. The companys products secure 700,000 servers and assist in finding 21 billion websites and emails to keep the internet running smoothly. The companys success depends on the wide acceptance of its brand, since its technology doesnt work unless users on both ends of a transaction support it. One of the biggest challenges VeriSign has faced is convincing consumers that SSL certificates are a necessity. The company has worked toward that goal by getting online vendors to require these digital IDs for online transactions. This level of security is becoming increasingly important to the average consumer, who has no desire to see his or her credit card number fall into the wrong hands. The IDs are recognized worldwide and deemed as legally binding signatures in a number of countries. To ensure its place in the market, the company has partnered with hightech heavies like Microsoft, Apple and IBM.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Selling to TNS VeriSign announced the sale of its communication services group to TNS, Inc. for $230 million. The transaction is expected to be complete in a month, after settling customary regulatory approvals. The sale of the communications services group is another important step toward our divestiture goals as we continue our commitment and focus on our core business in Internet infrastructure, said Jim Bidzos, interim Chairman and CEO of VeriSign. February 2009: Solid year after all VeriSign posted its fourth fiscal quarter and full 2008 financial results. For the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $247 million on a GAAP basis. Full 2008 figures showed revenue of $962 million on a GAAP basis, achieving a 20
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percent core annual revenue growth. We believe our growth and financial performance reflect that our strategy is the right one, said interim Chairman and CEO Jim Bidzos. January 2009: Buying cryptography VeriSign and cryptography firm Certicom announced their agreement allowing VeriSign to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Certicom for C$2.10 per share (about US$1.67 per share). The purchase gave VeriSign a leadership post in Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology, a generally recognized form of public key encryption. January 2009: Naming a president VeriSign named Mark McLaughlin as new president and chief operating officer. Founder Jim Bidzos relinquished the president post but continued to serve as executive chairman of the board and CEO on an interim basis. McLaughlin has held several key posts in the company from 2000 to 2007. November 2008: Solid third quarter VeriSign reported third quarter financial results with revenue of $246 million, noting a year-over-year growth of up to 18 percent. We are very pleased with our operating results this quarter, especially in light of the current market conditions, said Executive Chairman, President and CEO Jim Bidzos. October 2008: The minority sale VeriSign and News Corp. announced the sale of VeriSigns minority shares in the two companies mobile entertainment venture to News Corp. News Corp. established the joint venture in 2007 when it gained controlling interest in VeriSigns Jamba subsidiary. The minority shares were sold for about $200 million. VeriSign CEO Bidzos said the sale is important for VeriSign to be able to focus on its core business in Internet infrastructure.
July 2008: Founder, now chair and CEO VeriSign announced that its board of directors appointed founder Jim Bidzos as executive chairman, president and CEO on an interim basis. Bidzos replaced William Roper, who resigned from the president and CEO post in June. I now look forward to capitalizing on the companys growth opportunities within its core businesses and new opportunities that align with the companys core competencies, Bidzos said in a statement.
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GETTING HIRED
You have the key
VeriSign has a career site at www.verisign.com/careers, with information on college recruiting, benefits and (of course) open positions. The college visit bandwagon makes stops at Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown and the University of Rhode Island. The company offers such benefits as health club and tuition reimbursement, stock options and a full suite of retirement and health plans. Jobs are searchable by location and keyword. To apply, job seekers must fill out an online form.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

The fun never stops!
It seems that the internet security firm knows how to secure its workforce as well. A source reveals that VeriSign has a fun corporate culture, with minimal dress code depending on the position, and fun events at least once a quarter. Now how far does the fun go? The same source says they have a Las Vegas trip every year to help build morale. For some, the fun may start at the interview stage. An insider says generally, the interviews are casual with the marketing person, but more formal with the managers. Another interviewee seems to appreciate the technical side of the interviews. VeriSign wants to ensure they hire very proficient technicians. Wheres the fun in that? Well, the second-round, on-site interview includes a tour, lunch, and open QA. How long will the fun last? Well, one manager says the company is great, but very disparate They have the infrastructure of a large telecom provider, but still [have] some small firm start-up culture. Employees are not encouraged to help one another; you are expected to work out many issues on your own. Support is limited. However, another manager says one of the perks is growing into a more diverse group, and [having] great opportunity to work across products, as the company has such a portfolio of products. There is room for advancement as the teams expand, my responsibilities have increased giving me more choices in what my path might be down the road. So it all depends on how you see the Sign.
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VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY, INC.

