Microsoft execs make org changes with little regard and respect to front line employees - Industry Market Development Manager Microsoft Employee Review

1.0
Sep 3, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great benefits fair compensation reasonable time off

Cons

middle management are empty suits, void of vision and very little risk taking politics have gotten out of control since gates left the building.. sales metrics often do not reflect the contributions of the role, which demonstrates that line management is out of touch of what the individual contributors role really does middle management does not care about the career of his/her directs, 90% of the time management competes directly with their people, or takes credit for their work lots of back stabbing going on Microsoft changes the organization or commitment or comp model, faster than the average deal cycle, making it next to near impossible to develop momentum in role or a rhythm of success execs promote themselves in years when they freeze employees merit increases only way to advance is to step on your peers/colleagues and take credit for work you had no impact on, beat your chest loud enough and you get "visibility" you need to advance visibility is not based on performance by enlarge, it is based on being in your manager's swim lane for advancement I have observed people get promoted in years when they did not meet their quota, nor did the earn the highest performance on the team, they kissed their way to the promotion

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5.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good company and secure env

Cons

not that i think of

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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