Microsoft FY10Q4 Results
FY10Q4 Microsoft earnings are upon us. So, what's been going on since last we met over the quarterly results?
- The KIN phone collapse put WP7's future in doubt. Would WP7 meet the same fate? Is it under the same level of mismanagement? Fortunately, some fairly positive takes on pre-release WP7 have been coming out ahead of earnings to shore up confidence and excitement.
- Market Cap - yes, Apple passed us by and there was an abundance of articles and postings questioning just how much longer Microsoft would have to endure Mr. Ballmer as CEO (hint: a long loooooong time).
- Itsy-bitsy-layoff-committees: targeted small layoffs to kick of FY11 team budgets. If they are that low key and only disclosed on some random bit of the blogosphere, do they really amount to much accountability on Microsoft's sake? Again, our contingency hiring is out of this world so it's not like we're saving a bunch of money - we just have folks on the payroll we can easily cut loose as needed.
What kind of questions might be / should be posed during the earnings call?
- Dates: firm dates for WP7 devices and Kinect and associated Kinect titles beyond the kind-of-interesting launch titles.
- Win7 + Office 2010: are the cash cows still, err, bringing home the bacon?
- Bing / Ad-center: is Bing on the upswing? Is Bing / Ad-Center doing anything more than eating the bacon that our cash cows bring home?
- Legal: it's been very quiet on the European Union front. Office 2010 was released without a single investigatory squeak, as far as I know. Is this all behind us for now? That would be great.
- WP7: application developers in the queue? We need to re-enforce the cool apps that we'll have ready when WP7 is launched. In a move that has totally delighted me, Microsoft is giving every employee the ability to write and deploy WP7 applications (and, what, ability to get a device at launch, too?) - wow! Now's the time to truly show off your stuff and write for WP7 and get your app out the door.
The glow of Windows 7 has dimmed and Office 2010 and the VS2010 eco-system need to pick up the steam as we head to WP7 and Kinect launch. Apple is rolling in the moolah being a content delivery channel and our story, other than some Xbox features, is still pretty fuzzy. For instance: Windows Media Center is one of those crown jewels we've let plop out of the crown and get kicked around the court. I love WMC but it seems to be a neglected feature, caught in the chop between E&D / Zune and Windows. After a phone, it's the next experience we should bring out some reference hardware for to easily DVR HD channels off the air and plug right into your HDMI system and watch it go.
My usual suspects for earnings discussion:
- Mr. Joe Wilcox over at Beta News
- Mr. Todd Bishop over at TechFlash's Microsoft Blog
- Mr. Joseph Tartakoff somewhere within paidContent.org.
(I'll update the post later if there are interesting developments from the earnings release.)
520 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 520 of 520Does anyone know if getting a Gold Star during the past 12 months helps your annual review and contribution ranking?
Speaking of reviews, how many ppl in the E20 bucket actually receive the max stock for their level? Or is it just to a ploy to keep ppl's hopes up?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/another-piece-of-microsofts-oslo-modeling-puzzle-disappears/7014
Looks like another one of MSFT's many cash-drains...
Also to people, who keep saying they left MS a few years ago, and they are so happy: do you think anyone believes you? If you were so happy, you wouldn't bother reading and posting to this blog! I know I won't!
Obviously those people still care about how the Microsoft ship is sinking and how employees are still being mistreated.
Are you some kind of overpaid partner? Life is good for partners and may be MBA with huge sign on bonus but that isn't going to last.
symmetry is the weakest form of balance...and it can produce feelings of monotony...take the iphone and android screens with their boring grid of icons
Lessons from Google Wave and MSFT Kin
"The Kin team however, having had the runway pulled out from under them, likely learned nothing. They’re probably bitter about all of the concept sacrifices they had to make to get it out the door, and likely blame those sacrifices for why it was as poorly received as it was.
But worse, I suspect there won’t even be a postmortem written for the team, or the company. The lessons of Kin will likely die with Kin, instead of being shared openly so everyone learns from the multitude of experiences the smart people on the project had."
Net Neutrality could be Microsofts big in with consumers...
If Microsoft differentiated itself from Google/Verizon (I know I am dreaming..) by fighting for net neutrality, they could become champion of the little guys and pick up market share/loyalty, even with sub-Apple products....
Oh, who am I kidding? Microsoft is the definition of a Monopoly....
Your irrelevant "roses" opinion added to a quote from Ballmer does not address the original point.
My point being that things aren't as spiffy at Microsoft as you and your CEO would like to think. You have your head in the sand if you can't acknowledge that the company has made some serious missteps of late and from an outside perspective it really does appear that someone is asleep at the switch.
Has anybody else had the wonderful experience of getting promoted into into a higher calibration band (i.e. 64 -> 65) and then being promptly put into the 10% contribution ranking in the next review cycle? Is this typical?
I could understand getting put in the 10% if one was underperforming, but if this was an A/10, that seems odd.
Anybody recovered from 2 A/10s in a row?
That would be a conflict of interest and not normally allowed. (You could be terminated for that.) Microsoft now has its own phone that apps can be written for and employees should only focus on making WP7 a success.
What conflict of interest – I know for a fact that there are about 20 different teams in Microsoft developing iPhone apps. Office Communicator is coming out in about 3 months. Also there are a few that are out already, like Bing and Seadragon. The Bing Maps team just released a beta of a maps component for the iPhone. You are an idiot.
stock...sigh. that's the upside.
checking Yahoo Finance, we now have a dividend yield of 2.1% and a PE of 11.4 (trailing twelve months). Back in the day, that was a bank or a gas pipeline.
I think investors were pretty clear about the conditions for owning the stock - better financial discipline in not throwing huge amounts against things like search without a more structured and near term payback.
the other piece was not taking your eye off the ball in the core platform space.
From a pure cash flow perspective, it is a screaming buy ($24B cash flow from operations on a market cap of $211B). Wouldn't it be great to see a bigger dividend as a signal to the market that we are a really disciplined company? wouldn't it be great to have a stock price in the high $30's?
"There's a comment in here somewhere about how a "career" at Microsoft has become about how you are perceived rather than what you do.
I've been at MS for 10 years. The accuracy with which that comment reflects my experience in the past 3-5 years is startling.
I see people doing a rapid ascent of the "ladder" by spinning their slim achievements into greatness whilst their boss is doing the same.
