I've received a contract offer from Cisco and I am still interviewing for a different full-time role. Should I consider the contract role or wait on the FTE slot? Or are contractors treated like trash? If I accept the contract role, will I be excluded from a potential FTE offer from Cisco in the other position?
Contractors are treated like how a white trump voter lady would treat a Mexican guy serving at chipotle..
Don't contractors make more money though? In London avg rate is 2000 pounds per day
£2,000/day? Are you sure? That's £540,000 per year. Unless of course the contractor is niche.
Yep that's the rate. But only in London. Beats me as well. Keep in mind that contracts are of short duration so you may not be able to bill out the max amount.
I'm general, FTE is preferred. At Cisco, being a contractor might be more attractive. Emphasis on the might. FTE benefits and perks are usually better but there has been a lot of bulk reorg. If your contractor has a good reputation, they might offer better stability. These are just some general observations and may differ from your specific case.
I'm a contractor and have been for years. Money is better when comparing to FTE individual contributor but less than Managers and by definition you can't have people reporting to you although at the team level you can be a lead. When your project is done you get a pat on the back at best but zero severance but you can immediately get rehired for another gig and this is common. If you are an FTE and get canned you get severance but you can't rejoin Cisco for 6 months. As a contractor it's rare to get converted to FTE but it happens. FTE benefits are much better than contractors. Negotitate salary hard with the vendor as they try to keep half your "salary". In other words, say Cisco is paying $200 per hour for you, the vendor will offer you maybe $80 and keep the rest. So be aggressive. Finally... to answer your original question: I've always been treated nicely and respectfully although it can depend as there are cultural factors. Also, if you're young and dumb maybe listen more than you talk. I almost always had great managers and that's huge.
Like shit. Do FTE. Contracting is bullshit and hard to break out of.
Being a contractor and getting out of Cisco soon, the answer is, it depends . Mostly Contractors do all the work and Cisco FTE is there just to manage us and take all the credit of the work. For a short stint it is advisable but not for a long time . If you are working on the latest tech ( I was) , it will be a great experience . Otherwise , work hard / interview hard and get a full time job.
To be a contractor at Cisco....personally, I had a great experience. My team wasn’t doing well but I only had to put in like 10hrs a week, since my team was still very relaxed. Had plenty of time to leetcode and got a job with 3x the pay (severely underpaid, but wasn’t doing much work so I didn’t mind) after my contract wasn’t renewed
In short, it definitely varies
Free money
FTE is much better