Microsoft

Cutting-edge frontier work in AI allows for lots of opportunities to learn new things. I really enjoyed the work until the massive shift in culture that happened with Claude Code at the beginning of the year.

They are a very big company, which can be hard to find your place in, especially with frequent reorgs and shuffling of teams around. Recently, the push for AI has massively increased expectations for developers' productivity, leading to a poor work-life balance and a ton of stress around being made redundant.

In order for your employees not to feel like they are drowning, you can’t expect them to pivot on a dime, learn everything effectively, and be expected to deliver at 300% efficiency at the same time. Choose which area you want to pour into, and allow employees to gradually improve. Or, if you do increase these expectations, then increase the incentives to match. As it stands, we are seeing huge pressures to increase productivity and none of the supposed benefits in terms of compensation.