Also, I agree with his whole section on managers. In my six years there, I officially had maybe 15 managers? Four of them were great and if I went back, it would probably be under one of them. It wouldn't be worth the risk to go back and work for a new manager unless they came highly recommended by a friend. The personality cult effect is still real - I'm even doing it myslef above, but for a high level example look at the people who have followed Terry Myerson for years. I'm not sure I see this as negatively as he does - a good manager is hugely important in making the job worth having, so once you find one, you try and stay with them if it works for you.
I accidentally skipped the "managers" section. And I completely agree. Of the 5 teams I've worked on there, I've only had one truly great manager and he was a recent hire from outside.
This is especially frustrating for me as a junior engineer. Microsoft has utterly failed to help develop not just myself as a young engineer but most the young people hired with me. What is more, most teams barely take experience into account at all. I've always felt as though I'm expected to operate at the same level as people with 20 years of industry experience.
Focus: Yes, this place still is 100% about making software. Yes, sometimes the company still pushes hard for really stupid things. That's getting better.
Unreality: I have no idea what he's talking about. Maybe upper management but everyone I work with is a real person with real financial concerns and life goals. I've had many conversations about poverty and its effects on people. Most people I talk to wonder how people making median salaries get by in the area.
Personal Freedom: Yeah right. It's not like anyone's got you at the point of a gun but most of the time you're being payed to work on some project that has a pretty obvious route forward. The tyranny of the immediate rules here.
Company Leadership: A wash but better now.
Source Code: Plenty of that. And open source is being embraced more and more every day.
Benefits: Nice salary. The yearly company performance raise has been beating inflation. The health insurance is good but it's now a capitalist ploy. There's a bunch of stuff they pay for that I'd rather have money for instead. The retirement is kind of hilariously weak but that's the trend everywhere I think.
Free Soft Drinks: I'm a curmudgeon. I don't like my "overhead" subsidizing others' pathway to diabetes but whatever.
Work Life Balance: You have to fight for this. And I mean really fight. You basically have to be willing to lose your job. But if you stick to your guns and find the right place, you can achieve this.
Microsoft is Not Evil: Oh, they probably are. But so are most the places you all work for too.
Influence: I integrate tools into games, which really overall isn't that important. That's also how I maintain my "Work Life Balance."