Awesome company, depending on where you land - Software Engineer II Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
7 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft as a company (that is, the entity/organization itself) has amazing culture and an outstanding set of values. They also have compelling salary compensation: a great benefits package - although it only becomes that great on higher levels - stock options and yearly bonuses. Finally, you have the chance to work on large projects with a big impact in the world.

Cons

On such a huge company, naturally your experience will vary from team to team and from org to org. Some orgs are clearly more aligned to the "new" Microsoft values than others. My team, for example, accepted some types of diversity, while clearly discriminating others. On top of that, teams are usually very specialized (many will only ever work on a tiny piece of a project), and that can severely hamper your sense of impact. Finally, if you're the kind of person that likes to be transparent and honest (which are pillars in the company's values and culture) and doesn't like playing "the game", this company might not be for you. Managers have too much power and are usually protected by one another in order to go up the ladder. This affects everything, from what projects you get to work on, to how they treat you, to how you're awarded, and trying to fight it only makes it worse; You have to be willing to play the same game they are. There are both company-wide and org-wide climate surveys every semester, yet they are *highly* disregarded by management. You'll frequently see management asking "why did you answer this way" instead of "I see you folks feel this way. What can we do to improve?". Every time my team went through this, no one dared to speak up and it was always the two managers speaking alone, precisely because of their inquisitorial tone. And, of course, this comes back to what I said above: these managers want to go up the ladder. If they start getting negative feedback from below, that can hinder their progression. Thus, instead of trying to improve, they group up and use intimidation tactics to get what they want.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

4.0
28 Jan 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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