Prestigeous, but stressful. - Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Microsoft Employee Review

4.0
14 Sept 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart people around you; good reputation; you see the impact of your work outside the work (products); your friends will praise you; The best benefits package I have ever seen (there are some problems with the way the dental plan is handled by the local dentists, see below).

Cons

stress at a regular basis; pressure; competition can lead to some sort of mixed feelings about your peers; One big thing: dentists in the Seattle area will do everything they can to take all the money from the insurance company. At Microsoft, they give you a limit of $1500 per year for dental treatment. However, if you need, for instance, a canal for a tooth, dentists here will charge you...well, guess what? 1500 dollars! That means, for a simple canal, they will eat up all insurance money at your first visit, then if you need to do something else (say a crown for that canal?), you have to unpocket it yourself, and it's a rip off. So, the dentists here are literally thieves! Dental insurance should be unlimited, just like the medical insurance.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

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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