The Truth About Tech Company Perks

I have always sort of disagreed with perks as a hiring lure. If your business is not interesting, you are not solving interesting problems, etc., then no amount of perks are going to attract me. The only perk I'd ever be interested in is for all health care costs to be paid in full by the employer until we realize the sanity of universal health care.

I work for non-profits as a rule now, having seen the futility in chasing the money. I'm happier making less, solving interesting problems for people who cannot afford to pay huge amounts of money. I'm not the most talented guy in the world, but I have solid skills most IT employers desire, and I get things done with little to no budget save new HW every now and then. Gotta love libre/free/OSS. Never, ever should a business pay for a software license again IMHO. I have not paid for software in since 1998, and will never do so again.

Perks should be real and tangible. Let's start with paying 100% of every employee's health insurance first. The donuts, dry cleaning , and other crap are worthless.