Best Places to Work 2013

Best Places to Work

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Hardly Working? Employees at Zillow relax under a whiteboard illustration by Jason Thompson.

What makes a kickass workplace? Is it perks? Pay? Paid time off? It’s all of the above on our Best Places to Work list. The HR departments and employees of Seattle-area offices completed in-depth surveys of every aspect of their workplace, and the experts at Best Companies Group tallied the responses. The result: the region’s 34 best places to pull a paycheck. (See the full list here.)

Simply having a Ping-Pong table in the break room wasn’t enough—the top 25 companies have Call of Duty tournaments, paid sabbaticals, on-the-job mentoring, and funded volunteer vacations. And they all offer a fabulous place to spend a workday.

How We Did It

The Best Places to Work in Seattle is a joint effort of Seattle Met magazine, Lake Washington Human Resource Association, Seattle Society for Human Resource Management, Downtown Seattle Association, and Best Companies Group. The survey was open to all publicly and privately held companies with at least 15 employees in the Seattle area. Best Companies Group, an independent research firm, managed the registration process, conducted the surveys, evaluated the data, and ultimately chose the firms good enough to make the list. BCG manages 41 other regional, state, and industry programs across the country and internationally.

Three-quarters of each company’s score was based on a confidential 76-question Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey, which was used to evaluate employees’ workplace experience and company culture. One-quarter of each company’s score was based on the employer questionnaire, which queried HR managers on company benefits, policies, and practices. BCG analyzed the two combined sets of data to determine which qualifying companies best demonstrate workplace excellence.

1 SEOmoz
The Work SEO—or search engine optimization—hardly existed a decade ago, but now it makes the web, and therefore the world, go ’round. SEOmoz has become a software manufacturer and educational clearinghouse for anyone looking to control the all-important web search. Mozers split work time with poker tournaments, a Ping-Pong table, scavenger hunts, and Wii dance competitions—that is, when they’re not off using their 21 days of annual paid time off. From 401(k) contributions to stock options to a subsidized gym membership, the company delivers virtually every employee perk possible. To put it in SEO terms, they’re the very first result in a Google search for “Seriously Awesome Seattle Workplace.” The Team More than 95 staffers work from the Pike Place office, where the fit flock to an in-office rock climbing wall, and the lazier lounge on beanbag chairs. The Way In seomoz.org/about/jobs

2 PeopleFirm
The Work When your whole mission is to consult at other companies, showing them how to run a tight ship, then you’d better be on the ball yourself. PeopleFirm models a happy workplace with team meals and awards for standout work—plus every staffer got a free iPad when the group scored a “Best of” ranking from Consulting magazine in 2011. The Team The consultants at PeopleFirm can spend 12 weeks or even 12 months on a job site working on a client organization, but most migrate back to the Belltown home base on Fridays. The Way In jobs@peoplefirm.com

+PeopleFirm Perk Unlimited PTO: PeopleFirm really and truly gives its workers as many days off as they want? No limit? No lie? Yep, it’s the truth, and it requires a lot of trust. The idea is that if they treat their workers like grown-ups, they’ll make grown-up decisions. PeopleFirm consultants take an average of three or four weeks off every year, even given the free rein. The entire staff has resisted the urge to milk the policy for, say, an eight-week jaunt to Thailand. So far, that is.

3 MetLife—Financial Planning Division
The Work The planners at MetLife assess a family’s entire financial situation (and they do it without making jealous or horrified faces), then go to work on risk management, retirement planning, and insurance juggling. Their workplace is fun, but it also respects wisdom: The average age for advisors is 55. A Working on Wellness program rewards physically active employees with a dividend payment, but the planners don’t ignore the financial health they preach: 401(k) matching is available from an employee’s first day. The Team The 85 local staff members work out of Bellevue and Tacoma, where they oversee territory in Washington and Oregon. The Way In mcowman@metlife.com

4 CRG Events
The Work The all-female executive team leads a fleet of corporate party planners, each of whom is always in a good mood. Okay, maybe they’re not all chipper, but twice-monthly Morale Committee meetings organize employee outings and awards. And why not be upbeat? When workers aren’t throwing giant conferences, business summits, and awards banquets—Microsoft is a big client—they’re taking 24 hours of paid leave to volunteer or raking in a profit-sharing bonus. The Team All 50 event planners work out of a waterfront office, and 92 percent of the staff is female. The Way In crgevents.com/who-we-are/careers-crg

+CRG Events Perk Sabbatical: After just four years on the job, CRGers score a three-week vacation, which is loaded on top of their existing vacation time. Past sabbaticals involved home-building charity work in Guatema la, getting married, moving into a new house, and taking a vacation to Vietnam.

