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Legacy Code, Outdated Processes, and Meetings

Senior Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Microsoft for 2 years
May 7, 2019
Seattle, Washington
3.0
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Generally pleasant culture. Good commuting options. Above-average compensation.

Cons

MSFT is quite large, and my comments apply solely to the Windows Device Group (COSINE, or whatever it's called now).

Microsoft uses an internal build system that's atrocious. It's worse than msbuild, which they don't use. It breaks all the compelling features of Visual Studio (IntelliSense, etc.). Build times are incredibly long and really slow down your work. It's 2019. This isn't acceptable.

Git practices and VSTS leave a lot to be desired.

Fragmented telemetry systems. Different teams use different components. So many different dashboards need to be written. Unfortunately, the PMs can't write code, so you'll be doing that.

The meetings... so damn many. And nothing useful comes from them.

Advice to Management

Modernize tools and processes. Seriously, they're death by a thousand cuts.

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