63 Lancaster Avenue Malvern, PA 19355-2143 Phone: (610) 644-1300 Fax: (610) 889-9429 www.vishay.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: VSH Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Dr. Felix Zandman President & CEO: Dr. Gerald Paul 2008 Employees: 24,800 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 2,822 2008 Income ($mil): -1,731
LOCATIONS
Malvern, PA (HQ) City of Industry, CA Huntsville, AL Irving, TX Lake Mary, FL Norwood, MA Raleigh, NC Shelton, CT Wendell, NC Bangalore Basingstoke, United Kingdom Beijing Budapest Chartres, France Eindhoven, Netherlands Eschborn, Germany Guangzhou Heilbronn, Germany Hong Kong Jalisco, Mexico Juarez, Mexico Karlskoga, Sweden Landshut, Germany Le Pecq, France Lviv, Ukraine Madrid Milan Moscow Netanya, Israel New Delhi Nice Norfolk Osaka Paris Penang Pune, India Sao Paulo Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Skaerholmen, Sweden St. Laurent, Canada Taipei Tianjin, China Tokyo Toronto Voecklabruck, Austria
KEY COMPETITORS
EPCOS Fairchild Semiconductor Murata Manufacturing
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
hr.vishay.com/search.aspx?s=1
DEPARTMENTS
Administration Audit Engineering Facilities Finance Human Resources Information Technology Legal Logistics Manufacturing Marketing Outsource Management Project Management Public Affairs & Communications Purchasing Quality Research & Development Sales
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Vishay Intertechnology, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Behind the electronic scene
Vishay makes the bits that handle the bytesall those little electrical parts like diodes, transducers, transistors and rectifiers that are integral parts of the computers, cell phones, cars, satellites and other gadgetry that makes the modern world go round. The company makes its components in places such as the Czech Republic, China and the Philippines.
Enter Zandman
In 1956, Dr. Felix Zandman came to Philadelphia armed with a nifty new invention called Photostress, which visually assessed the stresses on metal objects, such as a bridge or an airplane wing, and eventually revolutionized the way engineers would test for adequate construction on such projects. He also came up with a new kind of resistor that could conduct and regulate electrical currents without falling susceptible to temperature. Zandman was working under The Budd Co., which was not interested in either of Zandmans inventions, so he went into business himself in 1962 with his cousin, Alfred P. Slaner, to found Vishay Technology, naming it from their ancestral village in Lithuania to honor those who perished in the Holocaust. The company started manufacturing resistors primarily for the military and aerospace markets, and had its first stock offering in 1972. In the 1980s and 1990s, to diversify its offerings to continue its pace of rapid growth, Vishay acquired a number of other companies, thereby expanding its product line beyond resistors to capacitors and semiconductors. The exponential growth of the market for electronic goods during the 1980s and 1990s powered the company alongproving Zandmans strategy correctand invited a number of competitors to the party. Hiccups in the market sparked spates of restructuring for the company in the mid-1990s and again in 2003.
Happy days are here again

It seems, though, that Vishays days of restructuring are behind it, as are its days under the direct supervision of Dr. Zandman. Effective January 2005, Zandman handed over the CEO position to then-COO Dr. Gerald Paul, who has been with the company since 1978. Zandman remains as chairman of the companys board and has ascended to two newly created positionschief technology officer and chief business development officer. Already, Paul has brought the company to new heights: 2006 revenue was recordsetting, at $2.58 billion, having jumped 12 percent over the previous years sales. Also, profits doubled over 2005s take, to $139.7 million. Paul further strengthened
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Vishays position in the semiconductor market that year, acquiring the power control systems division of International Rectifier for $290 million.
IN THE NEWS
February 2009: Loss and layoffs Vishay reported fourth quarter financial results, which showed a decline in the companys shares attributed, among others, to the after-tax impact of a non-cash goodwill impairment charge. In a Reuters article, Vishay said it is thinking of additional plant shutdowns and more layoffs to adjust to the decline in the companys shares, which happens to be their lowest in over 18 years. In January, Vishay already cut 700 jobs following an earlier 9 percent reduction of its workforce in the fourth quarter of 2008. Facilities in the Netherlands, Belgium and Brazil were also closed in 2008. This time, Vishay is planning on closing down facilities in Monroe, Conn., and Westbury, N.Y. January 2009: Industry firsts Vishay launched IHLW-5050CE-01, the industrys first winged low-profile, highcurrent inductor, and Si8422DB, the industrys first TrenchFET power MOSFET in a MICRO FOOT package with backside insulation. The new inductor, IHLW5050CE-01, offers 1.2 mm profile for both sides of the PCB, enabling designers a high-current solution with minimal space. Si8422DB, aimed for portable devices, among others, offers a two-mil backside coating that serves as insulation for the MICRO FOOT package against electrical shorts. October 2008: Lowering expectations Vishay lowered its third quarter forecasts from a $750 million to $770 million revenue range to $736 million to $742 million. Gross margins fell from an expected 23.2 percent to 21.4 to 21.8 percent. Vishay said the decline in revenue for the third quarter is attributed to the worsening worldwide end-market conditions. The company also said its additional impairment charges may have a significant effect on the figures. October 2008: IR rejects California-based International Rectifier Corp. (IR) reported that its board re-elected three board members over nominees backed by Vishay. In September, Vishay boosted its offer to $1.7 billion to acquire IR after earlier rejections from IRs board. The two companies have since been unfriendly with each other, engaging in a proxy war.
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September 2008: Capacitor shopping Vishay purchased a specialty capacitor line from Kemet Corp. for $35.2 million with other considerations. The companys executive chairman, Felix Zandman, and president and CEO, Gerald Paul, stated, With this acquisition we broaden our product portfolio in specialty capacitors used in military, aerospace and medical applications. This purchase was made amid Vishays pursuance to acquire semiconductor manufacturer International Rectifier Corp.
GETTING HIRED
Work in the ohm office
Vishay lists open positions at hr.vishay.com/search.aspx. There are opportunities for experienced hires as well as interns, at locations both in North America and the rest of the world. In order to apply for a job, applicants must first create a profile. Other than that, not much information is extant on the site.
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VMWARE, INC.
3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94304 Phone: (650) 475-5000 Fax: (650) 427-5001 www.vmware.com
DEPARTMENTS
Facilities Finance/Accounting Human Resources HW Alliances ISV Alliances IT Development IT Ops Legal Marketing Operations Professional Services Quality Assurance R&D Sales Support SI Alliance Technical Support
LOCATIONS
Palo Alto, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Basking Ridge, NJ Broomfield, CO Cambridge, MA Dallas, TX Houston, TX Lisle, IL Reston, VA San Francisco, CA Auckland, New Zaland Bangalore Barcelona Beijing Budapest Burlington, Canada Chennai Copenhagen Cork, Ireland Dubai Helsinki Herzliya, Israel Hong Kong Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Lausanne Madrid Mexico City Milan Miraflores, Portugal Moscow Mumbai New Delhi Nieuwegein, The Netherlands Oslo Paris Prague Pune, India So Paulo Seoul Singapore Sofia, Bulgaria Solna, Sweden Surrey, United Kingdom Sydney Taipei Tokyo Unterschlessheim, Germany Vienna Warsaw Wellington Zagreb, Croatia Zaventem, Belgium Zurich
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: VMW Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Joseph M. Tucci President & CEO: Paul Maritz 2008 Employees: 6,600 2008 Revenue ($ mil.): 1,900
KEY COMPETITORS
Citrix Systems Microsoft Parallels
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.vmware.com/company/jobs
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition VMware, Inc.
THE SCOOP
Virtual reality
Making a name for yourself in the IT community isnt easy but VMware has managed to do it with the creation of a virtualization software that can control and distribute unused processor cycles or memory space from idle computers. The company was formed in 1998 by Diane Green, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and computer scientist, her husband Mendel Rosenblum, a Stanford professor, and three of their friends. They improved upon the virtualization software that IBM built in the 1970s for its mainframe servers and produced a simpler system that can work on office-based servers. The software they developed allowed a single computer to act as a server that can perform various operating systems simultaneously, cutting down on hardware and energy costs which translated into lower costs for clients. What Green, and company developed became so successful that they caught the attention of industry players and eventually became the virtual software provider of choice to companies in the Fortune 500.
Millions to billions
Starting out with $3 million in venture capital, the company has grown into a lucrative company with 2008 revenue reaching $1.9 billion. From 80 employees in 2000, VMware employed 6,700 people as of December 2008, in over 40 locations around the globe. Credit for this success is due in part to VMwares merger with storage giant EMC, which bought into the company in the neighborhood of $650 million in 2004. EMC, in turn, spun off 10 percent of VMware stocks in a hugely successful IPO in 2007, allowing the company to raise $1 billion for new product and technological developments.
Join the open source bandwagon