5 Brightlight Consulting
The Work Where do you keep your data? In a data warehouse, of course. Well, the tech practice of data warehousing is a little more complicated than that, but the technology and business intelligence consultants at Brightlight are experts. A special committee in the office oversees the publishing and educational outreach that the company does in its field, keeping everyone at the cutting edge. The bosses hand out sizable bonuses when underlings bring in clients, and IRA matching starts with the first paycheck. The Team All 47 employees work from an office in Redmond that’s within walking distance of shops and restaurants. The Way In brightlightconsulting.com/careers

6 The Mosaic Company
The Work There’s energy everywhere you look in Washington, what with our electric dams, nuclear power plants, and wind turbines, but these energy consultants don’t restrict their expertise to the Northwest—they’ve increased productivity on far-off oil rigs and organized natural gas public utilities in Michigan. And they don’t consider fossil fuel plants a masculine domain; the company is women owned and operated. Mosaic supports charitable works, even sponsoring two employees who built a school in Ghana. The Team While 41 people are based in the Renton corporate headquarters, there’s a huge amount of remote and flex work done by the consultants—and they’re rewarded with luxury hotel stays on work trips and a whopping 26 days of paid time off per year. The Way In jobs@themosaiccompany.com

7 World Famous
The Work The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert at Call of Duty to get a job at Seattle’s funky film company. The bad news is that if you do suck, you’ll be subject to your coworkers’ friendly trash talk on a near-daily basis. When they’re not blowing off steam, the team creates video special effects, movie title sequences, and memorable Washington Lottery commercials. The company is supportive of its creative types, many of whom are members of rock bands or independent filmmakers; the staff gets 21 days of vacation a year for their own pursuits. The Team The lunch table at World Famous’s Capitol Hill office holds all 15 staff members, which is key for their daily lunches. The Way In info@worldfamousinc.com

8 Zipcar
The Work Not a single staffer at the Seattle Zipcar outlet drives a personal car to work. Why would they? They run the popular car-sharing service, and they know that hourly rentals are parked all over the city. Employee appreciation is all over the place: Weekly breakfasts are for everyone, but the hardest workers can snag Caught in the Act quarterly awards or be named Zipster of the Year. The Team The 21 staffers in the downtown Seattle office know where all the Zipcars are parked downtown (and they especially love the Audi A3s), but don’t worry—they’re careful not to book them all at the same time. The Way In zipcar.com/about/jobs

9 Substantial
The Work When this software company constructs programs, they’re not necessarily for the small screen—one recent project involved making 10-by-12-foot interactive walls for Citibank branches. The group also manages digital strategies and builds smaller applications, like the traditional mobile and web types. The front door to the office is a giant sheet of metal, embodying the Substantial name, but not everything is heavy: A DJ station made of reclaimed Oregon fir is suspended from the ceiling inside. The Team In the office overlooking Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill, there are 50 workers to dance to what the DJ is spinning; they can head to the roof deck if they aren’t feeling the tunes. The Way In substantial.com/company/jobs

Image: Andrew Waits

Signal the Frog GPS technology meets the outdoors at Groundspeak.

10 Groundspeak
The Work If you’re ever lost, hope you have a Groundspeak staffer in your car. As overseers of the geocaching community, they’re quick with a GPS. The recreational treasure hunting permeates the Fremont offices, where workers work off their daily catered lunches by climbing, skiing, hiking, and geocaching in their spare time. Every employee has received a bonus in the past five Decembers. The Team There are 70 in the Seattle office just off the Burke-Gilman trail, but they’re not always there: The Lackey Evolution program sends employees to U.S. and international geocaching events for free. The Way In groundspeak.com/jobs.aspx

+Groundspeak Perk Unlimited Free Ski Lift Tickets: Go skiing, buy a ticket, bring back your receipt, and get reimbursed: It’s no wonder there are a lot of prayers for snow at Groundspeak. Even trips as far afield as Whistler or Europe are covered, along with cross-country trail passes for the fearful of heights.

11 Sila Solutions Group
The Work The business and technology consultants at Sila love their gigs so much that they rush to refer their friends for open positions. Of course, that might also be because referring staffers and the new hires are treated with a trip to Las Vegas, Hawaii, or Mexico. When they’re not wading through the intricacies of aircraft network security or reorganizing a Fortune 500 company, they’re kicking the ball around on the company team, Sila Soccer FC. But it’s not all sports and travel: The furiously philanthropic company partners with Special Olympics Washington, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and Seattle Works. The Team The Tukwila office is one of three national locations and houses 62. The Way In silasg.com/careers

12 Impinj
The Work Imagine you’re Walmart (just roll with it). Do you know where your millions of pieces of clothing inventory are? You would, actually, because many are tagged with tiny chips made by this Seattle company. The chips allow each Big Bird T-shirt and pink fuzzy slipper to be tracked through radio frequency identification (RFID). It’s like a GPS system on a very small scale. Impinj also uses its chips on the shoes of marathon runners and on Coke freestyle machines, which automatically measure syrup levels. Employee perks include on-the-spot monetary rewards and personalized Jones Sodas for work well done, but in the middle of the office is something even better: a company nap room. The Team Tucked next to the Fremont bridge, the Seattle headquarters holds just over 100 workers. The Way In impinj.com/careers

13 Evergreen Home Loans
The Work The CEO of this Bellevue company has been at the helm for a quarter century, meaning he’s handled home loans at times when they were considered a godsend, a necessity, and even a curse. The company has weathered every mortgage storm by emphasizing education and ethics, but the team itself stays chill with monthly visits from a masseuse. The Team Evergreen has 225 employees in 19 branch offices from Kahului, Hawaii, to Clatskanie, Oregon, but there are 150 workers in King County. The Way In evergreenhomeloans.com

14 Zillow
The Work Everything you wanted to know about your neighbor’s house is on Zillow, a website that will offer an estimated market value for any abode on the block. Turns out a lot of people are house shopping, or morbidly curious about foreclosure listings—the web company recently added a fourth floor of offices. Staffers are fed with treats of varying healthiness: There is free espresso, a game room, and organic M&Ms. Discussion of Zillow’s stock price isn’t allowed in the open office, even though employees get stock options, so November’s precipitous drop did little to temper morale. The Team There’s an expansive waterfront view from the Second Avenue office, where all 370 workers sit in an open floor plan. The Way In zillow.com/jobs

+ Zillow Perk Hack Week: Twice a year, Zillow workers put away their assignments and go to town on whatever they like for a full five days. Since the company started giving employees free rein in May 2011, several of the informal “hack” projects have turned into real products, like the iPad app and Zillow’s Draw Your Own Search feature. But not every Hack Week endeavor is quite so serious: Last year an enterprising staffer used his time to mount a video camera above the office Starbucks espresso machine, so everyone could monitor the lines from his or her own desk.

