Company: Microsoft
Date: 2015-10-12
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current

H1-B Issues and Rough Onboarding
Pros: The interview went great.  I was hired on the spot. And that's fast for Microsoft.  I have a sense of accomplishment knowing I was hired because all of Microsoft's H1-B workers couldn't do the job I'm doing.    People are polite, even if they tend to be somewhat passive aggressive in the way people from Redmond, Bellevue, WA can be.  And that's kind of where the pros stop.  

The only other bright side so far -  I won't be here longer than five years I'm sure.  Which is good, because in IT, anyone who has been at Microsoft more than five years is "damaged goods" on the job market.
Cons: I'm a W-2 worker at Microsoft (via a staffing firm), and a U.S. citizen.    My pay is $0 because I have yet to receive a paycheck three weeks after my start date.

Imagine starting a job where:
a. your pay rate is variable, even optional at the discretion of the employer ... even after you've done the work.
b. you don't know when your first paycheck will come, or even if your hours of work have been approved.
c. The company doesn't think you're important enough to issue you a security badge on day 1.  So, your start date (and pay) is delayed, and no assurances are given as to when that badge will be issued.  Beg your new co-workers (or the intern) to let you in the office every day in the meantime. Observe that you are part of a scheme where your co-workers' frustration increases because of your lack of badge.  You're helping reaffirm company dysfunction.  Be patient when people seem frustrated at you on some level for just being there.
d. the position you just took was cut from 18 months down to four - even before you started.
e. You'll also learn about all the jobs you applied for and passed over so Microsoft could give it to some H1-B worker (some of them management positions).

If you can imagine that ... then you can imagine what it's like to start work at Microsoft.

Details follow ...

The only kind of work I was offered was a W-2 position with an employment agreement that says pay rate can change to any amount (or be eliminated) at the discretion of the employer.  The recruiter said the position was 18 months.  I later found out it was 4.  More than two weeks after being hired and I still haven't gotten get my access badge for my building.  Payroll setup hasn't been happening either.


It's enough to make ANY person feel as though they are not valued at all.  It's also a way for a company to tell an employee:

"You're welcome to work if you're willing to accept that your pay rate will be retroactively changeable at any time for any reason, or even eliminated.  You'll have to beg your co-workers to get in the building for a few weeks, and we can't tell you when your first paycheck will arrive.  We're hiring you because the talent in the H1-B pool just can't make the grade."

If you take a job at Microsoft you can expect your live to start out that way.  And if you're into that you've debased yourself as a human on the outset.  Microsoft management seems to understand that.