MicroStrategy Engineer reviews

1.7

36% would recommend to a friend

(10 total reviews)
avatar

Phong Le

22% approve of CEO

17% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

10 reviews
5.0
Nov 19, 2019

great place to work

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

people, atmosphere, work-life balance, benefits, office location

Cons

salary, trainings, upper management, .

4.0
Nov 6, 2017

Stack ranking is a poison

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Great enterprise BI softwares * Great location of the HQ building * Decent pay and benefits * Food truck and Thirsty Thursday in summer * Quarterly performance review allows for quick feedback from the management, which is helpful for improving performance and expectation.

Cons

I was quite surprised that MicroStrategy still uses the stack/forced ranking approach to review its employees that had been proven a failed system for performance evaluation by Yahoo, Microsoft, etc a few years ago. During the quarterly performance review process, managers use a number between 1 - 5 to rate the employees (1 being the worst and 5 the best), and they curve the performance ratings within each team, meaning that a small fraction of the team members get a 1 or 2, and smaller fraction get 4 or 5, while the majority get a passing score of 3. Almost all of us consider the following to be equivalent: 1 = F, 2 = D, 3 = B, 4 = B+, 5 = A Even if you are a new hire, your performance is reviewed without lenience. To be honest, I got a low rating three months after I joined the company. Never had I got a such low performance rating in my entire career or school life till that point, I was totally frustrated. I tried my best to learn the new gig, and yet the manager considered that to be NOT good enough. I feel like MicroStrategy does not allow the new people to take time for learning, instead the manager expects new hires to hit the road and start running on day one, which is unrealistic expectation for people who come from a different field than BI. As a new hire, your first 3 - 4 weeks are spent 100% on the bootcamp, leaving only 8 - 9 weeks for actually learning/doing the work. My first perf review results made me question whether the company is good fit for me, so I made myself back on the job market. A few months later, I quit and landed on a bigger company that offers a better compensation package and probably a better career path, too.

avatar
MicroStrategy Response
8y
Stack ranking is a poison - I don't believe it works in companies that use non-random hiring procedures to select brilliant, motivated, and enthusiastic employees. That being said - performance management has long been a very low-hanging target as an HR practice because it is so hard to draw a line between evaluating talent and differentiating performers and developing great talent and nurturing it to its potential. Ideally - our system, which is done quarterly, would do the latter. Right now, there are components of the system that need tweaking and we are working on that. The frustration you express here about the new hire experience in a system where feedback comes quickly is one that we are taking seriously and working on so that managers are clear about how they should be working with new hires and communicating our process and that new hires feel they have time to get into our company, understand it, and then launch to great heights. We do not want new hires to feel as though they are "under the gun" from the time they come in the door. I do want new hires to feel that they have joined a company that immediately trains them, has a feedback rich environment, and is invested in their future and potential as it is linked to our broader company's potential.
2.0
May 17, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Friendly teams to work with 2. Onsite gym 3. Exposure to technologies

Cons

1. Vision of the company is a big problem 2. Low perks 3. Low professional growth

Viewing 7 - 9 of 10 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,491 MicroStrategy reviews submitted anonymously by MicroStrategy employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if MicroStrategy is right for you.