Pros
Working for the “beast” is a little less beastie now because of the option to work from home. Challenging business problems with the need to resolve at a breakneck pace can be stimulating.
Cons
Don’t let a recruiter or overly optimistic manager fool you into thinking that you’re going to get recognition as a vendor or hired if you desire to be. Restrictions on hiring are top down and autocratic. Managers make empty promises to more work extensions for contractors or tease with the desire of permanent hire whether they know they’re doing it or not. “DO NOT talk in meetings if you’re a vendor...”. Yup, I was told that...less than six months ago. Better work on the cast system issue... It remains for sure. Are you female? A vendor? You’re taking notes for our meeting, by the way. It’s assumed. Do not treat this place like there’s an open door policy or flat hierarchy. There’s not... If you give your opinion, expect silence from your FTE managers while they scramble to decipher a MSFT style response. Expect them to hire the token extremely overqualified female in the flock of moderately overqualified males. Expect them to tell females they’re “too emotional” and ignore men that have unhelpful attitudes. Sadly, still a cut throat place after all these years. More than one friend of mine and myself included have had some sort of PTSD afterwards. Not the easiest place to work if you don’t want new gray hair....