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I’ve worked at Microsoft for over a decade, from 2006-2017. I’ve had multiple managers, shipped numerous products, and have had many positive and negative experiences while at the company. I think the uber-culture that Microsoft wishes to promote has improved under Satya’s leadership; but as other women have mentioned, it has yet to trickle down to all of the teams, so your experience will vary based on what team you join.

My first few years at Microsoft were very good, and I experienced a lot of support from my managers and teammates. Unfortunately, once I reached the intermediate levels of my career, opportunities to take on more challenging tasks seemed to dwindle. Reorgs and management changes occur frequently, and can seriously slow down your career. In my opinion, how fast you advance at Microsoft depends more on luck (aka landing a good team, manager, and/or high-visible work item) than skill or hard work.

If you happen to get a bad manager, then move to a new team fast! A bad manager can derail your career and make working here a nightmare. While I think this is true at any company, Microsoft HR is not very supportive of individual contributors and will always back management. Technical skills are valued much higher than people skills, so you’ll see many people in management roles at the company that really have no business being there.

In general, I find most of my co-workers to be intelligent, helpful, and respectful (they’re the best part of the job). I appreciate the flexibility in my work schedule and the benefits that Microsoft offers. However, I would like to see the company train better people managers, provide support for mid-career growth, and improve the review system (Microsoft HR attempts to redo this system every 3-5 years, but it’s always based on some sort of ranking system which distributes pay in a disproportionate way).

If you happen to join Microsoft, I really hope that you land on a good team. Just keep in mind that a reorg can happen at any time and turn that good team bad. Good luck!

3 years ago
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I worked at Microsoft first as a contractor and then was hired on as a consequence of the lawsuit over contracted employees. Microsoft hired a number of East Indians and in my group, the manager was best buddies with the person he put in as lead over a group I was in, demoting my lead in the process. The new lead bullied more than one person in the group, me included, and HR did nothing even when the lead lied on my review. No opportunity to refute, no way to get past accusations that weren’t true. I heard that bullying was endemic at Microsoft after I left, and have no reason to think that the culture’s changed that much.

4 years ago
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I worked at Microsoft for almost seven years, right after getting a masters, from 2008 – 2015. I worked as a developer on four different teams, in three different orgs, under seven different managers. A few things I learned are probably true at any large company:
1) If you have a really good manager, he (or she, but if you’re dev or test, probably he) likely won’t stick around long because he/she will move on to better things.
2) Reorgs happen a lot, these are times when you really have to consider whether you’ll be happy in your new org, because you’ll almost certainly be happier if you get to choose what product you’re working on.
3) As others mentioned, team culture depends very much on what org you’re in and what team you’re on. It is not a monoculture. If you don’t find the right fit somewhere, you might find it somewhere new. And, obviously, the contrapositive is also true.
4) The benefits are very good, they are not top of the industry good, but they are extremely competitive.
5) The people there, across the board, are very smart.
6) Because of how stack ranking works, you’re not likely to experience rapid career growth here, regardless of whether you’re male or female (but it’ll probably be even harder if you are female). I know they don’t stack rank anymore, but I bet the promotion pie is still just as big. Promotions tend to come at a slower, steady pace.

There are definitely problems with gender bias in certain parts of the company. Microsoft does a good job making sure that they audit pay level to comp ratio across different minority groups, but that does not mean that a minority has the same opportunity for promotion as a non-minority. I think it’s one of those cases where Unconscious Bias training would really help. Certainly, everyone is well intentioned, but when women are so overwhelmingly outnumbered by men and no particular effort goes into helping to keep the culture inclusive, it will be harder on them. I was on a team for over two years where we joked that every woman on my floor had her own stall in the bathroom, there were only four stalls (I was on a floor of dev/test/pm at the time), and there were about 80 people on the floor.

4 years ago
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I’ve worked at Microsoft for 5 years – i was asked to join at a time of extreme change within the company and when i had competed against Microsoft for many years AND when it was almost against everything I stood for (ie. I was an Apple, Unix, open source girl), so this indeed was going to be an experience to say the least.

I found the first year quite difficult – The workload was extreme, it was a mixture of cultures – of old closed culture and new fresh cultures. Luckily within a short period Satya Nadella took over the role of CEO which drove the change in Microsoft even further and i must say i had my doubts about how long i would stay but now even i am surprised about how much I love working here.

Originally i had bought into the story about the company supporting family first, support for women, diversity of thought etc but i wasn’t sure i truly believed……but i really do – it is the most incredible thing to live the dream from top to bottom and feel that the company has your back and that you don’t have to fight about time off to look after your family, or fight for equal rights as a woman or stand up for gay rights or religious/cultural/minority beliefs – you get a voice and the company cares that you are included and bring a diverse point of view.

Not only that, you are actually encouraged to aim higher, look for advancement and you get presented with opportunities – its not a bad thing to look at new roles at Microsoft – something that took a while to get my head around.

Hats off to Microsoft for really trying hard at things that matter – i continue to be amazed and they continue to work at getting better and improving.

4 years ago
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I had the misfortune of working for Microsoft at their headquarters in Redmond, WA under one of the Office products shortly after my graduation in 2012. They’ll charm you with a glamorous interview or a wonderful internship, then laugh once you’re suckered into thinking that employment is continuously enjoyable. The projects are challenging and incredible learning experiences but deployment and releases are volatile to the whims of upper management who feel your work is no longer needed, or demand a better prototype in faster turnaround time. Hands are constantly tied and managers are happy to throw their subordinates under the bus to save their own skin – regardless of whether or not you were a woman. Speaking up during meetings was considered rude and aggressive, but staying quiet meant I wasn’t passionate enough about my work or wasn’t engaging towards innovation.

Microsoft has made increasingly stronger attempts to close the gender pay gap and increase diversity but it’s really a fancy PR move. In my team of 40 engineers, 6 were women, and only 2 of us were focused on product development. The other female engineer had been at Microsoft for 6 years by the time I got there – and when she left for maternity leave, her lead on the team was quietly passed on to a younger male who continued to lead and shortly received a promotion while she was still gone. This woman had been team lead for at least a year prior to her pregnancy and our managers had nothing but praise for her! I’m appalled with the double standards and blatant ignorance towards biases (not just of sex) in the company.

I left as soon as I had the chance. You’d be wise to steer clear.

4 years ago

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