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"Contractors are generally not the strongest technically"

Nonesense. Contractors are actually much stronger technically because they usually come in to complete a specific task and are not usually trained by the company.

At least that is my experience here on the east coast.

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At least at Google, it was almost impossible to hire an engineer with domain specific knowledge. Nearly everybody we tried to hire who had the domain specific experience our team needed didn't make it past HC due to some BS gotcha question in the interview. On the other hand, contractors were trivial to hire.

So in a sense, the contractors were not "as strong", since they didn't have make it through the absurd Google hiring process. As such, they were generally treated as second class citizens.

It varies. Some contract houses promise experience but deliver grads. I have more luck with direct contractor hires (not thru a house).

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