Microsoft reviews

4.0

77% would recommend to a friend

(53,836 total reviews)
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Satya Nadella

77% approve of CEO

71% positive business outlook

Microsoft has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 53,836 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Microsoft employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

54K reviews
2.0
Nov 26, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are a junior, out of collage, Microsoft is a great place to start your career. Lots of smart people and mentors to learn from, lots of trainings and resources. Good pay and benefits. No major disturbances.

Cons

After senior (63) and above, you spend most (literally easily 60%) dealing with politics, making sure you look good, watching out for yourself, covering your back, building alliances. If you choose to stay blind, you may survive if you have good management and they do these for you. Otherwise, no matter how good you are, how much great work you do, you may find yourself thrown under bus very fast, very unexpected and even your manager may not be able to save you. Politics are everywhere, don't get me wrong. However, since only people highly political can survive, senior and above is dominated and ruled by people who have their political empires and what matters most (and sometimes what only matters) is where you are in this political map. A minefield for technical people. It also kills your technical savvy by time and makes you irrelevant for the rest of the industry. If you choose to stay at MS at senior levels for extended periods, make sure you are still marketable or you become the slave of this system.

1.0
Aug 9, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The salary was ok for the area. Health benefits were great with 100% medical coverage plans. There is the opportunity for corporate training and career advancement.

Cons

The company culture seems "stupid". Management ignored problems pushed up from the bottom rungs and even the managers at the lower rungs would hide problems under the rug rather than escalate. Everyone in management was purely focused on hitting their "milestones", rather than ensuring major bugs and problems got fixed. Team leaders pushed employees to simply do as told rather than innovate. Also, upper management pushed "pet projects and features" into products that clearly would gain nothing from adding those features, other than to help someone get promoted for getting his/her feature into the market. It was like working in a Dilbert cartoon strip. Poor decisions are made, engineers try to deliver, critics are silenced and ignored, all the engineers see the train wreck coming, then it happens. upper managers gets promoted for hitting deadlines, the product fails in the market, engineers are punished with bad reviews and quit. Repeat.

5.0
Jul 18, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft is going in the right direction. I believe the senior leadership is doing the right things, making the Engineering changes like combined Engineering model, less management chain and focusing on the core strengths. As an employee, I get less tangled in processes and am free to do my stuff without micro-management. Great work gets noticed by not only by my manager but all the way up to the VP level and rewards follow. I am provided opportunities to take on additional responsibilities which paves the way for professional growth. Unlike other competitor companies, work-life balance is much better at Microsoft. I can manage to spend a lot of quality time with my family, take periodic vacations, and still maintain an Excellent rating at the performance reviews.

Cons

I don't have any cons to discuss at the moment but I am still not convinced about the Performance Review changes for 2014. We will get a better understanding by September 2014.

Viewing 364 - 366 of 53,836 Reviews

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