Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-11-06
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

Learned a lot, developed a lot.  Great company to work for a number of years.
Pros: A few pros:
1-Very professional work force molds you into representing yourself the best way you can in your future career.
2-Fast paced and a lot of challenges, teaches you a lot on the job.
3-Fun teams with casual environment, great relationships and lifelong friendships.
4-Flexible work schedule, no set business hours and face time required as long as deliverables are hit.
5-Compensation and Benefits are second to none (but comes with the extra hours)
Cons: 1-Work Life Balance is a focus area for the company, but almost impossible to maintain a workweek less than 50-60+ hours, or you will not be regarded as a hard working employee.  Nighttime work is the norm.  It is about how late can you stay up and still show up at work in the morning.
2-Very tough review system, everyone is smart and start playing games to get ahead of each other.  Some people get unfair reviews if they are managing up or spend significant amount of time on office politics
3-Random firedrills are a culture, being planful is almost penalized, as plans do not stick and you end up spending all the time to be proactive and planful and not getting the benefit.