Company: IBM
Date: 2014-11-27
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Wasted potential
Pros: IBM does a little nvite if everything, so you can  get to work on pretty much any problem, with some of the brightest people in the field. They were an early adopter of remote work, and manage distributed teams much better than most other large companies. There is a non management track for technical careers. Very good diversity initiatives. Enlightened time off policies. Lots of open source opportunities.
Cons: The company is still pretty hierarchical. Senior management is not interested in quality products or services, till recently just financial engineering to drive up share price short term. There is too much middle management for employees to be empowered to make decisions quickly. Even one bad line manager can completely derail your career — HR's only there to minimize liability. Although there is a technical career track, the pace of promotions is glacial, the product of another decade. Hiring processes are mediocre, and there are layoffs every year.