Company: IBM
Date: 2018-07-17
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Got Lucky with a Great Team and Non-Legacy Product
Pros: At the time of my employment, IBM was providing a 3-month bootcamp for new hires, where they essentially walk you through how to design for an enterprise company. I felt extremely fortunate to have started my professional career with this program, as it taught you how to collaborate, organize, present, and execute outside of a college context. 

IBM's Design program also cares deeply about company culture, and hire people that I found to be some of the best to work with in my professional career. They understand that the ability to collaborate is far more important than talent alone.

Additionally, I found extensive room to grow during my career at IBM. My boss allowed us to create our own programs, such as "learning sessions" to learn, for example, Github from our front end dev, and attend conferences. Teammates who stayed on after I left were also promoted to leads to reward their growth and contributions. If you find the right team within the company, the opportunities were invaluable.
Cons: Retention. Unfortunately, the structure of this bootcamp led to lofty expectations of work environments outside of the Austin office. I gave such a high rating because I personally was very fortunate to be part of a great product we have a lot of personal control in, and saw through from research to launch. However, it really comes down to the team and the office location. The design program is large, and every experience I've heard has varied greatly, along with how long they stayed on at IBM.