Vantaggi
Stock value keeps going up and up and up. Decent benefits, but not the best. Competitive pay. Employment stability- generally you really have to screw up to get totally fired. Easy to transfer internally, and an internal transfer is often like an entirely new job. Definitely room to grow skills and try any new project you would like to. Better than average response to ADA accommodation requests. Not perfect but better than many.
Svantaggi
No one will ever complain if you work too hard, and it's easy for a perfectionist to work into burnout quickly. Everyone gets so heads-down on their own thing that you have to engage in internal social networking to get people to help you with things that should be part of their job. Required "bell curve" stack ranking means that promotion depends heavily on a boss who knows how to play the game on your behalf and will do so for you. This stack-ranking was made less visible after the NYT article but it seems like it still happens behind the scenes. Golden handcuffs: stocks are awarded as part of your "total compensation" but don't vest until 2 years after they are awarded, so if stocks do not go up as much as previously you actually take a pay cut from the year before. High team turnover: I averaged 1.4 bosses per year there. A lot of tools are proprietary/in-house so certain specific types of learning is not transferrable outside the company. Seattle traffic is absolutely horrific.