I am currently in my last year of undergrad at a T20 CS school in the US. I have a return offer for new grad at the defense company I interned for last summer (mostly backend), and I am currently also interning at another company doing full-stack. I know for a fact that I will not get a return offer for my current company, since they’re pretty small and it’s mostly research roles for masters+. I’m also currently applying, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get any more offers with the current market. My question is: how does a SWE career in defense compare to that of big tech? My ultimate goal is to get into FAANG or an equivalent, so I’m not sure if working at defense is a red flag or not for switching into tech later on. Would a master’s in CS be a better alternative for a big tech job?