Company: Microsoft
Date: 2014-07-25
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

A great culture that allows a self-starting person has the freedom to take an idea and drive it to reality.
Pros: Compensation, benefits, ability to drive change on a global scale, working with really smart people - most of whom really seem to care
Cons: A terrible bureaucracy at times.  Too many layers of direct and matrixed management.  An enormous DISCONNECT at the middle management level between executive strategy and what's actually happening on the ground.  Runs primary in the levels Sr. Director and General Managers, but occasionally hits CVP and Directors.  Too much managing up, and not enough care given to support teams.  Too much empire building and not enough doing what's right for One Microsoft.  The irony is that even at the CEO level, the executives get it.  It's that middle management layer that is keeping Microsoft from being the nimble company it needs to be to stay competitive in the longer term.