Company: Microsoft
Date: 2009-02-18
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former

Good to work for benefits or if you are passionate about MS products
Pros: 1) Benefits - good legal coverage, best in the business medical, dental and vision benefits, excellent benefits from Seattle area businesses (and other top US wide consumer businesses)

2) Pay: good pay, great stocks if you have been with MS when times were good, decent YOY increments

3) Lateral moves: easy to move across teams, lots of start up like teams and then there are SQL, Windows, Office teams etc.

4) Passion for MS products: if you are like me who grew up using MS products you'll love this place. However you need to know how to play the game.
Cons: 1) Politics - too much top down mgmt, lack of clear directions, too much power stuggle, power centers in new / start up teams

2) Some teams are too fast paced - work/life imbalance, power centers, too fast w/o attention to long term sustainence

3) Being able to use your vacation - 1 yrs vacation gets accured however, depending on the team you are in, you may be working way too hard. It's about personal dicipline as much as the team's philosophy on work/life balance. Work smarter not harder else you'll get burnted out too soon and then the results will be disatisfying.