In 2006, VMware increased its market share by releasing vital source codes to numerous VMware subscribers, including major tech players Cisco Systems, HewlettPackard, IBM, Red Hat and Intel. By leaping on the open source bandwagon, VMware was allowing these firms to tweak its software to work better on their systems, hopefully bringing them into the fold as VMware clients. This strategy worked and they were able to keep ahead of their competitors who have seriously started to ramp up R&D on virtualization software. Today, VMware holds 85 percent of the large industries market.
Sun is shining
The future looks bright for this young company. VMware has taken an aggressive stance on wooing the best and the brightest talent to continue the development and
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innovation of its core system. Despite the looming threat of Microsofts touted HyperV application, VMware has years of developing virtual servers behind it, and the needed market clout. In addition, they have announced plans to start development on cloud computing, another innovation on the virtual server that can use the internet as its platform.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: VMware is 2009 CRN Channel champion In awards ceremonies held by CRN Channel in New Orleans, VMware was recognized as the 2009 champion in the category of Server/Application Virtualization as well as the three subcategories of Support Criteria Winner, Financial Criteria Winner and Technical Criteria Winner. VMware was chosen by solution providers from among more than 100 vendors and vied for honors in 20 categories. This recognition was especially important because it measured overall perceptions of vendor products and services by end-users, retailers and industry professionals. March 2009: Best platform to run Microsoft Exchange A growing number of companies have started running their systems on Microsoft Exchange with VMware Infrastructure 3, citing savings in operating costs and an easy-to-use (and tweak) virtual server that allows them to maximize computing resources. These companiesInterfaith Medical Center of New York City, medical device manufacturer NuVasive, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, the University of Plymouth in the U.K., Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and the Rochester General Hospital systemhave all come to depend on VMwares reliability in virtual systems. February 2009: Cloud seeding
CEO Paul Maritz announced plans to integrate internally pooled system resources, created by the virtualization of a companys computers, with external cloud computing providers from sites such as Amazon, Verizon and SunGard. This move significantly increased a businesss ability to run applications as it permits developers to move within different virtual environments, paving the way for VMware to become the operating backbone of virtual data centers. January 2009: VMware reports full quarter and full year 2008 results A difficult second half of the year did not stop VMware from delivering a solid financial performance during the fourth quarter, capping 2008s year-end results with a 42 percent increase in revenue from 2007. CEO Paul Maritz attributed this growth to clients who continue to make VMware a strategic priority. Maritz further added that VMware is fully prepared to face the coming year, stating that the company is pursuing virtualization leadership in the datacenter, cloud computing and virtualization for the desktop.
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January 2009: Good product, uncertain times Running VMware has its benefits: lower energy costs and fewer hardware needs, and corporate savings in the long run. However, as the United States braces itself for a longer period of economic uncertainty, the company suddenly found itself wondering if other companies would take the risk of buying VMware software even if it can help them save them money. Compounding this is the entry of Microsoft in the virtualization software market, forcing VMware to lower its prices, and the companys transition period after the sudden departure of founder Diane Greene in July 2007. Industry experts were looking to see whether there would be further uncertainty in the company when it announced its 2008 year-end earnings in January 26th. September 2008: Next trick VMware stock prices continued to take the plunge as competitors are starting to loom on the horizon and could threaten to steal VMwares thunder as the market leader in virtualization systems. Company co-founder Diane Greenes departure also triggered an exodus of VMware executives. The new CEO, Paul Maritz, hoped to counteract this negativity with the announcement that the company will go beyond virtualization software and venture into cloud computing. Industry experts, however, felt that VMware should not go full-bore into cloud computing just yet because only web-based applications can fully benefit from this. Rather, VMware should concentrate on redefining its brand and identify what value they can give to customers. July 2008: Clouds darken at VMware Diane Greene, VMware co-founder, was immediately replaced by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz. It has been reported that the business relationship between Greene and EMC was not exactly cordial and EMC opted not to renew Greenes contract when it expired in July. News of Greenes departure, and plans to initiate cloud computing, triggered a sale of VMware stocks, dragging the companys stock prices to an all-time low of $36.51.
June 2008: Microsofts attack Microsoft launched Hyper-V, a virtualization software similar to VMwares products. Hyper-V, which has been in beta since February, was officially shipped out this month and is included free in purchases of Windows Server 2008. Retailing at $28, it is definitely a more economic solution than VMwares hypervisor. However, experts felt that it will take a couple of years before Microsoft even starts to chip away at VMwares market lead.
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November 2007: VMware soars on software release A strong financial performance in the third quarter, and the announcement of the release of new software, drove VMware stock prices upwards. The impending entry of competitors in the market did not faze investors eager to capitalize on the companys technology and its lead over other virtualization software developers.
GETTING HIRED
Have a real career in virtual software
VMwares careers site, at www.vmware.com/company/jobs, provides job seekers with all the details on landing a job at VMware. College students are invited to send resumes to the campus relations department for an internship, or chat with a recruiter on a campus visitthe company makes stops at Columbia, Boston University, MIT, Stanford and the University of Wisconsin, among other places. In a further bid to attract graduating talent, VMware has launched webcasts that give an overview of the company and the type of people its looking for. Applicants may visit www.vmware.com/company/jobs/campus/events/virtual-events.html to view schedules and instructions on joining and additional options if the applicant would like to join either through phone conferencing or iPhone. Experienced hires-to-be can search job openings or submit a resume. Benefits at the company include annual performance bonuses, plenty of time off, health insurance, life insurance, commuter benefits and 401(k), for which employees are eligible from their date of hire. The company also boasts eco-friendly office spaces, open doors, shared offices, comfortable gathering spaces, game and relaxation rooms, wellness and community programs, free healthy snacks and drinks, Friday afternoon social gatherings and quarterly all-hands meetings. Hopeful hires might also want to check out what VMware executives have to say on their blog, located at blogs.vmware.com/console and employee feedback within the jobs page.
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WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION

