Company: IBM
Date: 2010-08-10
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Great environment to build experience...but not a career.
Pros: Wide array of learning opportunities depending on your position.  Having one of the largest client bases of any company on the planet, you will get a significant amount of experience in a short amount of time (once again, dependent on your role).  The higher level architecture resources (on the technical side) are a dream to work with and a fountain of knowledge from which to draw, and some of the middle management is also passionate and will work hard on your behalf in building not just a better business, but a better career path.

One area where IBM does exceed is in their telecommuting policies.  Hands down one of the most organized large companies in managing work from home (a good portion of the company does so).
Cons: Almost the exact opposite of the Pros listed above, strangely enough.  If you're in the Microsoft competency, expect to be the "red headed stepchild" of the organization.  Big Blue is slow to move, and slow to react - and even moreso with products not their own.  Be prepared for an uphill battle, depending on how forward thinking you are.  Also be ready to be considered expendable, at the drop of a hat, if you're not in a niche field.  Contractor hourly reductions are commonplace (upwards of 10-15% per week), including overtime restrictions (with the expectation you maintain client visibilty anyway), with pay cuts an occasional happening (can see between 5-10% wage cuts with little to no notice).

Travel policy is prohibitive, and needlessly so, with no per diem offered.  Flying into a major metropolitan area?  No more than $47 (at the high end) per DAY for meals.  Not per meal - but per DAY.  Get used to the hot dog vendors and fast food - maybe if you're friendly enough you can eek out a free soda!

Turnover of quality resources, including some of the "lifers", is VERY high currently.  In order to satisfy the investor need for growth, IBM is cutting it's own lifelines by performing "resource actions" on quality employees.  This leads to decreased morale, productivity and poor communication across the board.  Work suffers for fear of losing their job to a cost center...who will generally do it half as well, if at all.  This is more a worry for fulltime employees than contractors.  For the moment at least.  If you're an existing contractor, or looking to be come one?  Stay that way.  The benefits, once the best in the industry, are no longer worth it.