Spent a third of my life working there. Enjoyed the first ten years
Spent a third of my life working there. Enjoyed the first ten years
When I started there, it was a company full of wickedly smart people who all worked tirelessly, and sometimes in isolation, to move the company forward.
It was always a meritocracy, and I was okay with that, as you got to work on cutting-edge technologies.
The career development there was stellar, and I was presented with multiple international opportunities that allowed me to make my home in the USA, with stints in Europe and Asia to round out my experience.
Over the last few years, the changes to the review model killed collaboration. You became locked in step in battle with your peers, fighting for a review score that you could apply a dollar amount to. I understand that has gone now, and that is the only reason why I give it three stars now, as there is a chance that the changes will fix this.
The company has too much middle management, and a lot of it is mediocre. Sadly, I became one of those mediocre middle managers because I could not connect the work that my 80+ person team was doing with the success of the company, and my game face wasn't good enough to help motivate my team. So I got out and haven't looked back since. I just learned my team is about to get cut by 75% as they are being 'merged' with another one.
With the new CEO at the helm, there is a big opportunity for change. He needs to eliminate as much of the tired, hapless middle management as possible and restructure the company so teams are rewarded for their progress and failing teams are penalized appropriately. Keep it a meritocracy, but reward the high-performing teams, not individuals.
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Microsoft Interview Questions
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Engineering Manager
This was an internal loop for a position in a former team. For the most part, the interview was easy and non-technical. I felt that people were going through the motions in order to interview me. Two out of the eight people interviewed provided a ch
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Engineering Manager
Either resumes are filtered by glitchy software or by incompetent and clueless recruiters. I have 20 years of experience managing engineers, but five minutes after applying for the job, I received an email stating I didn’t have enough experience. Wh
Engineering Manager
Mountain View, California, United StatesOctober 1, 2010This was an internal loop for a position in a former team. For the most part, the interview was easy and non-technical. I felt that people were going through the motions in order to interview me. Two out of the eight people interviewed provided a ch
Engineering Manager
NairobiNovember 15, 20253 Algo & Data structure questions and 1 design question. The questions needed you to understand patterns more than actual coding. For example, when to buy and sell stocks. The interviewer can advance the question to with or without cool down.
Engineering Manager
Melbourne, AustraliaMarch 28, 2025Either resumes are filtered by glitchy software or by incompetent and clueless recruiters. I have 20 years of experience managing engineers, but five minutes after applying for the job, I received an email stating I didn’t have enough experience. Wh
