Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-09-21
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Lots of smart people, constant change and navigating politics
Pros: You will get a chance to work with lots of smart people and there are lots of opportunities to work with people in different aspects of the business that you normally would not be exposed to. This also gives you a chance to explore career changes in different disciplines. Good benefits in general.
Cons: Review model is toxic at this company. The stack rank is truly a 'zero sum gain' type of model. (Someone who gains means someone will lose) So there is little incentive, from a review model perspective, to make your fellow peer look good. If they are your peer, they are competing for the exact same scores, salary, bonus, stock as you are. They encourage collaboration, but really it is collaboration with conditions (i.e, I will help you as long as I have more & look better than you do).

Also it encourages you to NOT take on risks for the year; so you are better to play it safe. So what you get left with is a group of very smart people, who are hesitant to take on too much risks, reluctant to make others look good and makes you think through how you are playing your politics.