Facebook, Google, Apple among best places to work

Anyone out there employed by Facebook, Google, or Apple may like to know that your company is among the best places to work, at least according to your fellow employees.

In its fourth annual Employees' Choice Awards, company review site Glassdoor compiled the 50 best places to work for 2012 based on comments from more than 250,000 workers.

Accounting for several factors, including salary and benefits, work-life balance, the opportunity to advance, and how the CEO is doing his or her job, a number of tech companies made the list.

Facebook took third place with a satisfaction rating of 4.3 out of 5. A number of staffers for the social network cited it as a competitive but rewarding and amazing place to work.

One person called it "the toughest job you'll ever love," saying that although the workload can be heavy and lead to pressure "in general, there is a high level of autonomy given to employees. We're treated like adults and given lots of responsibility. The perks are unreal compared to other places I've worked. The atmosphere is fun yet serious. We're very lucky to work here overall."

CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself received a 93 percent approval rating from employees who shared their opinions.

In fifth place was Google with a rating of 4 out of 5. Many employees cited the perks and compensation and called the company a good place for engineers, though some found it too big now.

One employee called Google a place that "you can be proud to tell your mom you work there. Work/life balance is good. Employees are good people to know now and for the future. Work on great products that hundreds of millions or billions of people will use." But the person also said that "it is a big company and too easy for people/projects to get lost in the mix."

Larry Page, who took back the CEO reins in April, earned a 92 percent approval rating.

Rounding out the top 10 was Apple, earning a score of 3.9. Among the 210 workers who chimed in, a number pointed to the opportunity to work with innovative products and cool technologies alongside good co-workers.

One commenter referred to working at Apple as "very invigorating," adding that "there is always a challenge that you must overcome. The team, management, leadership, and people you meet will be a great asset to you." But the person also cautioned that "since technology is always moving faster than the speed of light, you have to keep up to date with everything Apple."

Taking over for the late Steve Jobs who retired in August can certainly be a difficult challenge. But Tim Cook seems to have earned the respect of Apple employees, who gave him a 96 percent approval rating.

Compared with last year's study, Facebook inched down to third place from first, but Google jumped from No. 30 and Apple rose from No. 20. Other tech players on the top 50 list included Rackspace, Salesforce.com, Citrix, Qualcomm, SAP, NetApp, Intel, Groupon, Intuit, and Nvidia.