MicroStrategy Reviews

Pros

Pretty relaxed atmosphere to work. Good benefits overall. Probably one of the better companies to work around in the area.

Cons

Top down decision making structure can be frustrating. Compensation can be improved. Promotions are tenure based and not so much performance based

Pros

There are some hard workers and deserve recognition.

Cons

Typically, your the only one doing your job without any backup. You come back from vacation with work piled up waiting for your return. There seems to be a lack of company morale. There are some that take one too many breaks and some who treat others disrespectfully.

Advice to Senior Management

Maybe some mirco-managing is needed here. Run metrics on who performs and who doesn't.

Pros

The people are great. The culture is mostly laid back. The company is not perfect but learns from its mistakes and is well run, in my opinion.

Cons

Limited opportunities for advancement. Minimal investment into training and developing its employees. Compensation hasn't been up to par with other firms.

Pros

There are very few good reasons to work at MicroStrategy...the only one being the fact that people can work from home without issues.

Cons

Bottom line, in most every organization in the company, you will get screwed. There is no focus on people at all and HR seems completely absent as senior leaders look for any way to shove a stick up the hind end of their employees. Whether it is abusive treatment, moving targets or just the simple lack of caring about employee health and retention...and HR is invisible.

Advice to Senior Management

Like others have said, focus on people, do a review and training of senior leaders and find out where the cancer is and get rid of it, regardless of the good old boys networks.

Pros

A company for starters, just starters.

Cons

not a good place for senior level engineers. Politics stop you anytime.

Advice to Senior Management

what can I say?

Pros

Never too much workload
Plenty of relaxed hours

Cons

Very hard to move up
30% people did 70% of work

Pros

Sharp teammates, hard working and supportive.

Commissions are based on individual quota attainment which great if you're a veteran and know how to play politics to work with the best sales reps and work best accounts.

Cons

It states, "20 word minimum" to make it on the glassdoor site? Is there a maximum?

Dismal - From the beginning, you are required to pass a grueling 7-week company mandated technical indoctrination or else you are terminated immediately. This is by far one of the worst experiences a professional could ever endure in their career. Unless you're already a MicroStrategy expert from day one the entire process is excruciatingly stressful and menacing to say the least. Personally eye witnessed several people getting fired for failing. They don't care about your livelihood, period. "Didn't you read your work contract?"

Discouraging - There is an excess of obligatory policies and procedures outside of your core job function impeding your vocational effectiveness to the organization. These range from logging work hours on a weekly basis to expense submissions that take forever to be reimbursed in full. Minutia is encouraged. They don't care if you have to work overtime, nights and weekends. Just make sure you log all those hours.

Disheartening - the salary is. Commissions based on individual quota attainment can be financially devastating for new hires. It's politics as usual where old-timers get to have their cake and eat it too and even if your personal contributions help teams reach 300% of quota, you aren't rewarded unless you're directly assigned to a named opportunity. As a result, you can have many quarters without receiving a single commission. This can introduce a hostile environment where sales engineers are bickering over how much they should deserve over another when a split is finally necessary. Good luck trying to reach an unattainable OTE with that type of commission structure.

Disappointing - Last but definitely not least is the founder Michael Saylor himself who still remains at the helm, ruling the company like a dictatorship. Every business process approval gets kicked up to him. Yes, even your own performance reviews and weekly timesheet entries. Everyone must adhere to his ways and his ideas no matter how preposterous they are. If that means sacrificing the company's core competency for something that doesn't make much business sense, then so be it.

I'm convinced others will add much more.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with some dignity and respect by not working them like slave labor. People do have a life outside of MicroStrategy even though the CEO probably doesn't. They don't want to work nights and weekends without being compensated for it.

Pros

Company with strong technology with continuing growth prospects. Profitable company with large customer base and healthy recurring maintenance stream. Lots of talented, hard working, dedicated people across the organization. Company continues to make a very significant investment to train all new hires on company's core technologies. Company is still hiring, even in this market. That's definitely a strong pro.

Cons

No really dislikes here. More like clarifications about expectations.

It is very important to develop a personal support network with peers, managers, and key internal advocates. Good working relationships between group leaders, peers, and advocates are important in smoothing over any problems, especially the inevitable conflicts of interest that may arise.

Another key point: People who are self-directed and can manage their own career trajectory can thrive very well in this culture. Management does a very good job identifying good performance and recognizing strong consistent contributors and potential future leaders.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to take a pulse check to see how people actually feel about working here. Ask some candid questions and actively look for honest feedback.

Pros

okay for young people who are starting their career.

Cons

They show bonus potential as big item in benefits package. Only pay 25-50% unless you are a "favorite". Make sure you stay 2 months into next year to receive it.
Hard working developers get peanuts.

Pros

Business Intelligence (BI) is a hot area. The product itself is excellent. Most of the sales people are very good at what they do and value teamwork. Lots of good reference customers. It is a high-end product with a high-end market and customer base.

Cons

The professional services organization took a nosedive starting about mid-2009 when demand for services skyrocketed and there was an insufficient supply of PS consultants to meet the demand. That made life miserable for the middle managers in PS, and senior management just did not care that we were working like dogs and losing bonus $$ because we were unable to hit revenue targets due to the lack of PS supply. Terrible situation. The PS culture changed dramatically in a bad way in mid-2009 and people were less supportive of one another - this is due to the change in senior management in that organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Support your PS middle management layer in the regions. Resist the temptation to turn the organization into a boys' club of PTC alumni - but this is probably too late as the revolving door is already swinging wildly and many good people have left.