Great company to work for - Senior Security Program Manager Microsoft Employee Review

5.0
Jul 10, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of ability to move around within the company, easy to find groups doing something of interest. Good work-life balance and flexible schedules. Awesome transportation options including: company buses, van pool support, public bus passes. Great emphasis on diversity and inclusion and equality. Building a culture where people are truly valued and not just a replaceable cog in the machine. Lots of opportunity and great things happening at this company. Compensation is good including great bonus and stock possibilities as well.

Cons

Commutes are ridiculously long in Redmond, even with transportation options provided by the company. Most senior managers live close so maybe they don't feel the pain. I spend 2-3 hours per day on the company bus (but at least there is WIFI, so it isn't a complete loss). Some groups are ok with regular remote work, while others insist physical presence everyday. It would be nice to see more allowance for working remote 2-3 days a week to take commuters off the road. Traffic just gets worse every year.

Explore other reviews about Microsoft

5.0
Jul 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pretty good pay and unlimited PTO

Cons

Increasingly deadline driven to a fault

4.0
Jan 28, 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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