It's tragic to watch and it's even more tragic to hear that it's happening in lots of places in the company.
It's a broken culture. The sort of culture that lets things like Vista and Kin go out of the door."
+1 Amen!!!
Has anybody else had the wonderful experience of getting promoted into into a higher calibration band (i.e. 64 -> 65) and then being promptly put into the 10% contribution ranking in the next review cycle? Is this typical?
From what I hear, this gets even worse when promoting to partner. Unless you have a strong sponsor, your time above the 10% bucket is limited to a few years.
Wow... there are so many MSFTEs here with 10s of years of MS experience... OMG... 13..14 years.
That is part of the problem.. for MS not producing anything innovative and ground breaking (well some argue...ok ill say except for kinect).
I can't disagree with your conclusion enough. Professional experience and dedication should be genuinely valued in any organization, not seen as a cultural crutch.
Their are a lot of dynamic, talented, engineers at the company with fresh and even radical ideas whom have a passion for new technology and embrace change. The only reason they have grey hair is from stress and a lot of late nights.
At the end of the day, they had minimal impact on the day-to-day design decisions which were being made, and zero influence over business strategy or direction. Most engineers acted like cogs in a machine because they were, and still are being told what their boundaries are.
Microsoft has lost its spark.
To re-kindle the fire, employees need to feel like the value they put into the company- they personally will get back out. Otherwise, where is the incentive to not punch the clock? If the leaders treat MS that way, so will their employees.
As another posted mentioned - any created value today is going to partners, executives, wall street, and Paul Allen - all of whom don't need anymore money.
Now is a good time. My advice is to take your experience and great ideas to somewhere that might turn out to help YOU for a change. You aren't going to get anywhere on the work-spend tread-mill with your MS salary.
This is very true. Stack ranking depends more on who you are, and how mgmt perceives you.
Then maybe mgmt should just come clean and tell everyone the truth- reviews are completely subjective; in some cases what you actually did might even be taken into consideration more than your personality.
..
It really would save us all a lot of time; stop making us fill out these committment forms and sit in on these pointless 1:1's.
Everyone can finally be free to focus on getting their lip enhancement scheduled with their doctor. It is whomever Megan Fox used for me. MS Health is paying.
>You tell me, if designers and PMs are super great at UI stuff, why do Microsoft products suck? Is it just bad luck?
You assumed I said Microsoft has good designers. All I said is a trained designer will generally beat an engineer when it comes to design. You never answered my question: Why does 99% of open-source software have TERRIBLE UI/UX? It is ALL done by engineers. Shouldn't it be the awesome? The only push back I really gave originally is against a blanket statement that engineering should do more UI design. Based on my experience and the vast majority of what is in the market (from Microsoft and others) that is clearly not the case, unless you want to argue the bulk of what is out there is awesome, since most all of it is designed by engineers. Most companies before Apple didn't give a whole lot of thought to UI/UX, they only do now because Apple raised the bar. You may have the mad design skillz, and maybe you have worked with lots of engineers that do also, but in my experience I have seen a negative correlation between engineers and ability to design good UI that normal people can use and ENJOY using, you know...those people that actually pay us for the product.
The accountants and lawyers... Microsoft has increased its investment in vendors every year for the past five plus years - cost savings of $100K per head versus $200K per head, especially in sales.
Salaries are lagging, especially for the area. I've started looking outside of MS, and even with the economy in the tank - I am happy with what I am hearing from other competitors (err, employers). Once you brush together a new resume, things can happen quickly.
MS can keep its direct deposits and contract positions. I don't think I will stay with the company much longer.
My suggestion to people:
3. treat yourself as an individual business, not a employee to a company and always try to make addition to your skill set.
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Umm, as a business- my financial analyst here is telling me that I might want to take my business somewhere else.
I am sure their are lots of career opportunities for a Windows build engineer?
:>
That is part of the problem.. for MS not producing anything innovative and ground breaking
In case anyone hasn't figured this out yet- ever since its market cap became bigger then most mid-sized countries - MS doesn't need to innovate anymore then Bank of America does.
The only reason I see why MS needs an occasional dose of innovation is to keep some of you employees quietly amused in your cubicles thinking how smart you are.
The real corporate money making strategy seems to be to let other people innovate (i.e. take the biggest risks) and when they look promising you just open your check book. Which is ok.
Unless your Steve Ballmer. Then you just open your checkbook and buy something dumb. That's not ok.
>> Obviously those people still care about
>> how the Microsoft ship is sinking and
>> how employees are still being mistreated.
I figure it's akin to the "fun" medieval people had when witnessing public corporal punishment. Sure, the person being punished is suffering pretty badly, but you do kinda feel better that it's not happening to you anymore. :)
Which is why I find your story difficult to believe - if you did well on the loop, Google would pull all the stops to get you to join, because _hardly anyone does well_, and we need good people
Speaking of which, how long does it take for Google to offer an interview after receiving the resume? I sent mine through the web site a month ago - is it too early (it wasn't for Microsoft)? Judging by the people I know who were recently hired by Google, I've got what it takes to at least have an interview (LOL). Is Google really looking for great coders?...not from what I can tell.
Also to people, who keep saying they left MS a few years ago, and they are so happy: do you think anyone believes you? If you were so happy, you wouldn't bother reading and posting to this blog!
I started at MSFT in 1993 and was laid off in 2009. I am very happy now, to be in a new job and away from the distressing and diseased environment I endured during those last few years on Campus. I still care about MSFT, and hold a bunch of stock - so I read Mini's Blog. It seems things back in Redmond are just the same, or getting worse - including the head-in-the-sand complacency of some employees still tipsy on Kool-aid.
To the poster who posted
"To all the windows phone 7 critics, just shut the f*** up.
Don't you know who was behind it?
It was me Terry Myerson and my group of handpicked exchange heroes."
I don't work for Microsoft - but I have worked with Microsoft for a long time, so I know a little about the politics.
However - sometimes the best way is to look at it like a black box - and just judge results.
Yes, WP7 isn't out, and we don't really know if it is going to be successful or not.
BUT - Windows Mobile *was* a complete clusterf**k and going nowhere but down. Things look much much better - good enough? Not sure, but if the results are better than before - with Myerson and "heroes" at helm - then that says something.
I'm one of the former MS decade+ alums who still read and post once in a while. Why? Because I still care about the company. Some of the things I invested years of my life into are still live and others are evolving. I have 2 relatives and many friends there. And I still own stock.
