When I talk to computer science and engineering students regarding their thoughts about future employers, Google generally seems to be at the top of their lists. And Google has topped Hired’s survey of dream employers to work for since its inception in 2017.
Until now. In Hired’s just-released “Employer Brand Health Report,” Google slipped to number three in the rankings, with Netflix and GitHub in the number one and two spots, respectively. To create this list, Hired surveyed 4100 tech professionals, asking them to indicate their level of interest in working for companies in their regions, and created a “brand positivity index” by combining the “love” and “like” ratings adjusted to reflect the location of company offices. The Hired report breaks out rankings for public and private companies, with SpaceX at the top of the latter list; I’ve combined them in the charts below.
No reason for Google to panic just yet, however. Engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the vast majority of the top-ranked companies, still love Google the best. Their top 10Â (from number one): Google, Netflix, Slack, LinkedIn, Apple, Square, Dropbox, Facebook, Nvidia, and Airbnb.
What do engineers consider most important when they think about where they might love to work? While salary is the driving force overall, there are regional differences. In Silicon Valley, it’s the opportunity to learn new skills, according to the Hired survey; in Boston, it’s company culture.
In a nod to the current reality, Hired also used this survey to measure the tolerance of tech professionals for video calls, or what one might consider the point at which “Zoom fatigue” takes over. The largest cohort—31 percent—drew the line at two hours of video calls a day, while 26 percent indicated that three hours was doable, and a shocking (to me) nine percent were willing to videoconference more than six hours a day.
Companies Most Loved by Tech Professionals
Rank 2020 | Company | Location | Positivity Index* 2020 | Rank 2019 | Positivity Index* 2019 |
1 | Netflix | SF Bay Area | 86 | 2 | 82 |
2 | GitHub | SF Bay Area | 85 | 8 | 70 |
3 | SF Bay Area | 84 | 1 | 87 | |
4 | Slack | SF Bay Area | 81 | 7 | 72 |
5 | Seattle Area | 78 | 6 | 75 | |
6 | Apple | SF Bay Area | 77 | 3 | 77 |
7 | SpaceX | Los Angeles Area | 75 | 8 | 70 |
8 | Tesla | SF Bay Area | 74 | 12 | 67 |
9 | SF Bay Area | 73 | 16 | 60 | |
10 | Gitlab | SF Bay Area | 72 | NA | NA |
10 | SF Bay Area | 72 | 4 | 76 | |
12 | Dropbox | SF Bay Area | 69 | 11 | 68 |
12 | Airbnb | SF Bay Area | 69 | 4 | 76 |
14 | Stripe | SF Bay Area | 66 | 18 | 48 |
14 | Square | New York City | 66 | 19 | 47 |
16 | Seattle | 64 | 8 | 70 | |
16 | Hulu | Los Angeles Area | 64 | 13 | 66 |
18 | Shopify | Canada | 63 | NA | NA |
19 | Adobe | SF Bay Area | 62 | 14 | 65 |
19 | SF Bay Area | 62 | 17 | 59 | |
21 | SF Bay Area | 60 | 15 | 63 |
Source: Hired
*The positivity index reflects the proportion of respondents indicating that they would “love” or “like” to work at a company
Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.
