How to avoid getting laid off at MSFT?
Accepted a MSFT offer this week, expect to start soon, maybe Feb. Offer is for Data/Applied Scientist II, I think it's L62. I read that MSFT is the country club, yet they have layoffs on a 'rolling basis' because they reorg everyday. How does one avoid getting laid off at MSFT? Perform well? Is getting target bonus enough do should I aim to get 150-200% bonus? Play politics? I'm not good at that. Any advice is appreciated. Move into MSFT teams that area growth areas and cash cow like Azure? Future TC is $170k. PhD+2yrs.
No need to think about country club, layoffs, performance, politics, etc. In your first year at Msft, work 8 hours a day and you'll be having a good work & life. Based on your learnings in 1st year, tune the hyperparameters.
Be aware about non technical PM politics who are most of the time have great relation with general manager . All engineering team full of politics. Core team like windows , exchange or office no chance of politics . If you see team equally diverse then good for you otherwise no growth for non race person.
Get solid, discrete, obtainable goals locked down in your Core Priorities. Every time someone sends a thank you email, send them a feedback request. Listen to feedback in your Connects and actually take it to heart. Look very hard at the job responsibilities at 63 in hrweb and demonstrate that at 62. Get to know your skip (your boss' boss). Make friends in other departments. If there's a RIF (layoff), you'll get 2 months with pay to scramble for a new job as an internal transfer, but you'll only have email for a week, so you'll want a strong network of other employees doing the search for you.
What's a feedback request to a thank you email? Is that literally an email asking why they are saying good stuff about me?
There a form to request feedback from anyone inside the company. Don't wait until your semi-annual Connect or annual review to solicit responses, or you'll forget things and so will the reviewers. Walking into a review with a pile of kudos is always a good idea, and it gives a good manager ammo to argue on your behalf. It also keeps bad managers from dumping on you unfairly.
When I was at MSFT I never got laid... oh wait....
Work medium hard is right but nothing protects from your entire group being laid off.
Be a minority
then sue for millions if fired.
Rinse repeat
WTF!!
This makes MSFT seem cutthroat and lay-off happy. Not so. Sure there are politics but outside of the phone teams and SMG, when have there been serious layoffs in the last 5 years?
Posters here say layoff is rolling basis. So they don't axe lots of people at one shot and get lots of media attention, but is slow 24/7 attrition.
Country club days have been over since satya took over. You have to perform otherwise you will end up with zero rewards or managed out. I can say Microsoft is more cut throat than most companies.
^ this. Do your job. Pull your weight.
Also need to make sure you can play politics if you get stuck with a bad manager Even though things are changing, managers still have way too much power at MS