MGSI Recruitment process really sucks. I was in shock when I get to know that MS consider +2 marks for 5+ exp guy who cleared all rounds of interviews. After making a 20 days long wait they will say that your +2 marks are not good to a PG guy who scored 80% in his PG. Mr.Gates himself a college drop out. Why the hell MS sees for +2 marks..Shit excuse for some crappy politics
"symmetry is the weakest form of balance...and it can produce feelings of monotony...take the iphone and android screens with their boring grid of icons"
A "boring grid of icons" that, um, USERS LOVE.
The above is one of the worst examples of design hubris. I hope you're not a Microsoft employee, but unfortunately this sounds all too familiar.
This came out over ZD Net this morning:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/microsofts-lost-eight-years-online-more-than-6-billion-down-the-tubes/37988?tag=nl.e539
$6 BILLION? and almost a decade?!? That is an absolutely mindnumbing number, even for a company with pockets as deep as Microsoft.
HP bought Palm for $1.2B and has a path into the Mobile world all on their own. Oracle bought Sun for $7.4B, and have all of the rights to Java. Seems to me those would are more sensible deals.
"From a pure cash flow perspective, it is a screaming buy ($24B cash flow from operations on a market cap of $211B). Wouldn't it be great to see a bigger dividend as a signal to the market that we are a really disciplined company? wouldn't it be great to have a stock price in the high $30's?"
It's been a screaming buy frequently since 2000. Invariably that has turned out to be a “value trap” and the stock has continued to get cheaper following brief rallies. At this point the stock price is being driven primarily by grave concerns about the company’s competitive positioning and future, along with an associated lack of confidence in SLT and their strategy (which the recent FAM didn’t alleviate and actually exacerbated). Fundamentals, even accounting for a PC demand slowdown and increased competition, are secondary. A larger dividend might help, but would have to be much more than the expected .01-.02. It would have to double to around 4%. That would probably attract a significant amount of yield investors and more importantly convince others that SLT wouldn’t have huge amounts of cash around to blow on fiascos like Kin.
But ultimately MS stock will continue its downtrend until it has leadership capable of convincing investors to bet on its future instead of just against it.
Anybody recovered from 2 A/10s in a row?
Yes, I did, sort of... I left MS on my own accord after 10 years and now work for an ISV using MS products. My work/life balance is much better now and I make more money to boot.
I loved MS while I was there, and I still have lunch with many of my MS employed friends. Unfortunately it has become a political stink-hole watching suck-ups and VP/GM buddies getting rewards for other people's work.
I simply left.
My review history for the last four years:
- A-10
- E-10 (you read that right!)
- A-70
- A-70
Same manager the whole time. So in my case I did recover from two 10's in a row, although one was a very odd E-10.
Seems that the next wave of cut have started to happen. Just this week in Asia, we have seen people in MSN, BMO and CRMG being let go. Lots of tears!
When will it stop, if ever...
Does anyone know if getting a Gold Star during the past 12 months helps your annual review and contribution ranking?
I my experience in the last 5 years most of the GoldStars are 10% of 10% which is the bottom 1% I call. My intention is not to offend you. You may be an exception. That’s how the company works. In the current annual review it will help.
However evaluate yourself and see whether you deserve a GoldStar. If not I guess you know what to do.
Why dont we start a facebook page on fire steveb and while at it fire ravi venkatesan also.
To the Gold Star winner. Absolutely not!! You got some $ so they feel like they can give you a limited. I got 2 in one year and then got screwed. But the following year I as in the top 20% for both commitments and contributions.
It was decided in February what you will be getting....
Has anybody else had the wonderful experience of getting promoted into into a higher calibration band (i.e. 64 -> 65) and then being promptly put into the 10% contribution ranking in the next review cycle? Is this typical?
Well, that's the difference between the definition of something and the interpretation of it. The 20/70/10 rating isn't descriptive of your work; it's a subjective rating that indicates how likely management sees you as being promoted in the future.
However, across the company, 20/70/10 is interpreted as analogues to Exceeded, Achieved, Underperformed.
If it wasn't interpreted that way, immediately after a promotion being told that one isn't visible for you at that instant wouldn't seem so bad, would it?
However, when 10% takes on a life of its own and becomes descriptive of the quality of employee, people rightly react poorly to getting such a rating.
To people who post quite lengthy, multiple paragraph, responses: do you really think anyone is going to read them? I know I don't!
Short attention span.
Wait a second ... aren't you my double-skip level? The guy with the attention span of a gnat who prefer bullet points (culled of anything that doesn't smell positive; only likes good news and enthusiasm, a true shoot-the-messenger kind of guy).
Wow, nice to see you here!
Your irrelevant "roses" opinion added to a quote from Ballmer does not address the original point.
My point being that things aren't as spiffy at Microsoft as you and your CEO would like to think. You have your head in the sand if you can't acknowledge that the company has made some serious missteps of late and from an outside perspective it really does appear that someone is asleep at the switch.
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The Amazon rain forest is being depleted at a rapid pace.. and global warning may become a serious issue or is already a serious issue..
Oh wait - am I being specific to the point of discussion. Who cares? I am on this blog, hence I must type whatever comes into my mind.
Listen, you caring Microsoft affiliated person - no one is denying that SteveB does not get what a CEO should focus on.. my point is simply this: "You will be ill advised to wait for the company to go bust in order to buy good property. We may have sources of revenues for some time to come (despite hits and misses)."
Obviously those people still care about how the Microsoft ship is sinking and how employees are still being mistreated.
--
No one is mis-treating me (no I am not a partner)... so STOP speaking for me.
fyi, career website is down from friday, for global launch of a new site.
Speaking of reviews, how many ppl in the E20 bucket actually receive the max stock for their level? Or is it just to a ploy to keep ppl's hopes up?
The max? I'm a manager and have seen dozens of reviews with some being close to the max, but never the actual maximum. To get close to the max you can't just be 20%, you also need to be designated HiPo.
Does anyone know if getting a Gold Star during the past 12 months helps your annual review and contribution ranking?
Not necessarily. The consideration for giving a gold star are usually for some short term but highly valued effort. Your review is based on the average for the whole year.
It just seems unfair and unethical to support employees of a division that rewards their employees so disparingly well compared to rest of company…
This is a myth. The promotion budgets (and raise and bonus) are standard across the company. No division can promote more people then any other division.
