Company: IBM
Date: 2010-05-01
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Like most major consultancies, an ok place to spend a few years
Pros: - Decent benefits relatively speaking
- Interesting and skilled colleagues
- Occasional travel can be fun (as long as you don't get a long weekly commute that lasts more than a year)
Cons: - Your prospects rise and fall with your industry and practice area
- Compartmentalization (oftentimes hard to try something new or get on a project of interest)

For the most part I agree with many of the reviews of IBM and other large consultancies on this site,
which is that it's a body shop first and foremost and depending on your industry, skillset,
and practice area, you either have a decent experience for a few years or find yourself feeling
very limited in assignment opportunities.  It all ebbs and flows with the times and business conditions.  For practitioners (i.e., consultants), your livelihood is largely dependent upon 1) the ability of Partners and those doing sales / proposal work to win business in your area and 2) being politically savy enough to have someone above you look out for your career.  Oftentimes you have no control over either of the above which is what can make the experience extremely frustrating at times.  

I see two major problems with IBM's path forward in the States.  First, it seems that every few years there's a decision to strategically enter a new business line in an effort to increase their footprint, which oftentimes ends badly.  A few years ago IBM built up a Strategy and Change practice only to let many of these people go when the business didn't come trickling in.  I fear this will be the same story with the company's new push in the direction of data analytics as well.  Being a large company, the potential client field is pretty  narrow and limited to other large organizations willing to negotiate a multi-million dollar service contract.  The smaller, more boutique consultancies
eat them for lunch with small and mid-size clients as they're able to offer far more competitive
pricing and specialization.  Government contracts aside, there's just not a ton of contracts they can earnestly compete for.  

Secondly, IBM has struggled to become a true consultancy and remains an IT solutions / systems integration firm at its core.  The best opportunities are still
longer term ERP projects or those where IBM has a long-standing relationship and maintenance contract in place.  Without these, the whole GBS division wouldn't  be sustainable.  It is simply too difficult for a practitioner to survive and thrive on smaller, short-term contracts because you risk ending up on the bench for periods of time - all things that count against you.  And if your practice isn't winning work for you to be staffed on, consider it warning of a gathering storm.    

In general, it's not hard to read the tea leaves.  All of the company's growth is overseas in emerging markets and sales targets being assigned to most industries are completely unrealistic.  From my view, this is only setting the stage for further workforce reduction plans so I think it's unwise for anyone to consider IBM as anything more than a stopover of 3-5 years in their career at most.  If you get in at a good time when your particular industry or practice-area is doing well, you could have a few good years and work with some great colleagues.  However, it's always a good idea to keep  your eye on the business pipeline because when it slows down you should start plotting your exit.