Microsoft

Most people are passionate about creating good products and good experiences for the customer.

There are lots of different job opportunities. There are hundreds of teams at Microsoft. You can work on anything from games to mainstream products, to hardware, to research projects. I had jobs in many different groups over my years there because I decided I wanted to try a new product. Also, you can change disciplines. I've seen many people want to change disciplines, and they started getting experience in their current group and either took over the role in their current group or moved to a new group.

There are lots of smart people there, and there are.

Plans can change on an upper management whim. There's no good reason other than someone way up the food chain had a pet idea they wanted in the product.

Upper management expects everyone under them to provide schedules and such, but they don't feel they should be held accountable to a schedule. We wait with no idea when the decisions that have a major impact on our product will be made.

Schedules get made that everyone knows can't be met, but will only be reported as the official schedule until it's blown.

Set believable schedules, even if you don't like how long people feel it has to take. Adjust them as soon as you know you can't make them. Also, upper management, hold yourselves accountable to believable schedules just like everyone under you is. And I don't care how difficult the decisions are. You get the big bucks to make those decisions.