Company: Microsoft
Date: 2011-09-22
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Good if you play political games, put in 80+ hour weeks, or if you have highly specialized technical skills
Pros: The health benefits are extremely good. Individual coworkers on the "front lines" are often highly professional, personable and knowledgeable. Any team that has direct customer contact, or is primarily staffed by fulltime coworkers in Redmond, tends to have good morale and goals.
Cons: The employee review system is political, stressful and toxic. There is a thick layer of middle management that confuses, slows down or even actively sabotages career growth and business success. There is opportunity for financial award and technical growth, but you need to put in very long hours and extensive networking to find the product teams that provide this, get into them, and then be able to stay in them. Overall, the risk/reward ratio is not worth it unless you have very specialized skills, are good at navigating political environments, or have the room in your personal life to make playing "the game" your prime focus for many years.