Pros: 1. You care much about your success and can really learn a lot about skills with brilliant people here. 2. If you are in a good team with established people, you will learn a lot and feel your life is enjoyable. If not, you are just wasting your time here. 3. The focus on the business. This may seem counterintuitive, but the business focus is an excellent lens through which to look at software design and execution. I previously worked at a company which was arguably a better engineering company, but the lack of business focus led to software projects not having longevity and ultimately to the collapse of the company.

Cons: 1. Maybe too many brilliant people, leading to no chance of promotion. 2. The company doesn't have quite the creative edge it once did. Sometimes it blunders big, yet manages to survive because of its sheer size and wealth. Management above a certain level tends to lose sight of reality, so it can end up doing the wrong thing, like laying off and rewarding the wrong people.

Pros: Learn a great deal, do awesome projects, earn a good salary, and it looks great on a resume.

Cons: You are actually just a little, little part of it. And sometimes it is just hard to get promotion, you know. They are not lacking in talent.

Pros: Each Microsoft team is like a small company with its own culture and values. They are brilliant people to work with.

Cons: The company lacked the broader vision, but that is changing with time.