Pros: I cannot think of any positives except for the fact that there was a really great cafeteria with good burgers and a pretty good salad bar. My contract ended prematurely, for which I was ecstatically grateful.

Cons: My contract ended prematurely, for which I was ecstatically grateful. I felt sort of like a POW finally being released from the Hanoi Hilton. The building, all of it, was kept uncomfortably cold. The bathroom sinks were unable to provide any warm/hot water. The Senior/Lead to whom I reported was so autocratic and such a critical parent that I finally began referring to her as "Ivan the Terrible". The work environment was sickeningly political. My co-workers were either hot or cold. Very friendly to work with or extremely negative. One co-worker actually had a disclaimer on his email signature which read (paraphrase), "I apologize for being extremely difficult and negative to work with. It is because of my long term employment with Intel". News Flash: If you aren't trying to fix it, then it isn't an apology. The work environment was so stressful for me that I finally began barfing 2-4 times a week. The Test Fixtures with which I worked were constantly being altered by other people with no notes indicating what had been done. Thus, almost every day I had to get the lab manager to help me troubleshoot the darn things. This inevitably led to "Ivan the Terrible" browbeating me for taking too much time. There was NO "How To" documentation regarding procedures and processes. It was ALL tribal knowledge and you really had to know what question to ask in order to "fill in the blanks". Contractors are only allowed to work when "real" employees are present. Hence, contractors, me specifically, had no avenue to make up hours. This REALLY hurt over the Christmas and New Year weekend, where I lost a total of 32 hours of pay. My work hours were mandated as 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Nine hours because I was required to take a one hour lunch break. Contractors, at least for me, were made to feel unwelcome and NEVER a part of the team. I was pretty much treated like an inconvenient piece of meat. I had, at one time, vowed to never work at Intel due to their penchant for laying off a few thousand employees and then replacing them with Contractors. For me, that is dishonest and unethical. I took this contract against my better judgment because I was unemployed and dying of "Cabin Fever". This was by far the most damaging contract I have ever worked, both psychologically and physically.

Pros: - Always new opportunities available. - Training available, even advanced degree support. - Large, diverse company. - Everything is results-oriented.

Cons: - Middle management with little value add. - Long hours can be implied. - Cube farm work environment. - So many people trying to stand out leads to a lot of politics.

Pros: Encourages risk-taking with lots of challenging projects, working with smart engineers on cutting-edge technology. Work-life balance depends on the project you work on.

Cons: Lots of reorgs, frequent changes in directions in recent, very big organizations, and it's hard to network across multiple teams. Sometimes, information is available in pockets.