Pros
Working with smart and passionate people makes you smarter and a more driven employee and there are still some great people in the UK and HQ (Seattle) If you're early in career then Microsoft will give you a potential bump in pay but will definitely give exposure to great customers and products such as AI and cloud
Cons
The leadership in the UK, EMEA, and US, are in it for their share pay out at the end of the year, and the easiest way to do that is cut headcount / cost in Microsoft Q3 so the end of year balance sheet looks better - means you can can and quite often will lose you're job when you over achieve. UK specific but Clare Barclay (UK CEO) has thrown all of her teams and leadership under the bus to save her own job and so the culture is really bad. There has been a big move to get high earners off the payroll even though they are there because they deliver positively to the culture and the number. As a result teams now repeatedly miss their targets and bonus If you're experienced then come to Microsoft knowing its a stepping stone but also that your base is almost certainly a lot lower than the person youre replacing. T&E has been massively cut so limited travel and transport for team meetings, no travel to the US, and no UK Christmas party for the last 2 years to help the sub save money despite record profits