20511 Lake Forest Drive Lake Forest, CA 92630-7741 Phone: (949) 672-7000 Fax: (949) 672-5408 www.westerndigital.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: WDC Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman: Thomas E. Pardun President and CEO: John F. Coyne 2008 Employees: 28,000 2008 Revenue ($mil.): $8,074 2008 Income ($mil.): $867
LOCATIONS
Lake Forest, CA (HQ) Austin, TX Belleair, FL Bellevue, NE Boca Raton, FL Cleveland, OH Dallas, TX Fremont, CA Houston, TX North Sioux City, SD Pasadena, MD Reading, MA San Jose, CA Beijing Cape Town Dubai Durban, South Africa Green Acres, South Africa Hong Kong Johannesburg Moscow Munich Pathumthani, Thailand Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Port Elizabeth, South Africa Prague Seoul Shanghai Singapore Sungei Way, Malaysia Surrey, United Kingdom Taipei Tokyo
KEY COMPETITORS
Fujitsu Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Seagate Technology
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.westerndigital.com/en/company/employ ment
DEPARTMENTS
Accounting, Auditing & Finance Customer Care & Quality Assurance Engineering Facilities Maintenance, Installation & Repair HR & Staffing IT & Support Services Manufacturing, Operations & Assembly Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations Project/Program Management Purchasing Sales & Sales Operations Supply Chain/Logistics
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Western Digital Corporation
THE SCOOP
Got data?
Western Digital has made a name for itself by making hard drives for everything from servers, laptops and PCs to multimedia entertainment systems. And it services everybody, from big corporations and software vendors to the average consumer who just wants the extra room to store his music, videos, games and pictures. WD, started by former Motorola veteran Alvin Philips as a semiconductor company in the 1970s, made the switch when it rode on the growing popularity of PCs in the 1980s. From semiconductors, it ventured into data storage devices in 1988 which proved to be the turning point of its success. The company soon found itself joining the ranks of the Fortune 500, but overproduction of hard drive units, and the subsequent price drop, slowed down the companys growth a decade later. It survived by staying true to the companys commitment to quality, eventually getting an ISO 9001 certification in 2004, making it the only multinational American company to receive this distinction.
The (Western) Digital wave

WD rode a wave of high revenue and consecutive yearly declines in the 1990s, but as the tech market recovered in the 2000s, WDs revenue began to grow. In 2008, revenue hit $8 billion, showing a steady growth from 2005s revenue of $3.6 Billion. WD maintained its lead in the market by designing innovative storage devices that appealed to consumers, such as the Raptor X 150 GB hard drive, which allowed users to watch data being written and retrieved through the devices clear top. WD has also dedicated itself to the further development and manufacture of storage devices by installing separate design and technical facilities in America and Asia.
The future may see big changes in store for WD. Fujitsu has seen its storage devices division steadily weakening over the years and has been in talks with WD for its acquisition. People are stocking up on content, such as movies and TV shows, and they need the hardware to store it in; WD is well at the forefront to service these needs. However, recent economic woes forced the company to reduce its workforce by 2,500 employees and restructure the organization.
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Western Digital Corporation
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Small drives may pay off big Netbooks could prove to be a lifesaver for Western Digital as a depressed economy forced the company to restructure and downsize its workforce. The emergence of the cheaper, smaller netbooks that are popular with consumers highlighted WDs dominance in the 2.5-inch notebook drives category. The increasing popularity of notebooks may prove to be a boon for WD if discussions with Fujitsu for the takeover of its hard-drive operations fall through. March 2009: My Book in a two-terabyte slim, single-drive system The advent of downloadable high-definition formats from sellers such as iTunes and Amazon has dramatically increased the file sizes of movies and shows, with a typical one-hour video requiring 8 GB of file space. WDs newest addition to the My Book line can give home consumers the option to store all related media in one external hard drive. October 2008: Getting to know Fujitsu WD and Fujitsu reportedly started talks for the acquisition of the latters hard-drive operations, including manufacturing plants in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. Although reports were unconfirmed, Fujitsu share prices rose in the wake of the planned takeover.
GETTING HIRED
Go Western, young man (or woman)
Western Digitals careers site, at www.westerndigital.com/en/company/employment, has information for both college graduates and more seasoned hires. WD seeks college grads with degrees in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering; but graduates with degrees in finance/accounting, business and human resources are also encouraged to apply. Company benefits include medical, health and dental plans, reimbursements for health and dependent care, an educational reimbursements program and a retirement savings and profit-sharing plan. Interested candidates may also apply online at www.westerndigital.apply2jobs.com or submit their resumes at www.westerndigital.com/careers. Western Digital also has full-time and internship opportunities in a variety of specialties including engineering, advanced manufacturing, customer support, program management, media, branded products and magnetic head operations.
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XEROX CORPORATION
45 Glover Avenue Norwalk, CT 06856-4505 Phone: (203) 968-3000 Fax: (503) 682-2980 www.xerox.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: XRX Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Anne M. Mulcahy 2008 Employees: 57,100 2008 Revenue ($mil.): 17,600 2008 Income ($mil.): 230
LOCATIONS
Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Montana Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Washington, DC West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming 118 International Locations
KEY COMPETITORS
Canon Hewlett-Packard Ricoh
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.xeroxcareers.com
DEPARTMENTS
Customer Service & Support Document Services Finance General Management Hardware/Software/Other Engineering Human Resources Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Research Sales & Marketing
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Xerox Corporation
The original copy cats

