Maybe in SV it is, but out here in the regular world it's not the uncommon. My current job was contract to hire at a slightly higher rate. I was converted after

Maybe in SV it is, but out here in the regular world it's not the uncommon. My current job was contract to hire at a slightly higher rate. I was converted after 4 months. This way both sides were happy with the work environment. In SV there are too many jobs and not enough people so it might be harder to get anyone to do this. But contract works both ways - the prospective employee gets to see if they like the team too. I've taken jobs before direct where the team turned out to be completely evil but it wasn't obvious in the interview.