Company: IBM
Date: 2009-10-23
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

IBM has its issues, like any company, but has some good qualities, too.
Pros: IBM is extremely progressive in work/life balance.  You can work at home pretty much whenever you want/need to.  The number of sick days is unlimited.  There are no timesheets to fill out for most professional workers.  Some employees work part time, and parental leave is up to 3 years (unpaid).  There is paid parental leave:  6 weeks for new moms, and 2 weeks for new dads.  Overall, coworkers are very helpful and willing to go out of their way to help you.
Cons: Long hours tend to be the norm at this company, and some people burn out.  The downside to working at home is that sometimes you are expected to be constantly connected.  There is a lot of schedule-driven quality (i.e. the schedule is king, and quality falls by the wayside).  Worst of all, IBM has very strict transfer rules.  You can only transfer to another department with your manager's approval, and sometimes they don't give it.  I wanted to transfer from digital design to hardware simulation, and even though the new department knew me very well and wanted me, the process took over 1 year.