Company: Microsoft
Date: 2014-05-06
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Great company overall with some pockets of bad that can and should be avoided
Pros: Microsoft has it all.  Name a technology and someone at Microsoft is working on it.

Several things that Microsoft has done have been hugely successful, most obviously Windows and Office.  Those revenue streams have helped the company create a broad foundation in other areas, including the successful Xbox business, cloud computing, and a real strength in the enterprise that no other software company can match.

Nowadays, it feels like Microsoft might be getting it's mojo back, which is a really good thing.

Overall very solid benefits packages.  And as far as culture goes, Microsoft's annual giving campaign and matching gifts programs make it clear that giving back to the community and world is a company priority. The company matches not only cash donations but also dollars per hour of volunteer time too.
Cons: Microsoft has a bad reputation, deserved perhaps in some ways but definitely not in others.  That's mostly from a business/product/consumer perspective.  

If it is important for you to work on something that is cool and has buzz, you could try getting in at Xbox although they do have a reputation for burning people out.

Politics has at several points during my employment there (over a decade) have definitely played a major role in rewards and review scores being distributed in a very arbitrary way.  But HR have iterated on their rewards system yet again, trying to clear that kind of favoritism out in exchange for something more motivating.