15 Novinium
The Work Our city’s power cables aren’t getting any younger, but this Seattle start-up can perform a nip-and-tuck procedure that takes years off—or rather extends their life by up to 40 years. The workforce is diverse in age and background, made up of journeymen line workers, technicians, managers, and directors. Stock options and spot awards are available to every employee, and the group recognizes silly holidays like Pi day and International Star Wars Day. The Team Only 27 of the staff work from the Federal Way headquarters; about 100 more work around North America on cable jobs. The Way In novinium.com/employment.aspx

Image: Andrew Waits

Best-Laid Travel Plans A coffee conference at Expedia headquarters

16 206
The Work There are many levels to the “creative development” offered by 206. It ranges from traditional PR and web design to qualitative analysis of a company’s social media (they’ll tell you when you’re tweeting well) and event production. During the 2012 election, the company turned NYC’s Rockefeller Plaza into a carnival of patriotic games, where visitors could follow electoral counts on the skating rink map and get a picture with a President Obama cutout. The Team There are about 40 humans and a few dogs in the downtown Seattle offices, and both species call it a week around 4pm on Friday for a full-office happy hour. The Way In 206inc.com/careers

+ 206 Perk 206 Gives 40: Employees can use 40 hours a year on any kind of philanthropic endeavor. Last year some of the web designers made a website for the Music for Marriage Equality campaign, and others took a service trip to South Africa.

17 Cypress
The Work The boutique firm designs mobile apps and websites, and the group built the platform that allowed Xbox Live users to stream Fox TV shows. When the company behind Jameson whiskey came knocking, Cypress set up an event management system for shindigs like their Bartenders Ball. In the office bar, however, the drink of choice is beer—the Kegerator holds a different brand of beer every month. The Team There are 60 employees working and drinking out of the Pioneer Square office. The Way In cypressconsulting.net/pages/careers/index

18 Queen Anne Healthcare
The Work The staff of this rehab center says this workplace is more like a cruise ship than a health center; the housekeepers, nurses, doctors, and chefs all manage the recovering patients staying there. The women-led staff has such varied backgrounds that Queen Anne’s diversity day meal has grown into Diversity Month, where each continent gets a week of themed potluck meals. For the rest of the year, cultural calories come through weekly Waffle Wednesdays. In an industry known for its high turnover, less than 10 percent of the workforce chooses to leave Queen Anne every year. The Team At full capacity, 120 patients are treated by 88 Queen Anne staff members. The Way In queenannehealthcare.com/careers

19 University of Phoenix, Western Washington Campus
The Work The nationwide university has more locations (115) than degree programs (though it has more than 50 of those), but the Tukwila campus offers in-person teaching to make the experience more personal. The administrators enjoy regular Wii game breaks, access to bike trails, and, naturally, tuition assistance. The Team Though the university employs 12,500 nationwide, the Tukwila area is home to a cozy 37 staffers. The Way In phoenix.edu/about_us/employment

20 Data I/O Corporation
The Work The Redmond company has been making the machines that program computer chips since before many of us had even heard of computers or chips (or were born); founded in 1972, they now program microcontrollers in cars, make software for semiconductors, and do technology consulting. The Team Many of the 53 staff members telecommute or work unusual hours. The Way In dataio.com/company/careeropportunities.aspx

+ Data I/O Corporation Perk ”Biggest Loser” Competition: Staffers compete several times a year in a weight-loss contest, likely necessary given the company’s quarterly pub events and monthly BBQs.

21 Projectline
The Work Projectline’s three founders met while consulting for Microsoft, then joined forces to create a boutique destination for their marketing and business savvy. That small company has since gone global, and the firm has opened offices in Philadelphia, Toronto, and London. Back at home base, employees are allowed $1,500 per year for professional development. The money doesn’t stop flowing: Workers can apply for two $3,500 grants to fund a volunteer vacation. The Team The 127 Seattle employees are relocating to a Smith Tower office in January. The Way In projectlineinc.com/home/about/careers

22 Guidant Financial
The Work Thinking about cashing in your 401(k) to fund a business start-up? The financial advisors at Guidant don’t think that’s so crazy; they’ve managed the processes for individuals in all 50 states, helping retirement funds turn into shops like Dogtopia Pet Care in Nashville, Coastal Coffee Roasters in South Carolina, and Urban Yoga Spa in downtown Seattle. When they’re not carefully extricating cash from the death grip of IRAs and 401(k)s, Guidant staffers rev up in their Xbox room, chill down in the office Zen room, or just kick back to enjoy 100 percent–funded medical, dental, and vision benefits. The Team The Bellevue office houses all 70 employees, but clients are countrywide. The Way In guidantfinancial.com/about/jobs

+ Guidant Financial Perk Guidant Olympics: Yes, just like that episode of The Office. Every summer for an entire week, the first hour of the workday is taken over with events that don’t quite make the regular Olympics: Real Angry Birds (catapulting kickballs into shipping boxes) and Stick the Velcro Balls to the CEO. Trash talk, a team draft, and a medal ceremony round out the bonding experience.

