Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-09-03
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Career limiting move - Join Microsoft India GTSC
Pros: The brand, decent benefits, access to latest MS Technologies and tools, some fairly smart engineers.
Cons: 1. Too much politics, particularly in the Management chain. Some of GMs and Directors were known miserable frontline managers yet grew because they had the right connections and played their cards well. They are a disgrace to be called Leaders. They have only grown their equally incompetent managers into roles of responsibility.  They have a free hand and misuse there powers regularly with no checks at all in place. All sorts of bias in place - regional, caste, language, diversity just to name a few.
2. Performance reviews have nothing to do with performance, they are only about having more managers on your side in the calibration and supporting lies they can tell. The Microsoft performance framework isn't bad in itself, with all companies having some sort of a curve. It's the local misuse which is disgusting.
3. HR function has no control to ensure fairness. Corp doesn't care either in spite of repeated value and ethics violations by these so called leaders and being repeatedly brought out through employee surveys
4. Limited career growth opportunities within and external due to support tag. Internal Job openings are opened later, people to be hired identified first. No respect within other MS orgs for GTSC employees.
5. Offer seems very rosy initially and the brand sells it. It's only once you're in and take a couple of years to understand the game being played in the background, do you wake up. By then you're rusted out and worthless compared to the industry. Only way to succeed is be like these people, back stab your peers, do little yet project lots, leave your ethics and values outside the door, have sugar daddies who matter on your side, etc. etc.
6. Biggest career limiting move you can make - join the IGTSC