Company on good track however the Consulting Services business is unethical - Solutions Architect Microsoft Employee Review

2.0
Sep 22, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company is getting better every day. Love the openness and growth mindset culture.

Cons

Microsoft product teams are all about deploying the right solutions for the customer. However the Consulting Services organization demands that their staff deploy solutions that increase billable time. When challenged we're told not to think but do what we're told and that revenue is more important than the deploying the right solution. Utilization based incentives drive the wrong behavior. When engagements are completed in a fraction of the time allocated, we are told to perform work slower otherwise we'll be fired.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- great culture - great work life balance - great coworkers

Cons

- feels too relaxed, no one takes the work super seriously - always comparing themselves to apple

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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