Image: Andrew Waits

Almost Vacation A break room at Expedia might as well be the lido deck.

23 Expedia
The Work Though the group of travel websites began as a wing of Microsoft, it was sold and then spun off and is now a thriving business of its own, employing almost 5,000 across the U.S. Headquarters holds almost half of them, where they run expedia.com and hotwire.com, as well as other booking and travel sites. Employees stay tied to home base with stock options and bonus incentives, but it is a travel company, after all: Everyone gets hotel discounts for their own vacations. The Team When they’re not dreaming of faraway travel, staff at the downtown Bellevue office can take laptops to the Wi-Fi enabled patio. The Way In expediajobs.com

+ Expedia Perk Leisure Travel Reimbursement: From year one on the job at Expedia, employees get extra cash for their own trips: $250 annually until they’ve been around three years, and then it bumps up to $500, and eventually $750. The benefit is extremely popular, but any staff member who fails to use it will get a friendly reminder from HR.

24 Bridge Partners
The Work Anything middle management needs—a product launched, a revenue stream created—can be done by this virtual organization of consultants. Coworkers are linked more through technology than by physical workspace, but when consultants are in the office, massages are sometimes offered before meetings. The Team Few of the 83 staff work from the Eastlake office; most toil from home or a client site. The Way In bridgepartnersconsulting.com/careers

25 Sleep Country USA
The Work Employees own this mattress emporium, whose success is due to the universal need for a good night’s sleep. The local staff is made up of sales reps who help differentiate between all those plain white rectangles, drivers who deliver stock, warehouse workers, and corporate administrators. Everyone gets two days off for community service, and they can all attend concerts sponsored by the company at White River Amphitheatre; recent trips were for performances by Toby Keith, Blink-182, and Weezer. The Team The corporate office is in Kent, but the area’s 194 employees work in more than 40 local stores and a regional warehouse. The Way In sleepcountry.com/careers-openings.aspx

Published: January 2013

Seattle’s New Workplaces

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Image: Michael Clinard

See Through The offices at Russell Investments are wide open.

Spencer Rascoff is the CEO of Zillow, a company valued at almost a billion dollars. He presides over 370 employees spread over four floors of a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, and in 2012 Fortune ranked him 22nd in their “40 under 40” rising star list. But Rascoff doesn’t rate a corner office. Or any office.

Rascoff has a regular desk, littered with photo collages and framed awards, in the open plain of Zillow’s headquarters. It’s the same size as everyone else’s, and only low, hip-high dividers guard
his privacy.

Dilbert sits in a cubicle; so did the high-tech worker drones in the 1999 film Office Space. On the other end of the management ladder, Don Draper smarmed his way to the corner office, just like Gordon Gekko. But that hierarchical system of cubicles and private offices is going the way of the stenograph and the fax machine.

Scott Wyatt, a managing partner of the Seattle-founded architecture firm NBBJ, is a cubicle killer. “It does nothing very well,” he says of the tiny padded cells. Cubicles don’t even deliver on their original raison d’etre, he says—instead of privacy, the lack of visual connection with coworkers just causes stress. The reason, claims Wyatt, is evolutionary: We humans first came from the open African savannah, and “being able to see your enemies coming gives tremendous comfort.” And a middle manager stalks his prey with more tenacity than a hungry lion.

Plus, Wyatt adds, the cubicle stripped office workers of accountability. “When you’re all hidden in a cubicle, you misbehave. That’s when you get the loud laugher on the phone.”

That’s why NBBJ’s spaces are all about transparency. They built see-through walls at Bellevue’s GLY Construction and sliding glass panels at McKinstry Innovation Center in SoDo. When the company designed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters, it opened up sight lines across the horseshoe-shaped building; employees often work from couches and reading nooks instead of desks.

Russell Investments, the financial firm whose name adorns the downtown office tower that also holds Zillow, was completely remade by NBBJ before it took occupancy of the former WaMu Center in 2010. Now some 900 associates share 200,000 square feet of wide-open space. Even the CEO sits on the main floor—albeit next to an electric--blue pillar that reads “Office of CEO.”

“The open floor plan has broken down the barrier between management and workers,” says Ron Bundy, chief executive of Russell’s Indexes group. He says the lack of walls has encouraged what he calls “informal leaders,” since workers find it easier to muster the courage to pitch an idea or lead a team when they need only swivel a chair to be heard by coworkers. Russell “free deskers” don’t even have assigned chairs, but rather roam the floor every day for an open spot; more than 10 percent of Bundy’s group chose the transient model.

At Microsoft, a whole team is devoted to the new wave of office space, led by Brian Collins, director of Global Workplace Strategies. He’s slowly converting Microsoft’s acres of offices—14 million square feet in Puget Sound alone—using what he calls its “kit of parts”: open desks, small storage cabinets on wheels, lockers, and an array of conference, group, and phone rooms so workers can
find privacy.

Mobility and minimal desk setups rely on today’s slim—and paperless—work tools: the laptop, cellphone, and tablet. Without the computer, we’d probably all still be cubicle monkeys or office overlords. Microsoft workers don’t even get paper mail anymore; for a pilot program currently under way, mailroom workers open envelopes and email the scanned contents to the intended recipient. The lowest-tech components in the open-office kit are the whiteboard walls, where scribbles and brainstorms are erased, not filed.

