Microsoft reviews

Boiling it down: 1) Many teams lack a competitive flair, with some exceptions (such as internal start-up and Entertainment properties). For well established products, or business units still trying to find their way, you may find the inertia frustrating as you watch smaller competitors come up with cool stuff that actually solves customer problems. 2) It is being populated by the professional corporate types. This is a downside if you yearn to learn why Microsoft was so successful in the early years. Many of those people are either gone, or are scattered throughout the company in very senior roles. As more coroporate animals populate the ranks, you will only learn their methods for posturing and politics. 3) Size is starting to make the company less agile. Relative to other large orgs, Microsoft isn't nearly the biggest. But to manage their portfolio of products they clearly don't need more people. Yet they continue to hire instead of cross pollinating great people. That bloat leads to difficulties in changing strategies or product alignments. They risk having to downsize several years from now, as most companies that grow too fast usually do.

Large, beaurocratic machine. Many passive aggressive people who are likely to not tell you if the work you're doing is going to lead to a dead end until you get really close to that dead end, and who are not willing to spend any time helping others get up-to-speed in areas they have expertise in.