Career Center Blog | Pre-interview research: 5 great tools to try

Knowledge is power. And given the competitive climate in today's job market, it pays to dig up as much information as possible on companies before you interview with them. For starters, arming yourself with solid corporate data will set you

People's Picks 2010 | Most unusual perk(s)

F5 Networks You just can't mess with Beer Fridays. For the third year in a row, F5 Networks, once a scrappy Seattle startup and now a major provider of IT infrastructures, has once again left its competition in the

People's Picks 2010 | Most family-friendly company

F5 Networks "F5 understands fundamentally that its employees have families and personal lives that they care about," says one employee of this year's family-friendly winner. This large Seattle tech firm makes sure to include the families of its staff

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite nonprofit

Sound Mental HealthThe employees of Sound Mental Health have a behemoth job, caring for 16,000 of the region's most acute mental health cases. But they tell us that in addition to their importance to the community, one of the

People's Picks 2010 | Coolest office space

F5 Networks A view of Elliott Bay on one side. The Space Needle on the other. Employees of F5 Networks, a provider of IT infrastructures that makes its home on Elliott Avenue at the base of Queen Anne, never

People's Picks 2010 | Best benefits

F5 Networks Full medical, vision and dental coverage? Yes, and that's only the beginning of the great benefits enjoyed by the employees of F5, a Seattle provider of IT infrastructures. The range of options includes a 24-hour nurse line,

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Pierce County company

DaVita They call their employees "teammates," their offices "neighborhoods" and their company a "village," and that says a lot about the culture at DaVita. The Tacoma-based provider of kidney dialysis treatments operates on the philosophy that "it takes a

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Eastside company

Evergreen Hospital Medical Center With more than 3,200 employees at Evergreen, this Kirkland hospital is certainly one of the largest employers on the Eastside. And the word in from its employees is that it's also the best. "We have

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Snohomish County company

Premera Blue Cross "Premera is a very caring company," says one of its 2,800 Washington state employees. "They care about their associates, their customers and doing the right thing." The Mountlake Terrace-based insurance provider, which covers more than 1.4 million

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Seattle-area company

F5 Networks F5, a tech firm that has grown from a small startup into a major provider of IT infrastructures to the world's biggest Fortune 50s, Internet search engines, universities and more, is one of Seattle's great success stories.

People's Picks 2010 | Most unusual perk(s)

Trupanion Here's one you definitely don't hear every day: full health insurance coverage not only for employees, but also for the employees' pets. But it makes sense that Trupanion, a provider of medical insurance for pets, would offer such

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite startup

PlayEnvy The winner of this year's "Favorite startup" isn't even a year old, but it sure has that startup enthusiasm and excitement for the future. PlayEnvy, an online game developer based in Maple Valley, opened up shop last February to

People's Picks 2010 | Most family-friendly company

RealCom Associates Being able to work from home on their own schedules is a lifesaver for many working parents, as the employees of RealCom can attest. "It's a special benefit to know that your employer trusts you to get

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite nonprofit

Lakeside School Folks working in the nonprofit sector are about as dedicated as they come to the mission of their work, and the staff at Lakeside is no exception. The North Seattle school for grades 5-12, one staff member says,

People's Picks 2010 | Coolest office space

Zaaz Grabbing a shot from the Jägermeister machine in the Z Bar, showing off their karaoke chops, getting uber-comfy in the Nightlight room--no, people aren't visiting Belltown's newest hot spot. It's Zaaz, a 150-person Web design, analytics and optimization

People's Picks 2010 | Best benefits

Groundspeak The number one benefit of working at this small, 45-person company, according to its employees, is that they get paid to play their favorite game in the world: a high-tech, GPS-based treasure-hunting adventure game known as geocaching. And

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Pierce County company

Sterling Reference Laboratories When the four co-owners of this small Tacoma toxicology lab bought the floundering business seven years ago, they cashed in their 401(k)s and refinanced their homes in order to keep it afloat and managed to save

