Pros: Work-life balance, great team, great skills to learn, new things you see every day, great location. Don't worry about parking or anything, it's in the middle of everything. Helpful people, cool building, cool work environment. Benefits for FTEs are really good.

Cons: Lots of vendors are stuck as vendors. Some FTEs treat vendors differently. I would wish to learn more open-source technologies too. Compensation is lower than at other companies, but benefits are better. The medical plan was better 2 years ago.

Pros: Microsoft is still a very powerful company. There are jobs and software it creates for just about everything. You feel like the company cares about you, far more than free soda. They have training classes on everything you could think of, and for those who manage to get themselves into the good graces of management who likes them, the sky is the limit. There are still good jobs at Microsoft, but it's hard to find them.

Cons: There is a strong tradition of failing upwards. The company has lost a lot of its best and brightest to other companies, and the bottom-feeders that are left tend to be very bad at their jobs. The company's biggest problem is how political it is. You will never get a promotion on the merits of the job you do; you must get into the "inner circle" of a higher-up manager to have any chance. Most of the time, instead of dealing with the politics, people just get fed up and leave -- and forever after have nightmares about their experience. The company has a mandate to fire 7% of their employees a year, and if you aren't in the top-tier inner circle, you feel like you're always fighting for your job. Every promotion you get is one that someone else did not. Avoid the Office division like the plague; it is the least innovative part of the company. The technical stagnation of "It's been done this way for years, and we'll continue to do it this way" permeates every part of the product. You will not grow or learn there. For some, it's OK because they have a relatively high paying job that doesn't expect much of them. But I wanted more.

Pros: Company really invests in you! The quantity and quality of courses available really allow anyone to grow and improve their understanding. Lots of people who help you succeed! I was lucky to have an amazing mentor and a fantastic manager. If you get bored with one problem, you can always move on to something else that is equally interesting. Microsoft really offers a wide variety of problems to work on (from games to enterprise software to search to mobile phones to operating systems to...).

Cons: People are really competitive here. If you are in a team of more senior people, then you don't have to worry much. However, if you are in a team with more junior people (i.e., ones who are closer to your level), then it can get messy really quick, as everyone is trying to prove how their contributions matter the most. Frequent reorgs and changes in strategy. If you are one of those people who can switch directions fast, then you can thrive over here. However, if you are one of those people who get really attached to your work, then the reorgs will take a toll on you.