The kit parts don’t come cheap, but Collins calls it good business: “If we can improve productivity by half a percentage point for everybody, when you combine that with our annual revenue—we’re going to help the company make money,” he says. “It has a much bigger impact than saving from the bottom line.” He’s seen up to a 10-point increase in productivity compared to workers in Microsoft’s “legacy spaces,” i.e., private office and cubicle buildings.

So what’s to miss about the old climb to the corner office? Back at Zillow, nothing. Rascoff contrasts his company to his first professional gig at Goldman Sachs, where “the floor plan reinforced, validated, and communicated the command-and-control culture.” Zillow’s more egalitarian model means that everyone gets a share of the stunning Elliott Bay view, and there are no industrial cubicle walls to hide individual quirks. Everyone sees the Twilight poster in one corner (that sales team is apparently on Team Jacob), while across the floor a programmer’s twin computer monitors are guarded by a growing monument of empty Red Bull cans.

“It’s just more fun,” says Zillow senior project manager Jonas Boli. “And the team is gelling much more” since it moved out of individual offices. The boyish Rascoff thrives on his own access to the fun, filling about a quarter of his calendar with what he calls “MBWA time: Manager Be Walking Around.” He wanders a space that neither Dilbert nor Don Draper would recognize, and he considers that a good thing. If the corner office and cubicle are dead, no one here is throwing a funeral.

Published: January 2013

17 Habits of Highly Successful Companies

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Published: January 2013

Sleep Country Agenda:  Floyd Davenport

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

9am The shift starts. The warehouse is here in Kent, but I could end up going as far north as Bellingham. If I’m staying around town, I’ll do 18 to 25 stops a day. This day I did 18 deliveries on the Eastside: Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland.

9:15am You have the opportunity to see different things while delivering; people may be expecting a bed because they moved into the city. They have the traditional idea that they’re moving to rainy Seattle. But certain days, especially during the fall, it’s beautiful!

11am There are times we might run a little ahead of schedule; Seattle traffic’s not bad. You get used to the heavy hours; you can always expect heavy traffic in downtown, on 405.

1pm You develop places you like to stop for breaks. There’s a teriyaki place in Kirkland, and we stopped about 30 minutes.

2pm We delivered a birthday present, a surprise. It was a little boy who was getting a big boy’s bed. We’ve done quite a few for adults as well. You can’t ruin the surprise and get there too early!

3pm We deliver the customer setups first, because our stores don’t usually open until later. Delivering to our stores is like going to another customer’s home: same respect, same engagement. During this time of year, we pick up the donations to the Foster Kids coat drive. It’s amazing when we go into the stores and look at the generosity.

6pm This was the last stop in Kirkland, and we wanted get back to warehouse at 7:30. We made the delivery, gassed up the truck, unloaded the old product, and had the supervisor go through paperwork.

Read more about Sleep Country.

Published: January 2013

Brightlight Agenda: Frank Blau

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

8am First thing I had in the morning was a vendor webinar—it’s where a company is delivering technical information. The field I’m studying, unstructured data, is developing really quickly right now.

10am I pulled in another consultant to talk about ways to improve the performance in the database administration for a credit union.

11am I had a conference call with that client and tried to determine where, in the stack of things between their website and their database, the problem might be. It’s “managed services,” which basically means we run their system for them. We babysit it for them.

11:30am I’m also learning a new programming language from IBM right now, so I spent some more time with that Streams stuff.

Noon I really like being in Redmond, because I can walk to different places for lunch. The office culture is very fun; there’s a lot of laughter. I’m also a photographer—I do photography for the Rat City Roller Girls, so people are always coming up to me to ask about that. We’ve all been to some bouts together.

2pm I had a conference call with Mark Kettering, who is our CEO, and a potential customer—a health care company. I consider myself extremely technical; they pull in other people to do business stuff, because I tend to talk techie.

2:45pm Coming out of that call, I thought, I need to go back to that technology that we were just talking about marrying together, and I wanted to make sure I could do it on my computer. I like to see what I’m doing, so I know I’m not going into a suicide mission.

3pm I’m on what is called the Luminary Council. We have monthly meeting with David Overcash, the CTO, to talk about the schedule for writing white papers; a white paper is our position paper on
a topic. Right now I’m writing a white paper on streaming data and unstructured data. It’s partially because we want to be seen as a thought leader in particular topic areas, and because these are questions we get asked by our clients all the time.

4pm At this point, I’m just back to my IBM language.

4:30pm My day usually ends around 4:30 or 5, I’m usually out of there, but I’m also one of those people who is never really offline. I’ll work late late late. But it’s not with any sense of pain or struggle!

Read more about Brightlight.

Published: January 2013

Novinium Agenda: Bill Evans

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

6am I live in Southern California, so I fly up and work either 10 days out and four days in, or I work four 10s and go home on the weekends. We started the day at 6.

8am We turned off the power in Hurstwood, in Burien; we have to plan for power outages in the neighborhood we’ll be working in. If we give them enough notification, people are pretty good about it.

8:30am The cables we work on are high voltage, the ones that go from transformer to transformer. It’s not the cable that goes from the transformer to your house; those are 120 or 240 volts. The lowest I’ve dealt with 7,000 volts.

We inject fluid that goes to the strand of the conductor, and it treats the insulation from the inside out. We can warranty it for up to 40 years. They don’t even expect brand new cables to last 40 years, so we make them better than brand new.

