Company: IBM
Date: 2016-06-13
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

IBM = I'm By Myself
Pros: The logo opens doors, that's about it. If customers weren't able to get IBM to give massive discounts by waiting to purchase until December, they likely wouldn't work with IBM at all. 

Many sales overlays so there are several reps and managers who are able to hit their number through deals that they never had anything to do with. In one respect this is great as it can act as an added bonus, but in another it has given several poor performers at the company the ability to hide in plain site while doing little to no work. Many of these poor performers have made their way into management simply by being "yes" men and women who are easily manipulated and controlled by upper management.
Cons: The title of this review is a direct quote from an IBM trainer after I asked for more detailed training materials. She explained that IBM is so large, so process driven and so complex that it is often nearly impossible for them to provide the proper training or help to their employees. With that said, this training didn't take place until I had been with the company for over 6 months.

When I started with IBM, I was handed a binder filled with training materials on the wrong product and told to learn about the product on my own. When I asked my manager for help, I was informed that my manager had never sold the product I was selling and really couldn't provide any help in better understanding or learning about the product set. I later had two new managers over the course of the following year and neither of them had any knowledge of that product set either. They were absolutely no help and made no effort, to put it simply. 

During 1-on-1 meetings with those managers, there was no discussion of how I am settling in, how I am developing within their organization, if there was any help I needed or any account strategy. Those 1-on-1 meetings were simply an opportunity for my manager to copy numbers from my account spreadsheet into their own so they could report numbers. Micro-management is rampant and institutional at IBM.There is absolutely zero transparency with upper management and no strategic discussions in order to keep employees informed of the direction of the organization. Decisions are made and you have no way of providing feedback or being heard. Don't bother to ask questions of your immediate manager or director because they do not have a real answer for you and will likely dismiss your questions as you being disgruntled rather than genuinely wanting to help. Essentially this is the blind leading the blind. Deal with it. The sarcastic and laughable slogan "Welcome to IBM!" is one of many that define the shared frustration by nearly every employee at IBM when it comes to the total lack of leadership and assistance one gets at IBM. This rudderless ship is completely devoid of genuine leadership. 

When it comes to technology, IBM has some great tech that they offer. The thing is, they only use the worst technology they have internally. Lotus Notes for email. A terrible proprietary CRM built off of Sugar. A terrible internal client database that looks like it was developed in the early 90s. An awful marketing automation tool that doesn't work. There were about 6 systems that you are required to log into every day and use to do redundant reporting because not a single system integrates with any of the other systems. In an effort to provide more for their employees, they attempt to develop more tools that don't work rather than improving upon the technology they already use and getting those platforms to integrate with each other. It is a very backwards way of developing internal tools.

Compensation is decent, but much of it comes from the overlays (see above). Perks are non existent because "IBM is a lean organization". Don't expect to get any sort of free lunches, free coffee or the ability to expense much of anything for your clients. Benefits are pretty weak. You are required to spend the entire month of December in the office because that is when IBM does the majority of their business. They have trained their customers to only buy in December because that is when they can get their steepest discounts. There were deals that were in the 70%-90% discount range. 

From a cultural standpoint, IBM has no identity. The organization is extremely top heavy and disconnected from the employees doing the work. There are more VPs at IBM than at any other organization I have ever worked for. Many of these VPs work exclusively from home, so they never get the face time with their employees that those employees need in order to feel valued by the company. During quarterly calls, many of those executives would present on things you could tell they knew little about and would often read directly from their slides like they were doing their first ever presentation.

For a company that has such a huge brand, I could not have been more disappointed in the way this company operated internally. Coming into the company, I was expecting to be working with some of the top talent in tech. I could not have been more wrong. The people that are there are either stuck at IBM because they are afraid to leave or are looking for another company to move to. I have had over 20 inquiries from former colleagues to leave IBM since leaving six months ago. IBM has been laying employees off at a staggering pace, closing offices and divesting from their hardware business in order to cover up the fact that their cloud and cognitive businesses are not performing nearly as well as they had anticipated. Their financial reporting is a mess and they cant hold on much longer with the current leadership team they have in place.

My advice to anyone who is looking at potentially joining IBM is, THINK again. IBM is not what they were or what they project to be. Don't get on the this Titanic-like sinking ship. Save yourself the head ache and keep looking. If you want to learn more and read some more horror stories, check out the "Watching IBM" FB group. It is cringe worthy to say the least. I hope this review helps you all see through the many misleading and fraudulent reviews being posted on this forum by IBM recruiters and managers.