Microsoft

1. No matter where your passion lies, you can find something at Microsoft. In my seven years at Microsoft, I've seen people move across disciplines (Dev <-> PM <-> Test), technology stacks, teams, products, office location, etc.

2. Roles are not airtight. I've seen Dev/test define the products, and I've seen PMs churn out code - it really depends on you.

3. Generally a very open culture. I've been in meetings with DEs, and they are fantastic to work with.

4. Great workplace. I can requisition furniture, books, hardware, etc., without filling out thirty forms or having to get approval from my upper management.

5. Great workplace II. (Generally) very smart and aware people. Most people I've worked with are receptive to feedback and will accept fault and move on. This may be specific to my org, though, but I haven't noticed any politicking amongst the individual contributors.

6. Benefits... Best in the industry (if you ignore the free food bandwagon).

I can go on and on...

1. There's a desire to create something new that works for our customers, but it is often orthogonal to what our competitors are doing, which leads to a lot of debates on how to proceed.

2. Lots of legacy code. In general, changing something that's been around for a long time is difficult. Breaking changes are avoided, and that sometimes limits the degrees of freedom for product design.