Blown Away by Xamarin - Sales Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
Aug 25, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Besides having a killer product, I could not be more pleased with the day-to-day life around the office. I'm relatively new to the company, but I've been here long enough to be able to confidently say that I love working here. I can only assume that they have a checklist of specific qualities they look for in potential employees, because everyone in the office seems to be on the exact same page especially as far as passion/enthusiasm for the company is concerned. Also, literally everyone gets along and people have made genuine efforts to help me get more acclimated to the product as well as the company culture - which I could go on for hours about but I'll try to be brief. Maybe the most underrated aspect of this company is that the higher-ups and company vets use positive reinforcement to promote hard work. It's not the threat of losing your job or being embarrassed that motivates people at our office, we are showered with praise and recognition whenever we succeed instead of being chewed out for failures. I want to work hard and succeed because I know that I'll be helping the company - a sentiment that I'm sure my co-workers share. It's a selfless environment - everyone acts according to what's best for the company, not themselves or their careers. There's room to move up and versatility is highly encouraged. Everyone around the office has knowledge beyond what their expected to know for their position and everyone is constantly collaborating. Even as a new employee in a lower level position, I talk to the SVP of Sales every day and the CEO is always moving around the office, talking to employees, checking in on deals in the works, looking for and taking in advice at every turn, etc. Overall awesome experience so far and I have no reason to suspect that to change any time in the near future.

Cons

As a start-up the structure is always in flux - I've had a decent amount of managerial changes so far already. Also, company roles and daily tasks are always changing, which isn't always a bad thing but for sake of consistency it can be a little disorienting. Otherwise, no complaints :)

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jun 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- excellent benefits - invests in long term of employees - not in forefront of tech but has always been a good follower - company reinvents itself. - established engineering processes - promotes career mobility within

Cons

- not the topmost in salary and compensation - work is not fast paced. Can get boring for those who like start up culture - some teams are full of team members who have worked in the same team and product for decades. Lacks innovation - company going through a lot of changes as they reinvent in the era of AI

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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