Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-10-27
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

I wouldn't want to go back...
Pros: Very good compensation, benefits, and perks.  Very bright people.
Cons: The review system is unfair and dehumanizing.  Stack ranking pits an employee against their peers and destroys morale and teamwork.

Too much emphasis placed on your visibility and not actual work.

Managers have 'good attrition' commitments and once you are targeted life can become pretty miserable until you are managed out or leave.

If you are at t level too long, you will be fired.  "Up or out".  The analogy my skip level manager told me was that anyone that stays at level too long is like arterial plaque on the corporate body.