This was my 2nd go-round at MS. I also worked there for 5 years, earlier in my career, and had a better time. This time, I was working as a contractor, so switching teams was not an option. And again, the day-to-day was so horrific, that soldiering on was also not an option.<p>As far as my goal - that&#x27;s what I&#x27;m trying to figure out. For practical purposes, it may be mostly about avoiding webdev. However, this most recent job was not webdev, yet it was still an absurdly convoluted architectural hodge-podge. So, one thing I may be looking for is more homogeneity. It&#x27;s not about size or complexity, per se. I&#x27;ve worked on many large, complex projects and had a good time.<p>What turns me off about webdev is a) new frameworks being hyped every month, and b) the architecture of a modern web app gives me a headache. I want to return to a time when I used to spend most of my time on data, algorithms, and writing code, with a single API being the worst &quot;necessary evil&quot; in the mix.