Work at MSFT and change the world... - Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
Jun 11, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You can have a major, positive impact on a huge number of people while learning from an extremely talented set of peers. The company operates and succeeds by listening to ideas from anyone and everyone, internal and external, then weighs trade offs and make product plans. They are also willing to change product plans as needed to strive toward customer satisfaction and adoption. Although multiple releases may be needed with a specific product to really hit a successful stride, the persistence and investment made by the company often results in great success for the company and consumers alike. The effect you can have on a large number of customers to improve their efficiencies and enable new scenarios is simply amazing.

Cons

This is also a positive, but one downside is that it is so large it is possible to feel lost.

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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