• Member of Microsoft’s lead Operations Consultant Team. Successfully lead the completion of eight large, multi-factorial and multi-million projects
• Developed strategic plans to initiate organic organizational maturity, improve governance and management of IT Operations around people, process and technology.
• Identified specific measures to establish automation and governance practices to reduce resource dependence and enhance ROI, per ITIL and other industry best practices per ITIL, PMI, ISO, COBIT, and CMMI
• Established people, process and technology roadmap to improve IT operations and embark cloud services. Created framework to grow IT operations consulting business within Canada, which increased number of engagements by +50%
• Analyzed and optimized team structures to support diversified IT Operations for dynamic organizations. Enhanced processes required to ensure high services availability and reliability. Ensured effective coordination between cross functional departments by breaking silos and introducing collaboration services to enhance communication and coordination
• Enhanced team members’ knowledge on ITIL, MOF and Microsoft technologies and executed internal training workshops. Exceeded customer expectations for all projects and engagements
• Managed multimillion business, infrastructure, technology and solution transformation projects to rollout Microsoft technologies such as hybrid/private/public cloud, Microsoft System center (SCCM, SCOM, SCSM), Cl
Contractor Experience - Loved the colleagues, and the events.
I worked for Microsoft as a contractor, employed by Lionbridge between the years 2010 and February 2014, so the direct employee expreience does not apply to me.
Also, unfortunately, during that period, the company downsized its operations in my department, and there were several people that lost their job in the Office team. I believe I did not witness the company at its best.
I was impressed by the loyalty of its employees, mainly in Redmond, the effort the company made to provide its staff with a good level of compensation and benefits, and how fun were our rare get-togethers.
The Microsoft Full-time employees were very happy. It also had a remarkable ability to work with multinational, multilingual teams, mostly remotely! Not every company manages that successfully.
My department had a dynamic attitude, and people were professional, and devoted to their jobs.
I made friends, and met people that I respect very much in my days at Microsoft. I would reccommend the company to any young person that wants to grow in the IT field within a very large company with diversity of opportunities (while my team was downsizing, all the gaming teams, for instance, were growing, and the mobility within the company seemed to be very easy).
Arrival through Pearson security was always a friendly affair. Meeting travellers and informing them about the new Windows 8 was always a different and refreshing experience each time.
Management was great all around. They're friendly, considerate, encouraging, respectable, promote efficiency, knowledgeable, and helpful. The amount of time we all spent together allowed us to really become a team and we all eventually became friends even after the promotion ended. It was nice to look forward to coming into work and being around people you enjoyed being around. For example, when certains days felt longer than others it would be evident that we'd help one another pass the time. Throughout the duration of the program, we always learned from one another and were really beyond knowledgeable about Windows 8 and its products by the end of the program.
Although the job itself I could not consider in any way difficult, sometimes certain frustrations would arise due to faulty internet or software hiccups which would embarrassingly affect our pitches.
I really enjoyed the concept of "counting the wow's". To me "wow's" confirmed that the product experience we were sharing would be something very memorable for whoever I would be speaking to.
My job consisted of being sent to two best buy stores to promote and sell Microsoft products primarily surrounding the Microsoft surface pro and Microsoft surface. My job consisted of training and development of the staff of the best buy stores I was sent to as well as being able to sell independently without any management around to support me. I was responsible of getting a customer interested planting all of the necessary seeds and then passing it off to a best buy employee to finish the sale. I learned how to work on my own and be able to merchandise manage my own time and self and learn new selling techniques that would further benefit me in terms of building relationships with customers and believing in what I sell. I learned a lot about Microsoft software, operating system and the products itself. I built very good relationships with the district manager and territory manager of Microsoft itself. During this time I build excellent relationships with the staff that worked in Best Buy. The hardest part of my job was that repetitiveness of the job and not being able to do more then what I was there for. Otherwise the company and job itself was an amazing opportunity that taught me many things.
