Microsoft Reviews

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – 1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop.

2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice.

3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Cons – Brand on Your Resume: After many years of losing market share and struggling to be at the front end of innovation and the fact that there's 90,000 employees, don't think MSFT is necessarily going to be attractive on your resume to more agile and smaller companies.

Managing Your Career: Make you say this out loud so it registers - 90,000 employees work there. Double that for vendors. It is VERY hard to "stand out" and move up in the company. Don't expect your manager to be much of an advocate or enabler to help you meet your career goals - they are basically trying to survive the stack rank every year too. Not familiar with the stack rank? Check out the 2012 Vanity Fair article called "Microsoft's Lost Decade".

Advice to Senior Management – I'll type it here - but I don't they are listening...
1. Help proven talent move laterally in the company for new opportunities.
2. Kill/evolve the stack rank. Here's basically how it's viewed:. 30% of the company gets 1s and 2s - and they are happy. 50% get 3s and that basically feels like getting a "C" in school. This sucks for talented people when a multitude of UNCONTROLLABLE conditions keep you from getting into 1 or 2 range. The 20% getting anything below a 3 are walking dead. In summary, 70% of the company walk away from the review cycle feeling like crap. This is no good.

After 10 years, I'm leaving - it's just a matter of time until I find the right opportunity. I need to find a company spends 90% of it's time building technology experiences, as opposed to 90% of its time building PowerPoints. And I expect to refuse the exit interview - because if you really cared what I thought, you wouldn't ask me after I decided to leave.

I have been working at Microsoft full-time

Pros – Smart people, good pay, care employees

Cons – Politics, moving slowly, manager is the key

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than a year

Pros – career opportunities are endless, but each applicant must compete with internal and external employees for each job.

Cons – you have to make sure you take time for your family. There are so many things available to consume your time, you can easily fill up your personal calendar as well as your professional calendar.

Advice to Senior Management – proactively manage work/life balance

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than a year

Pros – challenging atmosphere, learn more about programming

Cons – expectations are high, need to put more hours of work

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Depending on the group you work with, you could be working on the most leading edge technology. Great people, lot of talent, cash rich, and hungry to get back to glory days.
There are so many roles and decisions that you can get a breadth of experience while staying in the same company. There are some great managers in the company are they are invested in your career. Its key to land in one such team.

Cons – Big company, slow decisions, stack ranking employees. You don't want to be competing against your own peer group. If you land with a bad manager you can be stuck in that role for 18 months before you can move.

Advice to Senior Management – Do not stack rank employees....it kills the idea of collaboration.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Variety of opportunities, Many smart people.

Cons – Some groups are political. Company values are not followed by many.

Advice to Senior Management – Value real contributors

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for less than a year

Pros – fun environment, very different then most retail stores I have worked for, always in the know about what is going on, what sales were like the day before.

Cons – pay could be better since there is no commission, weekends are hectic lots of kids running around.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Microsoft full-time for more than a year

Pros – Worked with some of the most intelligent, driven, dedicated people i've ever had the pleasure of working with. Pushed me to grow and get better as a designer, and as a team mate in general.

Cons – Required to give it your all, work long hours and keep up with the competition. Potential for burn-out.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Microsoft full-time for more than a year

Pros – CSS is the best organization in Microsoft to work for. Lots of opportunity, friendly people and minimal politics.

Cons – I miss the sense or ownership and continuity that I had a development lead.

Advice to Senior Management – Bring the culture of CSS to the rest of the company, particularly the product group.

I have been working at Microsoft full-time

Pros – best of tech companies
compassionate people
good work life balance
great facilities
work from home
health benefits and other benefits are great
infrastructure is world class

Cons – The agility on doing something
Not perceived as the coolest company in the US
salary is not the best in the IT industry

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company