Microsoft

As a company, Microsoft has great benefits and good pay.

It’s a beautiful campus (soccer and softball fields, sand volleyball courts, trails, etc.).

Microsoft also has a lot of products. It is one of the few companies where you can work on an OS, developer tools, database engines, cloud services, and games. If you get tired of working on one product, you can move teams to work on something entirely different.

You also get the opportunity to work with really smart people who have the same passion and technical interests that you do.

Building software is Microsoft’s business. It’s not an IT or hardware shop; it is a software company.

Management is not honest or open.

I found out about a change in my position/team structure by seeing an email distribution list. My manager at the time could not be bothered to tell me; I had to make an appointment with him to find out. You can be surprised in your reviews.

Very clique-ish. If you are not in the same clique as your manager, get out of that team and find a new one.

There are way too many managers who cannot write code, although they like to think they can.

Managers can be very demeaning to individuals.

I had one manager tell me that the best management book he had ever read was a book on raising children. Even the current CEO, Satya Nadella, has made a similar reference. This is very insulting. I'm an adult; you should treat me like one.

Microsoft is not an innovative company. When I joined the company, the industry was reading books explaining how Microsoft ships software. Of course, the industry has passed Microsoft by, and now Microsoft is not even mentioned in articles that describe the direction the industry is taking.

I'm not sure if there is any advice to give to Microsoft management, because they never listen, but here it goes.

Be open and honest. Stop wordsmithing. For example, the old review model was known as stack ranking, but it was always called “calibration”. It’s not; people are put in a stack from top to bottom. Calibration only happens when you have to make the review numbers fit a model.

Hire managers who are courageous. There are too many bullies in the upper ranks; you need managers who can stand up to them. Too many managers don’t live the Microsoft values. For example, they are not able to give bad news.

Be honest about where you are as a company. Microsoft is not an industry leader. In some markets, it is a legitimate contender; in others, it is simply an also-ran.

Respect the rank and file troops. Financial rewards are fine, but they only work in the short term. Too many directors/managers are too far removed from the very people who work really hard to make them successful. Have the managers, directors, and VPs randomly walk the halls and ask people what they are doing.