Company: Microsoft
Date: 2008-10-19
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Good place to work, but it's definitely not an agile, internet start-up environment
Pros: It's a challenging place with lots of super bright people.  Overall, it can be very exciting and energizing.  If you have a good idea, with determination and luck you can see it materialize into a product or a feature that impacts millions of people.   

The performance review process is fair and has improved considerably in the last few years.  Additionally, the benefits are very generous and have also improved in the last few years.
Cons: It's a megacorp with a fair amount of red tape and reduced agility.  At its heart, it's an engineering focused culture that seems to have a hard time connecting with the desires/needs of its consumer customers.  Moreover, there's a fair amount of career driven product design and strategy that seems wasteful.