Company: Microsoft
Date: 2015-11-23
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

PFE in Washington DC area
Pros: The pay and benefits are excellent.  There are some really smart, dedicated people working on fun projects.  There is some respect from non-Microsoft colleagues for Microsoft employees.
Cons: Muddled, unaccountable, big middle management.   PFEs have an Account Manager as a person manager, and they work with TAMs and often other Project Managers, Architects, etc. in the course of their work.  I notice that Account Managers are often not only maladroit with respect to Microsoft technology, but technology in general.  And they often are really poor managers.  Microsoft has a 'connect' process that HR instituted to force managers and employees to talk several times a year.  Often, Account Managers view this as a checkbox, and it's symptomatic if their not putting much effort into managing people.   TAMs are supposed to be Technical Account Managers, but often they are neither technical nor managers.  You can't have a grown-up conversation with TAMs, often, because they don't understand the technology.  They are supposed to be bridge between the customer and the technical PFEs, but I have seen a lot of slacker TAMs who actually just make PFEs life more difficult.  And I've heard customers say that they want the good work that PFEs do, but they don't want to pay for the exorbitant associated costs of having to also pay for ADMs, TAMS, etc. etc. Career advancement within various fiefdoms is not based on technical merit or utilization or even how valuable you are to your customer, but based on 'go along to get along' mentality and kissing up to management.