If you want to work for a company that is admired all over the country, your best bet is to target tech.
Fortune Magazine just released its top 1,000 American companies when it comes to being admired. For the seventh year in a row, Apple tops the list, which Fortune says is made up of companies making at least $10 billion a year.
Seven years in a row is nothing to sneeze at, but also impressive is how strong technology is at the top of the list. In second place, online retail giant Amazon; in third place, Silicon Valley search giant Google.
In its article, Fortune uses words like "stylish" and "user-friendly" to describe Apple's products. "Customer-centric" is a similar term the magazine uses for Amazon, along with "easy" (OK, "creepily so," to quote Fortune) to describe Google.
Not to write anything that you haven't heard before, but if you want to be seen as an admired company, the key seems to be: Make things easy and intuitive for your users. Google and Amazon are adjectives at this point; Apple has long been the standard for high-end design people are willing to pay more for.
By the way, among other tech companies on the list, one older (Microsoft) came in at No. 24, and one younger (Facebook) is listed at 38.
Other Bay Area companies that made the list include Abbott Laboratories (No. 1 in Medical Products and Equipment), eBay (No. 44), Intel (No. 47) and Cisco (No. 49).
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Scott is listed on Twitter: @scottbudman