Company: Microsoft
Date: 2016-04-30
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

MCS - Pub Sec
Pros: Great company. The tide is truly turning from Redmond. Satya has the vision.
Deep opportunities in MCS PubSec - MCS has developed deep relationships over the years and the customers trust MCS with their most critical systems.
Pay is good. Benefits are excellent. You do not have to look far to find rock-stars on your team.
Lots of access to the MS stack, training, products.
The sky is truly the limit for career opportunities.
Tons of opportunities in the co as a whole to get involved, give back, do cool stuff with technology, ect.
Cons: Has transitioned over the years from a loss leader driving platform adoption to more of a body shop trying to fill all the slots created by YoY growth. Business metrics still rule the day, whereas a decade ago it was "are you happy doing what you are doing". You will still be asked, but the focus has shifted somewhat as the business has grown.

At the end of the day, your career decisions will take a back seat to whatever is easiest for the management chain. I saw people who were rock stars at the customer receive poor annual reviews after requesting new opportunities.Customer loves these people - called them out of critical to their vision. and they get the lowest review possible?

You will need to find opportunities for 'impact'. Simply providing excellent service to your customer, handling all the training, keeping up in your specialty is the bare minimum. To be fair that is communicated to you.

You will need to make sure you can stay engaged and build your network. Its critical in finding 

You may also find yourself looking longingly to Redmond, wondering what it is like to be a 'real' MS employee.