Company: Microsoft
Date: 2008-08-14
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Microsoft Meh
Pros: They have an excellent benefits package and the pay is pretty good. You get to work on cool projects and can petition to make changes internally.People are pretty friendly and usually easy to get along with. The company store has discounted software which is handy when friends and family need OSes or Office, and the prices are unheard of.
Cons: Long hours, lots of office politics, work load isnt balanced across teams. Limited opportunities to change positions internally if you get burned out and aren't doing well in your current position. Management plays games and sometimes you're just going through the motions. You wont get rich at Microsoft anymore, and a 'Rank-and-file' culture is developing. Egos sometimes run high so getting stuff changed can be an issue at times. Extra effort to get things done or help out team mates usually goes unrewarded . They have heavy use of metrics, which is annoying because it encourages people to game the system. They have great health benefits, but mostly because at sometime, you'll probably need to use it due to work related issues, such as people coming in terribly sick to get stuff done.