Pros: Good work-life balance and perks.

Cons: Old stack work, process-oriented.

Pros: Best reason: lots of smart people around you. You can learn directly from the source. Also, good flexibility in choosing a project. Working for Microsoft can be a programmer's dream. If you don't like what you are working on, you can always choose something more interesting or appropriate for you. Medical compensation is pretty good.

Cons: Within the company, it might be hard to find a startup-like atmosphere. Senior management is more risk-averse here than in other places in the industry. That said, several cool projects here and there (especially Live-related) started to appear, although it's more the exception than the rule. Also, traffic.

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.