Pros: - Wide variety of options to choose from, starting from embedded devices to OS, to Cloud, to Analytics. - Flexible work hours/schedules.

Cons: - Awkward performance appraisal - Easy to get lost in the crowd, as multiple are doing the same thing

Pros: Microsoft offers some really good perks. The base salary is good, and the ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan) is well-designed. The health benefits were very good in the past, but they are not as good as they used to be. You get to work on some really challenging projects. You have to keep learning and updating yourself at your job. This is not something that you do in your off time; you have to learn new technologies to perform your day-to-day work. Some of the people here are very talented. They are scary intelligent, and you have a hard time gauging their potential. A wide range of employees are average, but average for Microsoft may be extraordinary for some other companies.

Cons: The work-life balance is very off. We have frequent releases, and every release brings long hours at the office. Sometimes, we don't have enough time to fix a problem at its core. We are racing against time and have to provide a workable solution to the problem as soon as possible. There are very few team morale events.

Pros: Most people are passionate about creating good products and good experiences for the customer. There are lots of different job opportunities. There are hundreds of teams at Microsoft. You can work on anything from games to mainstream products, to hardware, to research projects. I had jobs in many different groups over my years there because I decided I wanted to try a new product. Also, you can change disciplines. I've seen many people want to change disciplines, and they started getting experience in their current group and either took over the role in their current group or moved to a new group. There are lots of smart people there, and there are.

Cons: Plans can change on an upper management whim. There's no good reason other than someone way up the food chain had a pet idea they wanted in the product. Upper management expects everyone under them to provide schedules and such, but they don't feel they should be held accountable to a schedule. We wait with no idea when the decisions that have a major impact on our product will be made. Schedules get made that everyone knows can't be met, but will only be reported as the official schedule until it's blown.