Great company IF you are lucky enough to get a good manager - Sr. Business Operations Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
Sep 26, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The stated culture is amazing. Most of my colleagues lived this culture and were wonderful to work with. You're allowed a very long onboarding time to get acclimated to both the company as well as your new team and role. Nearly everyone is willing to schedule a 1:1 with you to help you either while you're onboarding or anytime you need help. It's a very supportive environment.

Cons

If you're unlucky enough to get a manager who still practices the "old Microsoft" culture, leave immediately. HR will not help you, even if they state they're there for you as well as the company. I was laid off but prior to that I experienced a toxic work environment with my latest manager. Micromanagement and unrealistic or unstated expectations were the norm and the environment was fully abusive and toxic. I don't attribute this to Microsoft but specifically to my manager. I wish that HR had acted sooner to remove this manager as the company lost many employees due to the culture she created after a reorg.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

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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