3 ms·

Level 59 is entry-level for an SE (e.g. an undergraduate hire), Level 58 is for Interns. People at Level 59 are expected to reach Level 60 within 2 years or the

Level 59 is entry-level for an SE (e.g. an undergraduate hire), Level 58 is for Interns. People at Level 59 are expected to reach Level 60 within 2 years or they'll basically get managed-out, but once you get past Level 61 people generally take things more slowly. In West Coast circles (Blind.app, et al) Microsoft's reputation is that it's still "the country club" where you go if you want a stable career without too much excitement (or stress) - if you play your cards right (and dodge the occassional round of layoffs) you can still live the baby-boomer dream having a single-employer-for-life untill you retire.

PretzelPirate 3y ago
> are expected to reach Level 60 within 2 years or they're automatically out-the-door That part isn't true. Some people stay at L59 for much longer and there isn't any "automatic out", at least in the US.
DrReachAround 3y ago
The downside is you have to put up with Microsoft's ineptitude. I was on a Microsoft project for about 6 months and it was a terrible experience. Everyone was out for themselves, asking questions was treated as an annoyance. Condescension at every turn. It was a small team and perhaps not representative of all of Microsoft, but it was a bad enough experience that I'd never consider working there in any capacity.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
  My experience was the opposite. I was surrounded by veritable gods of the industry but you wouldn't know it in-person; I even shared a hallway with at least 2 people who had their own Wikipedia articles. Yes, I had a bad case of imposter syndrome too.
- city41 3y ago
  Microsoft is a massive company. Each org and team are very different. I worked there for a few years and my team was extremely old school (waterfall, no automation, all manual QA, heavy upfront planning, etc) while I had friends in other parts of the company where it was pretty much the exact opposite. The same can be said about talent density, innovation, etc.

PretzelPirate 3y ago

> are expected to reach Level 60 within 2 years or they're automatically out-the-door That part isn't true. Some people stay at L59 for much longer and there isn't any "automatic out", at least in the US.

DrReachAround 3y ago

The downside is you have to put up with Microsoft's ineptitude. I was on a Microsoft project for about 6 months and it was a terrible experience. Everyone was out for themselves, asking questions was treated as an annoyance. Condescension at every turn. It was a small team and perhaps not representative of all of Microsoft, but it was a bad enough experience that I'd never consider working there in any capacity.

DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
My experience was the opposite. I was surrounded by veritable gods of the industry but you wouldn't know it in-person; I even shared a hallway with at least 2 people who had their own Wikipedia articles. Yes, I had a bad case of imposter syndrome too.
city41 3y ago
Microsoft is a massive company. Each org and team are very different. I worked there for a few years and my team was extremely old school (waterfall, no automation, all manual QA, heavy upfront planning, etc) while I had friends in other parts of the company where it was pretty much the exact opposite. The same can be said about talent density, innovation, etc.