Microsoft

Awesome benefits package, especially if you have children. Good stability for a high-tech company. Lots of different things happening at the company, so you can get a new job and/or change career direction without the extra hassles of starting at a new company.

I sense a lack of excitement in most employees. It's just a job. The days of getting rich with stock options are long gone, and nobody expects them to come back.

That's the downside of the stability I mentioned as an upside.

The company seems too big, like it's acquiring and hiring more people to throw at the wall hoping some good ideas will fall out. Definitely too many complacent middle-managers who get huge rewards for little accomplishment other than building a network of supportive lackeys.

Split up the company.

Office and Windows shouldn't be in the same company. Let Office branch out and create first-class implementations for Mac and Linux and online, without having to be mired in "strategic worrying" about Windows and MSN/Live.

Let E&D and MSN/Live live or die on their own.