Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-10-15
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

Eagerly awaiting the post-Ballmer era
Pros: - Financially stable, at least in reserve

- In the correct industry for the future, if not exactly seizing those opportunities

- Nice benefits

- Attractive and convenient campus
Cons: - Stack-ranking. Microsoft's persistent use and defense of this outdated, intelligence-insulting and ineffective performance evaluation tool continues to fragment and drive away people who are most intellectually prepared to rescue the company. It is not the same model that's being used at other corporations; it is being abandoned at a restless clip at least partially because of Microsoft's very public example of how it fails. The many levels at which stack-ranking has eviscerated Microsoft's culture, environment, product line and innovation are staggering. Prospective candidates for Microsoft employment should really investigate as to whether Google, Apple or some other well-funded tech start-up has opportunities for them until stack-ranking is abolished and new leadership resets their company's priorities. 

- A "chase-after" mentality, rather than an inventive one. They've fallen behind the rest of the game, and for obvious reasons that doesn't bode well.

- The inferiority complex tends to permeate all sectors of the company. It's the tech world's Charlie Brown.

- The isolationist culture in Redmond takes away any chance of long-range or visionary goals.