Company: Microsoft
Date: 2010-05-24
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Experiences Vary from Team to Team
Pros: Microsoft has many great products and teams with which to work, and mobility from group to group is quite good. The pay is adequate and the benefits are outstanding. Generally you will work with smart people and depending on the team, you'll have an opportunity to learn from some of the best and the brightest in the industry.
Cons: It's difficult for senior and upper-middle management to see teams that are underperforming or managers who are skating by on connections or on past glory. Any two people at Microsoft could just as well be working in two completely different companies, in different countries, for all the parity and consistency there would be between their experiences. If you find a high-performing team with a strong, fair manager, you'll have a great career at Microsoft. If you don't find such a team, but you want to stay with the company because of its other strengths, you'll have to resign yourself to sticking it out for two years before you can make a move.