Any discussion of Xerox must, of course, begin with photocopiersand thats worth saying again; the name is synonymous with the process of making duplicates. Initially known as the Haloid Company, Xerox got its start in 1906 in Rochester, N.Y., and used to manufacture photo paper. Xerox comes from xerographyafter the Greek words for dry and writingand Haloid trademarked the truncated work Xerox to describe the process in 1948. The company officially became known as the Xerox Corporation in 1961.
Red Ink(ed)
Missed opportunities during the 1990s to branch out and diversify its offerings despite its capabilities made Xerox focus on its core document business and it settled into its role as a copying and printing company. Instead of vigorously expanding its offerings, Xerox chose to consolidate its products by buying out companies in the United States and Europe. But, however attractive these gains looked, by the fourth quarter of 2000 the company posted losses of $198 million and its debts were $2.6 billion, forcing the company to take out a $7 billion line of credit. In the boardrooms, shareholders file a lawsuit against the company for wasting its surplus. Eventually the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) got involved, conducted an investigation and concluded that the company overstated its revenue. This was settled in 2002, when Xerox paid the SEC $10 million and restated its earnings from 1997 to 2001.
The Mulcahy Miracle

Things didnt seem to be going so well for Xerox, but a miracle came in the form of Anne Mulcahy, a 24-year veteran of the company. After her appointment as CEO in 2001, she steadily helped the company creep back in the black and earn profit.
Not just about copies

Xerox isnt just copies, thoughthe company offers a number of other graphicsrelated products, like printers for everything from an 8-and-a-half-by-11-inch blackand-white resume, to five-foot-tall, full-color posters and digital printing presses for on-demand printing of everything from marketing materials to textbooks (let Gutenberg get a look at that!). Xerox also offers business services like task management software, IT consulting and outsourcing. The Palo Alto Research Company, a Xerox subsidiary, focuses on developing products and also does contract research for other companies. Xeroxs focus on research and success in developing breakthrough technology was recognized in July 2007, when President George W. Bush presented Xerox the National Medal of Technology. More importantly, Xerox has been making headway into environmental sustainability, designing products that produce little or no waste and investing in technologies that reduce its carbon
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footprint. For a company thats associated with paper (and lots of it), this is a major pioneering step. In 2008, the company drew in revenue of nearly $17.6 billion and was ranked No. 144 on the Fortune 500.
Xerox in the news

