Company: Microsoft
Date: 2016-03-11
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Microsoft these days...
Pros: 1. Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. Including pay.
2. Flexible schedules in most groups.
3. Company reinventing itself - new CEO making huge difference, setting the right strategy
4. Due to transformation, many opportunities to move around internally, to make an impact
5. Really great people - smart, motivated, innovation-minded, fun
6. Access to so many resources from technology to information to hardware to collaborators
7. Stock is up!
8. Many group embrace Agile methodology for engineering.
Cons: 1. Transformation creates chaos and that can make for a tough work environment in many groups.
2. Cross-company top talent mgmt and retention is a stated goal but there are no real processes or advocacy in place for this (talent retention decision making is at the group level with no visibility to other groups at MS needing the same talent, skills, roles filled).
3. Re-orgs are a regular occurrence where your role, manager, division, etc. can change overnight.
4. Tendency to change a product or feature too soon or wait too long to change it.
5. Still not enough weight or influence given to Customer-focused or UX positions & talent.