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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., -- The start of the New Year means "best of" lists galore, as journalists and organizations rate everything from "Best Cities to Live In" to "Worst-Dressed Celebrities." In the financial world, FORTUNE has just released the magazine's annual survey of "Top 100 Companies To Work For," ranking first-time nominee SGI in the top 50, at number 34. In FORTUNE's Jan. 20 cover story (on newsstands Jan. 13), Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco, which created and compiles the annual list, considered more than 1,000 firms. They narrowed the list down and then surveyed a random sample of employees from 269 candidate companies to get their opinions about their workplaces. More than 200 SGI employees answered the Web-based survey, catapulting SGI into the 34th slot-tops for a computer vendor. "We are proud to be ranked so highly on FORTUNE's survey," said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO of SGI. "Customers and employees consistently rally around our vision and long-term mission. We are a future-oriented company with a culture that sustains creativity, innovation, and discovery. The Fortune survey is proof positive that we have transformed the company in difficult economic times without destroying its spirit or its soul." "In good times, these companies go wild with the perks-yoga classes, volleyball courts, family rooms," say Levering and Moskowitz in the introduction to the FORTUNE article. "But the real test comes in tough times. Priorities may change; layoffs may even be unavoidable. These companies, however, try to do right by their staff. If they end up feeling like more than just a place to work, that's the point." The survey questions cover everything from benefits, pay, diversity, perks, opportunities and training to volunteer programs and community involvement. The Great Place To Work Institute also provides the candidate companies with a formula on how to do a random sampling of employees, whose names and e-mail addresses are then sent to the institute. While the company completes the initial corporate culture survey, employee responses are private and are returned directly to the institute. SGI's random sampling of employees ranged from administrative assistants to engineers to corporate executives.