Being called a “Racker” doesn’t just mean that you’ve had the good fortune of having a job at Rackspace. It’s not just being “Fanatical” when it comes to supporting customers and other Rackers. It goes far beyond all of that. It’s not just a place to come and collect a paycheck while you dream of what life could be like at a company where passion, commitment and contribution to the world around you is encouraged. You see, Rackspace is one of those rare companies that actually has a soul and cares deeply about the world we live in. It’s not just about making a buck. We have to do more than just provide great products and service.

In order to provide a platform for us to perform good works in the community, Rackspace has the Rack Gives Back organization which provides volunteer Rackers for various charities and activities. They are always calling for Rackers to get involved and help out. This past weekend, I had the privilege of being one of those volunteers as a judge at the FIRST Robotics Organization 2013 Alamo Region Competition and Awards. I can’t tell you how much of a pleasure and inspiration it was to be able to see the bright future that is just on the horizon for kids involved in technology these days. As a judge, I got to interview and provide feedback to several of the 50+ teams from schools all over south Texas. What an awesome thing it was to be able to have a part in and contribute to the fabric of their lives!

And this is just ONE of the things Rackspace is heavily involved in. In fact, it’s so important, that we are given paid days off to be able to go and volunteer. That’s putting your money where your mouth is, folks. Rackspace gets that it’s all about the symbiont relationship that we have with the community we live in, the countries we operate in and with this incredible planet that we live on. Come be a part of it!

At Rackspace, we’re proud of the spaces we call home. And while each of our offices has something rad and unique, nothing beats the sheer scale of our home in San Antonio, Texas.

Our friends over at Laughing Squid just put up a great post about how you can now virtually tour our HQ in Texas, lovingly dubbed the Castle.  You can check out the write up and cruise around the Castle right here.

Poke around, there’s lots to see: the World’s Largest World Search (Guinness Certified, no less), a Racker Art Gallery which we’ve written about before and lots of Rackers busy delivering up some Fanatical Support on the Open Cloud.

It’s always a good day at the Castle.

Woah, what a leap! 

FORTUNE just announced the winners for their annual list of the Best Companies to Work For and Rackspace has once again made the cut. Last year we came in at 74, but this year we came in a full 40 ranks higher at number 34!

Winning isn’t everything, but accolades like this remind us of how good we’ve got it and how hard we’ve had to work to get it. Great pay and good benefits are never enough. It takes an inspiring mission like the open cloud revolution, an unmatched culture and the best and brightest Rackers in the world providing Fanatical Support®. It’s a good day to be a Racker – but then again, when isn’t it?

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re a Racker, what makes this place so special? If you’re not a Racker yet, what makes a great workplace?

You can view the full list here.

There are numerous opportunities which all deserve our help. Techs, however, have the opportunity to give FAR more than just their time – they can help young children excel in technical fields. That’s what mentoring for FIRST is all about – getting youngsters comfortable with building working robots, programming the robots, and most importantly, working as a team to reach a goal.

I won’t go into much detail about FIRST – you can read about it here: http://www.usfirst.org/ I’ll just say, if your faith in the future is waning, you should check out what these teams of young roboticists are doing. It’s truly amazing to be part of this effort.

Committing an hour and a half, once a week, to help teach 4th and 5th graders might sound a bit crazy. I can understand… it IS a little crazy. But, it’s that “crazy wonderful” kind of crazy, that makes all the difference.

This post comes courtesy of Paul Reiber’s personal website.

The Employment Branding site Blogging4Jobs has just put together a list of the 12 best Employment Branding videos and made sure to include Rackspace on the list. It’s a joy to see our brand next to the likes of Apple and Starbucks. Each company’s video really does tell a story about what it’s like to work there. Our has a guy who gets married at work, yours truly in a two-tone spanish suit and (according to Blogging4Jobs) “guy with the crazy beard and long hair.” Yup, that sounds like us alright!

