Perhaps a good place for commercial are, but not a consumer company, even in the 'consumer' groups. - Group Manager Microsoft Employee Review

2.0
Oct 1, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Financial resources are solid - money isn't really an object when it comes to project and partner spend. Lots of different positions to explore if you spend majority of time networking and do not let HR or your manager know you want to move. Company has lots of upside opportunity.

Cons

Look out for 'bait and switch' on job titles, promotion opportunities, etc. Not good keeping agreements, even if in writing. Leadership looks out for themselves - direct reports are for generating ideas for leaders to take credit (not as a team). Managers block promotions and internal moves for employees they need to do their work and get themselves rewarded. Individuals working in consumer groups have little to no consumer experience and rely heavily on the very few people with the experience. If you have solid experience and get work done, you will be relied upon others will be expected to do little or no work. Significant amount of unprofessional behavior, especially by long-term employees is acceptable and often encouraged by management and overlooked by human resources.

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5.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good company and secure env

Cons

not that i think of

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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