It's probably fair to call Silicon Valley the center of the tech universe. The Valley is home to more tech companies than any other region, including some of the best companies on the planet to work for (Google, Facebook, Twitter).
But it's also an insanely expensive place to live.
Turns out, you don't have to live there to have a fabulous job at a great tech company. There are awesome companies all over the country.
We asked employee crowdsourcing site Glassdoor.com to tell us which one of these are the best according to their employees.
No. 10, Rackspace: Be treated like family
Company: Rackspace:
Employee rating: 3.6 stars out of 5
Location: Windcrest, Texas (San Antonio area)
About the company: Web hosting and cloud computing infrastructure. Rackspace is going through some challenging times right now, as it faces increased competition from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, HP, and others.
The company's well-liked CEO Lanham Napier surprised the tech world by suddenly resigning in February, when the company announced softer-than-expected growth in its cloud business. Founder and chairman Graham Weston stepped back in as temporary CEO.
An employee says:
"Rackspace is a fantastic company to work for. Everyone is treated like family and loves their job. There are constant development challenges in a growing market and coming to work is a joy."— Rackspace Software Developer II (San Antonio, Texas)
No. 9, Microsoft: Great for talented, ambitious people
Company: Microsoft:
Employee rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Location: Redmond, Washington (Seattle area)
About the company: Microsoft just appointed its third-ever CEO, long-time Microsoftie Satya Nadella. The company is already flourishing under his new leadership as he moves Microsoft into the brave new era of cloud computing and making its own devices with its acquisition of Nokia.
An employee says:
"Really talented, ambitious and driven co-workers - you get to work with the best! Great compensation. Really good work-life balance compared to other tech companies of the same caliber."— Microsoft Program Manager (Redmond, Washington)
No. 8, Texas Instruments: Great coworkers
Company: Texas Instruments
Employee rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Location: Dallas
About the company: TI is a a $12 billion semi-conductor company that consistently lands on the "best places to work" lists. In 2011, it bought its oldest, biggest rival, National Semiconductor.
Today its chips are embedded in countless electronics devices. It is even powering a Kickstarter project that launched a bunch of tiny spacecrafts into orbit with the last the SpaceX mission, the first so-called "personal spacecrafts."
An employee says:
"Great people, great environment, global exposure. You enjoy every day of work because of the people you work with. The work culture is great too."— Texas Instruments Project Manager (Plano, Texas)
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