A once glorious empire on the path of decline - Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Microsoft Employee Review

3.0
Nov 3, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Microsoft is still a very powerful company. There are jobs and software it creates for just about everything. You feel like the company cares about you, far more than free soda. They have training classes on everything you could think of, and for those who manage to get themselves into the good graces of management who likes them, the sky is the limit. There are still good jobs at Microsoft, but it's hard to find them.

Cons

There is a strong tradition of failing upwards. The company has lost a lot of its best and brightest to other companies, and the bottom-feeders that are left tend to be very bad at their jobs. The company's biggest problem is how political it is. You will never get a promotion on the merits of the job you do, you must get into the "inner circle" of a higher-up manager to have any chance. Most of the time, instead of dealing with the politics, people just get fed up and leave -- and forever after have nightmares about their experience. The company has a mandate to fire 7% of their employees a year, and if you aren't in the top-tier inner circle, you feel like you're always fighting for your job. Every promotion you get is one that someone else did not. Avoid the Office division like the plague, it is the least innovative part of the company. The technical stagnation of "It's been done this way for years, and we'll continue to do it this way" permeates every part of the product. You will not grow or learn there. For some, it's OK because they have a relatively high paying job that doesn't expect much of them. But I wanted more.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

benefit and wlb are good

Cons

a lot of layoffs lately

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".

2374
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All