What do you guys think are 5 benefits or pros and 5 cons for working at Microsoft today and on?
Using Amazon as an example, fresh grads with stellar records are easiest to manipulate, er, coach into the next level. Industry hires at that next level are harder to coach.
Microsoft alumnus here. I left the country club because I got bored. I generally agree with this with a few addenda. Pro #4 is a con for a lot of people â but you covered poor hiring bar / overhiring mediocrity in Con #5 already. It is also easy to look relatively awesome but you wonât get much for it per Con #2. Important and related con not directly mentioned in Con #1: dev tools range from ânot badâ to âyou have got to be kidding meâ depending on the group. Another side effect is getting top-of-the line equipment to become more efficient to compensate for the tools situation if you donât want to coast is a process designed to tell you how much Microsoft really values its people. Realistically Microsoft is so large that some important cultural details (per Pro #2) are going to vary widely depending on where you land.
If you do decide to join, find one of the great people (a ton of them have left but there are definitely some excellent lifers still around) and attach yourself. Having a strong mentor (even if it short term inhibits growth on paper / TC because she shines brighter) will be the best way to ensure you can still learn while generally surrounded by mediocrity. If you are the smartest person in the room there and you arenât satisfied with ending your career at whatever stage youâre at there, run. Microsoft will be perfectly content to waste your potential.
Good question. Cons: 1. Stack and technologies are internal and youâre disconnected with whatâs happening in the outside world 2. Stock refreshers are shit 3. Pay and hikes are not at market standard 4. College grads are God. Lateral hires, not so much (in terms of growth) 5. For every 1 brilliant engineer there are 25 average engineers Pros: 1. Good brand name on resume (When I was at Msft I got calls from all of Faang and startups like Uber, Spotify etc) 2. The variety of products you can work on is unparalleled 3. Almost all teams except Azure have a great WLB 4. Microsoft hires well (unlike Amazon and Facebook where people are always fired consistently) so itâs easy to coast by and save your job and have peace of mind 5. Movement between teams is relatively easy if your connect (perf review) is good. Which means you could work at a variety of countries all over the world, and try out variety of roles (ex: software engineer to program manager or consultant)
Overall would you say it's a better or worse experience compared to Apple?
Accurate list, except con #1 isnât so true anymore.