Company: Microsoft
Date: 2010-07-07
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Not the place it used to be
Pros: Very flexible working environment, nice canteens and coffee shops. Big brand, well-known by everyone. Cool brands like Xbox, Zune and Windows. Lots of smart people, some quite nice! Very relaxed working environment with shop, dry cleaning, "massage parlour" and lots of Xboxes.
Cons: Ugly grey buildings on outskirts of Reading, looking increasingly tired and in need of a refurb. Quite a lot of career-obsessed people who are highly political and will tread on others to progress. Senior management team "talks the talk" but rarely "walks the walk", they're rarely more than drones for the Redmond bosses. Scorecard mentality crushes all hopes of local innovation and intelligent problem-solving. Little genuine passion for customers; the rewards for getting hold of all their money are far greater. Dwindling investment in training, just pointless mandatory online training to create more drones.