Microsoft

I have a young and growing family, so the number one reason I liked the idea of working for Microsoft was the health benefits. Microsoft is big enough to write its own health plan. There are a few different options, but the default plan is nothing out of pocket for 100% coverage.

• No deductions.
• No copayments.
• Not even for prescriptions.

Free drinks – we have almost all the Coke and Pepsi products, plus some tasty sparkling water choices and a full lineup of milk and juice.

The salary is fair for a fresh-out-of-school employee working in this expensive area. Other forms of compensation include big morale budgets for every team, stock awards (not options), and potential for annual bonuses equaling 20% of your annual salary.

Microsoft appears mean on the outside because of the aggression of our executives, but down in the trenches where the products are built, everyone is just excited to be a part of something big and cool. The passion and excitement of everyone about the stuff we're doing is invigorating and makes it exciting to come to work. I work in the Office group, and we're confident in our products and are excited to see them used worldwide.

One word: Traffic. Seattle traffic is horrendous. A twenty-mile commute is about an hour commute each way. That may be common for other big metros, but it's annoying to me.

Three words: Real estate prices. In 2007, the median price in Redmond, Washington, for homes was over $650,000. Granted, some of those are really nice and have a good bit of space, but I moved from a place where the same-sized place cost half of that. Anywhere within a 30-minute commute to Microsoft will cost $450K+. The costs are such that low-income people are being driven out of the area, and medium-income people are becoming the low-income people because they can barely afford a $300,000 condo 45 minutes away from where they work.

I wish they would seek to improve our public image. There are ways to be good players in the market, still be competitive and still best everyone else. Find them. Do them.

I wish they'd focus more on our core business. I feel like we're running into unknown territories such as search and devices (areas that we should expand to) so fast that we're losing our grip on operating systems and office productivity.

I wish they'd focus more on interoperability with our own stuff. Why some of our products don't work with other products of ours is beyond me. We've gotten too big to be nimble.