OT: Microsoft employee experience

[RU86]

All,

As always, back to this board for all life's questions! When I don't know something, my wife now says go ask the board, LOL.

Anyway, my son is in the final round of interviews for a job with Microsoft as an entry level Engineer/Software Developer.

He has another offer with what I am guessing is slightly less money, but we know the place is good and work/life balance is excellent. I am wondering if anyone has experience or knows someone who has worked for Microsoft. Would love to know what the place is like to work for.

I have googled and looked on Glassdoor, etc, but looking for more feedback.

Thanks and Beat Buffalo!

 

[BHSPCRU]

My friend has been working there 6 years... he loves it and is now working for a different business unit than when he started. He bicycles to work from Woodinville. I just visited him and he says the campus is beautiful and everyone is pleasant.

 

[RU86]

Great to know. Thx!

 

[e5fdny]

Brother in law works for them in some sort of sales position. He likes the company a lot and is doing very well.

Was a big deal IT guy at a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical we would all know. I think Microsoft grabbed him from them.

 

[bdodger3]

All,

As always, back to this board for all life's questions! When I don't know something, my wife now says go ask the board, LOL.

Anyway, my son is in the final round of interviews for a job with Microsoft as an entry level Engineer/Software Developer.

He has another offer with what I am guessing is slightly less money, but we know the place is good and work/life balance is excellent. I am wondering if anyone has experience or knows someone who has worked for Microsoft. Would love to know what the place is like to work for.

I have googled and looked on Glassdoor, etc, but looking for more feedback.

Thanks and Beat Buffalo!

RU86 - this is simply my perspective. Work-life balance should not be a priority for a recent college graduate provided it is a good company and the job itself will develop excellent skills. You can always dial things back later in your career. Take advantage of excellent opportunities at the outset. It pays off.

Again, that is what I believe in and honestly I have not dialed it back. But that is me. May not work for your kid.

Good luck.

 

[611george]

I agree with the above. Go with Microsoft and have it on your resume. I hire IT people and while it is not always the main criteria, the MS experience is valuable. It's easy to take high level experience with you and find the work/life balance when you have a family. Learning how big IT and large companies operate is valuable in my opinion.

 

[RU86]

Great feedback all! Ty!

 

[SouthJerseyRU]

I currently work for a different huge software company and have worked for medium size software companies. I have friends that have worked for MS. From my experience and the experience of others that I know, their happiness in these large companies directly relates to the people they work with day to day, their boss and their boss's boss. If any of the 3 are bad then it puts a strain on how well we can do our jobs and how we feel about the job. But that is the same for any job.

Also it highly depends on what part of the company he is working for; developing the next gen of AI is more exciting that maintaining the Microsoft Edge code base, although one might be more stressful and have different deadlines then the other.

Working for companies of different sizes has pros and cons. With a large company if you happen to be in a job or position you don't like, you can move to a different part of the company, not so much in a smaller company. What you won't have is a way to move up high in the company. With a smaller company there are plenty of opportunities to move up and maybe more excitement along the way, but if you don't like what you are doing you'll likely have to change jobs. There are a ton of others as well I'm sure that your son will find out along his journey.

In any case if your son is getting final round interviews at MS and has another offer in hand, I'm sure he'll be fine in his future no matter what he chooses. Good luck.

 

[Upstream]

RU86 - this is simply my perspective. Work-life balance should not be a priority for a recent college graduate provided it is a good company and the job itself will develop excellent skills. You can always dial things back later in your career. Take advantage of excellent opportunities at the outset. It pays off.

Again, that is what I believe in and honestly I have not dialed it back. But that is me. May not work for your kid.

Good luck.

Agree with this. The primary criteria for a recent college grad should be the experience that the job provides, which provides the basis for getting better future jobs. Slightly better salary is secondary (unless the salary difference is significant). Work-life balance for a recent grad is pretty unimportant .... for example, if he doesn't have kids, does he really care that the company offers flexibility for childcare.

 

[rutgersal]

All,

As always, back to this board for all life's questions! When I don't know something, my wife now says go ask the board, LOL.

Anyway, my son is in the final round of interviews for a job with Microsoft as an entry level Engineer/Software Developer.

He has another offer with what I am guessing is slightly less money, but we know the place is good and work/life balance is excellent. I am wondering if anyone has experience or knows someone who has worked for Microsoft. Would love to know what the place is like to work for.

I have googled and looked on Glassdoor, etc, but looking for more feedback.

Thanks and Beat Buffalo!

Amazing place to work. Was there a little over a year. Everything is first class, and getting Microsoft on your resume will open doors. Everyone works hard, within reason. They have fully stocked food pantries and refrigerators. Didn’t really care for the Bellevue, Washington area, which is where a lot of the jobs are. Seattle was kind of boring for me too. But Washington is very clean and the air is fresh. It doesn’t get better than Microsoft for your first job. The employee Xmas parties and picnics are awesome. Getting hands on software before the general public does is also awesome. Ideally if he can join their Azure (Cloud Services) team that would be great. But any job at Microsoft will provide for a great experience. I’d highly recommend.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I agree with the above. Go with Microsoft and have it on your resume. I hire IT people and while it is not always the main criteria, the MS experience is valuable. It's easy to take high level experience with you and find the work/life balance when you have a family. Learning how big IT and large companies operate is valuable in my opinion.

^^^ winner, winner, chicken dinner ^^^

If you are some genius whose work and abilities speak for itself you may not need a brand name on your resume.. but if he gets MSFT on the resume.. maybe stays there 3 years, gets a small promotion.. he will be very attractive for future job searches.

 

[RU86]

excellent feedback! thanks all!

 

[Randal7]

I think its important to ask -- whats the other place??

If it is a company that is doing machine learning in pharma, for example, your son could be on the gravy train for the rest of his natural life.