A Great Place for Computer Science Geeks - Software Development Engineer Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
May 7, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The compensation is amazing. While it's true that there are many companies doing interesting projects, the pay and benefits at Microsoft simply blow away other company. Their offers are almost impossible to turn down. Honestly, for a lot of developers, it's not the "evil empire" the outside world perceives it to be. Most folks are excited about delivering new benefits to the customers and don't concern themselves the supposed conspiracies bloggers like to discuss. If you get on a product team you really care about, your passion will help shape the solution from day one because everyone truly wants to deliver the best solutions. Microsoft lets you focus on your job with minimum overhead. You can actually spend the majority of your day writing code and not be bothered with administrative paperwork, irrelevant meetings, or any other kind of interference. Most developers meet with their managers to discuss their yearly goals, but that really is the majority of the non-programming responsibilities. A lot of product groups provide weekly or bi-weekly lectures on a technology they've been working on. These usually include an introduction, code samples and lessons learned. Not only is it very interesting to see what's going on in the company, you also get the chance to continue learning from other developers. Mobility in the company is great. If you want to change product teams, it's just a matter of an interview with the team of interest and you're set. There are no hard feelings or pressure from managers that may hinder you from pursuing your interests.

Cons

The biggest problem is that it's really easy to forget about your social life. Some days you get so into coding you lose track of the time and the whole day passes you by. Occasionally there's pressure to get something accomplished quickly (especially near the end of the release cycle) and you may find yourself working longer hours than you want. Social interaction throughout the day is minimal. Most developers sit in their offices and code and don't get a lot of daily interaction with others on the team. Some days this leaves you feeling very isolated. Traffic in the area is terrible. If you don't live in the right spot and plan your commute correctly, you can lose 1-2 hours a day just in travel.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good flexibility with remote work Very good pay level at initial joining years Excellent team dynamics and coachable engineers

Cons

Very less hike post 4-5 years into the role Very good teams but as a senior has responsibility over shadow all junior work

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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