Verizon

I was a contractor, so I can't say much about the benefits provided by the company. I can say that as a contractor, the employees and management treated me professionally and were, for the most part, kind and considerate.

It seems the pay on average for contractors is a little low compared to the industry average. I can't confirm this, though.

There is a great deal of offshore outsourcing that is done, and from what I saw, it was expanding. This is probably why the pay for technical contractors is relatively low.

There were no real software development processes being followed. It was a very loosely followed Waterfall development process, and scope creep and last-minute requirement changes were common. The group I worked for did not have true agile development processes in place but considered what they were doing as agile.

Weekend and overtime work can be expected.

Work towards enforcing a true software development process and change control process. Sell to business partners that by having better processes and enforced processes, they will actually receive products with less defects and avoid the continuous postponement of features and enhancements, i.e., delayed phased releases.

Having more discipline and courage to follow and enforce a change control process will also help eliminate last-minute changes, which require staff to work overtime and on weekends, and help improve work/life balance.