Company: Microsoft
Date: 2017-02-27
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Microsoft + Ukraine, couldn't put it better
Pros: - reasonably flexible graphic: I could show up at 11 if I notified my manager (say, If I had a doctor's appointment). Couldn't leave earlier than 8 pm, usually, no matter if I came in at 9 am or 11. And of course my work was 100% online, so not clear why I was needed to be physically present at all, but for Ukraine even this kind of flexibility is amazing, especially for a corporation;
- prestigious entry to add to your CV;
- very nice people to work with, I've worked in two capacities, two different departments, both times my managers were very nice and adequate people, which, again, is a treat for a corporation;
- salary, as far as Ukraine goes, is good; but still pitiful when you think of it, or compare to other corps or other subs;
- global perspective on a lot of technology trends;
- opportunity for career growth, when the times are alright (gets worse when the crises strike, but as soon as the country is doing better in general, they do try to help the employees grow);
- a lot of veterans are around (people working in the company for 10+ years);
- good location of the office;

In short, it has a lot of the pros of Microsoft, but also most of the cons of Ukraine and corporation itself.
Cons: - compensation is decent for Ukraine, but still I felt ashamed to name the salary to a lot of peers from other corporations, and for the international corporation it was really coins;
- the whole structure is very rigid, changing anything for the better takes immense effort and usually has no support;
- the sub in Ukraine is not in a particularly great position, often overlooked and not taken into consideration when regional decision are made;
- a hell-ton of work. My work-day often neared 13 hours, and the weekends were not exempt from work. Partially compensated by flexibility of when you need to be present at the office;
- global corporate initiatives or better yet regional ones - often cancel whatever your local team was trying to do; or make decisions that cause catastrophic harm to local team's work, often without notifying in advance. We learnt that MS had bought LinkedIn from the news!
- PR advisories are often late or incomprehensive;
- a lot of politics and intrigues going on in some departments (not so much in Marketing, for example);
- did not conduct the cuts and reorganizations graciously, a lot of people were left discontent with the way it was handled, both junior and senior levels.

In short, it's a very good starting point, especially for ambitious people; but I didn't feel like I could stay on for longer than 2-3 years, and a lot of young professionals (my peers) have left or been cut. I suppose when the economic situation in the country is not as dire, the place becomes much better and worth staying for longer.