Company: IBM
Date: 2012-07-17
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Cumbersome behemoth, lumbered down with red tape
Pros: Good working environment, plenty of educational opportunities. Ability to transfer after two years. Globally recognised. Good social club, good holiday entitlement, good work/life balance.
Cons: Where do I start? As a writer, I had shoddy equipment, was subject to endless red tape and having to get access to a succession of restricted areas to do my job.

I was stuck in a team that regarded promotion as just not feasible - my manager actually laughed at a colleague of mine who asked her how she would go about getting a promotion. Our team passed information down the line only when absolutely necessary; very frustrating.

Oh, and then there's that atrocious IBM software - Lotus Notes and Symphony - which we had to use. Nobody in their right minds would choose them over the MS alternatives.

Finally, there's the PBC system, on which salary increases and, indeed, one's job ultimately depend. Managers are forced to choose a certain number of employees as under-performing, regardless of whether they're actually doing their job properly. This selection is on a competitive basis, but employees are not allowed access to information on how the decisions are made.