Company: Microsoft
Date: 2010-05-09
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Great people but politics hamper innovation and career growth
Pros: Some of the smartest people to work with everyday, lots of passion for customers. Great benefits, the healthcare plan alone makes it hard for me to ever leave the company. Easy to move between groups and work on almost any important innovation in the technology industry.
Cons: The company has way too much politics. I've been on many teams and got many promotions. Early in your career it is more about merit and what you deliver. Once you get to the senior levels and look to principal levels, it is all about politics and who you know - personal connections trump merit. There are many middle managers that have not delivered much stay in their positions because of good connections upwards. As a company we need to be better and quicker about reducing the layers and removing people that are not accomplishing much - there are a ton of other smart capable leaders waiting for those roles that can do a better job.