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Lots of opportunity, as long as you're visible

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET)
Former Employee
Worked at Microsoft for 4 years
October 9, 2013
Redmond, Washington
4.0
RecommendsNeutral OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

Microsoft has a lot of opportunities, and a very high ceiling for an individual contributor. The management track is not required to obtain high levels of compensation and benefits.

Cons

The culture of visibility, staying until the boss leaves, and working longer hours whenever there's more work to be done still exists.

If you're not visible, you'll get ranked in the bottom 10% in your group and get a poor performance review, which impacts your chances of getting another job within the company.

The current salary structure punishes people for not changing jobs within the company every 2 years. This is compounded by the previous point.

Advice to Management

When a team has 5-10 people and all of them are pulling their weight, giving one of them a bad review "Because management said I had to pick X people" will only cause distrust between coworkers.

Teams that work together do better than those who just want to get ahead.

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