Company: Microsoft
Date: 2017-01-31
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

top heavy management
Pros: + good benefits
+ travel if you want it
+ can work remotely without issue
+ huge company security
Cons: - Ambiguity is pitched as a bonus and a challenge internally...the problem is, at least in recruiting, ambiguity wasn't the right word. Lack of direction from disconnected leadership and nearly monthly re-orgs in certain divisions equated to sloppy business.
- A lot of turnover in the leadership ranks of the company as well as recruiting organization. Lose one or two here and there and that's the cost of doing business, but lose handfuls of high level people within a few months time and there is something else going on entirely. My experience was the latter.
- Innovation is at the core of Satya's principles and is on just about every powerpoint deck, the problem is though, with hundreds of thousands of employees it'll probably take 10 years for meaningful change in the way business is done has been solidified across the company. He took over in 2014, the bad old habits of sitting on the cash pile still plague innovation in 2017. This isn't an indication of bad leadership by Satya, he is great, but there needs to be more strategic changing of the guard in key areas across the company to speed up the process to remain competitive and breed thought leadership.
- So much of what managers are brought in to do is handcuffed by the Director level employees (at least in recruiting) that ideas from those closer to the work rarely are considered or even heard. Essentially, the political game of who can speak loudest to be seen is still very much in play, rather than getting the most from those they hire.