Pros: Challenging and competitive environment, flexible work hours, loads of fun, and possibilities to advance.

Cons: When deadlines approach, things get a little ugly and tense.

Pros: - Amazing compensation - Flexible working hours - Amazing medical benefits - Work with few of the best minds - People are willing to help. - Constructive feedback is welcomed and encouraged.

Cons: - Stability is a concern. - Every new CEO brings in loads of changes, and at times, you get caught in the changes. - It will be difficult to work anywhere else after working there. - Having enough technical knowledge is not enough; you need to play your cards right.

Pros: The company really cares about its employees. They offer great benefits, perks, and a great campus. The work-life balance is really good too. You get to work on products millions use, and if you love MS technologies... well, you are using/creating them.

Cons: If you are not a real fan of Microsoft technologies, consider yourself tied up; you won't work on anything else other than MS-specific technologies/environments. This makes sense from the "protect your own brand" point of view, but I found it really annoying to be closed off to great technologies you have access to in all other companies. (Let's say, to use Ruby/Python for a side team stats project, you will probably be looked at like a weird being.) That for sure makes you fall behind other engineers in the market, limiting your scope of development. The so-known calibration at the yearly performance review creates a working environment of "I won't help you because I don't want you to be above me," and I really felt that. I was even criticized for helping other teams in my organization because I should have given total priority to my team (it's not that I was not doing anything for my team, but I was the one that could help the other teams, and that also benefited us).