Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-07-17
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Huge impact in the industry
Pros: - ability to make a huge impact in the industry 
- great work/life balance
- large diversity of teams to choose from 
- creative environment, yet results centric
- great people!
- culture of creativity and lots of constructive self-criticism (despite of what you might read on the web)
Cons: - Compared with more "nimble" companies, things get done at a slower pace, sometime much slower. Three year shipping cycles are not uncommon although this started lately to change 
- takes time for junior employees to grow up in level and make a larger impact (depends on the group though)
- career-centric company, although you could find a group that behaves like a startup
- certain teams dedicated on maintaining software, not shipping new stuff (which might be OK for some). Be careful which team you choose. 
- I feel (and many others do) that the company doesn't learn fast enough from big mistakes made by middle-management.