Company: IBM
Date: 2009-02-14
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

IBM is an average place to work -- negotiate a high starting salary, as it will be with you for a while.
Pros: Cutting edge technology (CMOS H/W), very talented engineers, great and grand projects.  There are some really smart people here; in the development teams, and in research.  It's great to have a research team to help tackle really difficult problems.  Also, generous vacation (though you can't always take it and you can't accumulate it), flexible work-at-home deals depending on your area.  Decent initial salary.
Cons: Compensation is poor. Once you're in, raises are non-existent or really small.  Same for bonuses.  And that's for exemplary performers.  Promotions are very rare, particularly for the technical team.  Management is odd: 1st/2nd line managers spend most of their time trying to be "Project Managers", not too much focus actual management.  There's a project management hierarchy that overlaps with these first lines, and adds little value ( though that might be the best career path).  Zero training. Zero travel. Development projects are overbooked. IBM is really pushing off-shoring to India.  You have to do your job, plus train a team of Indian developers; Middle management is pretty bad, they aim to please Sr management, customers, without consideration to their team.  Sr Management reaps millions, off-shores, and lays technical people off ; their is not a good connection between the team and Sr Management.  7-10 levels of managers in between, too much.