Microsoft FAQ

Pros

best work life balance in the industry

Cons

should have more napping rooms for night workers

Pros

Nice advantages, work from home.

Cons

No good documentation for existing old code products. Not well organised (or at least my team) Engineers for one of the old products of Microsoft were let go in America and a new team in the Czech Republic was hired (but they had to discover the products by themselves with little support)

Pros

Microsoft's ideals and philosophy are some of the best in the tech space. The Consumer team is really great to work with and learn and grow from. It was fun to be under a large company that other companies wanted to work with. The head of GM is incredibly smart and someone I enjoyed talking to and learning under on the media side. The Director of Commercial was also a very personable and sharp person in the programmatic space, albeit a little aloof to what was happening on their large team. If the original team I was on was dissolved and I worked under him (or the Director of Consumer) I am sure I would still be at Microsoft today.

Cons

The worklife balance is nonexistent. You are told you should have the ability to work how you want, but the work never slows down and you'll never advance if you don't continuously take on new projects to "prove your worth". I was also essentially bullied for 2+ years with HR doing nothing about it. Cases created, tried to talk to management and the individuals themselves. Much of it went under the rug or ignored or told "oh yeah we will correct this". Eventually I was told that it was a "me problem", which didn't help anything. The fact that a manager can give you low marks in the annual review and take THOUSANDS of dollars out of your pocket based on demonstrably false information is a real miss in the performance review process. HR also had no recourse for contesting the claims vs a hidden word document that you hoped a future boss would check (or even know to check). A small weird one, but I was told that I didn't have "relevant experience" for a position even though I came in with 8 year's previous. It was the fact that I didn't have "experience at Microsoft" was the decider. That seems unreasonable given the work is the same (if not easier) inside the company vs what was done previously. Also how do you have a middle manager who openly proclaims how much they dislike women because of their "moodiness and emotional baggage"? Then another manager who openly discusses trying to fire someone on their team?

Advice to Management

I plan to return to Microsoft -- but in a different department -- because this companies ideals and (most) people really are a joy to work with and grow from. I've made friends for life but also been legitimately scarred for life based on gross unprofessionalism and bullying/harassment. Readjust the teams so that you balance workloads and weed out the middle managers who are just trying to hold onto power without actually caring about the teams they are overseeing to help stop the aggressive churn you'll continue to see. P.S. Microsoft management (I'm sure you can surmise who this is), HR or recruiting, I am willing to talk about any and all of this again if it will help my colleagues at MSFT continue to grow.

Pros

Best Work culture, Good pay, Excellent facilities, Best additional benefits, Great manager feedback system, no micro management

Cons

Tough competition Growth sometimes does not happen in the same team. You might need to switch teams

Advice to Management

A better mentorship mechanism

Pros

A lot of perks, not long hours, flexibility, good guidance for further studies

Cons

More application based and less theoretical