"From what I hear, this gets even worse when promoting to partner. Unless you have a strong sponsor, your time above the 10% bucket is limited to a few years."
This is just HR Marketing so people will not keep asking to be promoted. Ask HR what percentage of 68s and above actually get 10%s? The attrition rate is incredibly low, like 1-4%, which includes people who really are moving on to "spend more time with their family", so those getting the boot are even a smaller subset. They know they have a 'good thing' so don't rock the boat.
I'm told if a role is made redundant, the system automatically ranks the employee as Underperform and subjects the person to zero stocks and bonus. Is this true and how is that fair if the person was performing in the last role?!?
Interesting article:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/11/technology/microsoft_stock/index.htm
"Our confidence in Microsoft lasts for the next 12 to 24 months," said Moskowitz.
"When you start to look out into the three- to five-year period, given the sheer
amount of change and uncertainty across the tech sector, it's difficult to recommend
a pure buy and hold position with this company."
"That would be a conflict of interest and not normally allowed. (You could be terminated for that.) Microsoft now has its own phone that apps can be written for and employees should only focus on making WP7 a success."
"I'd so like to see them try this. The negative publicity would be nuclear. There's more than an handful of iPhone apps now written as spare-time projects by nominal Microsoft employees. I know that or a fact."
Your response shows you know it is a conflict of interest. I'm sure those iPhone app developers are very quiet about their efforts. If found out they could rightly be terminated.
Seriously, if you really want to make money developing for the iPhone, you shouldn't be working at Microsoft.
"What conflict of interest – I know for a fact that there are about 20 different teams in Microsoft developing iPhone apps. "
We are talking about iPhone apps for personal profit. Microsoft does developement iPhone apps to promote and sell its own products and services. That doesn't mean that writing an app for the WP7 for your own profit and then porting it to the iPhone for your own profit isn't a conflict of interest.
Microsoft has already announced they are going to buy this market and they, more than anyone else, have the pockets to do this.
So, how's that "buying their way into the games console" play working out? Anyone?
Ok, I'll point out that you need TWENTY more Halo-sized hits before it goes profitable. (And no, a positive cash flow doesn't make it profitable. It goes profitable when it makes back its development cost.)
Like an earlier poster pointed out, and like I've pointed out myself on several occasions, Microsoft is not, and will never again be a growth stock. It's time to quit pissing away the shareholders' money on Ballmer's ego trips, concentrate on your core business, and pay out at least half of the annual earnings in dividends.
L61 E/20% +20%
Co-ask.
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Anonymous said...
Any idea what should be the last date I need to be here at MS to get my Bonus for the review.
I know Aug 31st is to get vesting stocks.
Monday, July 26, 2010 4:50:00 PM
This week's sign of the apocalypse:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/1008/gallery.ceo_overachievers/6.html
Steven A Ballmer - the #6 overachieving CEO?! Really?
Anyone want to commiserate on their reviews? Talk about ranking/raise/bonus/stock awards? There isn't NEAR enough transparency in the company to really know if you got a 'good deal' or not, so let's share here and maybe it will shed some light. Mini, how about a whole post dedicated to this with all comments on this topic?
I fully agree with this.
Lettermans top ten ways to increase stock price
10. Stop international development
9. Cut free soda
8. Cut morale budget by 70%
7. Eliminate MSPOLL
6. Cut HR/Legal by 70%
5. Start medical co-pay
4. Cut partner payout by 80%
3. Fire MSR
2. Cap PM level at L64
1. Replace the Board
Level: 63
Title: Senior SDE
Months in level: 12
Commitments: Exceeded
Contribution: 70%
Bonus: 22k
Raise: 3%
Stock: 130%
Division: OSD
I see Mini hasn't posted a review note and I haven't had my review meeting...but...I want to point something out. All reviews at all companies are subjective. This is not a Microsoft thing. Get over it!
A review -- in fact, your whole career is based 10% on what you do. Period. It's non-negotiable that you get the job done (so the 10% is required), but it only counts for 10% of what gets you ahead. The other 90% is a combination of (1) Exposure and (2) Image. It doesn't count if you practice Excellence in Obscurity (EiO) and no one knows the great things you've done (or did). It also doesn't matter if you're good at your job, but appear to be a jerk, rude, or just plain sloppy. Even how you dress can make a difference in the way you're perceived. This is what some people get ahead and others, even good workers, end up left in the dust.
We're all bright -- we're all well educated -- and passionate about technology (if you're not, why are you working here?). How many people -- your manager and their manager for example, can have an intelligent conversation about your contribution for the last year? What about the last month -- forget that it's review time, pick a month from the last 12? Now ask yourself, did you spend more time on FaceBook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, than you spent managing your career?
'nuff said.
"symmetry is the weakest form of balance..."
That is tech talk. Users don't care; their mind sees innate beauty in the symmetry of a centered grid on a symmetrical object. They notice something's odd when they see an offset grid and blank area on the right, it's not intrinsically beautiful. WP7 will be dismissed out of hand by many users because of its "start screen" look.
PM Lead Level 63
Salary increase: 2%
New BS: 120K
Bonus: 5%
Stock: 15K
Worse is that I have to own the message when delivering the review to PM and PM II reports. Don't believe in that message: some of them really exceeded expectations, but where calibrated back to achieve, and HR doesn't want that said to them. HR is buying Microsoft a class action lawsuit in the future...
Hi All,
Left msft about a year ago and couldn’t be happier. I really appreciate my time at msft and *truly* hope that things change and they/you are able to turn it around.
For me though, it came down to quality of life. I left and got quality of life, along with a whole lot more in salary. Unexpected, and unnecessary, but a nice +.
Since I’ve left, I’ve received 3 offers to come back to msft. I know I never will though.
I’m far too entrepreneurial – and admittedly - a bit too much the gadfly to do well at Microsoft.
Search your soul and determine where you really fit.
Best of luck to all of you – and to msft.
Lot of people think there are very bad and unsuccessful managers and I know one who doesnt know how many bits a byte has. The only way to find them is by creating a small division that recives such complaints and verifies them. That way they will know how compitent is the system of reviews. This is very microsoft lags in finding solutions.
