some great technology, but big and bureaucratic - Technical Specialist Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
6 Feb 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

to be around some great and fun people, and have direct access into a lot of other customers you would otherwise never be able to be in contact with. some of the technology is actually pretty cool as well. the range of technologies sold to enterprises is amazing, and they still have good perks such as regular trips to the US. the pay is good, and work hours are very flexible, it is easy to work from home. it's a great calling card, since people actually want to listen to you when you come in with the MS badge, and it looks great on your CV, and up until recently, the job security was pretty good

Cons

the short-term quarter by quarter focus, and in some markets, particulalry switzerland, they are already an established, slow-moving conservative company. services have also been downsized, making them even more reliant on good partners in the enterprise space. they will struggle more and more to remain relevant for customers and to explain their value, which means regional sales will be under huge pressure to justify not being replaced by partners. the sales organisation is still sometimes disfunctional, and has struggled to follow the company's growth. especially in the subsidiaries, the sales role still sometimes feels like you are shifting boxes, which can become discouraging

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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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