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Great place to work and gain experience

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) II
Current Employee
Has worked at Microsoft for 20 years
August 18, 2014
Redmond, Washington
4.0
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Good company with plenty of opportunities and good benefits.

Cons

Although they are working on it, the yearly performance review system just plain sucks.

They used a bell curve ranking system reminiscent of high school, thus, in order for someone to exceed, someone must fail, even if that person was an otherwise good and skilled worker.

The review system also tends to favor the butt kissers and brown nosers more than the people with actual technical talent and skill that are making the products successful.

Do a good job, meet all your deadlines, and solve all the problems, and you'll be rewarded as "average". But if you cc upper management in every email, bragging about your minor accomplishments, you get rewarded, even if you failed to meet many deadlines and couldn't finish half your tasks.

Advice to Management

It's fairly obvious that the old stack ranking mentality is still stuck in the heads of many in upper management, so it may be a couple years before the new review system can be considered fair to everyone.

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