MicroStrategy Reviews

Pros

Overall, the people really make MicroStrategy (some of the best people I've ever worked with) and there are awesome perks (ex - gym, nitro coffee, beer on tap, close to the mall). Work-life balances is also highly encouraged. MicroStrategy also does quarterly reviews (and bonuses), which is a good way to make sure that your meeting expectations and on-track career-wise. The culture has really improved in the past couple years. If you're looking to grow and learn, this can be a great step in your career.

Cons

"Agile" can sometimes seem like an excuse for not committing to a course of action. Each quarter, Company Day is used as a time to deliver new company goals, which are often a complete shift from the previous quarter. Your overall experience depends highly upon your team and whether or not your manager empowers you to grow your career (you'll need to network to advance). You could probably get paid more elsewhere.

Pros

-For a first job out of college, you'll get some good learning experience and will work in a traditional tech setting -Decent benefits with a good lounge and gym on site -Coworkers are amazing. Very intelligent, kind, and interesting people to work with. It's easy to make friendships here

Cons

The company does not care about its employees. The corona virus crisis highlighted this more than ever. When every other tech company in the area and the country was encouraging their employees to telework, MicroStrategy kept insisting everyone should be in the office unless they have an "extreme emergency". None of their emails ever stressed that the company was concerned about their workforce, they only mentioned how important the customers are. Furthermore, the CEO's personal email to the company was one of the most unempathetic things I've ever read. He spoke about the crisis in terms of statistics, saying that we shouldn't worry because there are much worse diseases out there. The icing on the cake: he essentially wrote "some people will die but they're old so its okay, we really need to worry about the economy". It really shows how disconnected he is from normal working people. My advice? If you end up here get what experience you can in the first two years then go elsewhere that actually thinks of its workforce like people and not numbers to their bottom line

Pros

Very hard-working colleagues and some great mid-level management. The ability to work remotely is also a huge plus. They are also making investments in the products which have resulted in some very competitive offerings.

Cons

Senior management has eliminated compensation for sales on a large portion of the product portfolio yet still expects to have a motivated and effective sales force. The new senior sales leadership doesn't seem to understand the human aspect of leadership. You can't pull comp and expect that to motivate your sales staff to focus on the one remaining item you comp. Instead, it motivates us to find a new company to work for. Initiatives and comp plans are also completely misaligned. Major pushes for sales this year are getting all customers upgraded to the latest software version and moving the majority to the cloud. Guess what sales doesn't get compensated on? That's right, cloud and upgrades (among many other things). Additionally, sales management is putting a lot of pressure on us to boost our pipeline numbers to unrealistic heights. The reality is, people are artificially boosting numbers in an attempt to make things look good but the real prospects don't look promising.

Pros

Not really pros, but a list of what you need to know when you take this job: 1. You have to be self-motivated and willing to teach yourself. You can form an internal network to assist with any issues, but for the most part it will be referencing documentation and tech notes to be up to date with customer issues. 2. You have to enjoy challenges. You will face a lot and have to be willing to problem solve like your life depends on it. 3. You get out what you put into it. If you put in minimal effort, customers won't have nice things to say and you won't be recommended to work with them again. If you put in the effort to learn and meet customer expectations, you'll do fine. 4. DEFINITELY expect travel especially at the beginning. Once you're established, it's easier to find remote work (if that's what you want) and customers that are okay with it. You'll still have to travel every once in a while, but not nearly as often. This also really depends on the customer. I went from traveling about 50% of the time to about 10% or where the customer gave me the choice to travel or work remote. I absolutely love my job, but I'm also someone who loves challenges and doesn't like to be bored.

Cons

It's consulting, which means everything comes down to how much revenue you bring in. You don't usually get to choose the projects you're on, which means you don't really get to choose how much money you bring in, which means your rating doesn't always seem fair. With that being said: being proactive and helping internally when there is not a lot of billable work is important and can make up for less time working with customers.

Pros

Good salary and sound product

Cons

Poor executive leadership and lack of managerial courage

Pros

MicroStrategy is a well known brand with multiple offices located around the world, providing an international flavor depending on your role. There are some very good, bright people at the company, however, the best and brightest are generally the quickest to look for the exits. The company will test your ability to endure pain and suffering in your career, providing a great opportunity to learn a lot about yourself in the process. The company offers above average benefits and has a 401k match program, however, there are no RSU's or ESPP. Compensation in the US and in select international locations is generally fair.

Cons

This is an incredibly dysfunctional company that is run by an autocratic leader, surrounded by a C-Suite that has been hired to re-affirm him, not to challenge him. As a result, the company is replete with cliques, heavy-handed top-down management decisions, and political gamesmanship that operates within a fear-based culture of conformity. Employee reviews are subjective and ratings given to direct reports are typically lowered by upper management overruling middle management decisions. Middle managers have no real power to make decisions for their teams with all decisions resting upon the final approval of MJS, who is often manipulated by his direct C-Level reports. The company has been losing market share and stays in business because of customer renewals and the CEO's billions. Very few net-new licenses are ever sold and they are not competing well against other leading players in the BI space. The poor showings in the Gartner Magic Quadrants is justified internally by saying Gartner has changed their methodology rather than acknowledging product shortcomings and closing those gaps. MicroStrategy does not offer stock options (RSU's or ESPP) and doesn't offer anything to build long term employee loyalty. The fastest way to a raise or a promotion is to either threaten to leave or to actually leave and then return to MicroStrategy -- there are many boomerangs who have negotiated better opportunities for themselves by going this route.