Company: IBM
Date: 2015-01-31
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

A Once Great Company in Serious Decline
Pros: Very smart, principled & highly competent co-workers. 
Innovative technologies to work on and interesting technical problems to solve.
Flexible work arrangements, in some cases (telecommuting, for example). 
Rich history & a legacy to be proud of (IBM has made huge contributions to the evolution of technology through innovation over the last 100 years).
Cons: The company has gutted it's capacity to innovate by making years of poor decisions with a short-term focus. I do not think it will be able to resurrect itself at this point, based on my 7 years of experience in IBM's Software Group division. I have witnessed  firsthand the acquisition of many great software companies/products  by IBM. For the first 2 years after an acquisition, Sales personnel are shifted over to sell the heck out of the recently acquired product. In the meantime, the product feature set stops evolving to address customer & market requirements and instead is focused on internal integrations with other IBM products and internal systems/processes. Following this 2 year period, many sales and technical resources are laid off, moved elsewhere or leave the company because of the worsening atmosphere. The product vision that the acquired company had (which was instrumental to the success of the product) vanishes. Product roadmaps now change direction from quarter to quarter as new executive mandates come down, managers are shuffled throughout the shrinking organization, and the skilled employees that understand the product/market space disappear through attrition (either voluntary or as a result of the annual layoff ritual). I wouldn't recommend IBM as a good place to work for people who are passionate about creating excellent software products.