Company is struggling with bureaucracy and midlife crisis but has tremendous amounts of talent. - Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Microsoft Employee Review

3.0
29 Jun 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company is an exciting place to work because there isn't a soul in the world whose life their products haven't touched. Even a simple security fix goes out to hundreds of millions in the first weekend after release. The impact can be very satisfying. Also, there are some very smart engineers who work there and while working there you get smarter by forming symbiotic work relationships. Great place to learn many new tricks. Pay and benefits are also very good. Work hours get crazy only during deadlines but otherwise not too bad if you manage your working hours well. Minus the office politics this place would be great for work but I guess a company of this size will always have some of that. People with many agendas (sometimes conflicting).

Cons

The internal review system has become rigid and has created a culture of busy work just for the sake of justifying bonuses. This busy work has very low real impact on product quality (especially in test). The metrics they use change frequently and show a certain confusion/unsureness of the middle management during reviews. Risk taking has almost come to a stop. Any risks you see from the outside that the company is taking is for the sake of survival in certain markets and not because Microsoft has the culture of risky innovation. The top and middle management have become extremely risk averse and tentative in their messaging to juniors. This can be de-motivating for extremely talented individuals (of which I saw many during my time). I also saw some above average attrition in my product group. Apart from reviews, the company leadership has only worsened this behavior by setting similar examples. Some very confusing strategies in products and branding has brought the company where it is today.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
23 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good team and good life balance

Cons

bad food and tratment .

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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