So, add another person to the growing number of 'conveniently laid off' 40-somethings. My spouse was informed the other day that the business no longer needed him, at an ambush disguised as an ordinary review meeting. He'd been given new projects to work on only 2 days previously, and wasn't done with them. He had several people relying on him to finish them, as he was the only one with that knowledge in the group. He was escorted out after more than 20 years of service. Oh yes, and informed that our whole family would no longer have medical insurance starting the next day, "so fill all the prescriptions you can today". And told that if he took the offered severance package (with COBRA assistance), he could not only never work for Microsoft in any fashion again (full-time or contractor) but could not work for a vendor that works for Microsoft either, for the rest of his life. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
I'm looking forward to him finding a new job somewhere that respects and values him, his extensive experience, and his honest work ethic. I know why they call the place 'The Evil Empire' now. All too well.
Mini, why so quiet? Looking forward to seeing some of your perspective on the holiday season and reviews, etc.
Terry My-serve-son's latest posting about how "We're happy to have promoted 24% of the organization this September" is a self-serving slap myself and my triad's on the back spoonful. There is now a full layer of middle management that does nothing but repeatedly press F5, and send email to be repeatedly sent through the layers when something doesn't meet their criteria, which btw is changed almost weekly.
It would be a very welcome change to see everyone in the org adding real value, and not just posturing to validate their jobs. These people don't even have time to play table tennis, while the people actually doing the work do...
Any comments from people who have had their reviews? What are bonuses/stock/merit looking like this year (include level)?
Good luck :)
Mini, waiting for your post on review.
August 24, 2010: Happy 15th to my fellow Windows 95 teammates out there. I wonder what percentage of us are still at Microsoft today.
For the staff who are dissatisfied with your current level and compensation; leave the company and hang around at other jobs somewhere for 2-3 years, then get back to MSFT. I bet you will get +2 levels more than you are now. Easy trick! ;)
Are we going to get a Reviewapalooza post this year? I'm curious how others are fairing. My team, and I suspect my org in general, got screwed this year. Our GM told us that merit increases were back, but failed to mention that bonuses and stock are way down this year. I actually did better last year without a merit increase than I did this year with one. According to my manager, no one on our team got more than 1.5% merit increase. Talk about a slap in the face, particularly when our company is sitting on $38 Billion in cash.
2010 Review
Position: PM
Level: 62
Commitment: Achieved
Contribution: 70%
Merit: 0.5%
Bonus: 6%
Stock: 75% of target
Promo: None
2009 Review
Position: PM
Level: 62
Commitment: Achieved
Contribution: 70%
Merit: N/A
Bonus: 8%
Stock: 105% of target
Promo: None
"Does anyone know if getting a Gold Star during the past 12 months helps your annual review and contribution ranking?"
Didn't help mine still got A70
Hey mini - what about a new post for people to discuss their annual reviews?
A friend of mine who had a rockstar year (not kind of good, insanely good) and had his skip level told him he had an Exceeded/20. Guess who didn't get an Exceeded/20 after he moved teams?
I've got my review today in the same org. Based on what this guy got (everyone assumed he was Exceeded/20), I'm not hopeful.
Of the happy hundreds, some will eventually get to experience the joy of a 10%. Someone always has to lose since we do not have as many valid 10%'ers as is needed each year to fill the required bucket.
Thinking of my own group when I was at Microsoft I can't think of much to distinguish people. Different people had different problems and strengths but as a coworker I didn't see much difference.
There are several worst case scenarios for the 10% rule that are not out of the question:
1. Your judgment criteria is flawed and the 10% isn't your true 10%. The more political a company the more likely this is to be the case. And we all know Microsoft is very political.
2. Your population of workers is homogeneous. This doesn't mean they are the same, but different people have different strengths and weakness but on average they are the same. This means you get rid of 10% of workers for no reason, give up their expertise, and hire inexperience. Unless the people you hire to replace the 10% are much better than the 10% you are draining the company, rather than building it. I feel this is the case a lot of time.
3. By random variation you are going to get some higher performers than 10% in the 10% bucket from time to time. Thus in reality the 10% is sucking up people with higher skills.
4. Lastly, what is the true best cutoff number? How is it 10% and not 99%? After all if you just kept your best 1% and fired all the rest wouldn't you improve your company even faster? Of course you see the fallacy of this and it applies to a lesser extent to the 10%.
So if the 10% rule does get rid of a few morons, I'd think it also gets rid of productive people in which case you do more harm than good by it. And unfortunately the morons seem to be better politically connected. :-)
A few people have dismissed the idea of age discrimination at Microsoft.
Here is one more reason to work for yourself:
Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age
The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers. And engineering is an “up or out” profession: you either move up the ladder or face unemployment. This is not something that tech executives publicly admit, because they fear being sued for age discrimination, but everyone knows that this is the way things are. Why would any company hire a computer programmer with the wrong skills for a salary of $150,000, when it can hire a fresh graduate—with no skills—for around $60,000? Even if it spends a month training the younger worker, the company is still far ahead. The young understand new technologies better than the old do, and are like a clean slate: they will rapidly learn the latest coding methods and techniques, and they don’t carry any “technology baggage”. As well, the older worker likely has a family and needs to leave by 6 pm, whereas the young can pull all-nighters.
At least, that’s how the thinking goes in the tech industry.
Professors Clair Brown and Greg Linden, of the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics and census data for the semiconductor industry and found that salaries increased dramatically for engineers during their 30s but that these increases slowed after the age of 40. At greater ages still, salaries started dropping, dependent on the level of education. After 50, the mean salary of engineers was lower—by 17% for those with bachelors degrees, and by 14% for those with masters degrees and PhDs—than the salary of those younger than 50. Curiously, Brown and Linden also found that salary increases for holders of postgraduate degrees were always lower than increases for those with bachelor’s degrees (in other words, even PhD degrees didn’t provide long-term job protection). It’s not much different in the software/internet industry. If anything, things in these fast-moving industries are much worse for older workers.
Does anyone know if getting a Gold Star during the past 12 months helps your annual review and contribution ranking?
Worked *against* me this year. I had a stellar year and won a gold star mid year, and management decided to bump me down to the 70% bucket, justifying it by saying I got a nice stock reward with the gold star at mid-year. My annual review bonus comp is actually less than it was the year before.
Annual review and compensation have nothing to do with one another. It is a joke. In a number of parts of the company, it's not based on performance but on politics and whether or not your manager (or skip level manager) is willing to go to bat for you or gets bullied by his/her peers. Especially when you get to the higher levels.
