Company: Microsoft
Date: 2014-07-23
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Unparalleled - If you have a chance to work there, take it
Pros: Smart people
Big goals
Tremendous opportunity to grow
Products have huge impact on the market and on people's lives
Great compensation package
Opportunity to learn in one of the most successful companies ever
Cons: Many employees have been there so long that they may have lost some context about the real world. In Office, for example, they were unwilling to incorporate mobile devices as a 1st experience until way too late - despite multiple voices calling for it. And you can see a similar delay with Office apps for IOS. This self-centeredness also extends to management. When someone is doing well, that person is golden. When someone isn't doing well, there's no safety net. It's extremely Ayn Randian. I was there nearly 20 years - I started as an individual contributor contractor, and worked my way up to group manager (managing managers). I believed in the review system and the company for at least 15 of those years - complainers just couldn't hack it, I thought. But I honestly realize now that there is a blind spot with regard to human performance. People can still be great performers and contributors even after they've failed to deliver in a particular circumstance. Perhaps Satya will impact that for the better.