Pros: Massive brand name recognition. Lots of learning opportunities, challenging projects, brilliant co-workers, and of course, a resume builder. The breadth of opportunities at Microsoft is unparalleled. From Operating Systems, Compilers/IDEs, Games, Hardware, Web Services, to Office tools, these guys have done it all. There is something for everyone there. Also, the benefits are really good compared to others.

Cons: Lots of competition. The developer interns have to be really good to be noticed by senior employees. You are expected to work long hours. Since I have not worked there for very long, I have not felt any other downsides.

Pros: Good work-life balance, it seems. Lots of events, good pay, interesting projects.

Cons: HR is a bit ridiculous here. It's super difficult to find out which team you are working with.

Pros: 1. Good work culture. 2. Friendly and helping teammates (at least in my team). 3. Good compensation. 4. Cutting-edge technology. 5. Amazing impact with respect to the products developed. 6. Once you have a very good rating in the first one-two years at the company, it is very easy to maintain the same rating. So, in essence, you have to work and prove yourself in the first year, as that mostly makes or breaks your career.

Cons: 1. If your manager is not satisfied, or for some reason is not able to evaluate you properly, then you are in trouble, big time. This especially applies for the first year at work. The performance rating that you receive in your first year will most likely be either incremented or decremented by one in the next year, depending on your performance. 2. Perks are not good enough in comparison to competing companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. 3. In certain teams, the bar has been set so high that during the appraisal period, almost no developers get promoted (this applies across different levels).