Company: IBM
Date: 2015-08-06
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

And the hits keep on coming....
Pros: -Probably a great place to start a career, but it seems like an empire in decline. Stay a short time and then bail for somewhere more innovative

-I suspect the IBM name still has some cachet by the less knowledgeable in the outside world
-Due to the lack of staff, it's a great environment to learn alot in a short time - a good pressure cooker that can be a positive depending on how you choose to frame it.

-some work from home flexibility, it's all about how strong and supportive your first line manager is.
Cons: - they're making it hard to stay positive

- one of the big issues is the always inward-looking management propaganda machine. It's hard to take all the internal self-aggrandizing  and cheerleading of internal 'courses' and communications as jobs continually get bled off to overseas delivery centers that do a pretty lousy job

- the infrastructure of the building in Markham is sad - from poorly maintained bathrooms to unrepaired and ugly looking parts of the building. Just awful.

- the main office is a ghost town - alot of the outsourcing and offshoring is obvious, as is the hit on morale

- mandatory group 're-education' sessions where everyone has to be present to watch internal corporate videos and marketing material are a bizarre Dilbertesque joke given that IBM allegedly embraces the modern and technological way of working 

- external partnerships are bogged down with crushing administrivia and process, I can't even describe the pain of  internal processes but let's just say it's everywhere now...

- the evaluation process of employees doesn't seem to work and is meaningless in the context of so many cuts - how can anyone that is left after all the bloodletting be a poor performer when we all do two to three times more than we used to? It's nonsense.

- benefits cost more and provide less over time

- no raises for service delivery folks for years - the perception is that they are overpaid compared to overseas resources regardless of the experience and knowledge level.