Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-10-03
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Too matrixed but pays well
Pros: It's a prominent company that values hiring competent people. You'll work around smart folks and that helps you to grow your own skills. They pay well, and once you're in Microsoft you'll have pretty good job security and can transfer to new positions easily.
Cons: It's difficult to be productive because too many people get in the way. With so many smart people and reviews that use forced bell curves, employees feel pitted against each other and many resort to political infighting rather than making decisions that are best for the company. It's also difficult to move up because Microsoft often values hiring external people for management roles but will shuffle the internal people around for lateral moves.