Balance between pros & cons
Pros
In general, the company is good, the benefits are amazing, the office with all the facilities and services are amazing, the colleagues are nice people. Work and life balance is probably one of the best. But it's just the cons that you need to be aware of. In relation to salary, depends on the level you join, I highly recommend anyone not to join anything below level 61 and career stage IC4. Just know that there are better paying companies out there so make sure you're getting the best package. Once you're in Microsoft it's difficult to get promoted to a better level, management will tell you it's easy and bla bla but it's not. They will make up so many excuses when you ask. So better to join with a level you'll be happy with rather than just join to get in and try to get promoted.
Cons
Every fiscal year which is in end of June, there's bound to be some changes at Microsoft and these changes sometimes/mostly means layoffs. There was also a layoff of more than thousand people globally in June 2022. These changes happen every fiscal year and these changes usually effect individual contributors. The other con side is, manager changes...I had 7 managers in 4 years at Microsoft. And this effects the team and your bonus. How it effects your bonus is depending on the role, there is Revenue Based Incentive (RBI) and Contribution Based Incentive (CBI) bonus...If it's a sales role you join, you'll get both bonuses, if it's support/operational/administrative you'll only get CBI. The way management changes affect you on the bonus side is usually on the CBI side, the manager decides how you've contributed to your team and wider team at the end of each fiscal year, and if you had management changes, they usually say we haven't seen enough of you and etc so give you a lower percentage and sometimes zero. If they give you zero, you're stuck in that role as you can't move internally which is clearly stated in the internal HR web portal unless you've good relationship with hiring manager that wants you in their team. Also if you under perform they'll put you in Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) which is like hell, really difficult to get out of as you're micromanaged and very stressful and frustrating process. If they put you on PIP you might as well start looking for a role elsewhere and leave. Hard to get promoted, first of all there are many factors to this as listed below: Career Level & Career Stage Nationality (You're 99% more likely to be promoted if you're Irish.) Relationship with Management (Networking) Good performance (Sales Performance and Contribution performance)