Despite the fairy tales and folk lore, living in the Valley isn’t all perks.
For starters, the cost of living has officially gone astronomical; if the idea of living out of a truck doesn’t bring about happy thoughts, the next best alternative might be a humble two bedroom apartment well north of $2000 a month. And be prepared: it has become standard for landlords to verify that an applicant’s income is at least three times the cost of rent. Prospective tenants can also expect fierce competition from others due to the severe lack of affordable alternatives in the area.
When it comes down to it, no matter where you are, you’ll probably be living out of a vehicle anyway – most people face a crippling commute or a terrible excuse for public transportation.
Despite all that, we all know why people flock to the Valley: the startup and tech scene. The business ecosystem in Silicon Valley stands unrivaled in its access to diversity, talent, and venture capital funding. It also boasts a regional culture that believes comfort is the key to productivity, which means that there are more than a few places to work that can ease those tenant and travel pains. Many of them, you probably don’t hear about as often as you should…
Atlassian – San Francisco, CA
This developer of collaboration and tracking software sports numerous Fortune awards. Fully covered health care for dependants and paid volunteer time are perks designed to foster a “team” feel in the workplace, home, and community.
Riot Games – Santa Monica, CA
Ok, so the League of Legends creator’s Santa Monica office isn’t actually in Silicon Valley. But besides ranking on Best Workplaces for Millennials and Best Companies to Work for 2015, employees enjoy numerous benefits such as an annual allowance to buy games and unlimited PTO, which they believe keeps employees focused on their core customer; the player.
AdRoll – San Francisco, CA
With a huge focus on having fun and pride in your work, AdRoll seems to hold true to the old saying, “choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” Weekly team dinners, randomly paired lunches, and trivia nights sound more like parts of a close-knit social club than perks of a job.
OpenDNS – San Francisco, CA
If making a difference in what you do is the most important job factor, then OpenDNS nails it. With 100% of employees reporting satisfaction in their accomplishments and 99% reporting a feeling of freedom and transparency when exchanging ideas, there’s no doubt this level of positive energy would be contagious to new hires. Speaking of which, OpenDNS grew their workforce 60% just two years ago.
Eventbrite.com – San Francisco, CA
It makes perfect sense that the company responsible for so many live events and social experiences would include perks close to its heart. “Brite Talks,” for example, are lunchtime events for employees to teach or attend a lesson on something interesting like photography. Add to that quarterly hackathons, talent shows, and more to keep the work environment fresh.
Photo courtesy officesnapshots.com
Credit Karma – San Francisco, CA
Glassdoor reviews are generally positive and reveal a high level of urgency in Credit Karma’s mission. Besides taking part in educating consumers about debt and credit worthiness, the more musically inclined employees can also enjoy a quick jam session in specially fitted sound room during breaks.
NetApp – Sunnyvale, CA
In addition to college tuition reimbursement and paid volunteering, the data storage company allows employees to “borrow” extra time off so they can arrange for their dream vacation at their dream length.
Image courtesy paragonplc.com
In-N-Out Burger – Multiple Locations
The west coast’s favorite burger joint fared well on Glassdoor, coming in at #8 for this year’s 50 best places to work. There are no shiny perks in the “modern” sense, but who can say no to free food and industry-leading pay?
Image courtesy Mic.com
Central Computers – Multiple Locations
Though retail is not the first thing to come to mind here, the reason is simple: flexible management and solid training for when it’s time to move on. Working on the B2B side allows you to hone your soft skills and provides opportunities to make contacts within client organizations like Google, SanDisk, and Nvidia. Deep employee discounts, dinners, sales perks, and frequent gifts from ownership are common.
Justin Ponce
Justin Ponce is a Silicon Valley-born millennial located in Asia-Pacific for nearly 3 years, simply trying to make something of himself while balancing the people and things he loves most. You can be assured, it is much harder than it sounds. Justin remotely runs a small web design & sales growth business with some of his close accomplices.
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Some of these companies offer some interesting perks. That said, high scores on 3rd party surveys and “Best Places to Work” awards that employees are “encouraged” to participate in are not a good indicator of employee satisfaction and I would not say that that is a compelling reason to choose one company over the other.
Absolutely. Well, Everyone would have a dream to work for Silicon Valley. It really is a series of focus groups with CEOs entrepreneurial that include some of the distinctions, attitudes and values amongst the entrepreneurial groups.
I was the most surprised by the AdRoll company. I was not aware it was that big and now knowing how it treats the employees really makes me interested in the company again. Working for a place like this has to be a dream for these people!
I was thinking the same. It sounds a lot like a close-knit college dorm but with a common goal to advance the company. Must be a great experience to work there.
It is nice to read about small companies that still cater to the employees and offer them a place to be creative and make a living at the same time without extra stresses added. It also makes me hate corporate america even more while they nickel and dime you to death with increased health care costs and fewer merit raises.
Agreed – It’s definitely getting tougher on employees out there. I was reading that the reason the perks system exists in so many “unicorn startups” today is because it’s easier to take them away than it is to lower employee pay if a company gets in trouble.
I am currently employed by Central Computers and I can say without hesitation that it’s not a place I’don’t recommend to work at. They talk big about profit sharing but that’s just a load of bull meant to entice the new guys to work harder. Benefits (if you can get them) suck, it’s a very disorganized, and worst of all you get stuck with the task of explaining something simple but technical to someone that barely has the iq to open the front door.
Your experience contrasts sharply to what mine was, and it sounds a lot like an attitude problem to be honest. I viewed it as a stepping stone and learned a ton of stuff working for them. When you serve the public in a position like that, you will know more than most customers do. That’s why you were hired to begin with. You’re not going to be there forever, so try to focus on learning new skills to pass the time wisely. Trust me, there are actually bad places to work, like Fry’s or in fast food (I’ve done those too).