Points positifscontract
5,0
Global Escalations Specialist | Mississauga, ON | 19 mai 2014
Passionate, dedicated person who leads programs and projects to drive impact.
Business program leader with 15 years of progressive experience with dynamic, fast paced customer centric organizations who drives transformation in customer support engagements for flagship products & services. Rich background in delivering support, service, sales, and loyalty and retention efforts for key Consumer brands. Excellent achievement and a track record of creating valued partnerships with Business, Stakeholders, Partners, Marketing & Engineering teams that deliver business impact and customer value. Extensive knowledge of online and Brick and Mortar merchandizing, billing, purchase and support experience.
Demonstrated Vision and Success in the following:
Inspires and energizes organizations to commit and move together toward a shared vision.
Takes on and sees through difficult endeavors with can-do attitude, honesty and integrity.
Develops people, enable talent and embrace change. Always ready to launch and land in market products and service to achieve a competitive edge.
Points positifsExcellent work culture, world class software and services
The best work place to work with lots of creative people, challenging tasks and fun things to do!
Microsoft experience is so far the best part of my career. A typical day at work as a writer involved a lot of thinking, reading, discussing with peers and manager and of course, writing. Microsoft being Microsoft gave me a lot of freedom to do the job the way I wanted it to be done. At the same time, the company has the strongest values and ethics in place. I saw this at play across the organization, right from the newest employee to the CEO.
The workplace culture is very balanced. While there is a strong focus on accomplishing quality work, most of the time, one doesn't feel like sweating it out. There is pleasure in it at the end of the day, as in my case, I saw my work getting published/ implemented. The most encouraging thing is your work comes to life at Microsoft.
I worked with the best people in the industry, they always encouraged all the ideas, while throwing some wonderful challenges too. If I get another go with Microsoft, I would grab the opportunity. Won't even think twice!
Initially the job is exciting and you get to learn a lot of new things, but management is fairly horrible. The team you work with are very accepting and easy to get along with but depending on who you become friends with management has a strong bias and will negatively review you for it.
While they promote a Growth mindset work environment, only the staff in charge of training harbour it, managers believe they are above all and only promote growth in the people they like/favor. If you try to grow on your own, you tend to be shunned by management as they only want you to grow under there watchful eyes.
Don't get me wrong managers are nice people, they just don't know how to handle there positions well. They take any criticism as personal attacks and attempt to force you to believe their opinions are better then yours and you wont convince them otherwise.
Points positifshour lunches, learn about new tech before everyone else, Chill co-workers
Points négatifspoor management, low-no schedual flexibility for full-time.
5,0
Inventory Control Specialist | Toronto, ON | 1 févr. 2016
Processes that work, culture that rocked, people that were awesome
Each day had a routine, and that routine made sense.
Heavily team based.
We were all trained on how to use Microsoft products, and then used those Microsoft products everyday at our jobs. Made that job and my future jobs a lot easier to do. :)
There was 3 weeks of training in a hotel while the store was built. Tonnes of fun and really helped build a sense of community and commraderie amongst the retail staff.
Paid decent wages for retail staff.
TONNES of benefits and perks. Free drinks and snacks and if there was ever an event, free food too.
Great initiative amongst the management teams to keep everyone motivated.
No room for advancement beyong retail though.
The corporate offices are in Mississauga and I don't believe there was a channel to take from retail to corporate.
Points positifsFree snacks / drinks, great culture, tonnes of benefits and perks
Points négatifsMall retail hours, no corporate advancement, SUPER lengthy interview process
A terrific place for students and new grads to work while at school or freshly graduated from college/university
The Microsoft Store offers a great place to work for students, new professionals, and those looking to get a foot in the door to get into the service advising, and/or technical field. There are many opportunities to progress in the retail and field service lines, and I'd recommend this place to especially students looking for a great full-time or part-time position to work.
