Great technical talent. Good amount of teamwork. They treat their people well. - Security Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
Sep 3, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Microsoft has some really talented people -- sure, they may not have been winning the recruiting battles in more recent times but they've got some deep benches. When I first got there, I was surprised at how many employees there just seem to stay for A LONG TIME. I knew several folks who had been there 10, 13, more years. This was unheard of in the Silicon Valley tech companies where I had worked. I worked hard there and believe that my work was adequately recognized and appreciated. They treat their employees really well. It was pretty hard for me to leave in spite of having a number of solid reasons for doing so. Why? I got so comfortable. It's true. It's a nice lifestyle. Didn't have to work THAT hard. (Not relative to how hard I was working.)

Cons

I sometimes felt frustrated because I was used to doing things to an A+++ standard and so found myself there often frustrated by more Lowest Common Denominator or C-level solutions. That was probably for me the hardest part about being there. It wasn't a cultural fit for me where I love efficiency, nimble-ness, best-idea-wins, and somewhat direct communication style.

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5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart Engineers, good pay, perk+

Cons

Things can be move very slowly

4.0
Jan 28, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop. 2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice. 3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Cons

Brand on Your Resume: After many years of losing market share and struggling to be at the front end of innovation and the fact that there's 90,000 employees, don't think MSFT is necessarily going to be attractive on your resume to more agile and smaller companies. Managing Your Career: Make you say this out loud so it registers - 90,000 employees work there. Double that for vendors. It is VERY hard to "stand out" and move up in the company. Don't expect your manager to be much of an advocate or enabler to help you meet your career goals - they are basically trying to survive the stack rank every year too. Not familiar with the stack rank? Check out the 2012 Vanity Fair article called "Microsoft's Lost Decade".

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