Azure Networking - Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
Jun 9, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

IF the product was viable and not run by current management - this could be a really interesting product to work on. Overall being in third to AWS and Google in terms of features and ease of use keeps folks competitive and hopeful to win the cloud war. However, as noted in the Cons - it will not happen under current management.

Cons

To work in the Azure group you should be prepared for: 1. This particular work group lacks absent of any of the published Microsoft company values. 2. Complete and total lack of honesty by nearly every people manager in the group. Very few are trustworthy. 3. Unethical hiring practices - hiring managers are encouraged to avoid hiring women and Caucasian men. 4. Engineers and Project Managers are specifically asked to hide product lapses from the public and customers especially around security and other gaps which might slow sales in any way. 5. While publically stating that the customer is first - behind the scenes the directors and other senior managers spend countless hours determining how to conceal defects versus fixing them. 6. Product planning in this area of the company is conducted by the equivalent of 5th graders who have absolutely no idea how to run planning exercises which results in complete and total chaos during development. Efforts are often uncoordinated and result in both Engineering and Project Management teams fighting for scarce resources resulting in incomplete features or skipping quality and security controls.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

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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