March 2009: Red badge of honor For the second year running, Xerox made the top five of Fortune magazines reputation survey in the computer industry. This year, things were a little different, since Xerox made the top spot, effectively making it the most admired company of the year, according to Fortune. The survey, compiled by the Hay Group, involved executives from 1,400 companies rating their peers on criteria such as innovation, investment value and global competitiveness. Thanks to Xeroxs leading the way to sustainability, their social responsibility earns them high marks in the survey. This ringing endorsement of our reputation from the business community is a point of great pride for us and reflects our rich heritage of quality service, worldclass technology, and commitment to our people and to the communities where they work and live, said CEO Anne Mulcahy about this distinction. As important, this recognition as a most admired company in our industry raises the bar for how well continue to deliver value for all our stakeholders, she added. February 2009: Beyond the usual With sustainability being the new catchword, companies that formerly pushed their clients to buy, buy, buy more office equipment are now urging them to centralize their office machine use and consolidate their operations, to reduce paper use. Xerox used to lure clients into buying a lot of printers and supplying them with expensive ink and toner, but theyve changed their tune in support of a green environment. Called the managed-print service, its all about centralizing the use of office machines by reducing the number of standalone printers and tracking the ink and paper consumption of an office to find ways to reduce use. Xerox is currently No. 1 in this market, followed by Hewlett-Packard, according to Gartner. The services that Xerox offers earned $3.5 billion in revenue for the company, contributing a fifth to Xeroxs total profits for the year. In addition to tracking paper and ink consumption, companies can save space, maintenance costs and electricity. January 2009: Profit in minutiae Due to the global economic downturn and rising costs of raw materials, Xerox posted a net income of $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Profits from developing markets are 3 percent less than the first three quarters of the year, and Xerox credited this to the weak Russian market, which has usually been a source of demand for the company. This just reflects weakening economic conditions around the world, Xerox said.
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July 2008: Oh, so thats what restructuring means In an effort to cut back on its first quarter losses, Xerox slashed 1,000 employees from its workforce, but its market performance was well in line with Wall Street expectations. Earnings posted for the second quarter came in at $215 million, a big number thats comparably less than 2007s second quarter performance at $266 million, but is still in the ballpark where analyst estimates were concerned. This wouldve been higher, too, were it not for the overhaul charges brought about by the settlement payment Xerox agreed to give to the SEC to save time and money on shareholder litigation started in 2000. April 2008: Almost lost profits there, buddy After receiving approval to settle a lawsuit instigated by the SEC over falsely reporting profits, Xerox took a $491 million charge related to the settlement, leaving it with a loss of $241 million in the first quarter. In order to cut back its losses, Xerox announced that it will implement cost-cutting measures during the second half of the year. Nevertheless, Wall Street expectations of the companys performance were strictly in line with reality. Revenue rose to 13 percent more than it was a prior, at $4.34 billion, which is a tad more than Wall Streets prediction of $4.24 billion. May 2008: Green research In partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Xerox invested $2 million into research and development of sustainable business practices and technologies. The institute has a longstanding relationship with Xeroxthe company founded the institutes College of Computing and Information Sciences, and more than a thousand alumni work for Xerox. The money pegged for research went to RITs Galisano Institute, which has also developed reusable printer and copier cartridges for Xerox. At the Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox showed off whats been brewing in its labs, giving people a glimpse of the future, according to the company. The researchers at PARC, working in concert with the Scripps Research Institute, have found a way to detect rare cells (such as cancer cells) in the bloodstream 1,000 times faster than digital microscopy. The speed wais amazing enough, but what probably bowled people over is the fact that laser printing technology is used. Its not just for paper anymore! Whats more, the researchers at PARC also demonstrate their reusable paper, which, granted, has been around for quite a while. Whats different is how much less energy is consumed in printing this recycled, reusable paperless than half of whats normally required for one sheet of paper made from virgin pulp. That saves a lot of trees, and thats one goal Xerox is willing to work toward in the future. Other demonstrations show how Xerox is adapting to the world of virtualization, showcasing transition programs that could help law firms upload their offline content on the Web, and customization taken to the extreme, where something as complicated as multiple folds and cutting (usually
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for a book project or a lovingly prepared birthday card) is easily visualized and accomplished. January 2008: The [un]copier logo People still associate Xerox with copiers; frankly, Xerox is tired of this outdated association with the company. In an effort to spruce up its image, and get away from the photocopying machines of old, Xerox introduced its new logo, the most sweeping transformation of its corporate identity since it became officially known as the Xerox Corporation (after dropping Haloid) in 1961. Working in partnership with Interbrand, a brand consultancy group, Xerox went around the world in 18 months, interviewing people about their associations with Xerox. Xeroxs new logo consists of the company name in lowercase letters (its friendlier than CAPITALS, isnt it?), with a red ball that has an etched X on its surface. The company feels the ball suggests forward movement and a holistic company. Also, red bodes well for Xeroxs Asian ventures, as the color signifies luck and prosperity in Chinese culture.
GETTING HIRED
More than making copies
Xerox employs roughly 57,100 people, with 28,400 based in the U.S. While the company is headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., it retains a major presence in its original hometown of Rochester, N.Y. Positions are available in one of 12 departments: customer service and support, hardware engineering, software engineering, other engineering, document services, IT, finance, legal, general management, sales and marketing, research and manufacturing. To apply for a job, click on Careers on the Xerox website home page, and then click on Search jobs and apply on the careers page. Careers are divided into those within the United States, in Canada and for college graduates or internship programs. Job seekers can submit a resume or search jobs by various criteria; in order to apply, they must first create a profile.
Campus crusaders
Xerox recruits enthusiastically from the ranks of college students. The company has the Xerox College Experiential Learning Programs (XCEL), which are work/study and/or internship programs for graduates and undergraduates in universities and colleges. Eligible candidates could stay with the company for up to a year. The best part? Besides getting the Xerox experience firsthand, interns are paid for their labors. For students who believe that the company is perfect for them, Xerox conducts oncampus recruiting visits at schools including Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, MIT, Clarkson University and the University of Michigan. At these events, students have the
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opportunity to meet and interview with company officials for internships, co-op positions and postgraduation employment. The Xerox careers website outlines the various internship programs and posts a schedule of upcoming recruiting events. Lastly, Xerox offers a scholarship for members of minority groups who are currently taking a course in chemistry, material science, laser optics and other related fields.
Giving em the benefits

Xeroxs standard benefits package includes a full slate of company-paid insurance. Employees are given a choice of medical plans as well as dental, vision, life, accident and disability coverage. For retirement benefits, Xerox provides matching funds for a 401(k) account. Other perks include lifecycle assistance fundsfor child care expenses or mortgage assistancean adoption reimbursement program, tuition assistance and access to the companys federal credit union. The company also has 4,000 online courses for employees to spruce up their skills or gain new ones. Xerox is not just the document company; its also become a pretty nifty place to work. CEO Mulcahy, under whose tenure stock prices have recovered much of their former health, emphasizes communication and finding the best person for the job. Mulcahy is serious about communicationseven officers with a C in their titles spend time dealing with customers. The company is consistently recognized for its commitment to workplace equality and opportunity. In 2007 alone, Xerox has been ranked as among the best companies by Black Enterprise, LATINA Style, Hispanic Business and DiversityInc magazines, among others. The National Association for Female Executives lauded Xerox for being a great place for women to work, with a spot on the Top 30 Companies for Female Executives. The Families and Work Institute also recognized the firm with its Work Life Legacy Award in 2006.
Letting em give back

