Microsoft Software Engineer (Software Developer II) reviews

Deal suck at lower levels. Slow paced dev environment compared to other companies, wouldn't recommend Microsoft (Although some teams might have different perspectives) for consolidating technical skills. Delayed promotions in some teams + you need to climb 2 levels to get your next title

Zero job security or advancement: Reviews only happen twice a year. I worked there for 2.5 years with "no budget for raises or promotions". One or two people in the entire org got promoted once a year. After my first year, there was an internal hiring freeze that kept anyone from even changing teams. Shortly after my fourth glowing performance review, I was part of the 10k people laid off in spring 2023. Though the announcement was made in January, the layoffs were rolling for months. I was a part of the very last ones, laid off in a group of 12 people by my 5th level skip, to make room for more people to work on their terrible AI. Disorganized chaos: Agile/scrum is industry standard but it still hasn't caught on at Microsoft. If you need structure, clear requirements, etc., make sure that's something the team you're going to join cares about. My org only started doing *quarterly* planning for engineering in late 2022. I'm back as a contractor now in a different org and it's actually even worse. They don't even do quarterly planning. Every organization and team have different cultures around planning, expectations, documentation, etc. If you're thinking about joining make sure to talk to your individual manager about it.