Pros
-There are lots of bright people working at MS. There is so much you can learn from others and you can generally count on the competence of your co-workers. -The benefits are amazing, by far the best I have ever heard of. If you have a family, this is great. -The company is stable. Not much chance of it going out of business, leaving you without a job. -There is a lot of support for MS in the Redmond area. -There are many perks, like the PRIME card given to all employees, which grants you access to huge discounts on many local products and services. -You can go anywhere in the world and say you work for Microsoft and people will know what you are talking about. -You get significant time off. -Work/life balance is respected. -Microsoft does a lot of things. If you want a change, you can always look elsewhere within the company. -Free soda, milk, etc at work -Individual offices -A huge, beatuiful campus -Internal interest groups for just about anything you enjoy doing -A diverse, cosmopolitan work force -Support for telecommuting, although generally you will lose productivity when doing so
Kontras
-The company is too large, and there is too much inertia associated with heavyweight processes, and legacy maintainace. This makes the company slow to react and change directions. -There is a huge amount of competition at MS. The few who shine brightest are rewarded well, but career advancement for the rest is a problem, even though in most other companies they would be stars. -Moving within the company involves a tough interview process -While there is grass-roots support for agile processes, management is clinging on to heavyweight processes for dear life -The company as a whole is viewed negatively from the outside. This gets frustrating. -Innovation is talked about a lot but rarely seen or actually encouraged. -You have to wonder sometimes how certain senior executives have managed to hold on to their jobs after bungling it so many times. -The review system inherently rewards individual stars rather than team players. -Compensation is fairly average