Xerox encourages its employees to give back to the community through a program that encourages them to take paid leaves of absence of six to 12 months to help out a charity. Projects undertaken by Xerox employees in 2008 included joining a New York food bank and improving its process to maximize its efficiency, working at a Chicago support center for children and adults with developmental disabilities and working with minority students in Indianapolis to help them break into engineering and information technology. In addition, Xerox employees pitch in by getting involved in robotics competitions at local schools, as well as teaching science classes. Because Xerox believes that a successful corporation must be an active participant in society, the company has created a variety of opportunities to give back to the communities from which it draws its employees.
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The Xerox Foundation supports employees philanthropic interests and endeavors through four primary programs. The Xerox Social Service Leave Program provides employees with fully paid corporate sabbaticals (with full benefits, too) to invest their time and talent full time to support the work of a nonprofit agency in the community. Other employees choose to invest their time outside of work through the Xerox Community Involvement Program. XCIP provides employees with seed money and management-supported opportunities to volunteer their time and energy to better the community. For those employees who prefer to share their treasure, Xeroxs employee matching gifts program and the Xerox Employee United Way Program provide such opportunities. The matching gift program matches employees contributions to institutions of higher education up to a maximum of $1,000. Alternatively, employees can make a contribution to benefit the United Way programs and services. Xerox also operates two special educational programs. Xerox researchers and scientists receive paid time to participate in the Xerox Science Consultant Program (in its 41st year in 2009), which provides hands-on science instruction by Xerox employees for students in grades three to six. Also, Xerox partners with high schools within its communities on U.S. FIRST, an international robotics competition where teams of students build robots with the assistance of their technical sponsors. The Xerox Foundation also offers financial grants in such areas as education/workforce preparedness; science/technology; employee/community affairs; cultural affairs and national affairs.
OUR SURVEY SAYS

Mixed signals
For a company that has gone through a lot of ups and downs, employees seem ambivalent about Xerox. One insider in Hawaii notes that the initial working experience with Xerox was positive. This respondent likes that most everyone seemed friendly and that Xeroxs training modules are pretty helpful and targeted about things that new hires need to learn. But it seems that the company needs to improve on its people skills, especially with the relationship management has with its teammates: Management is at times very hypocritical in what they say versus what they do. A sales representative seems to agree with this assessment, adding, The company is only concerned about shareholder value. Our contact notes that working at Xerox is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Blessing in disguise
Despite the criticism, Xerox sources admire the diversity that the company strives to achieve. One contact says that the company has a very diverse environment minority and woman preferred business contracts had internal organizations for every type of person (race, sexual preference, outside involvement, etc. Also, the training course for new hires in Xeroxs sales department is quite rigorous, but in a good way. Training starts with a four-week online course, after which classroom-type training for two weeks follows. Lastly, there is a two-week training on accounting and negotiation skills, which is given to new hires regardless of previous experience in sales. The companys sales training is very good and worthwhile, shares one insider. It seems that Xerox knows what to do to beef up its sales muscle, but it looks like it still has a long way to go to completely satisfy its employees. In Xeroxs annual report to shareholders, however, a 2008 survey of employees showed that 71 percent are satisfied with working at Xerox. That should be some well-earned consolation from a company that has risen from the ashes of near-bankruptcy to become one of the blazing pioneers of its industry.
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ZOOM TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATED

207 South Street Boston, MA 02111 Phone: (617) 423-1072 Fax: (617) 423-3923 www.zoom.com
THE STATS
Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ZOOM Stock Exchange: Nasdaq Chairman, President & CEO: Frank B. Manning 2007 Employees: 69 2007 Revenues ($mil.): 18.5
LOCATIONS
Boston, MA (HQ) Boca Raton, FL Fleet, United Kingdom
KEY COMPETITORS
3Com Motorola, Inc. USRobotics
DEPARTMENTS
Finance HR Legal Manufacturing Sales & marketing
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT
www.zoom.com/about/careers.html
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Vault Guide to the Top Tech Employers, 2010 Edition Zoom Technologies Incorporated
THE SCOOP
Equipment for the modem age
Remember the modem? They were those boxes that sat next to the computer and made odd little noises, and prevented anyone from using the phone while you were browsing the internet? Well, theyre still with us, only now, they are quieter and faster. Zoom Technologies manufactures cable and DSL modems, in both wired and wireless configurations, under the names Zoom, Hayes and Global Village. More recently, Zoom has diversified beyond modems; it makes Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, equipment, as well as the iHiFi (say that five times fast!), a nifty device that allows an MP3 player to wirelessly connect to the speakers of a stereo. However, Zoom still relies on modem sales for the lions share of its revenue and is desperately hoping that a successful transition to its new business model occurs soon.
A Baud-y story
Zoom first got online in 1977, the brain child of two MIT PhDs, Frank B. Manning and his roommate Peter R. Kramer. The companys first product, ominously dubbed the Silencer, was an item that attached to a phone to keep it from ringingclearly, these were the days before you could just turn off the ringer on the cell phone. While the Silencer was a hit, particularly among those who didnt want their romantic evenings interrupted, the next product, the Demon Dialer, introduced in 1980, really put the company on the map. Among other features, the Demon Dialer stored several numbers that could be recalled by code name, and had an automatic redial function. Despite the success of the Demon Dialerits sales drove revenue to $6 million in 1984changes in telephone technology quickly rendered it obsolete. The next year, Zoom looked to modems as the future of telephonic technology. In 1990, the company was listed on the Nasdaq, and the following year the company reported revenue of $25 million. By 1995, Zoom products were being sold at major outlets such as Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Best Buy and Staplesand its modems were crucial to the burgeoning era of the home PC, providing many novice web surfers in the 1990s with their first experience of logging on to the Internet.
Hate to burst your bubble there, but ...

