Pros: I'll be frank, one is pampered a lot by Microsoft during the internship. Right from sponsoring your flight tickets, then a full stay at a 3-star hotel along with free breakfast and lunch every day. Add to that frequent outings with your team, which are usually for lunch or dinner but sometimes can be on the adventurous side too. People are kind and super helpful. You get to be a part of the team from day one and are invited for all the team meetings so that you get a flavor of the working experience. There are pool and foosball tables all over the place, in case you get bored. There is also a Kinect-ready Xbox room if you're into that. Work-life balance is the best that there can be. No restrictions on office hours as long as you attend the required meetings and get the work done.

Cons: Although interns are assigned an interesting project to work on, that sometimes means that pushing your code to the product is not the variable they optimize for. This can lead to all your effort going down the drain after you leave, which can be a letdown at times.

Pros: - As an intern, you can work on par with the full-time employees. - Lots of very smart people around. - World-class facilities. - The new cafeteria is just mind-blowing. - The campus is huge. - Management is very cool. - Party every week.

Cons: - Inter-team communication is not that great. - Work might be too challenging at times, especially if you are an intern.

Pros: Before starting, I got some say in choosing my team. I ended up on an excellent team with four other developers, all of whom had lots of experience. Everybody was helpful and understanding. My manager gave me interesting work and freedom to develop however I liked. Our team was fast-paced, and each developer had visible contributions with very low time to production.

Cons: Microsoft is a big company. I talked to other interns and full-time employees, and many teams have to deal with and support poorly documented legacy code/systems. Frequently, there is a lot of bureaucracy. Some teams have to wait months before their finished features go into production. There is some internal tension between competing teams, even within the company.