Pros: Good health benefits are available for everyone at Microsoft. In the Seattle/Redmond area, you get a health club membership or can opt for $800/year in reimbursed expenses. Need a new bicycle to work out? You can use it for that. Microsoft has been good on resumes for getting interviews at my new company; however, most experienced Microsoft engineers fail their interviews because the work at Microsoft doesn't prepare them well to get hired outside. You have to prepare yourself.

Cons: Your work at Microsoft prepares you to do your job at Microsoft, not a lot on the outside. Every year someone would get a bad annual review, which meant everybody was on edge for the rest of the year. What does that mean? There is incentive for your coworkers to stab you in the back. Managers don't know much about your daily work, so presentation skills are vital to get the visibility you need to survive. No matter how much Microsoft wants you to have work-life balance, everyone ends up sacrificing it due to the threat of a bad review. That doesn't mean your boss wants to skewer you (he/she might; different story), it means everything is tinged with internal competition. Internal competition is more important than external, because the customers won't fire you, but your boss will.

Pros: Pay and benefits are excellent. You can work on some cool stuff that everyone uses. Lots of interesting things are going on around Microsoft at all times.

Cons: Little creativity on the lower levels. Real innovation is hard to come by. Decisions are unclear, and making changes takes forever. The Microsoft engineering process often gets in the way of delivering a strong product. Not much fun. Morale was almost always low.

Pros: Great benefits and long-term benefits.

Cons: High demands from the company.