Company: IBM
Date: 2012-02-06
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Instability of job focus - Constantly changing job responsiblities
Pros: Education is required, supported, and is cutting edge. Access to industry information and research is highly valuable and transferable to future employment. Corporate and divisdional goals are clearly articulated at the beginning of each year, although they frequently change dramatically from one year to the next.
Cons: IBM makes no secret that they are moving thousands of jobs overseas. In order to stay under the radar they are accomplishing this in increments of under 1000 people at a time. The IBM infrastructure is impossible to gain proficiency in navigating: long time veterans have trouble finding out 'where to go or who to talk to'.  Benefits have stagnated over the years and the huge number of retirees draw on IBM revenue. IBM's research is cutting edge, but the generally do not execute on trillion dollar ideas. When IBM lays people off, they target the most senior and highly paid employees. It is common that layoffs include 30 year veterans who have had incredible success at adding value to IBM and increasing IBM revenue: these people are shell-shocked and blind sided when they get word their job has been offshored.