There's always something new to do, whether it is try new products, offer different solutions to customers, and great great learning situations for each person. I learnt quite a bit, the benefits were terrific, and the management were very relaxed and gave you the platform to set yourself up for success.
Points positifsAmazing benefits, fun environment to work in
Points négatifsRetail hours, gets busy in holiday season
Cutting edge technology and competitive but friendly workplace
Microsoft is a great place to work and build one's skills in multiple areas. The access to cutting edge technology and Microsoft products and resources is, of course, unparalleled. Its workforce is highly motivated and talented, and opportunities to learn from colleagues are plentiful. Workplace culture is fairly relaxed but expectations are set high, and under-achievers do not last long. The hardest part of the job is keeping up with constant change, of everything from tools and technologies, to processes, procedures, goals, and expectations. The most enjoyable part of the job was working with a team of talented and hard-working individuals, based in locations around the world, all working together to enable our customers and partners to achieve more.
● Dataload, management and upload of Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) data for the 7 Australian States.
● Expertise in architecture, configuration and deployment of ePASS version 2.14.x/2.16.x/4.1.x/4.2.x and finally 6.x.x
● Point of contact for initial diagnosis of problems, for a system or sub-system or apply known solutions, including documenting problems, progress checking, and escalation to ensure resolution discussion with Bravura vendor, Business Team and off-shore development team.
● Follow-up in relation to improvement with ePASS response times, performance resolution and troubleshooting aspects within tomcat web tier/JBOSS and Ant application tier/MS SQL Server database tier and/or integrated ComSAS IBM DB2/Capital Oracle projects.
● Key contributor for providing sampled scrambled data to Bravura for the ePASS versions (2.14.x/2.16.x/4.1.x/4.2.x and finally 6.x.x) upgrades and then architecting the infrastructure, deploying the military and civilian super funds onto the new hardware infrastructure.
● Managing activities like building new database environments for applications, installing SQL related software like ePASS, RazorSQL, Helpmaster Pro, MiAudio, Zeacom & SQL Server 2012
● Mentoring a team of 6-10 Junior DBAs in data modelling, design and cost-effective scripting so as to be propagated to Test, UAT and Production environment
● Creating databases for new applications; setting up recovery and DR processes and configuring Log shipping. Imp
Points positifsFree lunches and opportunity to succeed
A great place to learn and grow in software development
A typical day started off with reviewing, sorting, and when needed - respond to over-night emails. In addition to team and company correspondence, they also consisted of automation test results and testing done over-seas. Next, I would review my bugs in the database to see what needed follow-up on for that day. In my last position, we would have a daily scrum to sync up with all our teammates on where we all were in our tasks and goals for the project. This is also where we would make agile decisions on our workforce and re-assign folks or create new tasks to help keep the project on track for its determined release date.
Before working at Microsoft, I was a video editor and award winning 3D animator. However, I didn't know very much about software development - just how to manipulate it to get my work done. Working at Microsoft, I learned on the job about how to perform software testing - specifically manual UI. In addition, I picked up a lot of general information on the use of Microsoft products and devices. I also learned a lot about corporate networking. Because I served on many teams, I got to understand on a deep level the following products: My Sync II, Point of Sale OS, Hyper-V, Zune, IE, and CE OS and many portable devices over the years.
Microsoft is a big company, so my experience won't represent the company so much as just a small part of it that I worked with. My managers were all great and very helpful. Because I started after the company had matured, the man
Points positifsThe people, flexible work hours, remote from home work days, free sodas, coffee, and tea
Points négatifsInconsistent work - as a contractor the waits between jobs can be too long
Over the time i have worked at microsoft, it was an absolutely dream come true to be given the opportunity to work there. However, the dream came to an end as the shine wore off very quickly.
Good Stuff:-
Working with various teams is extremely fun. There is lots of great productivity and collaboration across the team and there is lots of learning that becomes available to you.
Microsoft offers lots of opportunity for graduates and learning. Politics does not really affect you.
