Microsoft

The health benefits are great. Being able to shut the door and concentrate on what you're working on is a big plus for many. The atmosphere among QA/Devs in the MSTV group was always professional. I had several different managers over the course of the 5 years I was there, and I felt they were helpful with career advice and planning, and gave honest reviews. Excellent internal discussion lists allow you to chime in and discuss products and issues across the company.

The company felt like it had too many layers of managers.

People outside the company can be snide when they discover your employer is Microsoft. I had more than a dozen incidents here in Silicon Valley where people got verbally hostile once they found out where I worked.

Traffic on the main highway outside the SV Campus is a nightmare at rush hour. You'll eventually feel like you're camped out inside Microsoft while your buddies on the outside are having fun making heroic stuff happen at startups.

Thin down the company – increase the ratio of devs to managers by slashing a few layers of managers.

Recognize when something isn't working (crappy Vista, garbage MSN sites, etc.) and fix it big and fix it fast.