Company: Microsoft
Date: 2012-12-01
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Microsoft promotes evil managers
Pros: It's a lovely campus in a lovely part of the country.  The company is financially healthy.
Cons: Microsoft attracts and promotes managers who are narcissistic, hyper-competitive, and often unethical.  If you happen to get one of these managers, you will suffer greatly.

Like many large companies, Microsoft has a peer-review system that drives a gang-like type of social behavior amongst its employees.  Often, the most successful employees are experts at manipulating their coworkers (and measuring loyalty).  Such a system is the bane of employees who are inventive, productive, and intellectually honest.  Good people simply cannot survive in such an atmosphere.

New employees are instructed to watch a series of training videos where a major theme is:  "No employee can be penalized for behaving ethically."  This is completely false.  There are no systems in place to protect employees who behave ethically.  If your manager is evil, you will likely be penalized for behaving ethically.

Also, what the hell is an SDET anyway?  Are you kidding me?