Company: Microsoft
Date: 2015-06-15
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Good benefits, so-so pay, good CEO, weak executives
Pros: Good person in new CEO in Satya
Good benefits
Job security (... mostly)
Reasonable work-life balance (depending of the team / project and your ability to work smart)
Reasonable mix of talents with people to learn from
Good company for your 2nd job in your career if you can get in. Ok-company for graduates at the cost of been brain-washed; you will need time to re-learn reality when you get out of the Microsoft bubble. Bad company late in your career - recruiters do not value your industry experience; internal idiosyncrasy of senior review will take you time to learn and get used to if at all; expect 80% politics and 20% real work.
Cons: Ballmer has sabotaged the company for a decade by not managing his reports at all (left it all to them to solve all problems / make decisions).
Satya is a bit naïve about the transformation of the company. He's also green at CEO public communication (see Grace Hopper fiasco).
Executives and Senior VPs are very weak, do not follow Satya's direction and spend their time politicizing.
Micro-cultures are strong and you never know where you land moving internally.
Bad managers can wreak your career.
Pay is not keeping up with the competition that moved in Greater Seattle en-force.
Too many hardware engineers are rejects from hardware engineering companies like Intel, some horrendous hardware management with overcomplicated designs when instead of putting their fingers in design should... manage!
Supply chain management is entitled and wasting the talent from Nokia's device division.