Microsoft

I was fortunate to get hired on to a project with a great team for a great project. There were lots of nice little perks like free snacks, in addition to company-wide free drinks, social events with food and beer, and occasionally meals were provided. Free parking is also a plus, even if it can be tough to find a spot on Microsoft Campus.

The job itself was a great experience for me, and I was allowed to be self-driven. After learning the ropes, I generally worked on my own, but if I needed help or didn't have the solution to a problem, everyone on the team was more than happy to help. Overall, it was a very positive environment. I especially enjoyed being able to work directly with people in the production and design teams, which made it easier when trying to understand the intended functionality of the product.

I was a contractor, which meant that I had far less job security and a rather sad excuse for benefits. No vacation pay, no sick pay, and the health benefits were a joke. I may have had a better impression of the overall experience if I hadn't been quite unceremoniously booted out the door with no two weeks' notice.

Normally, Microsoft has a general policy for contractors to work a certain amount of time before needing to take a six-month hiatus before being allowed to return to the company. The contractors on this project, however, became assimilated into a greater part of the studio through some unclear and confusing policy which, we were told, meant indefinite employment for "at least 3 years" and plenty of job opportunities to advance their careers and even become FTEs with Microsoft.

Instead, this turned out to be a bunch of bloated nonsense. After realizing that their budget was overblown, several people were quickly let go with no prior warnings.

Treat contractors like employees, since they are in fact human beings with the same needs as everyone else.

Or revolutionize the industry and eliminate the faulty and outdated contractor structure altogether to make the industry a better place for everyone.