Don't insult us by saying the reward is for performance. Rewards are based on popularity and the social dynamics of your upper management chain. Performance only matters in so much as it affects your popularity.
"There's a comment in here somewhere about how a "career" at Microsoft has become about how you are perceived rather than what you do.
I've been at MS for 10 years. The accuracy with which that comment reflects my experience in the past 3-5 years is startling.
I see people doing a rapid ascent of the "ladder" by spinning their slim achievements into greatness whilst their boss is doing the same.
It's tragic to watch and it's even more tragic to hear that it's happening in lots of places in the company.
It's a broken culture. The sort of culture that lets things like Vista and Kin go out of the door."
+1 as well.
The big move to promote diversity and equality, especially women in technology has overshadowed rewarding ALL people properly.
I am a woman and as strange as this might sound, I received an "Exceeded / 20%" rating on my review.
I didn't actually deserve it. For one thing I listed two of my commitments as "Achieved" because that was all I did - I achieved them (and one was actually one point shy of that, so in theory I didn't meet that one).
My manager, who is a woman (and who reports to a woman), changed it and gave me that overall rating.
So while I am not complaining for me and I am not about to turn down the review ranking for the appropriate one, I know for a fact there were some superstars that outstripped anything I did that got "Achieved / 70%" and to me that is just wrong.
The sad part is, most of those people that went unrecognized and effectively under rewarded were male and over the age of 40.
Hey Mini,
If you're done, can you let the rest of us mere mortals know please?
Take care,
J
adCenter (or Chaos Center) is the worst place for reviews. people who are crap get promoted from 62 2 seniors (mainly PMs) while test and dev folks who slog are retained at the same level.
PMs are the bane of Chaos Center
Hoping someone can answer this one: when asked that inevitable question just before you get PIPed re: "Is there some reason why you aren't performing up to snuff?" ... isn't there some consequence to pulling the old, "I'm too stressed out and mentally unbalanced by my work situation/life ..." and then stretching out the inevitable w/ some bevy of psychiatrist's notes? Otherwise, wouldn't more people go this route?
Layoffs in devdiv today. Numbers uncertain.
Does anyone know about unemployment benefits with regard to education? If you return to school for "retraining" can you still receive unemployment benefits? If yes, for how long? Does returning to school affect how long you can get Cobra? Thanks much, in advance.
http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/sep/03/lack-of-promotion-59-pc-pros-may-quit-jobs.htm
To the posters question asking if they should take a job with MS...
Fifteen/Twenty years ago absolutely, ten years ago ok. Five years maybe. Today- absolutely not. You wouldn't be doing yourself any favors.
I've worked at MS for a long time and to the question- "Would you reccomend Microsoft to a" - all things considered - Hell No. It's just not worth whatever HR offers.
To sum up Microsoft for the average worker in three words - white collar sweat-shop.
[i]This is very true. Stack ranking depends more on who you are, and how mgmt perceives you.[/i]
Well, my advice- don't take it personally.
If you are really, really, lucky you will get a good people manager at MS. I've had them and they are invaluable. However, most managers at MS are mediocre at best, complete idiots all around at worst (look no farther then test to find these)
How did management at MS get so bad? It's no different then the country. The smart passionate people stay out of the politics and BS. Unfortunately, this opens up opportunities for the frat boys to slip in.
And guess what they do once they are in - idiots tend to promote other idiots! Why? Because they need weak people to vouch for them and kiss their butt.
Before you know it you end up with entire management chains filled with idiots- and kids that's how MS got where it is today.
My advice- don't think it can't happen to you. It only takes 1 bad manager or skip to spoil a good career here, and with the endless re-orgs it is bound to happen to everyone at one time or another.
Mini, you let us down. You let a shitty review season go unchecked. Turn off moderated comments.
Mini, Why don't you publish an article about how MSIT, INDIA (or Microsoft) evaluate performance reviews and ratings.
> How much it is really related to people's performance?
> How much political or strategical performance reviews are?
> How much MS Poll is impacting people's review as MS-Poll results comes first?
> How much a person will be affected if he/she will raise a concern in team-meetings/all-hands/forums?
> How much impact on performance evaluation due to raising concern to HR?
> How much HR is effective? Do they have any authority in MS if they want to correct few things?
> How much impact on performance evaluation due to raising concern to a Senior Authority?
>Effectiveness of Senior Authority?
> How much regional influence works?
> How much groupism/favourism is involved etc.
> Overall Company Culture and people's morale.
> Impact in case of showing interest in changing groups?
Are we really FOLLOWING Openness, Microsoft Values in a ethical way.
I am sure lots of people will be interested to know these facts.
There are many on this forum who have been hurt unfairly, their life's, their careers have been damaged….destroyed....adversely impacted due to unfair treatment and leveling of false charges. Can something be done about this in a united manner so that misdeeds of these bad people are exposed? Moderator....this comment is the large public interest and hence please don't block it from being published.
Time for a new pre-company meeting/annual review thread!
How hard is it to survive once you've gotten an A/10? I lost the popularity contest this year but I think I can remedy things in the next 6 months but I'd like to keep my options open. Is an A/10 like a U/10 in that other groups won't even consider hiring you or are A/10 less of a pariah?
MSFT is in decline and sadly there's no incentive for SteveB and those at his level to fix it.
They rebalanced their compensation so shares were a much smaller piece of the pie and cash was king so where's their long term loyalty - yet they expect ESPP and options to be the carrot to motivate the troops?
WP7 is too little, too late. It's a half arsed bastard child of Zune plus original iPhone and won't be usable until the 3rd release... if it makes it there.
DevDiv can't even come up with a coherent story in the HTML5/Silverlight/WPF/WinForms world, and while WebMatrix looks like it'll offer a PHP-like server side story it doesn't work with Azure (and LightSwitch seems like a fork of the same idea impemented by a different team so maybe one of these two will die... but which one are you going to bet on?!)
Hohm and HealthVault are a joke at the moment... building consumer platforms that only appeal to enterprises it's a good strategy guys.
There's so much politics and "upwards management" that there's no real grown up in control... and without that middle managers are going to continue to create dysfunctional fifedoms and Google, Apple and oracle are going to run rings around us...
Hey mini! Did you leave MSFT?
