Microsoft Reviews in Charlotte, NC Area

Pros

Good Salary
Great Benefits
Cutting Edge Work

Cons

Team work one sided. Task oriented not result driven. Ideas are not easily introduced and may be dismissed without even being examined. Long hours of tasks with no end solution on many projects that should have more streamline long term solutions. Six Months could be totally wasted on improvement projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Check you management teams for real results and not quick fixes

Pros

Surrounded by some of the brightest, most creative co-workers in the world. Recognized nationally so even if you were fired from Microsoft, you are probably qualified almost anywhere else. Amazing benefits, casual dress.

Cons

MS has become a "pc organization" and the HR department is gate-keeping some of the real talent from ever being seen by the hiring managers. Also, the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher so work-life balance is nearly impossible.

Pros

Free Beverages, xbox 360, Causal dress in workplace

Cons

Backstabbing People . Everyone is out for themselves. Many individuals are not qualified to do the jobs they are preforming. Work life balance does not apply to everyone.

Pros

Microsoft is an amazing place and provides the opportunity to work with amazing people. The company's strategy for the future is strong and has the cash behind it to fail in some areas and still recover. I really enjoy working here.

Cons

Hard to think of specific cons because I'm in a position I love and have amazing work life balance. One possible con would be that the diversity of the technology areas that Microsoft touches makes it difficult to stay up to date on things so I can keep my customer informed of all that is going on.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice for now is to give as much notice as possible for leadership change. Robbie Bach and Ray Ozzie's departure in the past few months were a shock and it would be good to know as soon as possible about upcoming SLT changes.

Pros

Great place to learn and stay on top of most tech stuff. You work with very smart people.

Cons

Over the years, it stopped being a fun place to work, lowered the training, added tons of crappy managers to micro manage everything. Trying to script everything so that can save a dime while stepping over dollars.They promised extreme futures and wealth for employees that stuck it out...then delivered very little once the antitrust hit. And recently they had a silent project to manage out the aging employees. "Genesis"

Advice to Senior Management

What a shame that the guys at the top allowed the company to fall so far, from a company that made millionaires out of alot of workers to one that let years of stock options for employees and stock holder go to worthless while the big dogs continued to make billions. Long term employees of 13-18 years of service are being kicked to the curb with nothing. Your lucky the aging employees haven't taken you to court over the last few years.

Pros

good pay - great benefit - good work life balance.

culture to share knowledge is excellent.

I worked at MSFT for 6 years and loved it. I would work there again in a heartbeat. Very relaxed environment with focus on getting the job done right rather than management crap.

You are rewarded for your hard work and ability to change culture, products, and customer experience at Microsoft.

Annual cash and stock bonuses provide motivation to work hard.

Ability to tele-commute or work from home is excellent.

Microsoft please get that stock back up in this economic rough spot. Please! Please!

Cons

none - lots of travel in consulting field

Advice to Senior Management

keep the stock up!!

Pros

Microsoft offers some of the best benefits imaginable. From totally free health insurance for the entire family, to generous time off. After eight years at Microsoft, I received four weeks of vacation this year. This year, my wife and I also had a baby. I haven't paid a single penny in health care costs related to either the pregnancy or the labor/delivery and subsequent pediatric care. No copay, no deductible, nothing. Microsoft also offers infant care leave for mothers AND fathers. As a new dad, I received an automatic four weeks paid leave. Combined with my four weeks of vacation, I took two paid months off of work when my daughter was born. You simply cannot beat these benefits. Add to these benefits the 401k matching, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Stock Awards and an incredible pay package and Microsoft simply cannot be beat!

Cons

Work, Work, Work! I work extremely hard and work long hours to exceed my goals. Oftentimes, there isn't much recognition. Additionally, because MSFT is a huge company, there are way too many corporate rules and regulations to abide by and the bureaucratic nonsense oftentimes gets in the way of good performance.

Distance to corporate is also a downside. I work in the field and only make it to Seattle at most twice a year. Everyone in Redmond lives in an ivory tower and the disconnect between the field and corporate is shocking - from a culture and a realistic perspective.

Advice to Senior Management

Trim the fat. Get rid of underperforming employees. Get rid of 25% of middle management. Allow your stellar individual contributors to contribute without so many ridiculous administrative tasks.

Pros

The people, the people, the people. Knowledge sharing is great too. Work\life balance was also never a problem however Microsoft management will work you to death if you let them.

Cons

Senior Management really doesn't care about the employee as an assest that can develop and grow further. It's become a numbers game to them. Too many outsiders came into senior vp levels and starting running the company like any other. It killed the culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate some of the upper management levels and compensate folks fairly when a job is well done.

Pros

The benefit package is outstanding and makes it easy to find service providers; The casual work environment is very conducive to brainstorming & problem solving. The ability to go into work each day and work with some of the smartest, most creative people on the planet. Generally speaking, these are educated, outspoken, opinionated yet tolerant, caring people who love to give their all, do a good job, beat the competition, and have fun while doing it. Morale money is allocated each month per employee to go to movies, play paintball, etc. Friendships forged at Microsoft tend to outlast your employment - it really is a people place to work.

Cons

Human resources has gradually ruined managements ability to hire the best person for the job. Too many limitiations on formal education vs. experience and ability. Ridiculous hiring questions that have absolutely nothing to do with the job being performed tend to weed out the truly smart and capable, as they have little tolerance for the idiocy imposed. Stack ranking: where a room full of team managers take turns throwing various employees to the lions in exchange for the ability to promote and reward a select few - usually based on the select fews having worked on "projects" i.e., having performed the manager's job. Shift in recent years away from using metrics - allegedly. Case closure, MPI, survey results, days to close - these used to be primary factors in job promotion and performance reviews. They are being gradually replaced with more subjective criteria - easier to throw an employee to the lions, harder to defend a truly dedicated, qualified engineer who hasn't worked on some high visibility management pet project.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the round tables! Truly listen to your engineers in the trenches - leave management out of the room so that you can hear the real story of what is happening on the ground. A good manager is not going to be afraid to leave their team alone with their GM. A bad manager will be terrified and attempt all sorts of interference and intimidation. Ever wonder why there are always a couple of engineers whose schedules prohibit them from attending a round table? THOSE are the ones you really want to hear from.

Pros

Pays well, learn a lot, get respect from peers and management. I believe that this short sequence of words sums things up very well and that I really don't need to say anything further. Some, like the creators of this site, might disagree, but I think that my statement fully addresses the question.

Cons

Poor internal tools and a culture of working many hours. I believe that this short sequence of words sums things up very well and that I really don't need to say anything further. Some, like the creators of this site, might disagree, but I think that my statement fully addresses the question.

Advice to Senior Management

Fix our tools!