Company: Microsoft
Date: 2008-09-14
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Prestigeous, but stressful.
Pros: Smart people around you; good reputation; you see the impact of your work outside the work (products); your friends will praise you; The best benefits package I have ever seen (there are some problems with the way the dental plan is handled by the local dentists, see below).
Cons: stress at a regular basis; pressure; competition can lead to some sort of mixed feelings about your peers;
One big thing: dentists in the Seattle area will do everything they can to take all the money from the insurance company. At Microsoft, they give you a limit of $1500 per year for dental treatment. However, if you need, for instance, a canal for a tooth, dentists here will charge you...well, guess what? 1500 dollars! That means, for a simple canal, they will eat up all insurance money at your first visit, then if you need to do something else (say a crown for that canal?), you have to unpocket it yourself, and it's a rip off. So, the dentists here are literally thieves! Dental insurance should be unlimited, just like the medical insurance.