Employer Profile

Through its unique partnership structure, every worker -- partner or not -- shares in this financial services firm's profits through trimester bonus and profit-sharing plans. The last remaining partnership among the large New York Stock Exchange securities firms, St. Louis-based Edward Jones is owned by more than one-third of its full-time workers. Another perk is job security -- what workers there call a "buy-and-hold career." The firm works to reassign employees whose jobs are relocated and find positions for those who may not fit well in their current assignments. An IT audit rotation program helps produce IT leaders. All participants in the program have leadership potential but need broader, nontechnical skills, which they gain by conducting audits in different IT areas and interacting with top executives. Taking part in that program was an eye-opener for Lynn Swaykus, a programmer/analyst interested in tackling bigger projects. "We study our strengths and weaknesses, and we get constant feedback, whether it's from our auditees or peers or leaders in the area. And I was constantly getting feedback on communication skills, mentoring, working with people and being able to deliver the bad news, as those are more my strong points," Swaykus says. "That made me think I should look into leading people instead of always leading the technical projects."