Microsoft reviews

Because Microsoft pushes software to the entire world, backwards compatibility can be incredibly difficult. In addition, the skill and ingenuity and time-investment required to ensure software is well tested means that SDETs are often under huge amounts of pressure without the proper level of reward given the difficulty of their job.

The size of the company and the bureaucracy can be stifling. There is no need to keep on hiring so many people when the inefficiencies of communication and management are rampant. The crazy layers of management, the politics, the fiefdoms, etc. can be absolutely suicide-inducing. It really depends on the culture of the team you are in and the few key people that define it. It is still an engineering-based culture, and depending on the industry you're in and who your competitors are, this isn't necessarily a good thing. The company hasn't figured out how to design great experiences quite yet - there are pockets of that throughout but it's not widespread. It is a risk-averse culture which prevents it from innovating and taking smart chances. It is consensus driven which keeps it from being nimble. It's got a lot of smart people who get dumber the larger the group. "Old Microsoft" still reigns supreme in many areas. These executives who have watched the company grow over the past couple decades should generally retire and let others take a crack at it. Many of the old guard have gotten too rich and out of touch and are keeping the rest of the company from taking it where it needs to go.