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Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list is out and the top 10 contain a few surprises, some might even say head scratchers. But then again what a boring list it would be if you could guess all of them without looking.  

This year about 400 companies competed to make the list. What’s particularly useful about it are the different ways to sort through the data on the CNNMoney.com website, including by location, pay, job growth and benefits, to name a few.

Although one might argue that 400 companies really only scratches the surface of corporate America, one of the things that substantiates this list are employee interviews. Fortune’s research partner, San Francisco-based Great Place to Work Institute, compiled 100,000 employee interviews among these entries.

I’ll bet you can’t guess the highest paying employer on Fortune’s list - or possibly any of the top 10 aside from Goldman Sachs. But it’s interesting to note that the average annual pay of employees at Bingham McCutchen an elite Boston law firm is $211,017. Pity the associates who start out at a paltry $160,000 a year.

Sure, I could have chosen law school, but then I would have missed out on struggling as a journalist. You won’t see a lot of newspapers in the best places to work list. Maybe someone will do a fastest decaying industry list? I’ll hold my breath for that one.

Rank     Company                            

1.     Google                                            
2.     Quicken Loans                               
3.     Wegmans Food Markets                 
4.     Edward Jones                                  
5.     Genentech                                       
6.     Cisco Systems                             
7.     Starbucks                                    
8.     Qualcomm                                    
9.     Goldman Sachs                       
10.     Methodist Hospital System                   

Source: Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, 2008