Microsoft-The cure for what sales you - Sales Manager Microsoft Employee Review

1.0
Jun 11, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits, probably the best in the industry

Cons

Not at all a sales environment. The opportunity to really sell does not exist, as the comp plans, managemnet, and company orientation are all mired in the mid-80's 80's belief that the stock price will grow and split over and over. The stock hasn't split in 8 years, and like many technology firms, has sat at roughly 1/3 of it's bubble peak. But unlike other companies, Microsoft believes that they do not have to face this reality. Accordingly, it hires, retains and promotes a sales culture that doesn't sell, but visits. There is no relationship between activity and closing business in the competitive server space, and worse, if you try to sell into that space, you are vilified by the "resting and vesting" culture.

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5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

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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