5pm We took a three-hour break. I went back to my hotel and did paperwork, basically. I took a bit of a dinner break, relaxed, put my feet up.

8pm With Seattle City Light, our agreement is that I cannot take businesses out of power in the daytime. So I did residential during the day, then I did a combination residential and business at night. I met the crew, we did a safety brief, a job brief, got everything prepped.

9pm At 9, we were able to turn the power off. We took roughly 1,000 people out of power that night along Ambaum Avenue in the city of Burien.

Midnight I think my first break came around midnight. I sat in the truck with the light on and caught up on paperwork that I have to continuously do. We drink a lot of coffee, a lot of water, a lot of juice. Not too much energy drinks, because those kind of make you giddy. And when you’re working with high voltage, you need to be really focused on what you’re doing.

6am We restored power at 6am. We did nine cables that evening and 12 during the day. I actually enjoy working at night, because there are fewer distractions, you can focus more on the job at hand.

Read more about Novinium.

Published: January 2013

World Famous Agenda:  Tony Fulgham

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

9am I had to put together a shot list for a shoot I was doing that night, a commercial. Most of the time I convince myself I know what I’m doing about an hour or so before I actually have to do it.

Noon We always have lunch together; [business partner] Allan Nay and I aren’t willing to give it up. We can’t monetize the benefit, we can hardly even verbalize the benefit to eating lunch together, but we can feel it.

12:30pm We have this conch shell, and we figured out how to blow it to make a really nasty sound. It’s what we do to fire up a game of Call of Duty. Our code for it is “It’s time to S some MFs. Which is ‘shoot some motherfuckers.’” It’s what we do instead of going on a smoke break. It’s 20 minutes, and then we get back to work.

1pm We got a call from a client, asking us to come up with ideas for a new job. So we started digging into it, brainstorming. It took this cohesive morning and turned it into a chaotic afternoon.

4pm I don’t have what you’d call a couch in my office; it’s sort of a half-ass bench. I passed out for half an hour.

7pm I went downtown for the shoot. We had four cops and we blocked off the Viaduct. We got to drive up and down the Viaduct at 80 miles per hour—this massive remote control camera was mounted on top of a Mercedes SUV. I was sitting in the backseat. There was no talent; we were just shooting the background. I got home at four o’clock in the morning, but I felt like we had gotten done in one workday more than most people get done in a week.

Read more about World Famous.

Published: January 2013

SEOMoz Agenda: Rand Fishkin

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

7am I woke up in Las Vegas. I’m on the road about 110 days out of the year.

9am I gave the keynote at an automotive conference about the future of SEO. One of the most searched-for products is the automobile—on average, before making an auto purchase, a person will have seven web searching sessions. Both dealerships and manufacturers are interested in controlling their search results.

4pm I landed in Seattle and got back to the office, where we reviewed a software feature with the product team. We launched maybe 10 new features to our SEOmoz Pro software last year; next year it’ll be upwards of 30 or 40.

4:30pm The goal is always to have meetings run under 30 minutes. Next we had a discussion about branding stuff we’re releasing in 2013. Our audience is basically anyone who’s gonna have web marketing, Internet marketing, or some social media marketing or blogging in their professional work.

6pm We had a dinner with a couple guys from the company we’re looking to acquire. We went to Barrio, up on Capitol Hill, since it’s convenient. After dinner we went to my apartment and watched Monday Night Football with them; they’re good people with a good product.

11pm They left around 11, and then I went to work until about 2am. Got up a blog post titled “Understanding Stock Options at Startups (and at Moz).” We have two million people visiting our site every month, getting value from the content and education and training we provide for free.

Read more about SEOmoz.

Published: January 2013

Interns on Internships

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Image: Shutterstock

Behind the Airwaves: KEXP
kexp.org/support/internships.aspx
After six months on the (unpaid) job, University of Washington grad Graham Amsden chose to extend his KEXP radio internship by another six months. According to Brady Morrella, KEXP’s volunteer services senior coordinator, that’s fairly common: “Some interns have been here for years,” Morrella says. And Amsden isn’t even a DJ intern (though they exist)—he works predominantly with spreadsheets, spending 20 to 25 hours a week on administrative tasks like identifying open airtime that can be used for advertising and PSAs. About one in four applicants for KEXP internships gets an interview, and many see promotions to staff positions—some have even become DJs. And there’s definitely no Muzak in this office: “You’ll just be working away and then go take a break to listen to Ben Gibbard play some songs,” Amsden says. “Then go back to work.” —Danielle Zorn

Porcupine Paparazzi: Woodland Park Zoo
zooinfo@zoo.org
Whom does the zoo call when the porcupines need medical care? Its photography intern, of course. From 100 applicants, one shutterbug is selected to join Woodland Park’s staff photographer in off-view areas, during medical exams, and even during field conservation trips. Former intern Lauren LaPlante still reminisces about traveling to the Oregon coast to capture a mass release of butterflies and capturing images of gleeful kids at giraffe feedings. The unpaid internship is a good opportunity for shooters to develop candid camera skills—porcupines don’t pose. Intern images may be used in zoo media, and one of LaPlante’s pictures became a meme on the I Can Has Cheezburger? website. —Katie Vincent

