Microsoft Reviews

Pros

Good technologies, continue learning culture, very good benefits, flexible work hour, casual dress and atmosphere, beautiful Redmond campus, efficiency and automation in everything and processes, private or semi private office.

Cons

low starting salary, very low merit increase for software tester, under the water stock options, very small stock awards that take about 5 years until they are fully vested. small professional growth in term of climbing up the level (ladder). Some test leads were very bad.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't listen to the test leads all the time. Listen to the individual contributors too. Provide better annual salary increase to lower level of testers. Most testers probably receive between 1 and 2% annual increase of their based salaries.

Pros

The scale of the products like Windows, Office, Xbox, etc is very inspiring and challenging. You'll appreciate the process of designing, building and testing.

Cons

Progress might not be as fast-paced as some startups or smaller companies. Your responsibilities too might be limited and it takes hard work and a lot of time to gain recognition and move up the ladder.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the review process more transparent. Also, communicate the rationale and perspective behind big decisions. Make the workplace more social.

Pros

The benefits are among the best in the industry. They have excellent funds in their 401k offerings, they have insurance with no copay or paycheck deduction. They have legal benefits that are offered at a nominal fee, and free access to a top-notch gym and spa facility. They have health clinics throughout the year, free vaccines and discounts for anything from child care to restaurants all over Puget Sound.
Their cash bonuses and their stock bonuses are also amazingly generous. For a good performer, it pays to work at MSFT. It also has an amazing work-life balance. I got a 5-month maternity leave and do not work on Fridays. Facilities-wise, it is also top notch with the expected freebies for a techie company like kitchen goodies, subsidized cafeteria meals and the employee area known as "The Commons", which features a variety of retail dining options, convenience services (post office, bank, bike store, mobile stores, etc.), meeting spaces, and sports facilities—all situated in an urban-market atmosphere. Also, the shuttle service known as The Connector is one of the best ideas they've had. I don't ever drive to work!

I have worked in both small start-up companies and bigger high-tech companies and this is a great place to work. Since I am an industry hire with 12 years of experience, I have a very high compensation ratio for my level. I would have to be a Director of PM at Oracle, for example, to make the kind of salary I make now, especially after the across-the-board salary increase that took effect this past review year (August 2011).

Cons

As any big company with so many employees, products and organizations, every division is like a mini-company of its own. Your work life greatly varies depending on which organization you work at. I happened to be in different orgs in the same division and the learning experience, mentorship and career advancement I have accomplished in this group is a far cry from the previous group I belonged to. If you get a good lead and manager and you work hard, you are in for good life at MSFT. I don't see why I would ever want to work elsewhere. I am up for a promotion to Senior this review year and I expect to get it by working hard and smart. Sounds simple enough to me now, but it wasn't as clear cut in the previous group I was at.
Would Google give me more money? Perhaps, but I don't have to work 80 hours a week, I can take long vacations and have my Fridays off without being perceived like a slacker.

Advice to Senior Management

Mentor your ICs and accept your mistakes, then learn from them. Leave the arrogance behind and cut the pork. Consolidate your organizations and get rid of teams that are redundant. Listen to your customer! All orgs within the company should be more tightly integrated so the experience from an IC perspective isn't so vastly different from one team to the other.

Pros

-Talented People - working with the brightest and the best
 - Fun Challenges
-Reasonable work life balance
 - Great benefits especially helath although it is getting ammended soon

Cons

- There is a belief in one man heroes. The senior leadership beleives that 20% of people contribute to 80% of the success. Spoils the fun of working as a team and accomplishing goals together!

Advice to Senior Management

Don't just pay lip service to team culture - make changes to the performance review system and embrace team fully.

Pros

Work with the latest technology.
Work with smart people.

Cons

Can get lost in a big company.

