Company: Microsoft
Date: 2008-09-09
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Good, bad and ugly - it is all here!
Pros: 1. It is an empowering organisation to work for where you are not 'managed' and you can choose your professional growth path - including training courses.

2. Knowledge is shared very openly and can flood you, there is a wealth of information available at hand and thrown your way constantly. 

3. The fact that you work for Microsoft opens all kinds of doors when you work there, with clients etc and when you leave, the fact that you worked for Microsoft also opens a lot of doors!
Cons: 1. The company still doesn't have a clue about some basics - one, that size counts when you are selling something as you can jostle competitors out of the way, but when it comes to delivering, that same size and global way of delivering does not work. I had so many complaints about service being provided to my customers from offshore locations in Eastern Europe (strangely not so many from India). 

2. The company is seen to be aggressive due to its sales guys who are for the most part (more than half) pushy and wining-dining kind of guys with not a clue about technology or delivery. 

3. The salary Microsoft offers has got to be one of the lowest in its field and there is a huge gap when your grade gets in the 60's. Also the sales guys get immense commission and ride on the techies and service management people who don't (see above).

4. The employees from before 2000 who had proper stock options work and settle in the way millionaires do, they don't push themselves in their jobs, whereas the ones who came in afterwards slog and slog hard. It really is two worlds there. Stock options are as good as worthless in today's scenarios.

5. There is direction from the US but it doesn't apply to UK as much as the market and customer mentality is different - this is not recognised. 

6. Everything is driven by the need to shift more software. 

7. There is no direct management (it is a good and bad reason, see above) so for anyone who has worked anywhere else in their working life, it comes as a shock - you are to get on as if you were alone on an island.

8. The most coveted skilled people leave Microsoft and go to their clients as they pay more (who doesn't?) - this includes Microsoft technologies like Sharepoint and Biztalk - extremely frustrating when you are trying to deliver support to customers!

9. Bill Gates had come once in the last 8-10 years that my colleague had worked for Microsoft to address Microsoft UK - that kind of distance is very off-putting. It isn't difficult to rally employees if they feel closer to the structure at the top.