Company: Microsoft
Date: 2014-08-18
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Great place to work and gain experience
Pros: Good company with plenty of opportunities and good benefits.
Cons: Although they are working on it, the yearly performance review system just plain sucks.  They used a bell curve ranking system reminiscent of high school thus in order for someone to exceed, someone must fail even if that person was an otherwise good and skilled worker.    The review system also tends to favor the butt kissers and brown nosers  more then the people with actual technical talent and skill that are making the products successful.   Do a good job, meet all your deadlines, and solve all the problems and you'll be rewarded as "average". But if you cc upper management in every e-mail,   bragging about your minor accomplishments, you get rewarded,  even if you failed to meet many deadlines and couldn't finish half your tasks.