Comcast

I worked for Comcast on a 6-month contract at their CTC building in downtown Philly.

This building was the best thing about working for the company; it really felt like I had joined the elite and made it as a software developer.

The culture was very inclusive, and even as a contractor, I really felt like I was accepted. I almost forgot I wasn't quite one of them (there may be some social factors behind this).

The work I was doing was probably some of the most interesting and cutting-edge stuff you could ever hope to do as an iOS dev, and I really miss it.

Fairly diverse staff too.

The product team and management were tough but really knew what they were doing.

I would have loved to stay on with the company, even as a contractor.

The codebase was pretty lacking in standards, but cleaning it up would be an effort that business priorities were too tight to indulge in.

There was a heavy focus on fire fighting along with a tough workload on the rank and file engineers. A lot of FTEs seemed to be complaining about lack of advancement opportunity.

Two of the FTEs that were there when my contract ended were looking for work soon afterwards, so maybe their experience was worse than mine.

A final note: the company relies very heavily on contractors. So, I would say please do your homework on the contracting company you work through. Mine lied to me about certain expectations they set.

Maybe use your contractors for KLO while your staff engineers clean up the codebase and rearchitect things. I think as a business, they would do well to advance their engineers internally, bring more people on FTE, and give them more leeway to perfect their craft. The onboarding process could have been better too.

Oh, and start supporting net neutrality; stop your lobbying chicanery. We see you.