A big thanks to Blogging4Jobs and Jessica Miller-Merrell for including us on the list, and to Dave Sims for putting the video together. Please feel free to drop us a note and let us know what you think of the post, the video or anything else.

Oh, and in repsonse to Innocent Glee Club’s rendention of Lady Gaga? May I suggest you check out the Rackspace UK Holiday Video, the Rackspace US Holiday Video, and let’s not forget the gals and guys in Email and Apps! 

Rackspace has been named on Glassdoor.com annual Employee’s Choice award as one of the 100 best places to work.  We came in #15 overall, comfortably keeping our position inside the top 20. We’re in good company, too – Google, Southwest, Facebook and Salesforce? Yup, sounds about right.

To us, the coolest part about this news is that Glassdoor assembles this list directly from employee feedback.  Unlike other such awards, companies don’t choose to compete and they can’t sway the vote. Everything is based purely on the feedback of employees currently at the company. That means that this isn’t what Rackspace thinks or what Glassdoor thinks – THIS IS HOW MUCH RACKERS LOVE THIS COMPANY!!

Check out the survey for yourself and read feedback on Rackspace and the other companies on this list. Got questions about the results? Want more information? Drop us a comment below and let us know what you think!

In Februrary 2012, I joined Rackspace as a software developer. I had uncertainty about my move from Orlando, FL to small town of Blacksburg, VA. Ultimately, the energy and enthusiasm of Rackspace and the Blacksburg community won me over.

I’m passionate about two things: technology and startups. So I wanted to help build the entrepreneurial and software development communities in the region. Having attended Startup Weekend Tampa in 2011 I know what a Startup Weekend event can do for the community. So I decided to organize one in Blacksburg.

The Startup Weekend format is a weekend-long, hands-on experience where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical or design backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds. Startup Weekend encourages people to work together on a project establishing a stronger bond than attending a technical talk, or a social mixer.

In order to put together a successful event I knew I would need help. Luckily, Rackspace is filled with smart people that get things done, so it made sense for me to reach out to another Racker at the Racksburg facility with an entrepreneurial passion and community ties, Brian Hazzard. Together, we decided on a date and started working fervently towards that goal. Since this was a community event, and not a Rackspace event, we wanted to include a community leader in our organizing team. To that end, we recruited Derick Maggard, Director of the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council, to round out our team. Derick leads the largest technology community in our region that is considered a catalyst for innovation, inspiration, success, and leadership.

One of the aspects that Startup Weekend likes to boast is a fully catered weekend along with snacks, drinks, and swag for attendees so they can chug away on their projects with minor interruption. To make this possible we needed money. Rackspace was a key contributor offering their facility, drinks, snacks, prizes, and t-shirts for everyone who attended the event. In addition, TechPad, a co-working space in Blacksburg offered sponsorship, and prizes for the top teams at the event. Other notable sponsors who helped make the event possible included Montgomery Country Economic Development Department, Heyo, and CIT GAP Funds.

With the help of a killer organizing team, a great group of sponsors for the event, and an excited community the first Startup Weekend in Blacksburg, VA was held on September 14th, 2012. The event was a huge success boasting an attendee count of more than 100. Startup Weekend Blacksburg had people from around the US in attendance including Seattle, DC, Austin, and Roanoke. Leaders from Virginia Tech and local startups mentored the attendees who created some amazing ideas in just 54 hours. A few of the teams formed at Startup Weekend Blacksburg even attended competitive pitch events just weeks after the event (Small Bucks, Big Bang and Distilled Intelligence).

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the event and hope to do more with the community in Blacksburg.

Rackspace regularly hosts invite-only job fairs in cities across America to look for great Linux talent. We call it a LinuxBash.

To give you some background, candidates for a LinuxBash are contacted by recruiters or apply online to the position created for the event. After a breakfix test and a phone interview to assess level, candidates are given a location and time to meet with hiring managers and other Rackers. The event itself usual involves a happy hour the night before, and a comfortable environment to conduct the interviews. It’s a chance for future Rackers to get to know current Rackers.

