Jun 21, 2016 - Azure Project Managerin Issaquah, WA
Recommend
CEO Approval
Business Outlook
Pros
If you are interested it is a great place to get experience in many different technological areas I highly recommend Microsoft. The benefits are really good, especially if you have dependent children. If things work out well you could get into a good group/team and make a real difference.
Life under Satya is MUCH better than under Ballmer, no question.
Cons
A decent amount of frustration occurs due to politics. Your career can excel more by aligning with the right manager and drinking the Kool-Aid with a lot of enthusiasm. Less based on your performance and impact. This is relative but being able to jump on the new trend handed down by management, learning the lingo and not questioning the merits does provide results. Not sure this is worse than other large corporations. Also, layoffs are now a regular part of doing business for Microsoft. If you plan on staying no more than 3 years is a safe bet.
Satya has really changed the top level culture of the company but it still will be a few years before group start to trust each other if they ever do.
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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Excellent Place to Gain Lots of Experience
Jun 21, 2016 - Azure Project Manager in Issaquah, WAPros
If you are interested it is a great place to get experience in many different technological areas I highly recommend Microsoft. The benefits are really good, especially if you have dependent children. If things work out well you could get into a good group/team and make a real difference. Life under Satya is MUCH better than under Ballmer, no question.
Cons
A decent amount of frustration occurs due to politics. Your career can excel more by aligning with the right manager and drinking the Kool-Aid with a lot of enthusiasm. Less based on your performance and impact. This is relative but being able to jump on the new trend handed down by management, learning the lingo and not questioning the merits does provide results. Not sure this is worse than other large corporations. Also, layoffs are now a regular part of doing business for Microsoft. If you plan on staying no more than 3 years is a safe bet. Satya has really changed the top level culture of the company but it still will be a few years before group start to trust each other if they ever do.
Other Employee Reviews
Great place to work but hard to move up quickly
Aug 16, 2022 - Business Operations AssociatePros
company, culture, reputation, learning opportunities, benefits, manager training
Cons
some orgs still operate with old, male dominance mentality and can be hard to advance your career.
Thoughts after 10 years....
Jan 28, 2013 - Anonymous Employee in Redmond, WAPros
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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