Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-08-27
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Great company, but fatal flaw needs fixing
Pros: Great opportunities if you're willing to work very hard, network, and get sponsorship from upper management. International opportunities are fantastic. Great and generous benefits--amazing health insurance, 401k, PRO Club membership, charitable giving, backup childcare, etc. Smart people.
Cons: The performance review system is broken. Arbitrary stack ranking of 1-5 across disparate teams creates unhealthy competition between people who are supposed to collaborate. The second you hire a team, you immediately have to turn around and start managing the "bottom 20%" out depending on where they land on the arbitrary forced curve. As a senior manager, I've seen many talented people's careers be damaged by this process. Many people are leaving in droves. Stock is going nowhere; no longer an incentive.