Company: IBM
Date: 2009-02-23
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Good place to learn, but very bureaucratic.
Pros: IBM is involved in just about every aspect of IT and industry in general, so it is a good place to learn lots of different things.  They have a great program for workers who work out of the home.  This helps to maintain work/life balance.  IBM is very diverse, especially for a technology company.  Lots of women and minorities.  Nice to have name recognition among customers.  Everybody has some basic idea of what IBM is and what the company does.   From a sales perspective, IBM has broad coverage so you don't spend as much time on the road.  This also helps with the work/life balance.
Cons: Large company with lots of red tape and time wasted with unnecessary tasks and training.  You sometimes get the feeling that you are a very small fish in a very large pond (and you are).  The training that you are required to take often has nothing to do with your job, but is required.  The company is definitely run by "bean counters" so they can be very cheap at times - especially in regards to travel and expenses.  While IBM has shed some of it's stodgy old school image over the past few years, it's still not a "sexy" modern IT company like Google, Yahoo, or even Microsoft.