tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post3615399525116582859..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Microsoft's New Review and Compensation System - Now With More Cash!Who da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger649125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-23366624308085136312013-02-18T16:30:59.186-08:002013-02-18T16:30:59.186-08:00How long does a Microsoft employee review stay on ...How long does a Microsoft employee review stay on file? Left in 2012 March, might go back this year in March. Wondering if my review is still up there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-477366534385408712011-09-27T23:26:50.932-07:002011-09-27T23:26:50.932-07:00I just got an offer for a l63 role in finance. Ass...I just got an offer for a l63 role in finance. Assuming this is on the new pay scale - 135 base, 15% target bonus, 17 target stock. Thoughts on how good the offer is and whether there's room for negotiation? This is a pretty significant haircut to my current comp (25-30%)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-76436786921806698412011-08-21T07:34:00.301-07:002011-08-21T07:34:00.301-07:00Rework on original Post.. (I was confused)
Just s...Rework on original Post.. (I was confused)<br /><br />Just spoke with a 12 year MSFT who's going to get a (5) this year. The person has received top 10% or a 5 (old scale) more years than they've been there. Looks to me that MSFT is out to chop the senior technical in favor of junior (less expensive) technical personnel. Unbelievable stuff, but in line with everything else that seems to NOT be happening at MSFT. I guess it's fate that a once glorious company hires enough middle managers to bring itself down to mediocrity. Can someone find a way to give LisaB, SteveB and KevinT a 5? (new scale)<br />Signed,<br />An Ex MSFT (10 years) employee.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-67270243782218301332011-08-20T14:08:30.044-07:002011-08-20T14:08:30.044-07:00Confused with the message a 3 is giving me conside...Confused with the message a 3 is giving me considering my previous couple of years at E rating.<br />Does this mean I am crap this year, feels like it.<br />How did I get so bad when the message I was getting was not consistent in meetings.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-69389578490932675272011-08-15T17:39:38.612-07:002011-08-15T17:39:38.612-07:00Just spoke with a 12 year MSFT who's going to ...Just spoke with a 12 year MSFT who's going to get a 1 this year. The person has received top 10% or a 5 (old scale) more years than they've been there. Looks to me that MSFT is out to chop the senior technical in favor of junior (less expensive) technical personnel. Unbelievable stuff, but in line with everything else that seems to NOT be happening at MSFT. I guess it's fate that a once glorious company hires enough middle managers to bring itself down to mediocrity. Can someone find a way to give LisaB, SteveB and KevinT a 1? (new scale)<br />Signed,<br />An Ex MSFT (10 years) employee.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-55379839798239689152011-08-05T03:12:18.275-07:002011-08-05T03:12:18.275-07:00I'm in CPUB. Every CPUB team I've been on ...I'm in CPUB. Every CPUB team I've been on is over-staffed by at least 90%. If I were allowed to just do my job and get content out to customers quickly (using a blog or wiki instead of our content site monstrosities), I could do most of my group's documentation myself, especially since it requires very little new content. And I could do it without randomizing the product teams with all our planning and process BS.<br /><br />Face it CPUBbers, other people do our job already, both within MSFT and externally. If you're not cranking out an article a day, WHY NOT??? You would die as a writer on the outside, and you know it. Stop complaining, stop making others do your work, start cranking out the good stuff. As a group, we don't deserve the extra bump, but you can make a difference as an individual. If the paperwork and process takes longer to produce than it takes to write the article, something is seriously wrong. Refuse to do the busy work. Use the product and read what MVPs have written so you can stop randomizing the product teams!<br /><br />When the hatchet falls, it should fall on most of us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-46222592367125064382011-07-29T22:32:36.505-07:002011-07-29T22:32:36.505-07:00Did anyone get a screen grab before they pulled th...Did anyone get a screen grab before they pulled the comp estimator? Would be interesting to compare review outcomes with what was 'estimated'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-73047591238367393812011-07-29T09:46:27.354-07:002011-07-29T09:46:27.354-07:00@"Why do i have to be rated based on how othe...@"Why do i have to be rated based on how others are performing? Get rid of this system",<br /><br />Because the compensation at the company is a fixed number. Wall Street and our investors need this - no surprises, etc. By rewarding exactly $X across the company, this is a known number.<br /><br />You need to be ranked with your peers because no matter what, there is a budget, and there must be a way to distribute that budget that does not transfer too much wealth from the shareholders (in theory; wall street itself gives most of its revenue to employees)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-53644100593050670372011-07-25T13:08:30.369-07:002011-07-25T13:08:30.369-07:00The incentives model is pretty broken in the desig...The incentives model is pretty broken in the design and invention industry where there are long product cycles and large teams.<br /><br />You can get much more bang for your buck by removing things that discourage and punish innovators. Once those things are taken care of, then work on incentives models.<br /><br />That said, across the board pay raises is long overdue to remain competitive.Willnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-91563829838787607392011-07-25T03:38:14.946-07:002011-07-25T03:38:14.946-07:00Why do i have to be rated based on how others are ...Why do i have to be rated based on how others are performing? Get rid of this systemAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-36037071109987679732011-07-22T20:47:18.698-07:002011-07-22T20:47:18.698-07:00if the infopath review form were abolished then in...if the infopath review form were abolished then infopath would have zero usersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-37041241530420351542011-07-18T23:24:28.039-07:002011-07-18T23:24:28.039-07:00225% capped stock award, no god star, ... The new ...225% capped stock award, no god star, ... The new system is actually taking money from the top performer. sucks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-66880694292850579972011-07-18T12:02:02.070-07:002011-07-18T12:02:02.070-07:00Stock award capped to 225%, no more gold star, ......Stock award capped to 225%, no more gold star, ... the new reivew system is actually taking money from the toptop performer. it sucks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-42988027505533896842011-07-01T04:40:17.027-07:002011-07-01T04:40:17.027-07:00Mini Have you heard anything about July layoffs? ...Mini Have you heard anything about July layoffs? What up with some memo floating around talking about this? Any scoop?