Microsoft - some of the core realities - Senior Marketing Manager Microsoft Employee Review

3.0
5 Jan 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft's size and product diversity can provide a lot of latitude for a variety of different career experiences. When starting, you'll be expected to stay in-role for at least a year, but after that (depending on the group) you can explore elsewhere within the company. I believe this is the best way to get the most out of the "Microsoft experience". In Microsoft, moving around is good, for a number of reasons. Note that team culture within MS differs widely. Clarify your career goals well, within your own mind, then work hard to get there - leveraging the existing HR processes. As an FTE, the benefits package is the best you'll find. The people at Microsoft, in general, are great. Overall, they are quite smart, and famously passive-aggressive. Don't be intimidated, but also don't over-assert yourself - just be relaxed, knowledgeable, open, vocal and confident. Make a point of getting to know a lot of people.

Cons

Microsoft culture is not as pragmatic as it used to be, and is becoming less so every day. MS people used to want to "change the world" (which they did), but now it's much more about "playing the game". The creeping bureaucracy is not, as some say, the inevitable result of growth - but rather the result of a loss of cultural momentum. As the old-timers leave, and new people join, the culture is shifting - slowly, but inexorably (like global warming). In years passed, it used to be okay to openly challenge virtually anyone's rationale, as long as your argument was strong. Now, that could be politically unwise, and could hurt your career. Bad news used to "travel fast", but now it is more often suppressed. The true impact of modest reportable achievements tend to be exaggerated, often to a great extent. A project with minimal value but great visibility can do a lot to help your career, but the reverse will generally not. Regardless of recent HR attempts to improve team collaboration, the element of intra-team competition remains as strong as ever, even within the formal reward structure. Helping others on your team will usually not impact your review, but "game playing" to improve your visibility at the expense of your peers is usually rewarded. This is true at every level of the company. Microsoft is not unique in this regard - but you should be clearly aware.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
30 June 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Love it you are surrounded with smart people and complex problem to solve

Cons

Lots of new features and roll outs happening hard to keep pace

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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