Pros

- Incredibly smart, motivated, funny co-workers. I have learned a lot from the people around me.
- Ability to work on products that are used by millions/billions of people
- 2012 is looking like a huge year -- Windows 8, Windows Server 8, Windows Phone/Nokia Lumia 900, XBox, Kinect...
- Massive changes over past 2 years, putting sharper focus on engineering, developers
- Willing to admit mistakes and start over -- Windows Phone
- Marketing and advertising getting a lot better
- Great pay, great benefits, strong support for employees

Cons

- It's a big company, and it affects billions of customers, so there are some processes and rules that come with that. I can deal with that, but I know other people who get pretty frustrated. I have to say, the amount of BS rules and bureaucratic busywork feels way less in my world than it did 5 years ago.
- It can be a very fast-moving, aggressive culture. I can deal with that too, and I think you need that in our industry, but I know some people who didn't like it and didn't stick. Feels like we are doing better at combining the aggressive quick-decision culture you need in order to be nimble with a little bit of recognition that not everybody is wired that way and you need to listen to those people too and get the best out of them too.

Advice to Senior Management

- Stay the course -- we are starting to see all the investments over the past few years begin to pay off. Don't get distracted by short-term bright shiny objects. Don't do dumb things like buy Yahoo or RIM...

Pros

Excellent Value Proposition
Strong well-know Products
Great access to Technical Decision Makers
Everyone wants to talk with Microsoft
Unified Collaboration solutions are the Best
Great Benefits for Employees.
Microsoft has a tremendous giving cultture. Example they have a Giving campaign where they encourage every employee to give to their community.

Cons

Too much noise from consumer market.
Everyone wants to talk with Microsoft, sometimes this creates waste due to a lack of focus for Techincal and Business Meetings.
Broad solutions can be confusing for customers and licensing is a world all of it's own.

Advice to Senior Management

No need to boil the Oceans. Make great software that solves business problems and connects, educates and entertains consumers and you will far exceed expectations.

Pros

Microsoft has great benefits -- we haven't paid a nickel in medical out of our own pocket in 10+ years.

Reasonable 401k matching.

I earn an excellent salary when all benefits, salary, and stock are taken into account.

I have had occasional opportunities to do excellent work -- but mostly my work is somewhat pedestrian and straightforward. You can make a difference here, but it's frequently hard to force a significant change in direction even when you know it's right.

you work around extremely intelligent and motivated people. Even the hobbies people pursue are done with excellence -- this is truly amazing.

MS has put a real premium on my personal growth -- working in such a large, intertwined environment has forced me to "grow up" in a variety of ways, and this has improved me both personally and professionally, and the company spends precious time each year helping me focus on this. Sometimes the training seems lame, but it always forces you to think about how to improve yourself. This might be my favorite result of working here.

Cons

No customer contact if you're a developer -- MS is just too big.

Development at MS is much more time-based than quality based. It's unfortunate, but that's probably the way I would do things if I were in charge anyway, as it makes good business sense. But it's frequently not very exciting.

MS doesn't seem to be a place you retire from. There is constant pressure to improve or leave -- and let's face it, we all have our limitations, we can't all be CEO. So you're eventually likely to be forced out in one way or another as you get older and get close to your potential. So while the constant improvement is great for you, it's only great to a point -- and then you start to have trouble changing jobs within the company as your reviews level out.

Advice to Senior Management

Dump Ballmer. Force the divisions to work together more effectively. We're starting to see some of this, but it's very slow to develop and it may be too late to develop the synergy we all know we're capable of.

Pros

Everyone I met over the age of 30 was happy to have an incredibly stable job at a company with excellent benefits and a lot of respect for their software engineers.

Cons

Everyone I met under the age of 30 didn't have anything against Microsoft but was restless and wanted to go do something else with their lives.

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing in particular, I loved my time there and if you're looking for that sort of stability I can't imagine a better place to code.

Pros

Very nice place to work. Latest technologies used everywhere. Very comptetent management and workforce. Appreciation for talent and innovative ideas.

Cons

There is a depth company. You dig in deeper into technologies and concepts. The breadth knowledge is available only for some positions

Advice to Senior Management

Very nice. Keep up the good work. We are grateful to have such a wonderful senior management supporting us.