Pros
Pay and benefits are good - esp. if you negotiate well Good work-life balance Career development & training are good Depending on your team - highly flexible working Casual / informal working environment - can be huge amounts of fun The people are (on the whole) really great - you will work with likeable people (In the UK at least) a truly diverse employer that really takes protecting its employees seriously International business often with opportunities to travel Extraordinary flexibility to move within the organisation to different disciplines and learn new skills Depending on your team and boss real opportunities to take on big responsibilities and work on great products
Cons
They were trying to tackle this when I left but there's too much internal competition and it gets in the way of business Matrix organisation that doesn't alway incentivise collaboration across teams - but as above this may have changed Microsoft has suffered huge market share decline across products and this can be demoralising This is true of anywhere, but you need to make sure you land in the right place with the right boss and the right people around you. There are pockets of high politics which can be corrosive If you go in too junior, you'll get stuck. In spite of Satya Nadella, it's hard to rise Business planning and forecasting processing often more about showboating than reality - again not always good for business