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Market Leading, Mature Company, with Mature Company Pros and Cons

Senior Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Microsoft for 6 years
May 26, 2018
Mountain View, California
3.0
Positive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Smart people Good work/life balance Products used by millions Mature, financially stable company with decent pay and stock that has been doing very well Satya Nadella Many different products to work on, allowing for lateral movement

Cons

Horrible development tools/process (varies by product -- ask specifics such as "how long does it take to build, test, validate, and check in a change?")

Design by consensus (usually by non-designers) -- no one "owns" a product.

Most products and all internal tools are mediocre.

Management rewards people for short-term projects and features. The people move on, leaving half-finished, orphaned work behind.

It usually takes years to advance, so 90% of the people in control have been there for 10-20 years. Most of them have never worked anywhere else.

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