[whitecat]

I would rate big companies i.e. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and startups all at tier two places of work, when you take social and pressures of work into consideration. Good companies to work for are any that 1) do something you are interested in. 2) Don't require you to work longer than 40 hours a week.

The problem I see is big companies, and startups is the amount time they require their employees to work, which is normally over 40 hours and can be upwards of 60 hours average per week.

Paying 100k at 40 hours a week is $48 an hour.

Paying 100k at 60 hours a week is $32 an hour.

I work with undergrads always tell my best students to avoid Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google companies. Longer hours means more stress. Big companies get employees to work longer by offering food and games at work. I tell them find a company that does cool stuff and only asks for 40 hours a week. I tell them I know working for interesting research companies getting paid $80k and working ~30 hours a week. Which is getting paid more per hour than the person working at a company earning 100k and doing 60 hours per week.

I checked up and Google isn't too bad from what I can see online. Some say 40[1] Others say 50-60 [2] Places like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft are worse places to work.

[1] http://mashable.com/2012/05/10/reddit-users-google/

[2] http://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-a-day-do-Google-employee...