Although the nation’s jobless rate remains worryingly high, the IT sector has fared better than most over the past two years. According to the most recent report from Dice, an online IT jobs site, the unemployment rate for tech professionals is at 4.2 percent, half of the overall national jobless rate. The number of resumes viewed on Dice is at an all-time high and the job count on the site is up 12 percent over the same period in 2010. Taking a look into recruiting priorities, hiring managers' top requests in the Dice resume database in the third quarter were for Java/J2EE or Java developers, .NET or .NET developers, business analysts, Sharepoint or Sharepoint developers, and project managers. On the supply side, the desired positions of tech professionals posting their resume were for the positions of business analyst, project manager, software engineer or software developer, network engineer and systems administrator. But where to work? A recent study by CNN/Money evaluated the top 100 companies to work for, based on job growth, career opportunities and perks. We’ve taken a look at the IT-based firms on the list and pulled together this selection of promising places to work.
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SAS
This software firm, headquartered in Cary, N.C., offers perks such as on-site health care and a state-of-the-art gym. SAS topped the list for the second year running.
Google
Pay hikes and bonuses are a key draw for the Silicon Valley-based search engine giant, not to mention having the cache of working for one of the world’s coolest companies.
NetApp
Free fruit, bagels and coffee, as well as satisfactory compensation and generous bonuses, got the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based data storage specialist high marks.
Cisco
Cisco, the giant networking and unified communications vendor headquartered in San Jose, Calif., has taken a flexible approach to where its employees work, allowing more than 85 percent of them to telecommute.
Qualcomm
The San Diego-based mobile networking company offers 100 percent health-care coverage, a job sharing program, telecommuting and a New York City chef who oversees its café options.
Shared Technologies
A subsidized 12-week personal financial-planning course for employees and their spouses is just one of the perks at this telecom services firm, which is based in Irving, Texas.
Intuit
The business software company, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., fosters a healthy sense of competition through “idea jams,” where teams present new concepts for business growth.
Intel
The world’s top chip maker, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is expanding rapidly, poised to create thousands of jobs, and offers perks such as paid sabbaticals and an onsite fitness center.
Salesforce.com
Enticing perks for top performers include a four-day trip to a Hawaiian resort through the San Francisco-based cloud software company’s Peak Performers Club.
Adobe Systems
A generous annual salary for its most common job (computer scientist: $123,599) and strong job growth makes application development specialist Adobe, of San Jose, Calif., a good bet.
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Although the nation’s jobless rate remains worryingly high, the IT sector has fared better than most over the past two years. According to the most recent report from Dice, an online IT jobs site, the unemployment rate for tech professionals is at 4.2 percent, half of the overall national jobless rate. The number of resumes viewed on Dice is at an all-time high and the job count on the site is up 12 percent over the same period in 2010. Taking a look into recruiting priorities, hiring managers' top requests in the Dice resume database in the third quarter were for Java/J2EE or Java developers, .NET or .NET developers, business analysts, Sharepoint or Sharepoint developers, and project managers. On the supply side, the desired positions of tech professionals posting their resume were for the positions of business analyst, project manager, software engineer or software developer, network engineer and systems administrator. But where to work? A recent study by CNN/Money evaluated the top 100 companies to work for, based on job growth, career opportunities and perks. We’ve taken a look at the IT-based firms on the list and pulled together this selection of promising places to work.