Company: Microsoft
Date: 2009-12-24
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Microsoft. Great Pay. Excellent Benefits. Horrible Employer.
Pros: Excellent pay and benefits with a relatively high degree of autonomy if you were responsible in accomplishing your long term objectives.
Cons: Excellent pay and benefits completely eclipsed by the Darwinian model of survival of the fittest practiced in ruthless fashion by the hyper ambitious Redmond crowd. If you were not willing to move to Redmond, your career was finished for all practical purposes. Redmond is populated by a special kind of corporate ladder climber who obsessively seeks a vice president position at the expense of fair play and teamwork. Selfish ambitious behavior is rewarded with promotions, pay and higher stock grants. People see this and perpetuate the cycle. As a result, the company is very dysfunctional on the personal level. This starts at the very top with Steve Ballmer, CEO. Until he is gone, and his behavior stops being the model, Microsoft will continue to crush individuals not willing to sell (actually give) their soul over to their blind ambition and the company's unrelenting pursuit of market dominance at any cost.