Pros: Good name recognition in your resume. Get an idea of the scale of work in a big company. If you are a manager, it's a cushy ride. If you are an employee, it's very difficult for a developer due to constant deadlines and demands. OK for program managers and testers.

Cons: Too much process and bureaucracy. Constant change in direction is normal. It's common to reset the project direction every few months and start from scratch. Stack ranking (where employees are compared to each other in their level every few months and forced into a curve distribution) is brutal. If you are a developer here, you don't feel like you are competing with other companies to deliver a better product; instead, you are competing with your coworkers. Coworkers will not help each other; instead, they will backstab each other so that they finish higher in the curve. It is a bit easier if you are a program manager because you don't have any real deadlines. Developers have a deadline almost daily and put in crazy hours in most teams. It's also easier if you are a lead, since you typically would delegate all work to reports, get credit for all successes, but are typically not blamed for project failures. Managers have to fill up slots between 1 to 5 (performance grade) in their team by force. This is called stack ranking and is very political. About two months of the year, managers just spend time doing that. Typically, they pick the least favorite employees for 4 or 5. And by HR rule, they have to constantly tell them they are underperforming so that those employees leave soon. Also, internal transfers are only possible for people who get a 1 or 2 rating. The other employees are ignored during internal applications. There are also many ethnic cabals inside there. There is also an official internal effort to force out older employees and replace them with younger employees. For managers, though, there is no such effort. Managers are treated as gods by the company.

Pros: There are truly brilliant people at Microsoft, and lots of passion in the air.

Cons: Review system politics. You survived the 99% cutoff rate of interviews and racked up lots of experience, shipped some products, patented ideas, added innovative features, saved the day, etc. But now you're in a rough patch at work and find yourself in the bottom 10-20% of the review pool due to "metrics" and personality issues, and you are headed for eviction. Perhaps you'd like the opportunity to interview with another team? You'd better interview with Google or Apple, because your internal record won't allow you to stay at Microsoft. And once you get one bad review, you bet you won't pull yourself out of the hole.

Pros: - You will work with some of the smartest engineers. - You will have the opportunity to work on a wide range of technologies.

Cons: The company is focused on competition rather than doing what is right for the customers. The review system is broken. Too much power of reviews vests with managers. Peer feedback is not fully taken into account.