Pros
They still give you free drinks in the office, until they won't.
Cons
- Management is bad, very bad, at all levels: decision are made to "follow the flow" (read - do what the boss above you said last) leaving a lot of tech debt behind, damaging the team's spirit (you feel like nothing gets done) and the overall product (because it's incomplete!) - On average, the smarter and more productive you are the less likely you'll be promoted, IMO, they prefer to keep you doing the job rather than seeing you growing; someone has to do it right? - Microsoft is "corporate-America" on steroids, where promotions deeply depends on your manager's capability to stand up for you (up to senior levels) or are given only to those who talks the most (literally: to get Principals and above you either get hired as one or you need sponsors...). If your manager is mediocre or holds a grudge on you, you're done. No meritocracy. - Overall salary package is... 'meh' to say the least, if compared to Amazon, Dell, Google, Meta. Even worse when compared to Nvidia, Netflix... - Work from home used to be great but now is gone. And I see why now they are forcing everyone back (see first point): leadership management is so bad they can't manage teams and keep everyone accountable on what gets delivered so here we go, back in the 90's and getting monitored on how much time we spend in the office. - Microsoft used to be a good place to work with many smart people willing to do the right thing, believing in the Company. But now, with all the recent layoffs in the name of AI and return-to-office most of the brilliant mind have left or are leaving for better pays, better flexibility, higher rewards. In the years to come I foresee a worsening of the products released because of it. - And at the end, the worse of all: there is a motto saying "One Microsoft", it has been around for years with the intent to promote working together. BS. Each organization, and most of the times even within the same org, different teams develops the very same solution for the very same problem, over and over and over. You change organization? New policies, new procedures, new SLAs; same problems, sometime solved (with different solutions) sometimes still there (but you know someone in your old org that solved it and become the hero). Microsoft is all but "one company"...
