Mentally abused - Senior Software Development Engineer Microsoft Employee Review

2.0
Aug 12, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It has several great systems in place and was a great company in the past. If you are a just starting your career, Microsoft is a great place to work for two years. You can learn a lot about how a big company works and take all that knowledge with you. Technology wise, they only use Microsoft software which is bad if you want to join other technology company that maybe built on open source software.

Cons

It kills your potential. To succeed in Microsoft the primary skill you need is perception management. That means you need to be a great politician. If you are busy working and doing the right thing for the company without playing the game, be sure some else will take the credit for your work. Actually doing the right thing for the company is a bad thing for you. Your focus should be only in growing your manager’s kingdom that may include sabotaging their competition and doing what is wrong for the company. The company is setup to hire young people and get rid of the old. So you have a medical plan that you probably won’t use much anyway. Since 2013, the medical plan is not that great anymore. In the end, keep your eye on the ball which is to maximize the benefits you can get out of Microsoft. If you spend your time in doing the right thing, do not expect the same in return. Do it knowing you will not get the same in return.

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5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart Engineers, good pay, perk+

Cons

Things can be move very slowly

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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