How come no postings for the last couple of months?
Sure is quiet in here
First Weber and now Elop. A new blog entry discussing the latest round of executive departures?
Anybody recovered from 2 A/10s in a row?
Yes, A/70 (new manager), E/70, A/70 (new Manager). though, we this latest reorg, I wouldn't be surprised to see a U/10 coming becuase of a new manager that believes the politics make a better team. I don't play politics (hence the two a/10's).
Now Elop has jumped ship.
Is there an office pool on who's next?
Why no updates or further moderation of comments, Mini? Lots of juicy gossip potential since the last update. The annual review, Elop's elopement with Nokia, etc. And Mini is silent. Tired of comment noise? Has your management discovered you and told you to keep quiet?
1 A/10 last year, fired at this year's review. No severance, benefits & insurance end as of day of termination. I can't even take my kids to the dentist one last time. Thanks, Microsoft.
Hi, I'm a L64. I got a $50k cash bonus and a $70k stock award. Is this about average?
Mini, you've turned this blog into insidems.
Why not retire it if you're not going to maintain it? It's not serving any useful purpose these days, it just languishes between drive-by postings filled with snarky comments.
Maybe it's just your stress release now, but if so you should change the mission statement.
missing this blog.
Mini - What has happened to you? The Elop story, the Review Period story... it seems like you'd be posting during this time. I can only imagine something dreadful might have happened to you.
Who's a slacker? Me. Mucho, mucho slacker. And a well rested slacker (though I guess most slackers should be well rested.).
An extended summer vacation turned into a further extended vacation of the mind. Even Elop's departure wasn't enough to get me to put up a post! Well, I have over 100 comments to moderate so I'll start working through those. Stand by.
>To get close to the max you can't just be 20%, you also need to be designated HiPo.
Ahh the fabled HiPo. I know the (publicly) visible group membership in the GAL that signals HiPo in my division, which means I can browse the list of people that have been so designated (though this ISN'T advertised or made public, because you know, transparency in valuation and reward is bad, then you might have to justify people's inclusion/exclusion from such a list). Interesting side note, searching MSW for a snippet from the group name exposes interesting things, like spreadsheets with lists of such people on other teams, including their parter potential ranking, current level, etc... It is really sad when people at a technology company can't even manage to understand visibility / access rights on things that seem like they should be private. Sigh, the person that made the spreadsheet/powerpoint is probably a HiPo themselves :) Anyways, the list for our division includes 3 people from my team. One is an engineer, competent and good at his job, but tends to only do brand new stuff (hence no back compat worries or nasty issues of integrating with 20 years of shipping code). The other 2 are PMs. One is nice enough as far as that goes but I have NEVER seen anything from him that would lead me to believe he has some amazing potential. The other is a complete idiot who spends his days trying to polish his image and appear to be smart / important without actually contributing anything. He has great potential to be a VP from what I can see :) I think the hilarity is the HiPo program is mostly self-fulfilling prophecy. If you take a group of people all roughly equal in skill / ambition, you take the top of that group (even if they are differentiated by say half of 1% difference in skill from those below the cut-line), you then focus on giving them more opportunities and exposure to key people in the BU, and surprisingly enough, these people fulfill your expectation of HiPo. I am sure not EVERYONE could do so given the same oppurtunities, some people would flame out, but those would be the exceptions. I think Microsoft should focus on, I don't know, giving everyone they hired (which is a companies way of indicating they think you 'have what it takes') shots a doing great things and visibility, instead of some arbitrarily selected, secret group of 'superstars'. Further the idea that to really succeed you need to be selected into some secret group, the selection criteria for which isn't public nor is the membership list, otherwise you are deemed as not having potential (which is worse than an objective evaluation of your skill, since potential is ENTIRELY subjective and HEAVILY dependent on opportunities given to you, which you can't really control) is such a prime example of a corporation caught in midst of a self-induced death spiral due to political retardation that it should be made a case study for HBS.
>So while I am not complaining for me and I am not about to turn down the review ranking for the appropriate one, I know for a fact there were some superstars that outstripped anything I did that got "Achieved / 70%" and to me that is just wrong.
That speaks as much to your integrity as any post I have seen here, kudos you have a bright future ahead of yourself at The Most Political Kingdom on Earth. Hopefully you have convinced yourself that your inflated review was really just making up for all those other years you were under-ranked, yeah that's the ticket. The amount of self-serving, self-justification people engage in when they are clearing acting in an dubious manner never fails to amaze.
No one is mis-treating me (no I am not a partner)... so STOP speaking for me.
Well, then, no one is speaking for you. Get back to work, genius.
>> how long does it take for Google to offer an
>> interview after receiving the resume
My guess is you probably either have a specialized skill set, or don't have the skills Google is currently looking for.
The best way to get the process going is to ask someone you already know at Google to refer you to recruiting. That way you'll get a chance to fail our interview loop at least. :-)
You won't understand why this is funny until you join and do a couple of dozen interviews and they don't hire _anyone_.
>that way you'll get a chance to fail our interview loop at least. :-)
You won't understand why this is funny until you join and do a couple of dozen interviews and they don't hire _anyone_.
Google is already becoming Microsoft 2.0, all the best people have left for greener pastures, the interview loop is more about not hiring anyone so the ones that work there can spend their time in a circle-jerk telling each other how clever they are. Meanwhile, none of the new apps you geniuses are coming up with have been successful (NOTE: You bought Android, so don't try and say 'What about Android!!!!'), and you work for what amounts to a one trick pony. It is a good trick (making billions from advertising), but it is still one trick, and all the desperate attempts to discover alternative cash flows have failed fairly massively. I got a job offer from Google (sorry, didn't fail your loop) and I told them I had found a better offer (not Microsoft) and I wasn't interested, they didn't seem to know what to say, as if it was inconceivable to them, shows a level of brilliance and hubris that is comical.
Overall MS become a shit company...I do not see anybody happy around...not even people with E/20 ratings.
You post here all of the time, with your "..." and the same novice English. You are nothing but a troll. Go back inside your hole, troll. You say "not even people with E/20 ratings"? How do you even know who has that? People who actually work at Microsoft don't know who has this, so how could you? Simple: You don't. You're a troll. This is grown-ups speaking here. Find another forum-- you have nothing to add to this discussion.
