Cannot think of a better environment to work in!
Pros
New and challenging work. Technology keeps changing as products get released and new work come in. Working on the future most of the time. Excellent environment to work in. Flexible timings and nobody minds what you do with your time as long as you get things done. Leads and Managers are highly capable and have intimate knowledge of the work their team is doing. Test teams do a good job in ensuring the quality of the product. The amount of code written is huge and most of the times surpass the amount of development code in the product. PM, SDE, and SDET work in harmony and respect each other's roles and work done and I have never seen finger pointing any time during my stay here. I have my own office and brilliant machines to work with along with a very friendly group of people around me. What more do I want?
Cons
There is no real downside to this company. A few issues that I have heard are that some groups are very big and promotions and bonuses are not as per expectations. A few groups like Windows and Office have a lot of money while the latest upcoming groups might not have as much capital before the release of their products. Another issue that has cropped up lately is the quality of people being hired at Microsoft. It used to be that the very best get in, but I have seen a few people who have someone got a job when they are not suited to work for Microsoft, the main reason might be the hiring spree that Microsoft had a few months back.
