The Dream Company - Software Engineer II Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
7 Jan 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When I came to work for Microsoft over 3 years ago, I thought it was my dream company, and 3 years later the company lives up to my expectations entirely! The biggest pros of working here from my perspective are: 1. Extremely professional yet relaxed environment 2. Huge impact of job you do (user base of 1 million is an "emerging product", we think in 10s and 100s of millions) 3. Good and consistent work-life balance (especially in Norway: time with family is YOUR time, and it is protected very well...) 4. Great handling of WFH during covid 5. People rarely leave and only do so with a very good reason and normally after staying in company for many years, so it is safe to make friends (if you've been to startups, you might know what I mean! :D)

Cons

1. Career growth may be perceived as slow (it does not get any faster than 1 promotion per year, and for most it is 1 promotion per 1.5 years) 2. Salaries are not insanely high (we're slightly above market in Oslo, but the job we do is waaay above market in Oslo...) 3. Things may be perceived as generally slow (well, we're over 150k people at the moment of writing, after all...) Still, none of these cons could make me drop a star. I have been having a great time since day 1 and will likely keep doing so for maaany years to come :)

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
2 Jul 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Comfortable and well paid. Very good work life balance

Cons

Too slow, couldn't grow. Growth depended on the team you are in. Can't leave team until SWE II

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".

2374
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All