Right around this time of year, seniors in college will be interviewing for full time jobs. Any career fair will be filled with a plethora of companies of all shapes and sizes. This is a great time to get a lot of free pens emblazoned with cool company logos.
There are many things you should consider when choosing a company as a new grad, and some things that you should not. Below I've tried to highlight what I think some important and not so important traits are. In summary, choose a company you want to work for with a product that you want to work on. The holy grail is being excited on a Sunday night because on Monday morning you get to go to work and further develop the new and unannounced SuperTime Machine 3000 (insert your favorite product that runs on 1.2 jiggawatts of electricity).
When choosing a company to interview with…
Don't consider Size
Size should not be a major factor in which company you work for. Honestly it's like choosing the place you work because of the color of the building. The size of a company can be an indicator of stability and/or freedom, but it is not a set rule. Instead consider what traits a company has. These can be influenced by size, but size implying traits is not consistent across companies. Startups can have 2 people or 500 people. Large companies can be stable or have huge layoffs. Size is just a statistic, not a feature.
Do consider Quality of Work Life
You spend 9 hours a day at work, 5 days of week. That's a good chunk of time and if you spend it being unhappy then life tends to suck. Ask the recruiter what work life is like and why you should work at their company rather than their competitors. Even better, on an on campus interview ask the interviewer, who will likely be an experienced dev, about what she thinks. It's not that all companies don't have some kind of great perks, but what matters is what perks are important to you.
Things to ask about can include commute, food quality, equipment for your job, cubicle or office, cost of living, exciting unique perks, etc.
For me, free diet soda is a huge plus (possibly due to childhood "1 glass a day" limits that are now blown away by an unlimited supply).
Don't let location be the end all be all.
For those without prior marital commitments, choosing a company based solely on location will likely get you working in a place you want to be but for a company who you'd rather not. Trumping things such as work life and products that you want to work on will leave you with poor morale.
If a place really rubs you the wrong way, then maybe it isn't the right choice. I probably could not work in Australia since seeing a spider larger than my fist would ruin my ability to function. However I can stomach the "coffee culture" that is Seattle to work here at Microsoft.
I honestly would have moved to Antarctica to do the job I do now because it's that much fun. What is important is that I like the job I'm doing, not the minor nuances of the location ("Hi, I'll take an extra small sugar free double shot of espresso with fat free organic milk"*)
*This was an actual order I overheard.
Do consider Products
If you are considering working for a network company, but you just do not like dealing with networking…then don't try to work there. Work for someone that makes something you find fun and exciting. Your talent will be far better shown there then somewhere that makes you force your enthusiasm.
Also consider whether you would ever work on something else at that particular company. Some places are well diversified in their fields, but others are very narrow. Working for a hardware company will have few other positions outside of dealing with hardware. If you are not gung-ho hardware, even if they have this one cool side project they want to hire you for, then maybe that company isn't the right choice for you in the long run.
I love working on products that are visible to consumers, some people love working on services that have no direct customer interaction. Some companies are "client only" and some are "server only" and some are big enough to be both, consider what you like to work on.
Don't consider "The Popular Opinion"
This includes general FUD you read online, things your friends say off the cuff, anything that is just unfounded criticism or praise for a company. It can either be "Company X's products break on me all the time" or "I love Company Y's stuff so much OMG LOLZ!!1". These opinions add no real information about what it's like to work there or on their products. Do you like the product? Can you see ways that it can be improved? That's more important than what your freshmen roommate once said while preparing for his weekly shower attempt.
Do consider Benefits
I don't mean perks, which go something like "we'll give you and your roommate a massagewhile you code!!".
Health care can be extremely expensive; a 401k is a part of retirement which will come whether you like it or not. Forbes has a good list on companies with the best health care and other lists related to benefits. Working for a startup or for yourself will have its own set of perks, but it will very likely lack benefits. You will never need a heart transplant, but if you do you sure don't want to have to pay for it all (not something that's fun to consider while getting a heart transplant either).
Benefits come in many different flavors, some of the larger things to consider:
- Health– What do I have to pay for? What are the co-pays? Is my family covered?
- Dental – Same as above. Does it cover braces for the kids?
- 401k – What's the company match?
- Tuition Assistance – If I ever want to get a degree, will the company help me?
- Physical – Are we given access to any kind of weight and aerobic equipment?
- Absences – What sick days, holidays do I get? Ball park on vacation time? Can I take a leave of absence? How does paternity leave work?
Don't consider coding language
A good programmer will be able to code in just about anything. A whinny coworker is someone who constantly bemoans how language Foo 5.0 is way better than old outdated language Bar. Language Bar doesn't even feature "bilinear coupling prevention"!
If you think you just cannot live without language Foo, don't risk being the whinny coworker and work for a company that uses it. But I think it is much more important to consider the product area that you want to work on rather than the syntax of the language that it was written in.
I think the same thing goes for operating system. If you find that you are totally unproductive with Windows/Mac/Linux/Oboon-[whatever], then pick a company that uses your specialty, but being a little flexible may get you a long way. For most people though, this won't be an issue because the product they want to work on will run on their most favorite-ist OS.
Things like development environment can be a serious impendence to productivity though. I would rather code in Notepad than ever touch vi. A great company will give you a goal of creating a solid product and let you implement the best means for you. It's another good thing to ask an interviewer about.
Do consider your friends
Starting to work somewhere where you have a friend can make things go a lot smoother. I'm not saying you should sacrifice where you want to work for where someone else wants to work, but knowing people can make a difference during your initial startup time. If you would be going at it alone, look up social places close by that you might be interested in.
Things like pay, exact cost of living, relocation costs and other things are usually only a consideration once you have an offer. The above is meant to focus more on which companies are the best for you to try to get offers from.
