A great and challenging experience. - Senior Marketing Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
6 Jun 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It is a challenging place, we are the leaders in so many different markets, but yet we try to innovate. It is fun and MIcrosoft tries to give you all the tools necessary to complete and live your passion. Working with smart people is incredibly challenging and rewarding too. I wake up in the morning and I don't dread my day (on most cases). In addition, the the benefits are incredible, small perks that make you feel like you can concentrate on your work. The best thing about Microsoft, however, is that you can really try to live your dreams. The opportunity to move around, change position, try something else is to me priceless.

Cons

There are mainly three things. One is the location. Microsoft is Redmond, there is really no other place like it. You can work in the subs but less interesting jobs really force you to move to headquarters. And Redmond is close to Seattle, which is a great city, but the rainy city really lives up to its name. hte second is the corp culture, which I am sure it's great, but the incredible amoount of meetings, and the slow process of getting things done cam be frustrating at times. Third and last, is the tendency to have managers who are really into their career. I know that different people have different experience, but the desire to achieve commitments is the highest priority, while sometimes doing things differently is not as rewarded.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
7 Jun 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
28 Jan 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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