Working at Microsoft in Redmond, WA: 393 Employee Job Reviews by Real Employee working in Redmond, WA Area

"I worked at Microsoft since 1997. Absolutely wonderful salary and benefits. The quality of the experience in teams that I worked in varied, some wonderful, some poor. To get a job here, do some research regarding the technology of the position, and practice whiteboard coding of classic simple coding algorithms. A general trend I observed is that those at higher management levels seem to not be sincerely focused on serving the needs of the customer, fully understanding the customer, and failing to drive technical innovation. The usual large company political/social agendas seem to take priority, despite constant discussion about serving the customer and driving innovation. Upper management is not finely honed technically. Efforts to make change at the Individual Contributor (non-management) level tend to fail. This lack of innovation is ultimately reflected by the current revenue status of Microsoft in relation to Google, Apple and others. How to improve the situation? The problem is endemic to management itself, so corrective action needs to occur starting at the very top of the chain. Perhaps in part by injecting highly technically competent leaders into the management chain, found externally, and then empowering them with the authority to implement corrections."

"It's a good company and I have enjoyed working with it."

"With the recent changes in CEO and constant re-organizations of teams I would not recommend Microsoft as a place to work unless you are passionate about cloud development such as Office 365 or Microsoft Azure, as the rest of the company is not as important to Satya."

"Great people to work with, but innovating rapidly due to the current engineering system was and is severely lacking."

"Microsoft can be a great place to work for full time employees, but they tend to treat their contract work force with very little respect. Not a work environment conducive to "team building"."

"Microsoft is an amazing company to work for. There is however a tremendous amount of pressure in the organization, but with that comes a higher salary. There is also a great deal of extra work to do out side of your day to day job. This adds on a great deal work to your work week. You need to do this additional work in order to promote yourself in the organization as it is large and the only way to move up is to get recognized. it's exciting, but very challenging and in my role travel is 100%."

"I have worked at Microsoft for the last 3 years and I am very proud and happy to be here. Actually my goal is move from Brazil to have a outside (international) experience and US is my choice. But I really recommend PFE at Microsoft."

"I worked for Microsoft for about 8 years. It was challenging but a great learning experience. Great benefits as well."

"Challenging, fast-paced, high-value company with great services and devices, Cloud-ready, flexible and productive."

"I had an amazing ride at Microsoft from October 2008 until September 2014. I have only left the company because of lay-offs. Microsoft provides a great work atmosphere and access to some of the greatest technology on the planet. I worked on a lot of great teams from Microsoft Surface (when it was still a table) to Windows and finally Internet Explorer."

"I have worked for Microsoft for 4 years. It is a great company to work for."

"Microsoft is a great company to work for, filled with brilliant people. Compensation and benefits are unbeatable in the industry."

"Microsoft is a very hard but fun place to work. It is all about the people you are working with and the things you learn while there. Nothing is more satisfying than those friendships you develop. Compensation is good but the perks are what push them over the edge. If you have the chance to experience it, it is worth it. The review process has changed which was the only down side but outside of that I had no complaints."

"I have worked for Microsoft for over a decade and its a fun & challenging environment where you get to work with some of the best minds in the industry."