These comments apply solely to the UK subsidiary of Microsoft; which is purely a sales office and not representative of the wider global org. Your success at MS UK is purely determined by how much Azure consumed revenue you are *perceived* to generate. I say perceived because many people work the internal optics and do very well indeed financially and progress through the ranks, despite little actual impact on revenue, either because they align themselves to large cashcow accounts which generate huge revenue streams regardless or they busy themselves doing stuff which ticks internal boxes at the expense of customers relationships. Most managers are not remotely technical and only really care about three things 1) their bonuses and role status / preservation 2) perceived adherence to the Microsoft corp values (at the expense of actually managing and resolving issues), and 3) ensuring none of their reports outshine them. Internal politics are sadly given far more importance than customer relationships in terms of career progression. There are some really great technical people stuck in grades which do not reflect their talent and customer focus, purely because either they fall foul of the stringent diversity policies, or are not willing or capable of playing the internal optics. Sadly many of these people are managed by sales directors of a bygone era of shrink-wrapped software and boxes of hardware. In addition, many (but not all) sales people pathologically take credit for other people's work without a shred of integrity. The performance appraisal system is easily played and is highly subjective; allowing managers to weaponise it to their advantage. I would strongly advise candidates to be very careful who they work for, and if possible seek employment in global teams or other subs.
