[vbtemp]

Good point, but remember that between hot-shot startups (e.g., livingsocial as the poster-child) and budget PHP gov't website shops are the contractors that design a lot of aerospace guidance and control software for NASA, the Navy, etc... Also NSA is a huge employer, and a lot of contractors for the NSA and NASA (among many other agencies) have extremely technical and high-level software and hardware engineering positions.

[doktrin]

Fully agreed. I in no way wanted meant to paint Living Social & startups as being the end-all of DC talent. In fact, the challenges several of the local contracting shops work with are in many ways more interesting than those of the area's startups.

While I've never worked for a contractor, in my experience their salaries are quite competitive - although they may be strict about degree requirements both for better and worse.