Great company overall with some pockets of bad that can and should be avoided - Senior Software Development Engineer Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
6 May 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft has it all. Name a technology and someone at Microsoft is working on it. Several things that Microsoft has done have been hugely successful, most obviously Windows and Office. Those revenue streams have helped the company create a broad foundation in other areas, including the successful Xbox business, cloud computing, and a real strength in the enterprise that no other software company can match. Nowadays, it feels like Microsoft might be getting it's mojo back, which is a really good thing. Overall very solid benefits packages. And as far as culture goes, Microsoft's annual giving campaign and matching gifts programs make it clear that giving back to the community and world is a company priority. The company matches not only cash donations but also dollars per hour of volunteer time too.

Cons

Microsoft has a bad reputation, deserved perhaps in some ways but definitely not in others. That's mostly from a business/product/consumer perspective. If it is important for you to work on something that is cool and has buzz, you could try getting in at Xbox although they do have a reputation for burning people out. Politics has at several points during my employment there (over a decade) have definitely played a major role in rewards and review scores being distributed in a very arbitrary way. But HR have iterated on their rewards system yet again, trying to clear that kind of favoritism out in exchange for something more motivating.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
7 July 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart Engineers, good pay, perk+

Cons

Things can be move very slowly

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".

2374
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All