Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) reviews

Product leadership can often lost sight of the fact that they own a cool technology and that we're trying to ship it, leading to directionless and mired down product cycles. Sometimes it seems like there are processes created for the sake of creating processes, not to any useful end.

Senior management are clueless about the direction the product is heading, no vision of where to go expect copy other company's ideas. It's always: "If they do something, we must do it too." It's never: "We should do this before anyone else." Work environment is very political, many decisions are based not on performance but just who's in power and who likes who. Lots of dependency and repetition, start a project, finish, then scrap it, then start again! Review process is horrible, forces people to be in lower 10%, which makes mangers come up with excuses to put you lower in the scale. And if you ever get on that list, good luck trying to convince your managers you don't belong, best to start looking for a job immediately. This is an old, outdated company full to politics and people who just care about climbing the corporate ladder instead of delivering good software. Oh, and if management ever makes a mistake, ICs watch out! You will be on the chopping block!