Microsoft

Great benefits:

• PTO (3-5 weeks)
• 2 weeks Sick Leave
• 4 weeks Paternity/12 weeks maternity leave

PTO is very good.

Health plan with HSA (employee pays out-of-pocket until deductible is met; company contributes too). Plan was great until the end of 2012.

Individual office with lots of privacy – this is a great plus if you are coming from a cubicle culture.

Flexible hours.

Great infrastructure.

Lots of smart engineers.

Good pay compared to others in the Seattle area.

If you can shut yourself off from the middle management incompetency and maintain a good relationship with everyone, you'll get steady growth.

Work-life balance in general is very good with 40-50 hours, though it depends on the team where you may have to put in 60+ hours and weekends.

Consider working for a core team if you want to be around smart engineers.

Managers push busy work. Generally incompetent middle managers, with tons of politics.

It's not what you contribute that counts; it is your relationship with your lead and his/her manager that weighs heavily in your reviews.

Most middle managers cannot get a job outside of Microsoft. Even if they did, they cannot get the benefits that Microsoft offers, so they stick on.

Getting things done can be a pain. Most non-core teams have incompetent team members at almost all levels.

There are frequent reorganizations across the company. It is common to go through 7-10 managers in a period of 5-6 years, and it affects growth badly, even if you are very smart. Most managers lack the maturity to be managers.

Consolidate the divisions. Please realign the business and get rid of the incompetent middle managers in the senior and principal bands. Re-evaluate competencies and calibrate the engineers and managers. Microsoft is a great place to work and it can be made better by getting more efficient.