Good place to work, remote offices with limited opportunities - Anonymous employee Microsoft Employee Review

3.0
Jul 25, 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft is a huge company with strong benefits and, in theory, involved in every area of the software market. The company still has very competitive pay and reasonable job security, even considering the layoffs. It has endless resources for growth (see cons), including a big library, conferences, training etc. The company can really invest in you and you can see the dividends of this investment in your work.

Cons

One has to be aware that most Microsoft benefits related to professional growth will apply mostly to its HQ in Redmond, WA. In Washington State, the opportunities at the company are endless. Elsewhere, it can vary from dismal to maybe mediocre. Senior Management is clueless and the stock price proves it. Most Microsoft innovations are incremental and the company missed endless opportunities to revolutionize areas of our industry.

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5.0
Jul 6, 2026
Anonymous temporary employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Company to work with.

Cons

Nothing I can think off

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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