Large Portfolio makes Microsoft an excellent place to work - Software Development Engineer II Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
Jan 25, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Smart people 2. Large portfolio of products/services. So, if you find out that you want to work in a different product because of your interest or experience, you can do so because you will find pretty much all the domains of computer science in the company. I have moved internally a couple of times. 3. Amazing benefits. Probably one of the best in the market (no free food like Google though) 4. Company encourages innovation via some internal programs where you can form a team in the company with as many people as you want and develop something cool and get noticed officially. 5. Lots of training programs for personal development Bottomline, if you get a good manager, you can really excel.

Cons

1. To a certain level, there is politics involved in management. That can halt your personal growth. 2. Review system is not the best (though it has been updated in last year, don't know how will it work out yet) 3. To move internally, you have to go through a full interview loop, but you can't change your level or pay scale. Well, this makes sense from company's perspective, but one might think again. If you have to go through full interview loop, why not just try outside ? You might get a raise.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jul 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Discretionary Time Off and Benefits Work life balance

Cons

Ambiguity and constant change isn’t for everyone. High performance work culture, but the pay doesn’t match.

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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