Vantaggi
Lots of interesting technology. Great name recognition. Medical benefits are the best I've seen. Overall compensation is pretty good, though the stock value has not been going well, even before the economic down turn. A lot of smart and passionate people. Microsoft is doing a better job with career tracks for the various disciplines.
Svantaggi
The overall culture is not collaborative, but this probably depends a lot on the individual teams. The company overall has been reactive to market trends recently. There is so much heirarchy that there ends up being plenty of waste, but it seems that senior management doesn't see it because the communication is filtered on the way up. The review system could still be improved, though the last round of changes has improved things,