Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) II reviews

The test role is not an engineering role as much as the developer roles are, and training seems to be discouraged unless it's strictly for your current job. They pay a lot of lip-service to developing everyone to their future careers, but that only seems to matter for the current job. Also, rather political and in-fighting is common. They are trying to get rid of that, but...

Health benefits are not what they once were, although I'm told they're still very good compared to other businesses. Expect to spend a fair amount of time recording medical expenses and making sure you've been billed for the right services, making sure your providers are in-network, etc. The SDET role is very much in flux right now, since a lot of test responsibilities have been given to developers (not to mention the layoffs). The actual work for that role will depend a lot on which product/team you work on.