Still a great place to work, just don't let aggravating decisions from senior management get you down! - Principal Group Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
10 Nov 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart people, many tough problems to solve, significant software engineering challenges, never boring, your work has a world-wide impact, and you are empowered to make a difference for customers. Plenty of opportunity to add value in the software development process, as a solid engineering leader, and as a subject matter expert. You won't be a big fish in a little pond here; if you're looking to stretch yourself and work, everyday, with people smarter than you, then this is the place to be. Microsoft has a soul, a lot of diversity, and they reward based on contribution... you can be successful here!

Cons

layers of middle management can impede progress, senior management entrenched and protecting their position -- not advocating innovation if at all risky, some groups want you to sell your life to the company

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learned a lot, plenty of team work opportunities

Cons

Internship could have been longer than 4 weeks

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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