Originally posted by Anomaly

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-Get on with an Oil & Gas or engineering company, as they have big IT budgets and spend money, so you can whore out vendors for lunches and events (movie screenings, flames games, etc)


Always go with a large company. Large environment gives you exposure with enterprise level process and technologies which translates to better pay down the road.

I have to agree with others that passion generally separates the good and mediocre talent.

As for OT, I've been lucky that in the last 10 years all my employers either have paid OT/on-call or offered time-in-lieu so I never had to work for free. At this point of my career I don't have to take that BS anyway.