The Gridiron Gang: Seattle Seahawks
teamworkonline.com
The 2004–05 Seahawks intern class got quite the culmination to its 30-hour-a-week experience: a February flight to Detroit for the SuperBowl. More than 500 applicants submit applications when internships are posted in March, but only five to seven get a ’Hawks gig. The PR intern typically has the most exposure to players, escorting them to interviews during the summer training camp and transcribing press conferences. This program prides itself on hiring from the intern pool: Two Seahawks VPs currently on staff got their start as interns. —DZ

Star Children: 826 Seattle
826seattle.org
This nonprofit writing and tutoring center—because it’s housed in the back of the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.—has a copy of Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope web program. Imagine Google Earth, but for the whole universe: It’s lots of photos pasted together in a virtual model of outer space. A spaceship-like viewing booth built by 826 Seattle simulates a real space experience, and unpaid interns become the station’s astronomy guides. Besides demonstrating how to see a star or two, they motivate kids to devise stories about their adventures. Kathryn Steakley, one former astronomy intern, still raves about her interactions with precocious kids who were “strangely eager to learn about all the ways that the universe could kill them.” Thanks to her stint in Greenwood’s inner space, Steakley is headed to astronomy graduate school. —KV

No Pay, Free Beer: Emerald City Beer Company
emeraldcitybeer.com
When Kaitlin Sellereit was hired as one of the first two interns at Emerald City Beer Company in 2010, the building was still in need of drywall. A UW communication major at the time, she wasn’t expecting to learn construction skills, but everyone pitched in to build out the space and open the new brewery in the old Rainier building. Sellereit, along with the two founders and one other intern, planned the label’s grand opening party. Their introductory lager and beer-boiled brats brought in over a thousand thirsty guests. She continued to get firsthand business and branding experience by attending beer festivals and, of course, taste testing the brews. Sellereit is now the operations manager for local Dry Soda Co., and she credits her internship for leading to a career choice. —Cassandra Callan

Kinecting on Campus: Microsoft Optical Engineering
careers.microsoft.com
Lena Wolfe was pursuing a double major of optical engineering and dance at University of Arizona when she noticed a flyer for Microsoft. Over a thousand interns swamp the Microsoft campus each summer, but anyone who stands out from the masses is likely to snag a full-time job. Microsoft’s intern program has a rumored reputation for having lots of perks: free Xbox consoles, BBQs at the Gates estate, and huge resume cred (well, that’s no rumor), but the program itself is meant to immerse interns into a real-life work environment. Wolfe had access to the optics lab and worked on the technology that the interactive Kinect machine uses to track game players. Not every leadership opportunity occurred in the office: Wolfe showed off her own dance skills by choreographing a flash mob (400 interns fist-pumping to the Black Eyed Peas) for the annual intern party. She now works for the Xbox Kinect division as an Optical Engineer. —CC

On a Whale’s Tail: Orca Research
jisao.washington.edu/education/researchops
University of Miami undergrad Rachel Pausch spent two months of her 2011 summer with a dog that had a nose for whale poop. They cruised around Puget Sound looking for orca pods while she was a research intern for the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean; the UW-based group studies endangered whales around the San Juan Islands. The team’s black Labrador retriever would bark when it caught a whiff of orca poo, and the boat would move close enough to collect whale feces samples to analyze for stress-hormone levels. “Seeing whales every day was amazing,” Pausch says. “Every time I saw their dorsal fins rise to the surface it was like seeing them for the first time.” The internship was paid, but the biggest draw for her was working alongside a wide spectrum of research scientists—and getting up close to sea life. The rewards for Tucker the black lab were simpler: a ball on a rope and a profile in The New York Times. —Dameon Matule

Published: January 2013

Best Places to Work in Seattle 2013: The List

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Rank: 1
Company Name: SEOmoz
Website: seomoz.org
Industry: Software Development
Employees in Seattle Area: 95
Days Off*: 39
Male/Female Ratio: 62/38
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 3
Company Name: MetLife: Financial Planning
Website: nw.metlife.com
Industry: Financial Planning
Employees in Seattle Area: 85
Days Off*: 30
Male/Female Ratio: 55/45
Dress Code: Business
Free Food: No

Rank: 5
Company Name: Brightlight Consulting
Website: brightlightconsulting.com
Industry: Business Intelligence Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 47
Days Off*: 22
Male/Female Ratio: 64/36
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 7
Company Name: World Famous
Website: worldfamousinc.com
Industry: Film and Videography
Employees in Seattle Area: 15
Days Off*: 21
Male/Female Ratio: 80/20
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 9
Company Name: Substantial
Website: substantial.com
Industry: Technology Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 50
Days Off*: 21
Male/Female Ratio: 77/23
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 11
Company Name: Sila Solutions Group
Website: silasg.com
Industry: Technology Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 62
Days Off*: 27
Male/Female Ratio: 72/28
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 13
Company Name: Evergreen Home Loans
Website: evergreenhomeloans.com
Industry: Home Loans
Employees in Seattle Area: 150
Days Off*: 26
Male/Female Ratio: 26/74
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: No

Rank: 15
Company Name: Novinium
Website: novinium.com
Industry: Underground Cable Rejuvenation
Employees in Seattle Area: 27
Days Off*: 21
Male/Female Ratio: 89/11
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 17
Company Name: Cypress
Website: cypressconsulting.net
Industry: Technology Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 60
Days Off*: 30
Male/Female Ratio: 80/20
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 19
Company Name: University of Phoenix
Website: phoenix.edu
Industry: Education
Employees in Seattle Area: 37
Days Off*: 32
Male/Female Ratio: n/a
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 21
Company Name: Projectline
Website: projectlineinc.com
Industry: Marketing and Technology Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 127
Days Off*: 25
Male/Female Ratio: 42/58
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 23
Company Name: Expedia
Website: expediainc.com
Industry: Travel Research and Booking
Employees in Seattle Area: 2,201
Days Off*: 40
Male/Female Ratio: 49/51
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: No

