Company: Microsoft
Date: 2017-04-16
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Good company, a lot of politics
Pros: I'd recommend Microsoft to potential employees, pay is below industrial average compared to other IT organisations but you do get a great deal of freedom in terms of flexibility of working from the office, customer location or home which I would not want to give up. Benefits beyond pay such as pension, life insurance policies and car allowance are significant. If you are good at politically managing your career you can excel rapidly. Company is always doing interesting things with technology.
Cons: While I mention work flexibility is good, the dark side to this is virtually everyone I knew, to keep up with the high intensity of work was working at least some evenings and the occasional weekend just to keep everything moving and just to keep on top of their Inbox.

Promotion and acceleration at the company is all about who you know, who is your supporter and at the end of the day very much based on how liked you are by the senior leaders. The vast majority of people at MS are top performers but promotions are more strongly linked to your political maneuvering than the quality of your work.

MS is constantly changing its review method, they went from stack ranking which was a negative experience, to now giving you and end of year assessment but not telling you how you are 'stack ranked' even though they still essentially rank you to decide your bonus level as an example.

I have seen several people brutally pushed out of the company, so if they want to get rid of you there is not much you can do.

My advice; don't join the rate race. Get a job at MS, do what you need to do to perform positively and keep your job and then go home in the evenings and weekends and spend time with your family, friends and loved ones if you value that higher than senior positions/higher pay. You will always just be a little fish that they are bleeding dry to get everything out of you and then reward you with small treats to keep 'addicted' to want to constantly run in the rat race...