Microsoft, what a great place to work. - Principal Development Engineer Lead Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
Apr 19, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Among the best reasons to work at Microsoft are the people you get to work with. By surrounding yourself with highly talented, passionate, and very smart people, you'll find you learn a large amount about making great software. I truly appreciate the work ethic and care many of my co-workers put into our products. We really strive to make the best software we can. Other reasons it is a great place to work include the beautiful Seattle area, amazing health benefits, and the numerous opportunities to get involved with others who share common interests.

Cons

Personally, I'd like to try out a smaller company at some point in my life. While Microsoft is very large, and has many opportunites to choose from in almost any technical area, I'd like to try out the small business scene. The base pay is greater than the average software development job within the US, but by no means is near the top. I do believe however that the bonus, awards, work/life balance, and health benefits do outweight the lower wage.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Hybrid working time which is highly flexible.

Cons

It is actually hard to reach other teams without formal collaboration because everyone is busy

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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