Company: Microsoft
Date: 2010-04-02
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: former

I was part of the 5,000 plus who were laid off on 2008 and 2009.
Pros: Microsoft is so large that you could work on anything and work anywhere, depending on your skills and performance.  I found management to be very understanding anytime I needed time off, and also management was OK with varying my daily start and stop times as long as the work was getting done and as long as others were not negatively affected.  I feel that pay was good, and benefits especially healthcare, were better than any other company.
Cons: In the past Microsoft had too many re-organizations, often every 6-9 months (however re-organizations do allow for re-filling the organization budget frequently).  Some managers are not good people managers, others are great.  The employee future career path is completely the responsibility of the employee (probably not really a con though I think it bears mentioning).  During annual review time everyone's review numbers, i.e., pay raise, bonus, stock grants, etc., are decided by management about a month before the manager/employee annual review conversations actually happen, which I feel does not properly allow the employee to show or prove to the manager what benefits and successes the employee has had over the past year.