A little over a year ago I was interviewing for a position at Cisco. I had been through about 8 interviews for the position. I was told by the hiring manager that she would be contacting me with HR in the next 2 days with an offer. 2-weeks later I had not heard so I called the hiring manager. She said everything was still good but "something" had come up and the offer would be in about another week or so. In that time, Cisco had a layoff locally. 2 days after that, I was called with an offer but it had to be a contractor position because of the layoff. I was told by the hiring manager and HR person that I would be converted to FT by the end of the year.
Fast forward to now, I had lunch with a guy that moved into that group. They had MASSIVE layoffs a few months ago. He even told me the manager I interviewed with were all gone. He said I made the best decision to take my current job over the one I would have had. I would have never been converted and never would have lasted 6 months. He said all people are miserable working there and none of them even care. They are all looking for jobs else where but staying for a paycheck only. He said he only works about 20 hours a week because it is not worth even trying to do more.