CareerCup

I imagine Yahoo is presently in a far superior position in the software market.

@ Anon :- I donno about the Yahoo current status but looking at the record from the past history , Yahoo never really overcome 2001 ( Bubble ). I have some of my Buddies over there and they says some of the facilities has been reduced, which becomes evident by their change of numerous CEO's in recent times.
Oh the Other hand MS , which literally remains only as a name but no real tech work. Bright Friends over has already moved or planning to move out. Its not the org you would wanna join as a tech engineer ( May be Best for politicians and lawyer ).
IMO, in this case, MS does not exist in the picture for an Engineer like me. :)

It's good that you're an engineer of such high caliber that Microsoft does not exist in the picture for you. I would say, however, that it's not true that there is "no real tech work". Microsoft does still have tech products, and these tech products do add on new features and continue to have customers. Microsoft does also create new products from time to time that have very large numbers of customers (at least in absolute terms, if not in market share). I suppose you were deliberately exaggerating for emphasis though.

I don't know where the notion arises that Microsoft is extremely political. I know a number of people at Microsoft, and only a fairly small minority would consider themselves to be in a highly political environment. If you read a large number of reviews on Glassdoor, that is also the picture that you get. It's possible that Microsoft is more political than other companies (complaints about politics do appear in more reviews than for many other software companies), but even still, at the individual contributor level, only a relatively small fraction of people have this experience.

Where do you work? It's ok if you don't want to say. It would be interesting to me to get some idea of which companies are so much better.

@Anon.. You are a true Microsoft guy. Sorry if I hurt your feelings but all I wanted to say is this guy (Who raised this question), who seems to have a bright candidate and could have a bright career can think of doing great job without any distraction at all.

For your own satisfaction, please don't look into online review, talk with individuals who have been through. Rest depends how do U perceive your environment, if you can survive in that, its definitely great place for you to be. After all your happiness and satisfaction counts ..

(Not same anonymous)

I agree about:
- Sunlight
- Summers
- Senior Dev can look better than SDET II
- SDET will likely involve writing test automation
- There are more startup opportunities in the Bay area
- C++ vs. C# is not a major factor.

To balance it out a little:

- The culture is not highly political on every team -- it really depends considerably on your bosses and group, and I suppose that's the way it is at many companies.
- I'd like to see some numbers to back up the attrition rate claim. Microsoft has a large number of people who have been there for a long time. Probably part of the reason Microsoft considers you an SDE II and Yahoo considers you a senior SDE is that the experience level needed to be called "Senior SDE" at Microsoft is higher. That's because there's a lot of people that have been there for 10+ years that are taking up many of these high titles.
- I don't understand why anyone would say that the opportunities for startups in Seattle are "severely" limited. Seattle is (last I checked) in the top 10 U.S. cities in terms of venture capital funding, and possibly higher than that within tech startups specifically. I will grant, however, that the Bay Area is the #1 place for tech startups. Bay area is better in that respect, but both are great.

Anti-Microsoft sentiment seems to be popular these days, but I'd like to point out that your alternative is Yahoo, a company with (IMO) a very weak product offering.

That said, I don't mean to imply that I recommend choosing Microsoft. If you want to be a dev, you have to consider if you'll feel good about being on the test team. You should weigh all the factors and decide for yourself. I wouldn't listen much to anyone here, including me.

If you want to get a more comprehensive and therefore somewhat more objective picture of what people think about both companies, view a summary of thousands of votes and opinions on Glassdoor. Here you will only get a few biased opinions.

@Anonymous2:

- Yes, of course. 100% political teams, and Microsoft would have gone down the tubes a long time back. It is more likely that you will end up being bitten by politics (unless you know how to play along), than not. It does not imply the non-existence in Yahoo or other companies. I don't see your point here.

- Not sure how you expect to see data which will convince you. Microsoft will not reveal their numbers. The statement was based on statements made by Google/Amazon/Facebook recruiters (hearsay, of course) and Microsoft HR when I left (yes, I am an ex-Microsoftie).

- The statement was not just about startups. It also includes bigger companies which might offer some sense of job safety. Also the comment about startups was emphasised with "products you are passionate about", and that makes a difference.

Having been a Microsoft employee, but not a Yahoo employee, I can only talk about Microsoft, and what I would do if I was in a similar position. Of course it is biased. Were you expecting an objective essay?

I believe OP is logical enough to understand that one sample point is nothing by itself, and probably already knows the state of Yahoo. I also said that "you have to decide for yourself".

Anyway...

Thanks for the update! Congratulations!

Congratulations!

As MSFT, you would have to keep dealing with diplomacy with everyone working to get a good rating. MS work does not matter, rather how visible you are matters - its imbibed in the rating system.