Microsoft

Great work-life balance. Super flexible timings, and weekends are almost always free of work. Everyone leaves work early, so there's no peer pressure to work late hours. Relaxed and professional work culture. Good benefits, good workspaces.

1. The average skill of engineers in India isn't particularly amazing.

2. Compensation is decent but not amazing. The stock component is more than the cash, which will irk some, as every stock grant vests over four years.

3. There is also some pressure to make your own contributions visible.

4. The evaluation of an engineer's skill isn't really great. You might be a superstar but evaluated as above-average, or you might be below-average but evaluated as "great." Managers usually don't have a clue about the technical details of your work.

5. Some people might find the work culture too formal, especially when coming from a startup-esque environment.

6. The engineering systems and codebases are really complex with a lot of inter-dependencies. This can frustrate people coming from smaller-scale products or companies.

Managers don't have enough good information to properly evaluate an engineer's skill and contributions. Their evaluation relies heavily on "finished work item count" and peer feedback, which can be skewed.