Pros: The personal offices, free insurance, nice morale events – all used to be...

Cons: No interesting relevant products to work on. Very political – all technical decisions are made on the basis of how to please the upper ups, who are usually, to put it mildly, less technically savvy. What is valued is so-called "visibility" rather than true quality of work. And the most ironic of all: while Microsoft is giving the customer one of the best development technologies and environments in the world, it is greatly lagging behind in using it for its own products. Management is dominated by the "old school" people who worked in the company in the 90s and sometimes in the 80s. They invested tremendous amounts of time in old-time coding skills and greatly resent, if not always openly resent, the move forward with technology and skills, coming up with ridiculous excuses to justify it.

Pros: Microsoft values intelligence and initiative. If you have a good idea and are willing to work to make it happen, you can. I have worked at Microsoft for nearly 13 years and, while the "good old days" had some great things (more money, fewer layers of management), the company has gradually improved in most ways. People are more respectful of each other. The company is more diverse. There is a greater variety of jobs and opportunities to pursue. As a post-adolescent company, Microsoft increasingly values work/life balance. You are expected to work hard but don't need to kill yourself unless you really want to. The other thing that I think is cool about Microsoft is that the company generally doesn't give up. 15 years ago, Microsoft was a PC software company. Then management decided that Microsoft needed to be an enterprise software company too. Nobody gave Microsoft much of a chance to be a serious enterprise software company. Today, most big companies use Microsoft software. Similarly, today most don't give Microsoft much of a chance of being a successful "internet" company (vague definition, I know). But Microsoft will keep at it and will eventually succeed. No, we won't "kill" Google. That's not the point. But Microsoft and its employees are tenacious, and that's a great quality for a company and its employees.

Cons: Social interaction throughout the day is minimal. Most developers sit in their offices and code and don't get a lot of daily interaction with others on the team. Some days, this leaves you feeling very isolated.

Pros: - Good benefits, good benefits, good benefits. - Time-off is flexible and good, but that is because it is not a startup and no one really has a fire burning under their arses. Personally, I prefer driven people who drive hard and then after that play hard.

Cons: Innovation is stymied unless you have a degree to prove that you are capable of innovation. If you are a PhD, you can innovate during your regular work hours, and it is respected and time accounted for. If you are a Master's, forget innovation during regular work hours; you will have to work extra hours for that, and who wants to do that unless you are a crackhead scientist working for the betterment of humanity. Compensation is pretty bad compared to the industry, and promotions and raises are subject to your manager fighting for you with upper management. This won't happen if you get on the wrong side of your manager, say for personal reasons. So, there's no concept of peer reviews holding any water.