Facebook tops Glassdoor's list of best places to work for in the US in 2018, as rated by employees, topping the list five times in the last ten years
Career website Glassdoor today released its 10th annual Employees' Choice Awards, a list of the 100 best companies to work for in the coming year.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook's fifth No. 1 finish caps a run that began when it dethroned Airbnb for the 2017 list, itself a handoff from Airbnb's earlier displacement of Google at the top of Glassdoor's rankings. The Employees' Choice Awards are voted entirely by verified employees, so the streak is a direct read on internal sentiment rather than an editorial judgment.
The 2018 peak also marks the high-water point of the arc the related coverage traces: Facebook slips to seventh the following year, then falls out of the top ten entirely as Google and Microsoft reshuffle around it.
First-order effects
- Facebook enters 2018 with the strongest employer brand in US tech, giving it first pick of candidates and a recruiting edge over Google and Microsoft, which rank lower on the same employee-voted list.
- Glassdoor's 10th annual awards cement its rankings as the de facto scoreboard tech companies compete on, since placement is driven by their own workforces' reviews.
Second-order effects
- Rival tech giants face pressure to match Facebook's perks and culture spending or cede talent in offers where candidates compare Glassdoor scores directly.
- A top ranking raises the cost of any stumble: once employees rate a company No. 1, subsequent declines in review sentiment become public and newsworthy, as Facebook's own later slides show.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Glassdoor's employee-voted lists function as a leading indicator of internal morale at big tech firms — a reading borne out when Facebook dropped to 23rd and Zuckerberg later fell off the Top 100 CEOs list after nearly a decade.
- Employer-brand rankings become a structural part of tech competition, with annual list movement tracked as closely as product launches by recruiters and rivals alike.
The trend: Tech's employer-brand hierarchy is becoming a measurable, annually repriced asset — and Facebook's five-time No. 1 run marks the peak before employee sentiment at the giants began a multi-year slide.