Microsoft reviews

Unfortunately, Microsoft is a really big company and the corporate bureaucracy is most acutely felt during review time. Review goals are often made irrelevant by changing requirements during the course of the year and the review process is lumbering and is often times burdensome. Your career advancement & opportunities are often determined more the by subjective opinions of ill informed managers, than by merit & objective facts. If you have a good relationship w/ a good manager, you'll probably go far in your career. If you have mediocre manager or one that you have a strained relationship with, you should switch groups or leave the company, ASAP. It's easier to advance your career outside of Microsoft than inside of it. The stock based compensation (options, grants & ESPP) isn't anywhere near what it was during the 1990s and the base salary hasn't made up the difference.

culture of criticism, which in general, rewards the know-it-all personalities and is detrimental to certain 'helping personalities.' one's reputation in this culture is of paramount importance not only with customers, but also with partners and co-workers. most employees recognize this and spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to impress each other, instead of just getting the job done, serving customers.