Microsoft

Best campus of any company in the world. Like working in a 5-star resort every day.

Big and rich enough that, as long as you're not performing awfully, you'll blend in and remain on your team.

Feels cool to say that you worked on this or that Windows product.

The elephant in the room is that most people in the Seattle area who say they "work for Microsoft" actually "work AT Microsoft" and are employed by third parties. Staffing MS teams is a big business around here. It's gotten out of control. Half the people you see walking around Redmond wear an orange MS badge, meaning they're contractors, not employees of MS. To say that contractors are second-class citizens at MS is an understatement. While every big tech firm (Amazon, Google, Intel, etc.) has a reputation for creating a class system of FTEs and contractors, MS takes it one step further in every way. By the time I was done working there, I had developed an obsessive habit of darting my eyes down at someone's beltline to see what color badge they had at their waist.

It's probably a cool company if you're an actual employee of the company. If you're offered one of these "orange badge" positions by some staffing agency, I would not take it unless you have absolutely no other options.

You keep saying you're going to rely less on contractors, but then why do I keep getting so many staffing agencies calling me about the MS contract positions they have set up?