Microsoft reviews

4.0

77% would recommend to a friend

(53,682 total reviews)
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Satya Nadella

77% approve of CEO

71% positive business outlook

Microsoft has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 53,682 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Microsoft employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

54K reviews
2.0
Nov 1, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice trip to the US if you're lucky, some nice colleagues, good health insurance. compared to what other IT firms in Dublin offer, there is not much I can think of.

Cons

I can only speak for the German Inside Sales Team, but staying in line with overall company culture, this is probably one of the most toxic work environments in Dublin. At Microsoft visibility is everything. The joke "it doesn't matter what you do, what counts is the look on your face while you do it" couldn't be more true anywhere. Sucking up to Management is explicitly encouraged and will almost certainly be the decisive factor in whether you will have a career there or not. If you are unlucky, the biggest part of your bonus will be based on the subjective opinion of management, so you'll be at the mercy of the complete hierarchic chain, which is able to -and will- take away your complete bonus on the basis of their personal feelings towards you, irrespective of your actual numbers or how you behave towards colleagues. In such a case, there will be no support offered from anywhere within the company. In the German team, management also takes photos of your desks and sends them around in work-related chats if there is, say, and empty cup or a stain on your desk. As much as visibility is key internally, the company is constantly trying to represent itself to the outside and will expect you to be part of this. This culture can be overwhelming at times and is only good for a very specific kind of person. You know best if you're one of those. Perks at MS are few, there is a good health insurance , but no freebies such as free breakfast or snacks. There are tons of good and highly reputable IT-companies in Dublin, most of which are offering far better culture, management, salaries and perks and I'd advice most to look elsewhere.

1.0
Sep 19, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+ brand: very good to have Microsoft in your CV + people: you will meet great people with huge talent (but they leave quickly) + Work life balance + food: good choice of cuisine (but you have to pay for it)

Cons

-Management: It has been written before and I can only confirm that the so called "Leadership team" is a circus here in Inside Sales. Everyone is talking about leadership but it is non existent. Starting from bottom to the top… Most of them were hired externally so they don’t live the Microsoft culture, don’t listen to feedback and clearly lie to you. People at the end of the chain love the company and what Satya is doing, they just totally disagree with what is going on in the management levels in Dublin. Turnover rate is increasing steadily and of course good people leave, lazy unqualified people stay. - Level and salary: When you join Microsoft you will find a career level in your profile which is important for your future development (every hiring manager asks for your level). Unfortunately levels are inconsistent and it seems like they randomly give you a level…it has nothing to do with your experience. Thanks to this the recruiting ruined several careers of the people here. The salary is also linked to levels so there automatically is a huge unfairness between people. It is quite obvious that people who started earlier are paid less. Leadership team knows about it but does nothing! - Targets/KPI: absolutely intransparent and when it comes to your yearly performance review you get a random rating because your manager has no clue anyway. Cheers!

1.0
Nov 18, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Love the healthecare insurance, ride share, health club, legal, and other perks such as reimbursement offered for those really late nights on campus that last beyond public transportation. I have had to take a cab home a couple of times at 2:00am and was reimbursed 100%. I also like the speaker series that are very educational. There are eduacational reimbursment benefits as well but overal they are pretty light at 7K a year I think for an approved program at a local university and not sure how far 7K would go at the university of washington but it is something.

Cons

The secret society that exists between those that have been at Microsoft the longest. It is a tough click to crack. There is no clear roadmap to parnter and I honestly do not know of anyone from the outside that makes it from entry level now days to partner. There are far too many people in line that have been at microsoft forever what are waiting for those spots. And, the comp model does not promote teamwork. Instead it promotes hundereds of redundant teams, roles, and products all competing against eachother to the finish line. There is little rationalle behind who wins. It is a subjective process that looks objecive on paper but often the paper reviews actually do not match the true work that is delivered. Those who are new to the culture or are from the outside really get taken advantage of by the old timers. They speak two different languages and the old timers expect you to adapt or leave and sometimes adapting to their ways lacks business ethics. I personally have been asked on more than one occassion to do things like "fudge the numbers, make it up, etc" and when refused to do so diplomatically and carefully was then demoted and given a poor perforamnce reveiw despite winning several awards throughout the year that were an obvious contrast to what was in my review. One of the awards in fact was for Engineering Excellence for what of the best projects of the year awarded by Bill Gates so it was intersting to receive my fourth award that year and then on my review be told that I was in the bottom 10%. Previously to that year under other managers, I was always in the top 10% and on steve's "One to Watch List." Yup, there is a list - I'll bet a lot of you softy's did not know that. Things like this though happen all the time, you hear it everywhere and things never seem to change. Worse for wear thought is that if you take something like this to HR, they really have not ability to do anything except for an investigation that can make the indivudal emploee look bad, the repercussions cintinue against the employee and HR and the GM's with poor ethics continue on. In the end, I will leave due to the poor business ethics I have seen here as that is the beginning of the end for microsft when at this size and scale they have lost complete control og the emplyees, sr managers, and HR.

Viewing 31 - 33 of 53,682 Reviews

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