Networking and relationship - there is really great work/life balance if you work hard. Building networks and relationships is really easy and everyone is made to feel welcome from the start regardless of job title and whether they are US, UK, Europe, Aus, NZ based. There are lots of people with talent and skills and that make it really interesting place to work.
Advocate in Charity - If your interests gage into charity work this is an excellent workplace for you to join. There have been times where i get to spend 2 days paid doing charity work for schools, charities and other companies in not for profit.
Bad Stuff:-
Within 3 months of starting, it felt like i was a number in a team and driven to help microsoft in sales more than evangelise in the technology. Their was a huge emphasis on license management more than product and when discussing product it was to help drive sales of office 365 and add ons. Even though sales was not my thing.
PiP (Personal Improvement Perfor
Points positifsSubsidised Lunches
Points négatifsVery Long Hours, Back Stabbing, Unknown who to trust, Poor Management, Feeling like a number, Superficial PIP expectations
4,0
Hardware Design Engineer | Redmond, WA | 13 mai 2019
Your success at Microsoft depends largely on the group you're in...
With the incredibly large and diverse amount of jobs at Microsoft, any one review is going to paint a pretty small picture of the whole company. Your success at Microsoft, while largely up to you, is also VERY much bound to the group you're working in. For example, the Windows group periodically turns into a dumpster fire where it must certainly be the worst place on Earth to work. Layoff's, lack of promotions, terrible work-life balance, etc... then the re-org comes, people get jumbled around, new people get hired and things stabilize for a year or two. Then decay starts and the process repeats. I've had 20 years to observe the cyclical nature of hire & fire at Microsoft, and there was also a time when I myself subscribed to 70 hour work week...but I wasn't rewarded for that additional effort, and in those 20 years I can honestly say that it's entirely up to you to manage your work-life balance, and pull yourself out of unsavory situations. There's so many groups to work in at Microsoft that it can be detrimental to your soul and your career to stay parked in once place too long. 15 years in Windows was about 13 years too long, and I definitely have regrets. The benefits have gone down-hill over the years, some of that was courtesy of ObamaCare. Prior to Obama, Microsoft's Healthcare was absolutely top-notch. Now, it's good but not anywhere near as great as it once was. Same for the company store benefits... they used to be spectacular, now they're mediocre. I of
Points positifsLOTS of resources and smart people here - if you can find them!
Points négatifsCompany size, changing politics, changing policies, poor communications unless something bad has happened...
3,0
Senior Program Manager | Redmond, WA | 17 oct. 2019
The continual reorganizations are very taxing on organizations and individuals.
The churn from reorganizations makes team and relational cohesiveness elusive, sapping the synergies of orgs and individuals. It's like building a house and constantly having all the subs suddenly change multiple times. The "new team" now has to figure out what was done, where the pipes and wires were laid, and frequently either busts into the walls to redo what was already done, or suddenly finds a short circuit due to mistakingly cutting into an wire or pipe, or has vermin infesting the structure because holes were left gaping because the person who was formerly working on structure was moved to a new job. Moreover, I have frequently observed that annual mandated quotas of 5-10% "poor performance" rating system forces out amazing colleagues, not because of poor performance, but due to meeting arbitrary quotas. Ironically, the horrible impact to the churn mentioned above, plus the stress on staff, far exceed any theoretical benefit of "culling the poor performers." (Yes, there are sometimes bonafide poor performers, but 5-10% a year? What changed? MS hired them believing they were great. So did really 5-10% suddenly become bad performers each year, or is there something endemic with the organization that could be at play here? How much better would it be to really invest in those people assets to either get them the skills needed or help them find a great match for their skills and experience in another group?) I have had amazing bosses and brilliant colleagues sudden
Points positifsSmart colleagues, great benefits, challenging work, telecommuting
Points négatifsRe-org churn, managers who are not good people managers, annual quota firing policy
3,0
Technical Sales Manager | Redmond, WA | 29 déc. 2017
Still great place to work, but not what it used to be
I am on my second tour of duty at Microsoft. I was there in the 90's when Bill Gates was still CEO, and I came back in 2010 when Steve B was still here and Satya has since taken over.
