Microsoft

Experience:

• Mature products
• Established processes
• People

Mature products:

If you come from college, this company is a great place to work. It teaches you to look at software creation in a more established and pragmatic way, like building a house. Gone are the days in the 90s where there were deadlines to be kept and teams burned through weekends just to keep them. Today, such things still exist; however, they are more on an individual basis and are not the norm.

People:

• Generally, the hiring process assures that MS gets the top of the cream.

Pretty much the same things that make this corporation great come with their negative load too.

Size This company has grown (this is my individual opinion) way too big. While I am sure this is all justified properly by valid business reasons, the size weighs on.

Mature products If you are looking for brand new, exciting new projects, they definitely do exist within MS. However, there are good chances that you may end up in one of the big teams (Windows, Office, etc.). While it is very exciting to work on some of the applications you have been using since childhood, maintaining them comes with a price. Words such as "legacy code," "backwards compatibility," and "cannot change existing behavior, even if it is wrong" come to mind.

Listen to your end customers, especially if your product line is aiming at the end consumer.