During LinuxBash Houston, we interviewed and hired Vince Salerno, who wanted to share his story here on Racker Talent.

___________________________________________________________________________

LinuxBash was an awesome event where I was able to get a quick peek at what life is like at RackSpace. Brief videos were shown detailing some of the activities and work life going on at the Castle. LinuxBash was fully stocked with free coffee, Racker bling (gotta love those T-Shirts!), and informative staff from various departments.

The interview process itself was pretty smooth, almost like an open buffet for jobs. You get invited to the Bash, get your time slot, and show up. It’s that simple! Once you arrive, grab your T-Shirt (you will be very, very sad if you do not get a T-Shirt!!), get some coffee, and watch some introductory videos. Then, take turns interviewing with two to three different departments. Don’t sweat it, the process is pretty chill and relaxed. You’re being interviewed by Rackers looking to put new talent onto the team, not visiting a police interrogation, so just be calm.

After an hour or two of interviews, you are welcome to stay and chat with fellow interviewees and Rackers, or be on your way. In any case, be proud of yourself for making it this far – you must have something good going on to get invited to such a unique event!

Rackspace: See you there!

___________________________________________________________________________

Keep checking in to RackerTalent.com for more updates on the next LinuxBash. Regardless of where the next Bash is, you can always search and apply for jobs at jobs.rackspace.com. Linux or not, we’d love to hear from you!

In all honesty, I never anticipated a sales career in IT.

The awesome part about being in sales at Rackspace is that you get to speak to individual startups, SMB, and large Enterprises.  The market has been changing over the past several years and IT is not a matter of “should we do it”, but “how”, and “who will be consuming it?”

Today, every CIO, even at the largest of firms, is crafting their “cloud roadmap” and wanting to speak with Rackspace because of our recognition as the service leader in cloud computing. We have a seat at the table. We have an invite to the big dance. We have the brilliant and beautiful spouse.   We have an opportunity ahead of us because ALL of IT, in every industry, is considering Fanatical Support®!

As an Acquistion Sales Rep, my role is to facilitate those conversations and leverage our internal resources and expertise to provide a clear picture to CXO’s, about how they can leverage Rackspace to provide better outcomes for their business.  The market is very competitive and there are several players in the hosting industry, however, I can truly say that I am representing the very best hosting provider in the world and I know without a doubt, that businesses sell themselves short when they do not move forward with Rackspace.  In fact, I have had several clients come back after deciding to go with another provider, just to say, “We made the wrong choice, we want Fanatical Support.”

Coming into this role is a great opportunity and I would encourage any individual that has a extremely high Sales Drive, is very Competitive, and has Intense Motivation to succeed, to apply for the role.

A little while back, we featured a story on RackerTalent about Travis Runty, and what it means to work in Linux at Rackspace. Not to be outdone, it’s time to introduce the world to our equally impressive and dedicated Windows gang.

Trey Fischer is an eight-year veteran of Rackspace and a paragon of what it means to be a great Windows Admin: a dedication to service, expertise in his field and being really, really, really flippin’ smart.  We asked him a few questions about the work he does and why Windows matters to Rackspace.

How did you get to Rackspace?

I started out in the banking industry and worked with one of the largest banks running a small mainframe, wrote Pl/Sql and was a Database Analysts.  From the banking industry I moved into the travel industry and was a Systems Analyst.  This was in 2002, I had interviewed at Rackspace and at the travel company and decided to take the position with the travel company thinking it was a better opportunity.  I still kick myself today for making that bad decision. 

Forward to 2004 and I interviewed again at the Rack and accepted a position working 3^rd shift down at Broadway bank building as a level 2 windows sys admin.  From Broadway Bank, we moved over to Datapoint and I moved up to level 3 and into a Senior Systems Engineer running a team of about 7 technicians.  At the time I managed the largest customer at Rackspace and also helped mentor my fellow technicians. 

When I look back at what brought me to the Rack, it was  the aspects of being on a team of experts and that there was lots of opportunity to learn and grow.  Today, I am part of the next evolution of hosting in cloud computing.  The flexibility and scale that cloud computing has makes me wish that the evolution would have happened sooner.

