Company: IBM
Date: 2014-08-04
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Winning??? No real growth at IBM -- profits from layoffs, stock buybacks, and sell-offs
Pros: Good starting salary and benefits, however, raises almost nonexistent for the past 10 years or so unless you were a star performer way, way, way, way above and beyond even excellent employees - and could document every inch of it. Lots of opportunities to do almost anything your heart desires (a plus) but it is all on the employee to work the system from top to bottom, from day one, every day, which is incredibly tough given the demands of one's job and lack of actual resources. There is very little "real" mentoring, career development or anything else from management. Mentoring and continuing education initiatives are advertised to employees (a plus) but literally impossible to utilize. Telecommuting available for most everyone (a plus), which helps fulfill work/life balance to a certain extent. Also applaud the support for women in science and engineering, in the workplace and via community outreach at the grammar and high school levels.
Cons: Middle management has almost disappeared in the age of 2015 Roadmap. Divisional upper management changes every 16 months or so as they are moved around the organization for further "grooming". The Workforce Rebalancing that has been ongoing is brutal -- staff left go to meet percentages, not based on personal performance or even financials of a particular group or product. Those left behind who remain dedicated are run into the ground, those that don't simply survive. No matter your position, you are forced to become a master of all things, literally, in order to get your job done and bring value to the products/services to be able to genuinely assist customers. Unfortunately, in the end, I believe the business and technical skills I brought with me were stronger then anything developed while at IBM.