Company: IBM
Date: 2017-08-29
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

IBM is not what they advertise
Pros: - Get to work with big name clients
Cons: - Pay is just enough under what it should be, and they make you feel bad for getting that. I worked with my manager on a project before I was actually on his team (I was under a different manager at the time), he would constantly praise me for my work and tell me I should have a promotion and move up to band 7 (IBM's ranking system for your experience level). When I got moved to his team I reminded him of this, even sending back the emails where he specifically called this out. He dragged out the promotion for roughly 5 months, finally telling me that even though I don't deserve it they are promoting me and giving me a raise. The raise was not exactly what I had been expecting (other band 7's discussed their salary and the raise I received was roughly 20k under what theirs). A very confusing process getting told you deserve a promotion, wait you don't deserve this, here it is...you didn't earn it.
- The bonus system is designed to make you feel like you are not working hard enough. At the beginning of every year you decide how you are going to improve and discuss this with your manager. At the end of the year, even if you hit the goals and went beyond with glowing recommendations from the clients you were graded average and told to improve next year.
- The travel. I worked remote, not sure how to put that in the location...but don't get tricked by that. When I first joined IBM I was told 15% to 30% travel, for 2 years I was only home maybe 5 weeks. I may have been ok with the travel if I was busy working on something that needed to be worked on at the client's workplace, but I literally would be told to sit at a desk and do nothing for some of the clients while IBM argued with the client about the contract.
- Vacation and paternity. I was never approved to take a vacation even with over 100% utilization (which at the time was about 44 hours a week for client work). When my first child was born I was supposed to get 6 weeks paid paternity, I had to kick and scream to get 2 weeks (even though I had just finished a client's project and had nothing else lined up because I thought I would be out for 6 weeks).
- Management and general disorganization. When I first joined IBM it took 6 months before I got a manager (I joined during a reorganization of the company). It was a very confusing time since I worked remote and did not know how to do things like find a client project to work on. When I finally got my first manager he was a developer with a team of people who developed...I was a UX designer. He constantly wanted me to go back to school to learn to develop and would not help me with client projects.

Summary, not a great experience for me and I was relieved to get out. I am now healthier due to less stress and not eating like crap on the road, I see my daughter every day at 5:30pm, and I took my first vacation in roughly 3 years. IBM was a dark time in my life that almost ruined my marriage and had me regretting the various life choices I made to get there.