Your experience with tech companies

damnyanks

Would be interesting to see people perspective on tech companies and working for them both in Ireland or abroad.

I'm a final year computulator student and have been looking at a big stinking smelly pot of companies, industries, career paths and what not to pursue. I'm sure there are other students out there considering these avenues!

I personally decided the tech / internet sector is where I want to go as opposed to being a techie in a random company.

What are peoples views on

Google,
Microsoft,
Cisco (They want a first for some reason),
Oracle,
Red Hat,
Apple,
Random consultancy firms.

I'm personally really interested in the above firms for various reasons. Does anyone know waht the work in Ireland is like? I always had the impression Microsoft in Ireland was a localization center but allegedly they do product development as well.

I'd imagine google do some really interesting work in Ireland as they have quite a large group of people. The other companies inc. goosoft (I made that up) I'm looking at the states as the work appears to be more interesting / challenging.

Personally want to avoid integration type roles.

So comments I'm looking for is anything related to work in any tech based company in Ireland or abroad!

Do you get to do any really interesting work
Is the work / life balance alright ?
Is mobility attained easily ? (i.e can you move from product A marketing to product B development)
Do / did you like it ?

optiplexgx270

Google - Good Luck there
Microsoft - Alright from what i hear but jobs can be sucky
Cisco (They want a first for some reason) - As per Google,
Oracle - As per Cisco,
Red Hat - Havn't herd from ppl working for them here,
Apple - As per MS,
Random consultancy firms - Can be good i never followed that route myself.

Do you get to do any really interesting work - most of the time
Is the work / life balance alright? - not in the last 2 days (i've been on call - damn Americans)
Is mobility attained easily ? (i.e can you move from product A marketing to product B development) - Erm i dont think i get you.
Do / did you like it? kinda same question as is it interesting - i like it when it is and not so much when it isnt.

Stark

damnyanks wrote:

What are peoples views on

Google,
Microsoft,
Cisco (They want a first for some reason),
Oracle,
Red Hat,
Apple,
Random consultancy firms.

Google: As previous posters have said, good luck getting into them. I've heard very mixed stories. The salaries in Ireland are a little below market rate but the benefits are absolutely fantastic. They can be bastards at times though. The interview process is like running a gauntlet and often times there might not even be a job at the end of it. A friend of mine was on contract and had to do about 5 interviews to be made permanent.

Microsoft: Good pay, benefits and working conditions. They only have jobs in localisation and testing for graduates though afaik. You don't want to be stuck doing that ****e for 2 years.

Oracle: Did my work experience with them. Absolutely hated it with a passion as did everyone else who did work experience there. I don't think they have much in the way of graduate openings atm anyway. I think they pay good salary.

Consultancy firms: Pay can be astronomical. You need to find out what the working hours are like from someone working there in advance though. Sometimes they make you work insane hours.

IBM are a good company to start off in as a graduate. They'll give you interesting work from when you come into the company and the starting pay is competitive enough, although the benefits are non-existent and good luck getting salary increases after you start. You'll probably end up leaving after 2-3 years to get market salary at that point but you'll have good experience on your C.V.

I'm hoping Sun start hiring in Ireland again since Sun worldwide is picking up. I heard they were excellent to work for back in the day.

caff

Agree with the above posters, one word though smaller Irish companies might be worth looking at too. However, research them well, some are very good but others are complete cowboys ( mostly web development firms ) try talk to people who have worked for them if at all possible.

Another note is working for finacial companies, I do myself. Might sound utterly boring but you would be suprised.. don't touch anything to do with customers or the workings of the money side. Just deal with applications, web development, sys admin, programming, mainframes.... Anything you can label IT a biggish finacial company will have a position for. Think some have graduate programmes, like ernst and young ... worth doing some research on it

damnyanks

i spent the last year working for a big bank in london, got offers to do a variety of things there but not want I want to do long term.

IBM(London) rejected me for a sales position go figure I find it all very hit and miss to be honest. I have some companies very interested in me, others are very cold.

I've been looking primarily at the Uk and Us but google and ms have a big operations over here. MS has a development center but as you said not sure if they take grads on.

Google want my transcripts to continue anything so that'll take a while!

As far as money goes I need enough to survive. Thats it really, the banks in london pay crazy money (35 - 42k sterling) for grad's. Then you can also get sign on and relocation bonus's in total it can add up to something silly.