Ask HN: Is working at Microsoft cool again?

10 points by devilmoon 6 years ago | 4 comments

Hey everyone,

Excuse me for the slightly cringey title but I really didn't know how else to phrase my thoughts regarding present-day Microsoft. There is a lot of hype around FANG companies and information floating around about working for them, but MS has kind of been out of the conversation for the most part.

However, as things stand right now, I think that none of the FANG companies are doing anything very exciting and the only compelling argument to work for them is CV cred and the stupid amount of money they throw at engineering talent (and don't get me wrong, those are fair points to consider when looking for employement); Instead the shift happening inside Microsoft right now is becoming more and more interesting by the day, especially after the latest Surface event - Not specifically because of the hardware they are launching or anything, but because of the long term vision that can be seen through the cracks. Couple this with the open sourcing initiatives and shifts in Windows OS and you get the sense of what I'm trying to say, and that is that the prospect of working for Microsoft is becoming cool again.

I hence would like to know from people currently working at Microsoft what is the current environment/sentiment inside the company, if you would recommend working for them, etc.

2rsf 6 years ago |

First remember that there is no such thing as "Microsoft" the culture changes from team to team and product to product.

> the stupid amount of money they throw at engineering talent

They also throw a stupid amount of money at engineering and infrastructure, this both makes development easier and smoother, and gets you experience you can't get in a "normal" company. You need to spin up N Azure VM's ? sure, go ahead. A cluster of X ? why not ! obviously everything needs to be justified and monitored but otherwise approval is very straightforward.

(worked at Microsoft a couple of years ago)

corporateslave5 6 years ago |

To be completely honest, I think FAANG comp has been going down and is now overblown. FANG stocks have gone up so much, most are now stalled and are starting to decline. I’ve seen a bunch of offers come out of google and Microsoft that are honestly low balls.

damian2000 6 years ago |

In my view there's been a turnaround since the days when they were seen as money hungry monopolists. They're still a business that has to make money, but they're contributing to open source more, and they've released Visual Studio as effectively a free developer tool now with their Community Edition.

gwbas1c 6 years ago |

Yes

I went to Microsoft Build earlier this year. There's a lot of cool developments coming out of Microsoft with developer tools, AI, ect, ect.