Company/Sector IT cultures.

All,

The wife, and I, are wanting to relocate to Denver. That market is not one where I have professional contacts so I thought I would ask for some input from anyone who has, or is living there. In addition, if you don't live in Denver, please feel free to comment on your experiences at various IT departments based on sector, or employer type.

I have been looking at the job boards and various employers for awhile now. However, after more than a few years in IT I kind of have a particular culture in mind for my ideal company. I have a series of disclaimers for employers below. Followed by a series of questions. I know I won't find one employer with everything, but I thought it would help narrow down the types of companies to target. In addition, it would help others learn about cultures at various employers.

Disclaimers:
1. I have heard of glassdoor.com.
2. I know companies vary greatly because of people alone.
3. While working in a few sectors, I am not foolish enough to think I know what all sectors are like.
4. Honest feedback, not complaining about companies, or sectors.
5. No job is perfect.

Criteria:
1. Forwarding thinking company. Thus not afraid of moving forward with new technologies.
2. Hopefully, minimal people w/in said company/vertical who are not the type of, "we have always done it this way."
3. Between two extremes of "run-n-gun" and "managed to death" type of company, I would prefer the former.
4. Takes IT seriously. Budget, and personnel.
5. There is not a culture of Networking vs. SysAds vs. Help Desk vs Application Analysts vs. Users vs. Management.
a. To elaborate on the point above it is more of fix the issue, and not, "who do we blame?"
6. They don't want your soul in exchange for a pay check.
7. No Gods within the company.
a. My experience within healthcare was the if you had Dr. in front of your name everything, and anything, was given upon command. Projects were deemed failures if even one Dr. stated they didn't like something. Think of it as a company with 300 VPs walking around and by company norm you can't say "No" to any of them.
b. I accept that usually "C" level executives get the rules bent.
8. Some dynamics to the company/verticle. IE: you don't sit and stare at the same technology every day.
a. Thus, a Network Engineer could work on SANs, and VMware. Thus, SysAds could work on networking. - No silos.
9. Security is integrated into the department, and not a separate work group.
a. Thus, there isn't the culture of security needs to know everything everyone does. But, we are security so no ones can know/question what we are doing. "Because we are security we are trusted."
10. A company where people can freely interact w/o having to worry about if an IT guy talks with a VP that, "they didn't know there place." IE: everyone is recognized as a person.

I know this list is pretty long but I would like to start a good dialogue with everyone's experience. Thus, hopefully, a typical response would be, "I have worked pretty extensively in XYZ sector and have viewed that 1, 5, and 9, are generally true. However 3, 7, and 8, you can forget about.

Also, if anyone has specific experiences in Denver, please state explicitly that you are speaking about that city. Thanks all in advance! I look forward to some lively dialogue.

-Nutsy

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Comments

it_consultant

When you find this place let me know, I want to apply.

ajs1976

a soleproprietorship

About7Narwhal

Your list is the exact opposite of my current workplace (healthcare provider). And yes, you should know that if a doctor does not approve, you have failed at life.. or so they would want you to think.

UnixGuy

Start your own business...

NetworkVeteran

You want to work for a startup company.

Alas, re: the "No Gods" thing, as long are you're earning income, someone else will be telling you what to do. The closest you can come is to prove yourself to your managers/customers, so that you're given more trust and lee-way.

2. Hopefully, minimal people w/in said company/vertical who are not the type of, "we have always done it this way."

The larger a company is, the more likely they are to have established standard operating procedures, which they've got buy-in for, trained employees/customers, documented/marketed, and have been tested/proven over time. Due to the cost of change, to be considered, often it must be shown that change is much better in real business terms.

5. There is not a culture of Networking vs. SysAds vs. Help Desk vs Application Analysts vs. Users vs. Management.

Larger workforces tend to lead a company towards more subdivisions and specializations. It also makes it less likely someone knows some guy on some other team. Smaller companies are less likely to have the resources to adhere to ISO standards and/or other constant improvement cycles, which incorporate root cause analysis amongst their steps.

8. Some dynamics to the company/verticle. IE: you don't sit and stare at the same technology every day.
9. Security is integrated into the department, and not a separate work group.

Again, smaller workforces mean less specialists, less depth of knowledge, and wearing more hats. You're more likely okay becoming a jack-of-many-trades but a master of no particular one at a small company.

10. A company where people can freely interact w/o having to worry about if an IT guy talks with a VP that, "they didn't know there place." IE: everyone is recognized as a person.

When a "VP" is in charge of 100 people, he's more likely to have time to talk to individual grunts than when he's in charge of 1,000 people. Of course, even at the largest companies, VPs (and CEOs) have time for top-performers.

minit

My experience within healthcare was the if you had Dr. in front of your name everything, and anything, was given upon command. Projects were deemed failures if even one Dr. stated they didn't like something. Think of it as a company with 300 VPs walking around and by company norm you can't say "No" to any of them.

I work in healthcare. This is spot on. You're going to have to avoid healthcare altogether to avoid this. I work in a setting smaller then a hospital. So, they have even more pull. It's insane.

it_consultant

minit wrote: »

I work in healthcare. This is spot on. You're going to have to avoid healthcare altogether to avoid this. I work in a setting smaller then a hospital. So, they have even more pull. It's insane.

It isn't really insane. I cut my junior admin years consulting for physicians, many of whom were surgeons (who are even worse). First of all, they are called "providers" which encompasses PA's and Nurse Practitioners, slightly below them are regular RN's. Keep in mind that when you screw up there are certain consequences, maybe there is downtime, maybe some money is lost. If they screw up people might die and everyone will get sued. With that responsibility comes with a bit of an ego and if you are offended by that you need to remove yourself from that employment. You ARE lower than them in the pecking order and you have to be OK with that. If you can foster a good relationship with them they will be your best friend. My buddy has been given Mac Book Airs, trips to Mexico, very generous bonuses, and excellent referrals (for other jobs) because he was able to put his ego aside and provide the support to the providers that they need.

If you want the privilege of walking around with a chip on each shoulder, do this: go to medical school, do the internship, pass your boards, get into a specialty, do your fellowship, get hired on as an associate or junior practitioner. Then be on-call for all the hospitals you have credentials at for whatever their emergency is and be able to get to the hospital within a certain amount of time no matter what. So, after 12-13 years of schooling and some experience with peoples lives in your hands, you get to have a certain attitude.