Rank: 25
Company Name: Sleep Country USA
Website: sleepcountry.com
Industry: Bed/Mattress Retail
Employees in Seattle Area: 194
Days Off*: 12
Male/Female Ratio: 70/30
Dress Code: Business
Free Food: No

Rank: 27
Company Name: Brooks Sports
Website: brooksrunning.com
Industry: Footwear Design and Manufacturing
Employees in Seattle Area: 254
Days Off*: 26
Male/Female Ratio: 47/53
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 29
Company Name: Pacific Market International
Website: pmi-worldwide.com
Industry: Food and Beverage Design and Manufacturing
Employees in Seattle Area: 79
Days Off*: 27
Male/Female Ratio: 49/51
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 31
Company Name: Smashing Ideas
Website: smashingideas.com
Industry: Digital Media Strategy
Employees in Seattle Area: 72
Days Off*: 19
Male/Female Ratio: 68/32
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 33
Company Name: PayScale
Website: payscale.com
Industry: Compensation Research and Software
Employees in Seattle Area: 125
Days Off*: 24
Male/Female Ratio: 48/52
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 2
Company Name: PeopleFirm
Website: peoplefirm.com
Industry: Business Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 28
Days Off*: ∞
Male/Female Ratio: 35/65
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 4
Company Name: CRG Events
Website: crgevents.com
Industry: Corporate Event Planning
Employees in Seattle Area: 50
Days Off*: 19
Male/Female Ratio: 8/92
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: No

Rank: 6
Company Name: The Mosaic Company
Website: themosaiccompany.com
Industry: Energy Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 43
Days Off*: 26
Male/Female Ratio: 55/45
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 8
Company Name: Zipcar
Website: zipcar.com
Industry: Car Sharing
Employees in Seattle Area: 21
Days Off*: 27
Male/Female Ratio: 60/40
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: No

Rank: 10
Company Name: Groundspeak
Website: groundspeak.com
Industry: Geocaching
Employees in Seattle Area: 70
Days Off*: 24
Male/Female Ratio: 55/45
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 12
Company Name: Impinj
Website: impinj.com
Industry: Technology Design
Employees in Seattle Area: 102
Days Off*: 24
Male/Female Ratio: 73/27
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 14
Company Name: Zillow
Website: zillow.com
Industry: Real Estate Technology
Employees in Seattle Area: 370
Days Off*: 32
Male/Female Ratio: 65/35
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 16
Company Name: 206
Website: 206inc.com
Industry: Marketing
Employees in Seattle Area: 40
Days Off*: 24
Male/Female Ratio: 40/60
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 18
Company Name: Queen Anne Healthcare
Website: queenannehealthcare.com
Industry: Health Care Provider
Employees in Seattle Area: 88
Days Off*: 21
Male/Female Ratio: 44/56
Dress Code: Uniforms
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 20
Company Name: Data I/O Corporation
Website: dataio.com
Industry: Technology Manufacturing
Employees in Seattle Area: 53
Days Off*: 31
Male/Female Ratio: 74/26
Dress Code: Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 22
Company Name: Guidant Financial
Website: guidantfinancial.com
Industry: Financial Services
Employees in Seattle Area: 70
Days Off*: 24
Male/Female Ratio: 50/50
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: No

Rank: 24
Company Name: Bridge Partners
Website: bridgepartnersconsulting.com
Industry: Consulting and Marketing
Employees in Seattle Area: 83
Days Off*: 25
Male/Female Ratio: 40/60
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 26
Company Name: AdaQuest
Website: adaquest.com
Industry: Staffing Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 89
Days Off*: n/a
Male/Female Ratio: 42/58
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 28
Company Name: Clothier and Head
Website: clothierandhead.com
Industry: Accounting and Business Consulting
Employees in Seattle Area: 50
Days Off*: 30
Male/Female Ratio: 49/51
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 30
Company Name: Lee Smart
Website: leesmart.com
Industry: Insurance Law
Employees in Seattle Area: 71
Days Off*: 28
Male/Female Ratio: 44/56
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 32
Company Name: Craft Brew Alliance
Website: craftbrew.com
Industry: Food and Beverage, Hospitality
Employees in Seattle Area: 144
Days Off*: 23
Male/Female Ratio: 65/35
Dress Code: Uniforms
Free Food: Yes

Rank: 34
Company Name: Ammex Corporation
Website: ammex.com
Industry: Disposable Glove Distribution
Employees in Seattle Area: 26
Days Off*: 18
Male/Female Ratio: 60/40
Dress Code: Business Casual
Free Food: Yes

* Holiday plus paid time off / Vacation / Sick Days

Published: January 2013

Best Places to Work 2013

Best Places to Work

How We Did It

Seattle’s New Workplaces

17 Habits of Highly Successful Companies

Sleep Country Agenda: Floyd Davenport

Brightlight Agenda: Frank Blau

Novinium Agenda: Bill Evans

World Famous Agenda: Tony Fulgham

SEOMoz Agenda: Rand Fishkin

Interns on Internships

Best Places to Work in Seattle 2013: The List

Sleep Country Agenda:  Floyd Davenport

World Famous Agenda:  Tony Fulgham