June 19, 2008

What it's really like to work for your dream employer (and what the job pays)

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Want to know what workers at Amazon, Getty Images, Google, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Real Networks, and a host of other heavy hitters in the region have to say about their employers? A brand spanking new website - Glassdoor.com - makes that possible.

Like a Yelp.com for the workplace, anyone can read post an anonymous review of their employer, rate their CEO, and - this snoop's personal favorite -- reveal their salary. The site is free to join and 100 percent anonymous for readers and posters. To see company reviews or salaries, though, you have to post a review or salary of your own, past or present.

Even if you're not on the market for a new job, Glassdoor makes for some pretty juicy reading: what the orange badges at Microsoft really think of the temp/employee hierarchy, how Google employees rate chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, how much money an assistant branch manager at Washington Mutual makes, what it's really like to work in an Apple store, how the benefits at Starbucks stack up, and so on.

Started by Robert Hohman and Rich Barton, who worked together at Microsoft and Expedia and reside in the San Francisco Bay Area (Barton is also founder of Expedia and Zillow.com), the site is just a week old. And it already boasts more than 30,000 reviews. Given Glassdoor's roots in the tech sector, the company with the most reviews so far probably won't come as a surprise: that honor goes to Microsoft.

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

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