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-89808364007402140452011-06-30T01:24:49.765-07:002011-06-30T01:24:49.765-07:00FYI, who is/ has been evaluating offers from Micro...FYI, who is/ has been evaluating offers from Microsoft. I have accepted a SDET offer and been told the changes made on the review system would not affect my offer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-22203903131089517032011-06-26T18:33:29.383-07:002011-06-26T18:33:29.383-07:00Sounds like a lot of you folks who have been killi...Sounds like a lot of you folks who have been killing the stock and sit around here complaining will be getting 5's anyway so perhaps that is good for the rest of us and shareholders. Moving out 3,000 or so of you should move us above $25. Good luck at the other employers so many of you have referenced I hear they are looking for motivated people and typically don't like the cultural fit of people who couldn't make it at Microsoft.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-85403733252882256722011-06-23T23:15:44.724-07:002011-06-23T23:15:44.724-07:00Grading on a curve makes the fatal assumption that...Grading on a curve makes the fatal assumption that your sample size is sufficient to match the presumed Gauss bell. If a particular manager happens to have a full load of stars/dogs, most of them are going to get mis-rated. <br /><br />Bonuses and merit-ranking are hard. Hard in the formal sense, that it can't be done, at least by humans.Brian Hnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-75992882333665858742011-06-23T21:53:38.284-07:002011-06-23T21:53:38.284-07:00Does anyone know at what point the ratings for bon...Does anyone know at what point the ratings for bonuses are locked in? I am 90% sure that I will be pursuing opportunities elsewhere this summer, but don't want to leave money on the table.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-31815919245017236692011-06-22T18:27:54.015-07:002011-06-22T18:27:54.015-07:00The problem with MS is that there are too many ...The problem with MS is that there are too many 'people' managers, and these managers cost a lot of money but do not produce much value. The whole MS structure should be flattened. A 'people' manager should NOT have less than 10 people to manage. It's this huge hierarchy that made the company bloated and less efficient. Let's have the courage to change that! We need more doers, less talkers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-10364392392446334332011-06-19T11:11:40.169-07:002011-06-19T11:11:40.169-07:00I have received an offer for SDET2, currently I am...<i>I have received an offer for SDET2, currently I am a software developer in embedded domain. Does it make sennse to take the job in test(windows group)?<br /><br />SDET in Windows is a dead end.<br />^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<br /><br />Please try giving more info why do you say so? Just curious to know. Will SDET in Amazon/Google be much better or test in general is dead end. What about SDET in any other group in Microsoft.. say Bing?</i><br /><br />With a few exceptions, test role in Microsoft is staffed by low calibre people. This is mainly because in Windows group, Microsoft merged STE and SDET roles a few years ago which meant that you are likely to be spending a lot of your time being a button pusher running tests outside the automation system. Almost no one with a developer mindset tends to stick around in such mind-numbing roles.<br /><br />If you come from any reasonably challenging developer role (I consider embedded development to be fairly challenging), you will find SDET role in Microsoft very dull, and depending on the group you will be in for a rude surprise (if the group is political - many are, especially in Windows). <br /><br />Unless your current role is so bad for whatever reason(s) that compromising your career to Microsoft test is actually a good deal for you, I would not consider going for it - especially below level 64. You might as well be working at Fry's instead of SDET2. <br /><br />I don't have direct knowledge about Bing (don't know any test person in Bing) but I would guess it is probably worse from my interactions with dev/pm friends in bing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-44555221947754902182011-06-18T07:02:23.941-07:002011-06-18T07:02:23.941-07:00I have received an offer for SDET2, currently I am...I have received an offer for SDET2, currently I am a software developer in embedded domain. Does it make sennse to take the job in test(windows group)?<br /><br />SDET in Windows is a dead end.<br />^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<br /><br />Please try giving more info why do you say so? Just curious to know. Will SDET in Amazon/Google be much better or test in general is dead end. What about SDET in any other group in Microsoft.. say Bing?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-90223448202110345532011-06-17T06:23:27.796-07:002011-06-17T06:23:27.796-07:00Does anyone know why the tool that showed estimate...Does anyone know why the tool that showed estimated changes was removed?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-57731586374579047982011-06-08T08:24:10.291-07:002011-06-08T08:24:10.291-07:00can anybody tell me how does this 1-5 score system...can anybody tell me how does this 1-5 score system linked to rewards?<br />for instance score 1 linked to how much reward and salary?mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-22243468163480620432011-06-04T15:42:21.003-07:002011-06-04T15:42:21.003-07:00I am looking for opportunities outside MS, and thi...I am looking for opportunities outside MS, and this announcement reinforces my decision to do so.<br /><br />+1<br /><br />It is inevitable that the company is headed for a long period of retention problems. It is just beginning.<br /><br />The real/rising talent we have (what is left) will move to greener pastures. The mediocre bureaucrats and seat warmers will stay because they know they have it good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-42714069084714632862011-05-31T23:49:22.115-07:002011-05-31T23:49:22.115-07:00Heard from a friend that there is already gaming h...Heard from a friend that there is already gaming happening to the system. Managers are asking their stronger performers what they would take to get a 2 instead of 1.<br /><br />Gaming of the review system by lower and mid level managers for the benefit of themselves and their pals?<br /><br />No. Can't be. Say it ain't so...<br /><br />((yawn))Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com