Microsoft

Build products that millions of users use every day. Work with great coworkers who are smart and dedicated. Enjoy a great work environment where employees are well taken care of.

Big Company

Can be slow moving sometimes.

Too many meetings.

Politics.

Stack ranking created a bad work environment in a lot of cases. (They have recently gotten rid of stack ranking).

Improve manager and lead training.

Managers and leads go through very little required training.

It seems like the best developers are rewarded by moving them into management, which does not make sense in a lot of cases. I think Microsoft should build a program to discover employees that would make great managers.

Most managers that I had at Microsoft did not spend enough time on providing actionable feedback. Most of the feedback was provided, and then we moved onto our tasks.