>> the interview loop is more about not hiring anyone
Wrong. Some folks do get hired. It's just that the ratios of interviewed to hired is staggeringly high. And folks would be delighted to hire more, if good candidates were available. As things stand most principal SDEs, leads and architects from Microsoft can't code worth a damn. Not even in C#, let alone C++. And their knowledge of distributed systems leaves much to be desired.
>> I told them I had found a better offer
If that "other" offer doesn't pay significantly more, you're making a serious mistake by accepting it based solely on your distorted perception and preconceived notions about what Google is like internally.
Sorry pal, that's the truth. I had serious reservations myself. A year later I don't have any. It is hands down the best company I have worked for so far, and while it is becoming large and in some places bureaucratic, but it will take it another 20 years to get to the levels of bureaucracy Microsoft has _today_.
>If that "other" offer doesn't pay significantly more, you're making a serious mistake by accepting it based solely on your distorted perception and preconceived notions about what Google is like internally.
Sorry pal, that's the truth. I had serious reservations myself.
Thanks for the info, it DOES pay substantially better, and has substantially more opportunity with a stock that isn't 100x overvalued and I actually have a reason to work 16 hour days (apart from the enjoyment of my job) as opposed to just being expected to, for crap stock rewards and bonuses that are high but no where near offsetting of the work you put in. I know people that work there, and at Microsoft, I have heard all kinds of stories (good and bad) from both places, even the people I know that have worked at Google for a long time say it isn't even really a shadow of what it once was, the bureaucracy has set in, the political douchery has begun, everyone is so busy telling each other how clever they are (or trying to code up solutions to problems in Erlang) they don't seem to have time to actually do anything useful for the world. I don't hold it against you for taking the job, as I said I got an offer and declined. The thing that struck me was how amazed the person offering was when I said no, like they couldn't imagine anyone NOT wanting to work at Google. Once you get into that mindset, well, it isn't long until the decline starts. Of course it will take you years to reach where Microsoft is today, that is obvious, it took Microsoft years to reach where it is today (they were a billion+ dollar company when all Google employees were still in diapers). Will I regret turning down Google? I doubt it, I am sure I could always go there if I wanted, but I don't view my life as a long struggle to get into any company, in fact working for others is hopefully temporary, but if it is what you aspire to then Google is as solid a choice as any I suppose.
@Wednesday, September 22, 2010 11:42:00 PM
Looks like you are more frustrated than me :)
Why so much of irritation with my statement. Truth is always bitter.
>> I know that have worked at Google for a long time say it isn't even really a shadow of what it once was
I heard it from some Microsoft old-timers who have recently joined that Google today is roughly what Microsoft was circa 1995. They're actually pretty satisfied. Anyway, I guess your offer just wasn't as substantial as mine. Mine was eye popping, and I don't work 16 hour days. In fact, I don't think anyone does, at least not in Kirkland. I come in fairly late and leave late as well, and there are hardly any cars in the garage.
That said, if Google has a disadvantage it's the employees you have to compete with. Not a single idiot in sight here, so you have to play your best game.
Does Google have underground parking? I was riding the bus from the Company Meeting and did not see *any* cars on the ground parking at Googleplex. There were only 5-10 near the gym section. Even at Microsoft I see more cars at 6pm.
I keep hearing a lot of people talk-down those that got A/10's
Stack ranking is a function of re-orgs, managers, new team members, project assignments, speculation, opinion, politics, etc.. than an indicator of actual employee performance.
Look no further than this blog to understand that people's scores can and do drastically go up and down year to year all the time.
Hi, I'm a L64. I got a $50k cash bonus and a $70k stock award. Is this about average?
Comments like this go to show the stunning disparity in compensation between the have's and the have not's at Microsoft.
Just wow.
1 A/10 last year, fired at this year's review. No severance, benefits & insurance end as of day of termination. I can't even take my kids to the dentist one last time. Thanks, Microsoft.
..
Sad.
Does Google have underground parking? I was riding the bus from the Company Meeting and did not see *any* cars on the ground parking at Googleplex. There were only 5-10 near the gym section. Even at Microsoft I see more cars at 6pm
-
It's called working smarter, not harder. The employees probably do real work from 9-5 instead of spending all their time trying to be "visible" to their management chain.
- I don't play politics (hence the two a/10's).
My manager openly told me that if I don't spend more time playing politics then my career won't advance.
It seems like a lot of these managers got to where they are by kissing butt, and now coach their directs to do the same.
>> the interview loop is more about not hiring anyone
+1
The interview process makes absolutely no sense. They leave positions open for YEARS now passing up qualified individual after individual..
These managers even treat internal candidates with years of experience in comparable positions like they must be some kind of moron for even applying.
I actually have a reason to work 16 hour days (apart from the enjoyment of my job) as opposed to just being expected to, for crap stock rewards and bonuses that are high but no where near offsetting of the work you put in.
The new internal propaganda is that the reason people work at Microsoft is because they want to take on "big challenges".
Personally, I want to take on these big challenges and am willing to put in long days - I just also expect to get paid for doing it.
It's not like I have to look very hard to find another employer that is ready, willing, and able to pay me for the hours that I work??
Q: What do you think went wrong for a company's stock price that's been stalled for a decade?
A: No one takes me seriously. It is all about developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers!!!
Q: How do you create a competitive working environment & a culture of quality?
A: Pit everyone against each other via an overly complex and meaningless review process. Then just when they are the cusp of killing themselves, cancel their project and give them something totally absurd to work on for the next 3 years, only to cancel it once it is nearly complete. Promote the ass-kissers and those that never do anything.
Q: Your Online Services Division has been failing and not generating profits for the past years. How do you plan to turn this around?
A: What's there to turn around?! I don't have to Google anymore, now I can Bing! Microsoft WIN!
Q: What do you think of the fact that Apple's revenue is surpassing Microsoft's?
A: Apple can s&ck my *@Y$(*^!!!! They have NO IDEA what they are doing. Amateurs!!!
Q: Your hardware partners are starting to ditch Windows 7 for their netbooks & tablets products, and go for Android. How do you plan to turn this around?
A: We'll just wait for them to turn around and come back to us. They will surely fail without us!!!
> > Hi, I'm a L64. I got a $50k cash bonus and a $70k stock award. Is this about average?
> Comments like this go to show the stunning disparity in compensation between the have's and the have not's at Microsoft.
It also goes to show how many people who post here are trolls.
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