[2rsf]

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)