What it’s like to work at Microsoft
An insider's view 👀 of Microsoft! After hearing my perspectives, would you work at Microsoft? 🤔
Intro
Hey Pirates, PK Here. Today, I'll share my perspectives on what it's like to work at Microsoft. Most importantly, I'll be honest about what I think of working here. I won't take sides and talk favorably about Microsoft just because I work here; I'll try to be as objective as possible. After all, neither of us has any time for bull💩. This is what I think, exactly how I see it through my lens. So enough talking. Let's dive into it.
First Impression
I work at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, where the Headquarters is. The pandemic has shut the campus down for more than a year. But I still vividly remember the day I first set foot in Building 50. The first thing that blew me away was all these private offices lined up in the hallway. That's right! Some Microsoft offices have private office spaces for employees. Although Microsoft is also shifting towards an open office culture (thanks to companies like Google and Facebook 😤), many buildings are still packed with private offices. The private offices were given to even an ordinary, non-manager, unimportant individual contributor like me! I was like, "Wow! I get my own office when I work at Microsoft!?" My interviews were conducted in each of the interviewers' own rooms too! I tried hard to get into Microsoft because I prefer to work quietly alone. Dreaming of having a private office was mind-blowing (which was short-lived due to a reorg and a move to open-space buildings).
Microsoft vs. Amazon
If there's one thing I have to pick that's very different from Amazon, it’s the length of tenure. Whereas roughly half the Amazonians quit their job within a year (Why I quit Amazon), all five interviewers had worked for Microsoft for more than ten years. You can also immediately tell that the average age group of Amazon is much younger, too - lots of young singles at Amazon and a lot more people with families at Microsoft. Now that I think about it, it's obvious why I felt Microsoft took better care of your family than Amazon.
Coolness
Here are the similarities between Microsoft and Amazon. The coworkers in both Microsoft and Amazon... are no fun 😶 but for different reasons! Amazonians are no fun because there's no time to be. Constantly under pressure and competition, we were never coworkers in the first place. They're a lot more stylish than Microsoft engineers too. You know, young, hip, cool, swag, fancy, and all that. But there's simply no time to enjoy those. You're either too busy fighting the work or fighting each other. They're just too cool for you!
In contrast, coworkers at Microsoft are no fun because... They're just no fun! They actually believe they are fun to be with. You know, hip, cool, swag, fancy, and all that, but I honestly don't find any of them funny. For example, I honestly thought one of my interviewers was a robot disguised as a human (no offense). And you know what's funny? The Microsoft employees, especially the engineers watching this, are probably thinking, "This guy's joking. I'm not one of them. He's making this up for laughs!" Well, you know what? I'm talking about you! I'm glad I no longer have to fake my laughs thanks to the pandemic.
Technologies
Enough about the people. Let's talk about the technologies. All Microsoft employees are given a PC - no Mac. That's obvious, right? For the web frontend, Microsoft is shifting towards using Meta's React with Microsoft-developed TypeScript. What about the backend? Microsoft created C# and ASP.NET. For that reason, C# is the primary backend language here. C# is an excellent language, even better than Java, for the reasons I explained here. And all the services are expected to be on Azure.
Perks
Now, let's talk about Microsoft perks, which is a good indicator of how much employers mean by "we care about you." If they are serious about your and your family's wellness, it should reflect well on the company's benefits, right? Microsoft has one of the best health care, including FAANG. They also pay for your annual gym membership or reimburse wellness-related expenses. They offer 15 paid vacations, 10 US holidays, and 2 personal days. You also get 10 paid sick days, which extends to your family members' illnesses. No wonder why people here get sick once in a while. They match 401k for up to 50% of the IRS basic deferral limit. ESPP, Employee Stock Purchase Program, allows employees to buy Microsoft stocks at a 10% discount. Employees get discounts on Microsoft products. For example, about an 80% discount on software like MS Office and Windows. For hardware like Microsoft surface and X Box, the discount's about 15%. Employees also get $150 Azure credit every month, which I used to host my own personal bookkeeping app on the web. There's no free food, but Microsoft subsidizes breakfast and lunch (cafes are closed during dinner). But there are free coffee, free soda, and a bunch of retail shops on campus, including haircut, postal service, telecommunications, bike shops (?), etc. On-campus basketball court, soccer field, table tennis, foosball table, and even a treehouse. You get a private office if you are lucky. Lastly, they match your donations 1:1 to a recognized charity. That means if you donate $100, they donate $100 to the same organization.
Pros
Let's quickly talk about the pros and cons of working at Microsoft. I'll start with the pros. One, decent salary. It's not the top tier, but it's not bad. Two, great benefits. Three, private office (if you are lucky enough to get one and like working quietly alone). Four, work & life balance. It's chill and relaxed here. Five, name value. It's a promising career to have on your resume. Six, growth. I've learned a lot since day 1.
Cons
What about the cons? One, lack of freedom. The company builds most of the tech stack, so the opportunity's rare for engineers to try out popular technologies like Node, Django, and other competitors' software; you're stuck with Typescript, C#, and Azure. Two, you become a test rat. You'll be on the front line to try out Microsoft's newest products or updates. Three, bureaucracy. There are absurd rules and pipelines implemented to make your life miserable. Approval for this, a sign-off for that, and another permission to deploy. What's worse? No one approves your requests for hours or even days. But it's still your responsibility to get your work done, though. Four, security. These guys are serious about security. I even thought this was Pentagon when I first came here. Five, demoralizing company work culture. Nobody answers your emails because it's simply none of their business. Six, an increasing amount of non-code-related work. These include environment setups, configurations, project settings, security compliance, and other random crap. What's worse? Dealing with others' bugs. They pay six figures in salary to have the engineers fix broken pipelines and clean someone else's crap. Seven, too many meetings. We even had meetings to discuss how to reduce the number of meetings.
Thoughts
Alright. This is what I think about Microsoft. I tried to be 100% transparent, honest, and objective. Overall, it's a great company. But as we all know, no company's perfect. So what do you guys think of Microsoft? Is it a great company to work for? Do you agree with all or some of the things I've outlined? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for watching. I'll see you at the next one.
