Company: IBM
Date: 2019-07-24
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Get the right salary when you join and learn to play the system.
Pros: Plenty of opportunity to grow

Gullible management never realise when you get payback, e.g. use bench time for self education in industry relevant, marketable skills, not IBM software of course as they are not relevant anymore. 

The farcical  PBC system has gone, replaces by an ineffectual fluffy load of nothingness, sweet.
If you get down rated it means nothing these days, no pay raise anyway, and if you're the only competent consultant in your field............ 

I think the point I'm trying to make here is you either work this stuff out at IBM in order to find a bearable relationship, or you get really annoyed and leave like many of the reviewers here.
Cons: Don't expect regular pay reviews unless you work 18 hr days and/or become a sycophantic occupier of South Bank 

I do pity the guys in GBS  as they are given complexly unrealistic util targets  and end up doing silly things like not taking all their vacation, working weekends, and sitting on customer sites until 8pm each evening web-browsing and updating CV's. 

 I think my personal experiences from 20 years with IBM,  and those of other IBMers' I know make a strong point :

- Making 'resources' responsible for their own utilisation figures as a method of deflecting from the real problem, i.e inability to forecast and balance resource and hiring practices. e.g. hiring in staff to cover a backlog in low hanging fruit, then blaming the same resources when there is no work.Much of which is cased by IBM's short sighted selling methods and failure to engage with the customer and deliver a solution rather than a quick fix project following a sale. 

- Up-charging 'resources', e.g. band 5-6, raw grad consultants being charged at band 8.
   Not only unethical from a customer perspective, but disrespectful to those consultants struggling to meet customer expectations on a 35K, no chance of a decent raise, salary.     

- No training budget, although there are attempts now to correct this. IBM in house class room training 15 years ago was decent, but now it's all gone. Online now the norm for internal, consultants largely being asked to deliver customer courses, ha, with maybe 1 day prep time .  I refuse, it's not my job after all; and certainly not my problem!

- Passing people up for VR back in the days back in days when it was worth taking it. Instead giving it to those due to retire. Then give those who are left  rank  3's that year when only a couple of percentage points down.

- Bullying: not saying too much here as it wasn't me affected (try that on me) But will say I have personal knowledge of 4 people affected by this. IBM did nothing to rout out the despicable manager involved.