Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-10-31
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Very nice comp plans - enough to keep you hooked
Pros: Incredible resources available to employees, from hardware to software to training.  Also, having the Microsoft business card just gives you instantaneous access to key people, whether it is customers, analysts, press, partners, etc.  The comp plan at Microsoft tends to be on the higher side - where employees make a lot and have a decent amount of upside with stock options (but unless you are a "Partner" level, don't expect to ever make enough to retire).
Cons: Microsoft is a cutthroat organization, where employees are pitted against each other due to the forced "normal curve" whereby managers are forced to grade employees on a graded list, with the bottom 10% judged to be "C" players that need to be weeded out.  HR still forces you to grade on this curve, regardless of how small or large your team is, and how well the team has performed.  It creates a very bad environment where people often don't want to help each other out on projects.  

Also, another downside is that because MSFT is so huge, they tend to be very internally focused and don't spend enough time looking at interesting things happening in the industry outside of Redmond.  This creates a bit of a bubble on campus and I think part of the reason why the stock has stagnated over the past 13+ years.