I work at the same company as I did in a former life but doing a different job altogether. Unfortunately, when I left this company 12 years ago, I did my share of bridge-burning and wasn't likely to get hired back. Lucky for me, I had a friend working as the SQA manager in the R&D group. He convinced others to give me a short, 6-week contract for some miscellaneous systems test work. I proved myself over that short time so they extended my employment indefinitely. After about a year, they re-instated me as a FT employee and counted my previous employment towards my seniority which meant I got to rack up an extra week of vacation. Bonus!