It is still a great place to work with respect to learning about, and implementing, new technology. They also provide many opportunities to get involved in side-projects to expand your exposure to new technology. There is also AMPLE opportunity to get career and technical mentoring there.
They still have the **BEST** employee benefits compared to anywhere in the US. I would still recommend MSFT to college graduates looking for initial technical skill development so they can move on to something else. Compensation has never been stellar at MSFT - but its good enough. Work/Life balance has improved greatly since the 90's.
However, I would no longer recommend it as a place to climb the ladder or get job advancement. MSFT has taken more to hiring people from the outside, and preserving their middle-management 'in-crowd' by continually providing lateral transfers to that group in order to maintain the careers of the anointed few. They have also implemented regional hiring practices to the detriment of many. Thus, even though you may do great promotion-worthy work in Redmond, WA, you will not get the job if the company decides that the job has to be filled in Las Colinas, TX!
Sadly their culture of late has gone off the deep end injecting west-coast political-correctness into the
Points positifsFree coffee and soft drinks, GREAT health care benefits, Excellent tech skill development opportunities
Points négatifsNot a great culture - too much political correctness; not much opportunity to climb the ladder
Fantastic virtual teams, great people, career growth & learning, and ability to make an impact.
What is the best part of working at the company?
The company culture was lived by most, not just a talking point. Colleagues were kind, supportive, smart, and helpful.
What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
During a period of rapid growth, it became a bit disorganized and difficult to keep up with the volume of work.
What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was a very healthy environment, the best company I had ever worked for.
Mission:
To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Cultural Attributes:
• Growth Mindset
○ We fundamentally believe that we need a culture founded in a growth mindset. It starts with a belief that everyone can grow and develop; that potential is nurtured, not pre-determined; and that anyone can change their mindset. We need to be always learning and insatiably curious. We need to be willing to lean into uncertainty, take risks and move quickly when we make mistakes, recognizing failure happens along the way to mastery. And we need to be open to the ideas of others, where the success of others does not diminish our own.
• Customer Obsessed
○ We will learn about our customers and their businesses with a beginner’s mind and then bring solutions that meet their needs. We will be insatiable in our desire to learn from the outside and bring it into Microsoft, while still innovating to surprise and delight our users.
• Diverse & Inclusive
○ The world is diverse. W
I largely worked remotely, and a typical day for me involved a lot of emails, several meetings in the afternoon (all attended virtually via Lync), and the occasional IM. When not wallowing in administrivia, I spent a lot of time thinking about and documenting ways we could do things better, and then working through others to put the changes in place.
Microsoft really matured me as an employee, as I learned to work at a level of professionalism that I had not before. It wasn't enough to be smart; I also had to be articulate and persuasive; I had to be strategic and understand how my work not only solved the problem at hand but set us up for future success.
Generally, I found management to be supportive. They existed to facilitate my work, trusting me to do the right thing, and working to cut down obstacles or provide air cover so that I could deliver my work.
I had some of the best co-workers here that I've had anywhere, and I consider them friends more than co-workers. At a company as large as Microsoft, there is a mix of personalities, and occasionally I'd run into that other employee who rubbed me the wrong way, but I figure that I've probably got my own quirks that bug people, too. Largely, though, I found people to be professional and smart, but also fun and friendly.
For me, there were a few challenges that seem intrinsic to the company. First, I found it to be very political in nature. Recent changes (e.g. One Microsoft) may gradually change that, but there
Points positifsGood coworkers, cutting-edge tech, professional growth
User Experience Designer | Redmond, WA | 3 juill. 2017
The best day at Microsoft was my first day; the second best day was my last.