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Snohomish County company

Cascade Bank Community banks have had another challenging year, but morale is still high at Snohomish County's Cascade Bank. "Despite a tough economy for banking, they put their employees first," one worker says. Part of that is that employees

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Seattle-area company

Projectline Services "What do you get when you cross a good time with friends and a full-time strategic career?" asks one employee of our "Favorite Seattle-area small company" winner -- "Projectline!" That sentiment was echoed by many of the

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite Eastside company

Murphy & Associates Kirkland-based Murphy & Associates may be small, but its reach is large. The family-run staffing firm (also our "Favorite temp/staffing agency" winner) places nearly 200 contractors in great jobs around the Eastside and the entire Seattle

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite technology company

F5 Networks "We make the products that make the Internet run faster," says one employee of Seattle's F5. "How cool is that?" This is the company that launched BIG-IP, one of the IT industry's first load balancers, as a

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite temp/recruitment agency

Murphy & Associates It's the third year in a row that voters have picked this family-owned Kirkland firm as the best staffing agency to work for in the Seattle area. Of course, it's their ability to get their employees happily

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite health care company

Emeritus Senior Living It has been a busy year for Emeritus, the Seattle-based network of senior living communities and provider of senior care. Their acquisition of more than 170 communities has made them the largest senior living provider in

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite hospitality company

Columbia Hospitality You may not have heard of Columbia Hospitality, but how about the Salish Lodge and Spa? The Inn at Langley? The Bell Harbor Conference Center? The management company that runs these and other luxury resorts and properties

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite green-collar company

Herrera Environmental Consultants "Can't get no greener." That's how one employee sums up Herrera, a consulting firm that focuses on water protection, habitat restoration and sustainable development. They've been busy on projects like helping to design the new Seattle

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite education & training company

Lakeside School There's no question that what makes North Seattle's Lakeside School a fantastic place to get an education is the teachers and faculty, who tell us, "this is a magical place to work." From the beginning, they say,

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite creative company

ArenaNet There are some truly creative minds at work at this Bellevue-based video game developer. These are the folks behind "Guild Wars," an online fantasy game where five races of beings, including feline warriors and ice-dwelling shape-shifters, must learn

People's Picks 2010 | Favorite biotech company

Applied Precision This year's favorite Northwest biotech company provides a tool that scientists in top research labs around the country couldn't live without: the state-of-the-art microscopes and imaging equipment that enable them to see their work on a cellular

Career Center Blog | More behind-the-scenes hiring tips and jobseeker mistakes

LeMaster Daniels is a 100-year-old CPA firm with offices across Washington and Idaho employing more than 300 professionals in the fields of taxes, audits, business valuation, litigation, cost reimbursement, corporate accounting and more. With the acquisition of Prospera Wealth Management,

Career Center Blog | T-Mobile turns to social media for seasonal hiring

Late August is not a time most people are thinking about "ho, ho, ho" and mistletoe. But at Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA, the holiday season is just getting under way as it prepares to make its seasonal hires in the next

Career Center Blog | UW, Virginia Mason are hiring, but competition is fierce

While the health care industry is definitely hiring, competition is fierce and out of hundreds of applicants, only a handful are getting interviews. Understanding how companies function and communicating your value in accordance with their needs can greatly increase your

Career Center Blog | How to get a job at LUMEDX (and how not to)

There are job seekers who research company e-mail addresses and spam them with their resumes with the hopes of getting a job. These techniques won't help you land an interview with LUMEDX, a medical software company in Bellevue, says Josh

Career Center Blog | How to get hired at WhitePages.com

Like many companies in the Seattle area, WhitePages.com receives hundreds of applications for each job description. How do they select the best candidates? We've heard that 85 percent of hiring happens through word-of-mouth marketing. Can knowing someone at WhitePages get

Career Center Blog | Who's Hiring? MicroGreen Polymers

Over the last few weeks, I've written about economic indicators pointing toward a coming surge in high-tech jobs and growth in the construction and manufacturing sectors. While most of these reports talked about statewide job increases, they were light on