Company: IBM
Date: 2013-11-04
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

A huge company with the good and bad that come from that.
Pros: IBM has a huge support system for employees. If your goal is to climb the corporate ladder, IBM is very well set up for that, because of the strong top-down culture. Salaries are competitive. Details of the work are too specific to be useful for such a huge company, but IBM is very committed to their basic values, and is particularly customer focused.
Cons: The culture produces an explicitly zero-sum game, with battles over money and promotions. IBM's attitude towards money is extremely tight. Usually, interactions with upper management about money are negative; travel arrangements, office perks, etc. are all very closely controlled and costs are minimized. This tends to produce a less-than-enthusiastic response among employees, at least at the lab I was in. This is in stark contrast to newer companies (Google, Amazon) that are more bottom-up driven. IBM can be very stifling.