Windows has kind of a bad rep in some circles – I mean, with Apple fanboys and Linux lovers. Why does Windows matter?

Great question, I don’t like koolaid (for all the fanboys) that much and (Linux)beards are scratchy.  Windows is still the most dominate operating system out there, it was built for the enterprise to run mission critical workloads.  For a lot of corporation they need vendors to stand behind their products when something goes wrong.  With some of the other alternatives out there the only support that they can get is by using forums or trying to figure it out yourself. 

The other aspect to this is that the alternative operating systems are either too complicated for most of your end users and/or the vendor locks you into their hardware.  My truce in all of this is that they all have there place in the ecosystem and create competition amongst one another, which is good for everyone.  The funny thing about this is I know a lot of linux and Mac guys that love PC gaming/Xbox.  They may joke about windows until its time for them to play some games…

Rackspace got voted Microsoft’s Hosting Partner of the Year in 2012. What does that mean to you? What does it represent in the industry? 

I think the award represents all of the hard work that we have done to make our Window’s offering a success and it shows our leadership as the best for windows hosting.  From an industry standpoint it shows that we have been chosen because of our strength in deploying a windows platform.

What’s cool about the work you do for your customers?

You never know what kind of question you may get when talking with a customer.  It can range from can I get another ip to giving your advice on how to scale out an environment for this weekend’s fantasy football that is going to be on TV. The questions can challenge you because of all the different ways customers will implement a technology and at what scale at which they need something to operate.

I get to help my customers’ businesses succeed. I can be a part of helping them setup their platforms so that they can sell their products.  I think it’s cool to be part of the economic engine.  The other cool aspect is that if I have an idea on how to make something more efficient for my customer or for Rackspace, I can create it.

“Culture” is a huge deal around Rackspace. What does that mean to you and your team?

Rackspace’s culture is one that feeds excitement about the opportunity to do something great as a company and for our customers.  The mind share at Rackspace is amazing and there are always new things to learn.  I don’t think you ever stop learning here. There is always something new to do or learn.  The great thing about the culture is that you have the freedom to explore different opportunities and if you have a great idea, you can build it.

Every windows team I have been on is a little different because each team member brings their own thoughts and ideas to the team. Right now our team is experimenting with hot sauce.  We are trying to see who can eat the hottest sauce, these are some of the things that keep the job fun.  There is a comradery between teammates and that is what makes the culture so great.   The culture on a windows team, has its quirks, but is probably no different than the other teams throughout the company. 

We all share a bond of wanting to serve our customers to the best of our ability–working hard and playing hard.

How do you lead a technical Windows / MSSQL Team?

You have to understand how each of the technicians learns best.  I have found that most technicians like the hands-on approach of labs.  I have also found that giving technicians break-fixes challenges them and inspires them to try and move their skills up to the next level.  The other aspects of leading a technical team is to lead by example, or do as you would like others to do.  When you say that you are going to do something, make sure that you follow through with your promises.

Rackspace is the Open Cloud Company. What does that mean to you and your work?

Being the open cloud company means that we are making our own path to greatness.  We are not tied to any one vendor and can innovate without having to be restrained from a particular vendor’s timeframes or development.  Working on a platform that is ever-evolving means that you are constantly in learning mode and things change often.  The environment is very dynamic.  There are always challenges and there is always something new to learn.

What makes a great Windows/SQL admin?

A hunger to learn and experiment when someone says that a problem can’t be solved.  The ability to not take no for an answer and the determination to crack a seemingly unsolvable problem. 

What could a candidate do to earn a place on one of your teams? Skills, certs, culture-fit stuff, beer preference? 

They have to show that they are ready to work hard, have a desire to learn and serve customers, are genuinely excited about technology and are driven to succeed.   Those are the keys components that make a great technical Racker.

To see a listing of Windows Admin jobs currently open at Rackspace, follow this link to our jobs portal.