Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-09-07
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Stimulating but poor work/life balance
Pros: Very smart people
Being part of something important, sometimes historic
Compensation
Benefits
Internal opportunities. You can almost think of anything you want to do, and there will be training, mentors and opportunities available for you. The culture welcomes and encourages rotation.
Cons: The annual review system forces all employees to a curve. A certain percentage must get a very poor rating every year - whether they deserve it or not. Depending on your group, this can lead to cut-throat competition, as people compete for a good rank, since you are pitted against your peers. This system rewards and recognizes self-promoters at the expense of quieter, but solid contributors. You never feel like you've done enough and can relax.

Poor work/life balance. Microsoft is stubbornly reluctant to open up to working from home, when many other companies have already embraced it. There is a well worn sentiment internally that we tout software that helps remote teams collaborate, yet we refuse to.

Consultants are expected to travel 100% (Mon-Thu) with little flexibility or sympathy for its impact on their personal lives. Management sentiment is that you can't complain because you get paid well. You do (and your bonus depends on your hours), but they get zero points for sensitivity. 

Most of the pressure to be on site every week comes from our own management, even when customers are flexible. 

Consultants have a quota of billable hours to meet annually. This quota does not include travel time, which you have to make up.

There is a strong Kool-Aid atmosphere. The sense of blind passion often feels phony, as if we're all trying to act out our slogan. Internal training videos remind us how excited we are about our products and what we can do to share that excitement. Probably because of the ranking system, people compete to out-passion each other and everything is "awesome". I've seen consultants express regret at the cancellation of a high profile status meeting. It just feels fake, but I understand where it comes from. If you're not passionate enough, you might not get a good rating. I don't think this is a heathy culture. Real passion and excitement comes with a counterdose of skepticism and criticism. The latter is conspicuously rare. Senior management must understand that merely soliciting feedback and holding open office hours is not enough when you have the cloud of a ranking system hanging over your head. This is the root of a lot of problems.