Company: Microsoft
Date: 2014-11-16
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

The "old Microsoft" is long gone
Pros: Working for Microsoft has been the highlight of my professional life.  I've been there for 20+ years and, once upon a time, the company was agile and each group operated as a small company.  What's great? The very very smart people.  The company has made tremendous strides in its products & technology and customers genuinely want to see Microsoft and to use its technology.  It's been great to have been part of something that has - literally - changed the world.  It's generally easy enough to move from one role to another in the company after a few years if you were successful in your previous role.  

I had a hard time with this review - there's so much that's great about Microsoft.  The biggest problem they have today is that the company promotes unqualified people to management positions (at all levels) and those managers then blindly adhere to "policies" that just don't make sense from a business standpoint.
Cons: What's not so great? It's a different Microsoft today.  The values the company expressed to its employees through benefits, salary, stock, and promotion opportunity have changed - some of it is related to Steve & Bill going, although the changes started before both of them left.  The benefits are so-so today for a company of Microsoft's stature.  The cut throat nature between groups and individuals is stunning - to get to Level 65 you have to demonstrate that you're willing to be ruthless and will stab a co-worker in the back.  You can't succeed at Microsoft unless it is at the expense of a co-worker.  Sad.  You MUST be connected in order to get beyond Level 64.  So many employees spend all their time networking and building those relationships at the expense of everything else.  It's very disheartening to see those folks rocket up the career path to greater rewards (stock, salary, promotions) when, really, they haven't done much to advance the business.  Those that focused on helping others to be great, who focused on doing the right thing for smart business? Well, if you haven't networked to the nth degree, you'll be stack ranked.  The notion that Microsoft no longer stack ranks couldn't be further from the truth.  My last review (and likely my last with the company) resulted in me being ranked at the bottom of my group despite having outperformed half of the group in terms of RBI attainment.  Coming in at the bottom? Means you're out the door in 6-8 weeks.  Period.

You will put in long hours, although to be fair, you have to do that anywhere to be successful.  You will not have a pleasant work/life balance.  I rarely recall taking more than a consecutive week for vacation in over twenty years.  I lost vacation every year.  I never took time off without having to engage at work in some form or fashion.  Perhaps that's a fault on my end? Maybe - but it sure was expected.