Great opportunities, Great environment, terrible review system and bad managers - Finance Manager Microsoft Employee Review

2.0
Aug 24, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

In 10 years working in Finance roles at Redmond the best things are great opportunities (working in different locations around the world and in different roles supporting various business groups), great business partners, working with great employees. Lots of fun activities to participate in (sports and various games on campus).

Cons

Terrible review system - forced distribution that is solely based on sucking up to management chain which I refuse to do. Every year I receive tons of great business partner feedback but get an average review. I get promoted (from level 57 to level 62 in 10 yrs financial analyst to finance controller) and continue to get good opportunities but that's because of the business partners and people knowing my strong work ethic but I always get average ratings which is super frustrating (Reason for looking on this site for a new job). I don't put in 55 hrs/week and give excellent support to my business partners for average review ratings (which results in target stock award of apx 10% and target bonus of 10%). The 55 hrs/week is average (ranges from 35 - 80 depending on time of year and specific job). In 10 yrs I've had 12 managers. Lots of turnover (people moving to new roles) due to bad review system - need to get a new job to get promoted. Most managers tend to push everything down and their role is unnecessary.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good work life balance, culture and career growth

Cons

less compatitive salary compare to other big company

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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