Watch your back - Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Microsoft Employee Review

2.0
Nov 30, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good health benefits are available for everyone at Microsoft. In the Seattle/Redmond area you get a health club membership, or can opt for $800/year in reimbursed expenses. Need a new bicycle to workout? Use it for that. Microsoft has been good on resumes for getting interviews at my new company, however most experience Microsoft engineers fail their interview because the work at Microsoft doesn't prepare them well to get hired outside. You have to do that yourself.

Cons

Your work at Microsoft prepares you to do your job at Microsoft, not a lot on the outside. Every year someone would get the bad annual review, which meant everybody is on edge for the rest of the year. What does that mean? Their is incentive for your coworkers to stab you in the back. Managers don't know much about your daily work, so presentation skills are vital to get the visibility you need to survive. No matter how much Microsoft wants you to have work-life balance, everyone ends up sacrificing it due to the threat of a bad review. That doesn't mean your boss wants to skewer you (he/she might; different story), it means everything is tinged with internal competition. Internal competition is more important than external, because the customers won't fire you, but your boss will.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

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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