Pros

Great place to gain diverse experience with latest technologies and tools, as well as to pursue new techniques and approaches

Cons

After the layoffs, some employees seem demoralized and not as vested in doing the job as they were before the layoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper management should involve lower management more in any personnel decisions, especially those involving layoffs and any other negative moves.

Pros

You will work with many bright people
Challenging business and technology problems
Executive leadership's focus and determination
Opportunities across the company
Great benefits

Cons

A big layer of incompetent middle managers especially in Director and Senior Director levels. Most of these folks came from "old" Microsoft. These would be Windows and Office orgs which function as the DMV. These middle managers are completely clueless in an intensely competitive online business . They are past a point where they can learn and grow. Most often, there is no interest in learning or understanding the nitty gritty details. These people operate with their acquired political acumen and want to "wing it" while making decisions without doing any necessary homework. For many of them, "extra-curricular" activities are priorities than real work. In a business where Microsoft is struggling, this middle management fat needs to be mercilessly sliced away if the company wants to improve its market share and perception.

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate the incompetency or else the talent that you spend a lot of money to acquire and develop would leave. The state of the economy should not lull you into a sense of stupor. Improve your performance review processes especially at the Director and Senior Director levels. "Old Microsoft" connections and political alliances should not be a substitute for leadership and aptitude. The online business requires fast learners and strong leaders. "Poets" and "Office sales-persons" don't have the chops to come up to speed with the business models, econometrics and technologies that shape the online world.

Pros

Work with incredibly smart people, access to advanced technologies and know-how. Ability to create products and features used by literally billions of people worldwide, the ability to have large impact.

Cons

Lack of innovative culture, too many middle-aged people whose primary concerns are their family as opposed to creating the next killer app. No longer has the "we will change the world" mentality, has become a company whose primary purpose is to serve shareholders.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote innovation, be more agile, and put innovation and employees before shareholders. Nobody wants to work at a technology company in order to "fulfill their duties to their shareholders". People would rather go work at a place where the primary objective is to change the world.

Pros

flexable work time and great training. working with very smart people who are very good at what they do. good pay

Cons

bad management
too much overhead
process over result
perfomance review does not really measure performance. In fact, I have no idea what does it measure.

Advice to Senior Management

less overhead. focus more on result and less on process. get ride of the performance review, which is giant waste of time

Pros

The benefits are the best thing about MSFT. Terrible place for women and minorities

Cons

It really is all about who you know not what you know

Advice to Senior Management

PAy better atttention to performance mgmt system

Pros

Smart people, good opportunities, get to work on interesting projects, great campus, great benefits, ability to move around the world if you so choose

Cons

Work-life balance can be challenging, but mostly because you yourself need to proactively manage how many hours you work.... If you work 20 hours per day, there will still be work to do, so you have to make the choice where to draw the line.

Advice to Senior Management

More focus on what's important, more agility in bringing products to market, more clarity what the uber-strategy is for the company.

Pros

Smart peer group, job security.

Cons

Sometimes you're working at the whims of management in capacities that you don't understand.

Advice to Senior Management

Let groups compete more. Synergy is getting in the way of innovation.

Pros

work with big name company

Cons

It does not look like 10 years ago when Bill is in charge.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to re-engine the company becomes another apple. MS prodouct keeps releasing new version with features customers don't really need. Revenue growth is flat. It becomes a big IBM which is not good for fast growing PC/server market.

Pros

Flexible work, okay paystub,benefit is very nice

Cons

Review system sucks. I don't like the way they meseaure people. Some bad managers as I heard of. My manager is okay, that is why i stay with same group for long time

Advice to Senior Management

less middle managers, ask them to do the real job instead of just talking and picking

Pros

Flexible
A lot of smart people
THere always seems something excting going on

Cons

A lot of politics
Very much like suvivor
Can be draining
A lot of reorginzations which shows a clear lack of planning

Advice to Senior Management

Try to execute on a few things very well. Try not to have as many alignments changes.