Company: Microsoft
Date: 2015-04-28
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Director A&O
Pros: Microsoft people are incredibly bright.  They are certainly above average when compared to most companies (that are not tech companies).  When working on a good team, you will find that your work product excels and exceeds what you could accomplish alone.

Also, as Microsoft is an incredibly large organization, it can offer lots of possibilities -- different careers, products, geographies, and experiences.  This is almost unparalleled even in other large multi nationals.  At worst, you will be exposed to people from all over the world with different viewpoints and priorities and this is always a good thing.
Cons: When I left, and I have heard it is changing, Microsoft had become very bureaucratic.  Unfortunately, trying to get hings done required the synchronization of many groups and there was often no incentive for alignment.  even if management was aligned, the front line troops often weren't, which meant things would not get done.  And being a large organization, blame was rarely applied.

Also, the evaluation system, which has also been changed and should be investigated, was one that created individual rewards at team expense.  Provided that that has been changed, this may not longer be an issue.

Regardless, try to find a group that is as autonomous as possible and a boss that has a reputation for fighting for his employees, as that will always be key in a large organization.