The party didnt last, however: Zoom was totally blindsided by the bursting of the tech bubble. In 2000, CEO and co-founder Manning contended that dial-up modems will be the most popular way of accessing the internet through 2010 and beyond. But it was not to bebroadband modems quickly became the cause clbre, and Zooms revenue from broadband modems surpassed those from dial-up models only in 2005. In fact, the companys sales have decreased every year since they reached $100
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million in 1996 (compared with $18 million from 2006). In January 2007, CEO Manning admitted the company probably had two years left to turn things around, before it ran out of money.
Changes in real estate

In July 2006, Zoom announced that it would be relocating its factories from Boston to sunny Tijuana, Mexico. As a result, the company had to lay off 40 workers in Boston; but the move was expected to save the company about $2 million per year. It sold its Boston headquarters, located in the chic Leather District, to a condo developer for $8 million, but it wont be zipping off anywhere, thoughthe company has agreed to rent space in the building from the developer for a few more years. Zooms results for the end of 2006 were buoyed by the sale of its headquarters; that windfall aside, the company only posted $10 million (of its $18 million total) in 2006 revenue from product sales, as the rest came from the real estate transaction (it earned a $1 million profit for the year). In 2007, Zoom revved up its product line with the introduction of the Fast Lane feature. This feature allows modems to process data-intensive downloadslike VoIP calls or peer-to-peer data transferswithout slowing web browsing.
IN THE NEWS
March 2009: Package deal Hoping to leave a mark in the DSL market, Zoom unveiled its X6v, a wireless device that combines a modem, router, VoIP adapter and firewall security, all in a single product. As a bonus, it has a quality of service (QoS) to ensure that voice quality is maintained and that both parties hear each other loud and clear. The device is available to both consumers and network providers, with consumers receiving the option to partner up with a phone service for complete VoIP solution. Zooms X6v comes with Entanet, a service that offers free calls between Entanet users and prepaid credits for non-Entanet users. January 2009: Entering the dragon Zoom announced that it is definitely buying TCB Digital, a Chinese company that makes mobile phones and other electronic products. TCG Digitals chairman and majority shareholder stays on as CEO of the company, and the board has Frank Manning as its only Zoom member. The agreement both companies entered into details an initial 51 percent stock ownership for Zoom, with that number climbing up to 80 percent after 29 percent of TCB shares are traded for 2.4 million Zoom shares. TCB was given a license to use the Zoom and Hayes trademarks, while Zoom has the option of purchasing more companies owned by Leo Gu, depending on price negotiations or that companys net income. This should be
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good news for Zoom, who was forced to sell 750,000 shares of its common stock in Nasdaq in order to get some cash at hand for its operations. December 2008: Zooming? Not so With the economic downturn still going strong, Zoom posted a fourth quarter loss of $1.4 million, which is a lot more than the previous years loss of $800,000 in the same quarter. Operation costs echoed the same loss, but not as loudfourth quarter losses are at $889,000, which is a little more than $50,000 more than 2007 in the same period. October 2008: Call me Skype. Zoom Skype. Selling their units through Wal-Mart, Zoom announced the Model 5900 phone adaptor, made especially for Skype. Unlike the usual tethered setup that Skype users have to contend withafter all, a user connects his headset to his PC, effectively gluing him in front of the monitor and leaving him unable to do other things, like order pizza, for example, if the phones in the kitchenZooms adaptor for Skype lets a user take a Skype call wherever he is, as long as hes near the phone. Cell phone users could also call their Skype account to make international calls. As an added feature, emergency calls can be made even during a power failure, and three-way calls can be made between a Skype user, someone using a phone with the 5900 phone adaptor and someone calling the adaptors landline. August 2008: Thats a close one The Nasdaq Hearing Panel decided to continue Zooms listing on the Nasdaq stock market, after the company executed a reverse stock split, because it was traded above $1 for 10 consecutive days. CEO Manning was pleased, since the strategy has the intended effect of raising Zooms stock price. May 2008: We made them there, and well sell them there Zoom hoped to continue its days as a strong dial-up modem provider (in todays broadband and DSL world, thats a tough one) by entering the Chinese market and selling their products there. CEO Manning realized that to get a foot in the door means connections and networking; thats why he entered into talks with a Chinese investment banker. There has been speculation that this could lead to a Chinese buyout or an alliance with a Chinese retailer that has a relationship with the little electronics stores that are all across China. While venturing out of its comfort zone doesnt seem to be one of Zooms strengths, its hoping that its products will help China log onto the internet (much like what happened here in the 1990s when Zoom was big and dial-up modem was THE way to go online). Although Zoom tries to keep up with the competition, selling broadband and DSL modems at Best Buy or Staples, its biggest problem is diversifying, if not company favoritism. Broadband providers buy in bulk from certain suppliers, and these companies distribute these modems to their subscribers. That alone intimidates Zoom, since the companys up against competitors who are involved in end-to-end solutions, from the gears that prop up the Web to the modems that users use to
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connect to it. Zooms hoping that demand in the Chinese market matches their supplies, at least when they do enter the market.
GETTING HIRED
Broadband for your career
Zoom Technologies careers site (at www.zoom.com/about/careers.html) lists benefits and job openings at the company. Benefits include health, dental and life insurance, 401(k) and stock purchase plan, tuition reimbursement, passes for public transit, 10 paid holidays and merchandise discounts. At the time Vault checked, there were no open positions listed.
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About the Editor

Aman Singh Das is the Corporate Responsibility Editor at Vault.com. She is a New York University alum and formerly served at The Wall Street Journal. Her area of work includes corporate diversity practices and sustainability, and how they translate into recruitment and strategic development at Fortune 1000 companies.
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THE MEDIAS WATCHING VAULT! HERES A SAMPLING OF OUR COVERAGE.

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