As a contractor, I never had a 'steady' project or 'steady' work; I was always passed around to various designers to 'assist' and 'help' on whatever they were working on.
The worst experience I had on the team was with a particular person who was very unprofessional by saying aggressive and simply untrue things about me in meetings, and only when I wasn't around. Without going into detail, Microsoft is a company that allows this kind of conduct, without consequence or repercussion. I professionally tried to resolve the matter personally with the person, but I was essentially 'put back in my place.'
However the best project I worked on was when I saw a project that needed some TLC, so I talked to my manager's manager and told him what I saw and how I believed I could contribute, and he gave me a significant role on the project; however, temporarily. In this project I was a true, contributing member of the team—attending meetings, making informed design decisions—and my word was trusted and valued. All-around I was seen as a top-performer and integral part of the project. Even after the product shipped I was told the product wouldn't have been what it was without me.
When I was taken off the project by my manager, I was back on the same grind where my skills were nowhere near close to being utilized to my potential.
In the following months, sometimes there would be days...weeks...on end where I would interface with no one. My manager was absent 90% of the time, and
Points positifsGood work/life balance, open office
Points négatifsNo benefits, zero office culture, poor communication, no consequences for unprofessional behavior by senior/upper-level management
A great company to work for with great opportunities and benefits but some work with culture
Working at Microsoft is both fun and exciting. I loved being surrounded by a variety of hardware and software that was on the cutting edge of technology. The company does a great job of introducing new devices and software that will bring in customer, raise revenue as well as intrigue and have the employees engaged. The stores always have a beautiful and engaging design that allow for a fresh experience whether you work there or are visiting for the first time. The systems that are used at Microsoft are still very rudimentary and are still being worked on constantly. They are introducing new features to ensure that Microsoft employees receive the support and resources they need to make the Stores the best experience possible. Having said that the lack of established systems and culture leave a lot of room for long transaction times and awkward interactions where the system does not work the best for certain situations. As a Consumer Service Advisor, i found i truly enjoyed the details of my job and being able to troubleshoot different issues and hardware, however the check in process and resources used to complete services was all third party software and a very amateur process. Charging customers $149 for an Assure bundle that truly did not give them any true assurance that we can indeed provide a service that they cannot just do themselves. The environment of constantly being measured against others by sales numbers rather than effectiveness as a technician created somewhat
Questions et réponses au sujet de l'entreprise Microsoft
Quels conseils donneriez-vous à une personne qui doit passer une entrevue chez Microsoft?
Posée le 22 juin 2020
Be prepared and review your interviewers' activities on LinkedIn, it's the extension of their internal buzz-making machine...
Réponse du 17 janv. 2023
Don’t bother - look elsewhere.
Réponse du 8 sept. 2022
How much does Microsoft pay for Software Engineer position?
Posée le 18 août 2019
a lot of money slow
Réponse du 30 juin 2022
7500 per year
Réponse du 19 avr. 2022
Combien d’heures en moyenne travaillez-vous par semaine chez Microsoft?
Posée le 29 mai 2019
8 hour a day
Réponse du 21 avr. 2022
On average I worked about 12 hours a day when at Microsoft. Sometimes a little longer.
Réponse du 19 févr. 2020
Quelles sont les étapes du processus de recrutement chez Microsoft?
Posée le 13 mars 2019
4 interviews, first one with the outsource company, next with the team lead, next one with the manager and lastly, one with a manager in the US.
Réponse du 9 août 2019
Multiple interviews with different members of the organization. Candidates have to be able to think on their feet, and cite instances when they have encountered specific types of challenges and how they met them.
Réponse du 27 mars 2019
Vos supérieurs sont-ils facilement abordables chez Microsoft?
Posée le 30 janv. 2019
Permanent work with benefits.
Transparency about the actual position during interview. I knew nothing about the additional team I was expected to support until after I began.
Réponse du 6 août 2020
Ensure that your long-term contract employees are offered an opportunity to become full time.
