Microsoft is still a great place to work, especially if you are looking for career growth! - Software Test Engineer Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
May 5, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best reasons to work at Microsoft are that you get to work with a group of exceptionally talented and motivated people, you have almost limitless career growth, and you will always be working with the latest and greatest technology that is available. Senior management is very competent and will give you feedback on a regular basis that you can use for personal as well as professional development. The people you meet in the hallway usually seem happy to be there (minus the guys that are late to their meetings and coding on their laptops while trying to hit the right elevator buttons) and you can almost always strike up a good conversation with someone interesting at lunch (we're not all antisocial nerds, well at least not all the time =P) If you are a fresher like myself, I have found the environment to be very nurturing yet at the same time there is plenty of challenge so you will feel proud of your work when you are done. At my previous company when management said I did a good job on a project I just shrugged it off, but when someone says you're doing a good job at Microsoft it is really something to be proud of!!

Cons

The downsides are that sometimes you will put in long hours if you are close to release in the software development lifecycle. Occasionally I hear about people having incompetent middle manager/leads which I believe is partly due to the "if you can code, you can manage" philosophy. If this happens be diplomatic about it, give feedback to your leads and senior managers and remember that sometimes they are still learning too. Also, as a downside to having high career growth you can be put in a situation where they will give you more responsibility than you asked for. This is great for experience but it can be stressful if you are not used to it. The way I see it, that is just part of the training and what is life without a little challenge anyway?

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5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good flexibility with remote work Very good pay level at initial joining years Excellent team dynamics and coachable engineers

Cons

Very less hike post 4-5 years into the role Very good teams but as a senior has responsibility over shadow all junior work

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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