Ballmer hasn't done anything for employees or shareholders since he has been CEO. - Group Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
2 Dec 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft's medical and dental benefits are great. I think they're probably the best I've experienced, having worked for a number of large high tech companies. It's a large company that has a relatively good reputation, especially outside of the IT industry. Its big name will help open a lot of doors to other employers.

Cons

If you get tired of references to "the evil empire", don't work at Microsoft. While the company might have a relatively good reputation outside of the IT industry, there are a lot of people who have negative opinions of the company because of their past business practices. The stock hasn't done very well over the last 7 years, either. Microsoft certainly isn't a place where you can "rest & vest" anymore. If you're looking to make money on stock, this isn't the place. The salary portion of the compensation isn't bad, but it isn't great. Microsoft pays a little below the market, from what I've seen in the salary surveys.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
5 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learned a lot, plenty of team work opportunities

Cons

Internship could have been longer than 4 weeks

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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