Pros

Pros:

Well known company
Customers want to know what you have to say and are genuinely interested
The size of the company and the breadth of its products allow for continual growth

Cons

Cons:

Pressure
The size of the company prevents agility
Success can depend on your knowledge of the internal organization

Advice to Senior Management

More vision
Curves create politics

Pros

Medical benefits are the best in the industry.

Cons

Career growth limited if you are not in Mountain View and Lack of creative problem solving. Politically charged environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Transparency - people are smart enough to know when they are being told a good story. The benefits of a good debate can improve organization and products.

Pros

Lots of cool technologies. Many leading products are developed at MS. Some teams value innovation, security and quality, but not all.

Cons

Crowded place, can get easily lost there. Incompetent managers. Review system sucks big time.
The work place can get very unfriendly because every because everybody fights for good reviews

Advice to Senior Management

Try to understand people better. Don't just copy other companies, foster innovation inside the company as well. The review system is crap

Pros

it is a nice stable work environment. do your job earn your pay. if you're an average performer, no one really bugs you if you get your work done.

Cons

day in and day out, stability can get a bit hackneyed. a paycheck is nice, but sometimes the stiffling culture is a little too bill gates centric.

Advice to Senior Management

you can really motivate us by adding some cheer. good pay is just "hygine". i'll give you 110 percent if you just treat me with some respect.

Pros

The products you work on will be used by millions of people. Employees of Microsoft are very bright and the culture is welcoming.

Cons

As a developer I wasn't too keen on the software development model they have. The PM/test/dev model works okay but in my experience there was too much wasted time trying to communicate between the three roles. I feel like more work would get done if there were less meetings and interruptions throughout the day.

Advice to Senior Management

Leaders seem to be well informed and smart enough to make good decisions business wise. Management wise, I think most employees felt that there were better places to work with more freedom and less procedure. I understand that it's necessary in a big company but bureaucracy doesn't feel good for software development .

Pros

Great benefits.
Lots of different products to work on.

Cons

Zero strategy beyond the windows / office gravy train.
Promotions occur based on how long you've been friends with your manager.
Engineers run the business units, and typically, engineers that embody the not-invented-here syndrome. Even though we have bought every successful piece of technology in our portfolio.
The focus on "platform strategy" eliminates any attention to user experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your heads out of your ass. The windows/office gravy train will end. Perhaps it takes another 10 years, but you have nothing to that will generate 20billion in revenue by then.

Pros

Great place to work if you want to progress your career in high-tech. You get to work with really smart people.

Cons

Work hours could be long sometimes. Lots of internal competition.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide better communications of company direction, vision and strategy.

Pros

- Lot of smart people are working there
- Nice benefits (medical insurance, Pro Club, parking, etc.)
- Corporate matching of gift in money and time
- Great place to build your resume if you leave before the 5 yrs mark

Cons

- Ego driven management that rewards smart jerks
- To survive, people need to spend more time doing their own promotion than actually work
- Company lives in perpetual denial of its mistakes
- MS is its own world and new employees have a big learning curve

Advice to Senior Management

The management is in denial that something is not working, that employees are not happy, that users are mostly not satisfied, that competitors can sometimes be better etc. So my advice: Stop listening your ego, instead, open your ears and your eyes.
And you're smart, so do something about it.

note: some Business Units, and few leaders are better than the others...

Pros

Microsoft is a great company to work for, until you get to a level where politics become too common place and you find yourself having to go through artifical exercises of self promotion in order to maintain visibility.

Cons

MIddle management is relatiely weak throughout.

Advice to Senior Management

It's probably time to get some fresh blood at the helm.

Pros

Microsoft takes good care of its interns. Competitive compensation, including relocation, help with rent during your internship, a variety of intern-only field trips, and your choice of commuting benefits: car rental, bike plan (MS pays most of the $$ for a new bike), public bus pass, and wi-fi enables Microsoft commuter buses.

Job satisfaction will depend on which team you are embedded with.

Cons

On some teams, the expectation is that interns won't make a real contribution; and that your internship is just a public relations sales pitch to potential future employees.

The company culture is quite quirky; it seems that many employees aren't genuinely or wholeheartedly invested in Microsoft or the project their working on....evangelize Windows Mobile to your co-workers during the day, and play on the iPhone after work. Perhaps it's just about a nice paycheck and excellent benefits package.

Advice to Senior Management

I found the mid-level managers to be quite competent; though sometimes there is a good-ol'-boy mentality to reward those who've been at Microsoft for awhile (rather than reward competence). Steve Ballmer can be embarrassing.