Company: IBM
Date: 2016-02-01
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Interesting opportunity, but endlessly frustrating at IBM Design
Pros: - Good benefits (health insurance, 401k, discounts on rental cars and electronics)
-This is a pro and a con, but honestly you can get by without doing much. Often people would "Work from home" but really not do anything and no one cares
- Interesting and complex problems for a designer to solve
- Good continuing education for a designer with the speakers and enrichment they have.
- More responsibility than the average entry level position due to the designers being spread thin.
- Great Peers! You fellow designers are smart, passionate, and driven. They are literally the only thing that keeps you from crying every day.
- Some of the higher up staff are great, inspiring, UX professionals. It was awesome to meet and work with them. Some less so.
- Do you want to improve as a designer or learn politics? I learned more politics than anything here and I was glad to learn, but it was tough.
Cons: - If you work really hard, put in extra hours, and do your best work but no one notices or cares, did you really do well? It's hard to feel like you are valued and appreciated when the only way to get recognized or heard is to threaten to quit. As a designer right out of school I wanted to put in the work to make the best experience for our users, but despite almost 2 years worth of work I left each day feeling like a cog in a huge machine. What would it matter if I left? Nope.
-The development and product management organization aren't ready to work with designers. I had instances where the developer leadership flat out wouldn't build our designs. What a waste of time.
- You'll move up in the organization (if you are on the right project at the right time and have the right manager to fight for your promotion.) I was told before I took the job that I would be able to move up quickly. I couldn't wait any longer. My manager would forget to give me feedback to be able to improve and rise in the organization. If I wasn't doing well enough to be promoted, please tell me why and what I can do to get better!
-Picture this: You are at the entry level of a job and you are tasked with convincing your entire project team(including people who have been at IBM for 20-30 years) that they need to give you extra time to design so you can change things and make an awesome product. As you fight this fight you aren't recognized, promoted to a position of power within the group or anything. All you get is told that you need to do better and that it's your job to turn things around. If you bring up the problems to your superiors they can't or won't do anything so you are forced to continue working on a project that doesn't want to leverage your expertise, doesn't respect you or what you do, and can easily do whatever they want because they are in an office in another state or country. Even if you make headway you're not recognized for the work that is 2-3 levels above your pay grade.
- At least when I worked there, the recruitment setup had major problems. People watching portfolio reviews would all be chatting with each other and laughing about the candidate presenting or about something else entirely. Both are unacceptable. When I brought up the unprofessional nature of this I heard nothing but excuses and that it was my problem that I didn't like it. Every candidate deserves respect, but the talent staff didn't seem to agree.