Intel

Pay is above average, at least for contractors. Ability to work on leading technologies.

Getting set up to work in the Intel environment is very time-consuming because of overly bureaucratic restrictions. It needs oodles of permissions to access even the most basic information required to perform your work.

Access to documents and tools is particularly difficult for contractors, with minimal help from company employees. This is for very complex systems and tools filled with undefined Intel-specific acronyms and jargon.

Yet, contractors are expected to perform useful work almost immediately despite the enormous information vacuum in which they are placed. Don't be surprised if you are summarily canned without warning because an impatient manager thinks you should be able to skip the learning curve that always applies to working with new technologies and systems.

Don't expect new employees or contractors to be superhuman clairvoyants.