Microsoft reviews

There are several big downsides to the Company. First it takes time to get things done at Microsoft, and there is quite a lot of unnecessary processes. This is a combination of the size and scope of the company and a result of the DOJ consent decree. Second, while the company is filled with smart people they are not all necessry working towards the same goal and thus 1+ 1 does not equal 2, but instead less than 2. Third, time can fly by while working at MS. Product release can take upto 3+ years, and in this time you may not get promoted. (often promotions are linked to shipping). Thus at the end you may find that you career has not moved very far. Fourth, the company is known for reorganisations. Again this maybe necessary for a company of the size of Microsoft, but it can be a huge distraction, as everytime there is new leadership, you have to schedule reviews, and change the plan fo record. Finally the recent round of layoffs' are going to cause some fundamental changes in the culture at Microsoft. It will become even more political with every person for themselves, and employees spending energy making sure that they look good in the eyes of their managers/VP's.

Success at MSR is measured more by papers you publish, and less by code you write. If you come in as an intern, the expectations are that you will get a paper our of your summer project. You could code up the coolest system in the world, and even it is very practically useful (even for MS products), it might not be worth much unless you can identify the novel aspects that distinguish it from prior work, write a paper about it, and publish in a top conference. This can be hard to take for people who enjoy development or who don't know how to (or don't want to) write good papers. An exception is tech transfer, but this doesn't happen as often as it should, researchers have to go out and convince product teams (who are often skeptical) to use their ideas. MSR is a great place if you like pure research, going to conferences, and implementing quick mockups and prototypes, and don't like writing and shipping production-quality code. MSR is not so great if you dislike paper deadlines.