Probably fine if you live in WA - Software Development Engineer II Microsoft Employee Review

3.0
Oct 1, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Microsoft offers very good benefits (except for PTO, which is average), and the employee stock purchase plan, bonuses, and stock grants make leaving difficult.

Cons

I worked as part of a small remote team which had become part of Microsoft via an acquisition. My team and I found that if you don't live in Redmond or Bellevue, it's much harder to feel included as part of the larger team and very hard to be promoted or recognized for your full contribution. They had a ranking-style "bucket" review system that meant that someone always had to be put in the "bottom bucket", an awkward situation for any manager. My team and I found that our manager preferred to put his out-of-towners in those bottom buckets, and it was harder for us to defend ourselves against this action from afar. We had to push to be invited to visit Bellevue or Redmond, and our requests were often delayed or denied, so it seemed like we were held in remote reserve for the convenience of being put in the bottom bucket. We felt like orphans, to be sure. Our boss generally did not like working with remote employees, and we could not have been more aware of that fact. As I was leaving the company, the "bucketing" review system was being phased out, but the overall Redmond-centric vibe in the company is still something to be wary of.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

4.0
Jan 28, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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".

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